Cinema Retro London correspondent Adrian Smith with Hammer actress Vera Day.
By Adrian Smith
If you’re in
London during the next two weeks, be sure to check out this fabulous new
festival and exhibition based on Hammer’s legendary horror films.The event was
launched on the 27th October at the Idea Generation gallery in
Shoreditch, to which Cinema Retro was invited. We were told it was a private
view of this exhibition of previously unseen photos and artwork, along with
more well known stills and publicity photos. However, it was the most public
“private view†we have ever seen. This could have been down to a resurgence in
the popularity of Hammer, tied in with new film production, or it could have
been the endless bottles of free cider.
Several
Hammer-related guests were in attendance, including Paul Cole, John Hough, Lois
Dane, Madeline Smith, Vera Day and Valerie Leon. The latter were also there to
help promote the new book Hammer Glamour by Marcus Hearn. Hearn has co-curated
the exhibition, which is well worth a look. Also in attendance was the CEO of
the new Hammer, Simon Oakes.
Sadly, by the time
Cinema Retro found the venue, hidden down some of the scariest back streets in
East London, most of these guests had moved on to a secret party somewhere, but
we did manage to catch up with the still glamorous Vera Day. She is best known
for her starring roles in Quatermass II
and some of the Hammer comedies. It was also fun to chat with Paul Cole, who
enjoyed telling us about his appearance in Carry
on Teacher, before moving into television production.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center, in association with Cinecittà Luce, and the Fondazione Centro
Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale in Rome, will present the
most complete series on Italian Neorealism ever screened in New York: "Life
Lessons: Italian Neorealism and the Birth of Modern Cinema", a
month-long, 40-film series on the film movement from postwar Italy. The series
screens at the Walter Reade Theater from Friday, October 30 through Wednesday,
November 25.
This promises to be a landmark survey of a crucial period of cinema
history and New York-area film-goers of any persuasion should try to see at
least one in the series. Rossellini’s Open
City is often cited as the first milestone in this movement, so it might be
the go-to mother lode if you have to see just one film. Born from the war-torn landscapes of 1940s Italy, Neorealist films were
both unique stylistically and thematically, according to the festival
programmers. Shot on location, using available light, casting non-professional
actors, these films were revolutionary also for their candid depictions of the
working class. Not only would the movement elevate the art form from simple
entertainment, but it opened a dialogue about the future of Italy as well as
creating films of extraordinary power and humanity.
Twenty-eight years ago actress Natalie Wood drowned off the coast
of Catalina when purportedly slipping off her yacht Splendour while
trying to get into or trying to secure a dinghy after a fight with her
husband Robert Wagner. After what the public presumed was a thorough
investigation, the police have long closed the case after the LA
coroner ruled it an accidental drowning. However, in the new book Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour,
co-written by the ship's skipper, new allegations are brought to life
including shoddy police work leaving many unanswered questions.
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Natalie's sister Lana Wood (best known to movie fans as "Plenty O'Toole" in the James Bond adventure Diamond Are Forever)
has joined the authors in demanding that the case be reopened. Click here for more.