We are thrilled to present three superb arthouse films for this year’s Mill Road Fringe film night on Saturday 23rd September at ARU’s Covent Garden Drama Studio (keep walking right to the redbrick building at the end of Covent Garden).
Entry to all the films is free, but numbers are limited and we recommend that you reserve your seats in advance here. Some tickets will also be available on the door.
Doors open at 2pm, with the first film starting at 2.30pm
Produced by Cambridge Film Projects and with the kind permission of Anglia Ruskin University.
Our thanks to Tony Jones, Hitomi Shinozaki, Tom Woodcock, Matthew Webb, Laura Scarle and all the stewards.
The films are:
2.30pm – Chicken Run (U, 84 mins, 2000) Animation
At a 1950s Yorkshire chicken farm, Ginger the hen and Rocky the rooster decide to rebel against Mr & Mrs Tweedy, the farm owners, and lead their flock for a great escape. Utterly marvellous and humorous, this most successful stop-motion animated film entertains all generations – get clucking!
It’s the homage to The Great Escape – chicken style. Aardman pushed the eggs out of the basket and created a ‘seeing is believing’ plasticine bonanza. (LaLa Film)
5pm – Faces Places (12A, 94 mins, 2017) French with English subtitles
Director Agnès Varda, an iconic figure in French cinema, journeys through rural France with street artist JR. The result is a wonderfully charming, emotive and inspiring road movie which captures the memories, personalities and idiosyncrasies of France.
“Faces Places” is unforgettable, not because of dramatic moments or arresting images, but because once you have seen it you want to keep it with you, like a talisman or a souvenir. Wherever you’re going, it will surely come in handy. (New York Times)
7pm – Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (U, 94 mins, 1927) Silent Film Classic
This wonderful story of love, deceit and reconciliation is a film masterpiece which displays an astonishing cinematic vision, way ahead of its time. Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest silent films, with a beautiful score, this is a rare chance to enjoy this stunning film on screen.
F.W. Murnau’s “Sunrise” conquered time and gravity with a freedom that was startling to its first audiences. To see it today is to be astonished by the boldness of its visual experimentation… silent films had a language of their own; they aimed for the emotions, not the mind, and the best of them wanted to be, not a story, but an experience.
Murnau, raised in the dark shadows of expressionism, pushed his images as far as he could, forced them upon us, haunted us with them. The more you consider “Sunrise”, the deeper it becomes – not because the story grows any more subtle, but because you realize the real subject is the horror beneath the surface. (Roger Ebert)
