Certificate PG
Duration 75 + 93 mins
First film starts approximately 21.00
DJ from 18.45: PYE CORNER AUDIO
Featuring possibly the most famous screen creature, Frankenstein's monster, as played by Boris Karloff in director James Whale's 1935 follow-up to the classic original 1931 Frankenstein. This time the monster has a mate in the shape of Elsa Lanchester, and the resulting film is widely considered one of the greatest sequels of all time. The story of Frankenstein, the scientist and his creation, came to author Mary Shelley in a dream and this year marks the 200th anniversary of her famous novel, making this short double-bill (it'll be over by midnight) the perfect way to celebrate both a landmark in literature and two of the most wondrous screen fantasies ever imagined.
Black and white cinematography has a delicate magic all its own, especially when experienced on the big screen, and this double-bill is a celebration of its suggestive power. Nobody casts a spell quite like artist, writer, poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, whose creative imagination is virtually unparalleled in the 20th century. His 1946 romantic fantasia La Belle Et La Bête may be one of the most famous and influential films of its kind, a re-telling of the famous fairytale about a young girl who sets out to rescue her father from a Gothic castle only to become enchanted by the prideful Beast who lives there. With its many magical moments, all created using camera tricks and hand-crafted special-effects that still evoke awe and wonder today, Cocteau's film perfectly conjures the feel of being enmeshed in a waking dream.
