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Ealing Films Talk

A Mirror for Britain? Reflections on the Ealing Films

Patrick Hargood | 2023 | 100 MINS
UK
Rescheduled from January

With the recent stage production of 'The Lavender Hill Mob' at the Festival Theatre, we look back at the Ealing catalogue, illustrated with a range of clips of films from the thirties to the fifties.

In Detail

These included not only the much-loved comedies, such as 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' and 'The Ladykillers', but also the wartime propaganda film 'Went the Day Well?' and the horror anthology 'Dead of Night'. But did they really reflect Britain or were they rather how the British people wanted to see themselves…? Not quite the same thing.

Critic Raymond Durgnat felt that they ultimately lost the subversive quality of the post-war films such as ‘Passport to Pimlico’ and ‘The Man in the White Suit’ and gradually became more conservative by the mid-fifties. Make up your own mind and enjoy once again some wonderful performances from Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood and Stanley Holloway et al.

In the Auditorium

Tickets £6.50 (Friends £5)