The Kennington Bioscope is a regular cinema event that takes place at the Cinema Museum.
Le Voyage Imaginare (1926)
Directed by Rene Clair and starring Dolly Davies, this 16mm print is courtesy of The Archive Film Agency.
Le Voyage Imaginaire belongs to the most avant-garde first period of the frenchified film director René Clair. This is from his silent and experimental film period of which this German Count is very fond despite Herr Clair being a descendant of those revolutionaries who treated so badly the aristocracy of that country some years ago.
Le Voyage Imaginaire is full of suggestions in which different genres are mixed (avant-garde, comedy, surrealism) without any real connection. It’s a really bizarre film that relates the complicated relationship between three bank clerks (and their boss) for the typist girl that works in the same office. Herr Clair creates a dream world which plunges the audience into a universe full of fantasy. There are lady fortunetellers, fairies, classic story characters and even modern heroes such as “Charlot” (for the frenchified people) not to mention the “Notre Dame” roofs and the museum “Grévin”. To this German Count it seems to be a kind of deluded fairy tale, extravagant, anxiously exaggerated and very rich in film ideas.
That mixed dream world benefits from using all the special effects known at that time (slow motion, double exposure, optical effects) combined with simple backgrounds that are perfect for the formal aspect of the story. It all creates an unreal atmosphere, incredible and dumbfounding at times. Herr Clair directed a very special film that is thought-provoking and fascinating.
Notes by Ferdinand Von Galitzien.
Glenn Mitchell presents films starring ‘Lupino Lane’ from his private collection
Lane was born Henry William George Lupino, in Hackney, London. Lane made his first stage appearance at the age of four in a benefit in Birmingham for Vesta Tilley. He made his London début in 1903 as Nipper Lane at the London Pavilion. He worked steadily as a performer thereafter. In 1915, he appeared at the Empire Theatre and played comic roles in theatre and film on both sides of the Atlantic from then on. Lane’s silent film career started in 1915 in a series of British short films, including the experimental Mr Butterbuns series. After several shorts and features for Fox in 1922–23, Lane appeared as Rudolph in D. W. Griffith’s feature Isn’t Life Wonderful? (1924). He signed with Educational Pictures for a series of short comedies that featured his acrobatic flips and falls. Roscoe Arbuckle was one of his directors, but Lane was soon directing the films himself under the pseudonym “Henry W. George” (his given names). These comedies displayed Lane’s agility and versatility: in one film he played 24 characters.
This is a private screening.
Anyone interested in silent film should visit the website for more info and to request an invitation using the email kenbioscope@gmail.com.
Tickets & Pricing
£3 (£2 of which goes to the Cinema Museum).
