SAT. 23/8/8 & MON. 25/8/8 HOLLYWOOD GOTHIC:THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE
USA/1945/B&W/84mins/16mm/NFVLS Dir: Robert Siodmak. Cast: Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore, Ken Smith, Rhonda Fleming.
A gothic melodrama set in a New England town in 1906 where a psychopathic killer is murdering young women he sees as "defectives". His next victim is to be Helen, a mute. According to Siodmak, the intention was to create "a sort of surrealist film which put the audience into a trance." Dorothy McGuire's playing as Helen was conceived as "a sort of ballet recovering some of the elements of silent cinema".
Screens with Suicide Squeeze USA/1986/B&W and Color/27mins/16mm/NFVLS Dir: Brady Lewis. A wry journey through the world of filmmaking, narrative and American culture. A private eye relates his tale over optically printed and staged scenes in the noir style, sequences of manipulated imagery including animation and high speed cinematography, a saxophone player and a class watching a film.
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