Let’s go to the pictures!
Monthly meetings take place on the second Tuesday of every month at 14:30 in the Amersham Community Centre Large Barn Hall.
Members of the group share an interest in Cinema – whether recently acquired or life-long – and we celebrate this by viewing and discussing films from all over the world (but chiefly from America and the UK) across a wide range of genres and across many decades. Sometimes we follow a particular theme; for example we have considered the work of several notable European émigrés in Hollywood including Billy Wilder, Ernst Lubitsch, Douglas Sirk and Fritz Lang; and in consecutive months we compared the two screen versions of Hemingway’s story The Killers.
Some meetings take the form of a talk on a particular subject or person, illustrated with excerpts from relevant movies. At one meeting we welcomed Dr Tony Williams, former President of the International Dickens Fellowship, to speak about how the works of Charles Dickens have been treated on screen. And we also welcomed Kevin Ashman, star of TV's Eggheads, who spoke about the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral, illustrating his talk with film clips to show how accurately – or, in most cases, inaccurately – the incident has been portrayed through 100 years of cinema.
Our recurring theme for 2022 was Ladies First, which encompassed a wide range of films with a prominent female presence, whether in front of or behind the camera. These included:
Denial (2016) - the story of Deborah Lipstadt's libel case against Holocaust denier David Irving; The Bigamist (1953) - directed by Ida Lupino; Bright Star (2009) - directed by Jane Campion; The Divine Order (2017) - the story of the enfranchising of women in Switzerland; A Woman at War (2018) - an Icelandic woman's environmental activism; Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) - biopic of swimmer and actress Annette Kellerman; Antonia's Line (1995) - Marleen Gorris's Oscar-winning Dutch feminist film; Wadjda (2012) - eye-opening drama directed by Saudi Arabia's first female director Haifaa al-Mansour. Al-Mansour's follow-up to that film will feature in June 2023.
2023 featured a short season of films with the theme Aunts & Uncles. These included Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, Jacques Tati's Mon Oncle, Cary Grant in Arsenic and Old Lace and the remarkable Grey Gardens, the story of Jackie Kennedy's aunt and cousin living in their decrepit Long Island mansion.
For 2024 the recurring theme was Seeing Double, in which we considered pairs of films featuring the work of particular actors or directors: Angela Lansbury, George Cukor, Richard Attenborough, Barbara Stanwyck and George Clooney.
For 2025 (and on into 2026!) our theme is Icons of Cinema.
Continuing our icons of cinema season, we turn in May to one of cinema’s most loved – and iconic! – movies. It Happened One Night wowed audiences and critics alike and has cemented its place in history by becoming the first film (there have been only three) to win all five of the ‘major’ Oscars – Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Actor and Actress. Although made over ninety years ago, it still stands up to scrutiny today, largely because – as is so often the case – the quality of the writing is just so good. Witty, pacy and smart, the script, and the way it’s translated on to the screen, encourages us to feel an affinity for the characters right from the start. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert were audience favourites of the time and their on-screen chemistry makes it easy to see why. Director Frank Capra was already a master of his craft and was a creative force behind some of the major films of the 30s and 40s; he is probably best known these days as the director of what has become a Christmas perennial: It’s A Wonderful Life.
For our June meeting our featured icon is the great Humphrey Bogart, and our film is Key Largo – though you could reasonably argue that Lauren Bacall, Edward G Robinson and director John Huston are no less iconic in their own way! Huston also had a hand in writing the screenplay, along with Richard Brooks, based on Maxwell Anderson’s Broadway play. This was the fourth and last film that Bogart and Bacall made together, and by now they were a married couple; it was a romance that caught the public’s imagination and, despite the 25-year age difference between them, the marriage would last until Bogart’s death in 1957. Bogart had also appeared multiple times with Robinson, with the latter always taking top billing over Bogart. For this film, the studio placed Robinson’s name between Bogart and Bacall on the posters, and in the film itself, but with Robinson’s name slightly higher than the other two. Claire Trevor, who plays Robinson’s former girlfriend, now a resident singer at the hotel where the action takes place, won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in the film.
In July, our icons are Audrey Hepburn (we’ll get to Katharine in due course!) and Fred Astaire in the romantic comedy musical Funny Face, with songs by the Gershwin brothers. The Gershwins had produced a stage play of the same name thirty years earlier, but although some of the songs they wrote for that also appear here (including ‘S Wonderful and How Long Has This Been Going On?), the plot of the film is entirely different. In Hepburn’s films it was often the case that her leading men were considerably older than her. Astaire was now 58, three decades Hepburn’s senior, and approaching the end of his musical career; but, according to Hepburn, she insisted on having Astaire as her partner if she was to take part in the film. Hepburn does her own singing in the film, and is perfectly acceptable in so doing – some years later, however, when she was given the lead in My Fair Lady in preference to Julie Andrews, her singing was judged inadequate and her voice was dubbed!
Gregory Peck is our screen icon for August, in the landmark drama Gentleman’s Agreement. Greek-born director Elia Kazan was well known for his films, sometimes provocative, addressing personal or social issues and he made a point of undertaking projects where he had some empathy with the theme; Stanley Kubrick called him “without question the best director we have in America, capable of performing miracles with the actors he uses”. This film was awarded the Best Picture Oscar for 1947, with Kazan winning Best Director and Peck receiving one of his five Best Actor nominations before going on to win for To Kill A Mocking Bird. Peck’s work here, as a reporter investigating anti-semitism, is regarded as being among his very best – and this for someone admired as one of the greatest male stars of classic Hollywood cinema. As well as being a critical success, the film was the second-highest box-office attraction of the year, despite (or because of?) its provocative subject.
The Group is always happy to accept new members, but other CU3A members are welcome to attend any meeting of interest on production of their current Membership Card. If you intend to come it would be helpful, though not essential, to email the Convenor in advance.
Details of Coming Attractions are always included in the quarterly CU3A Newsletter, and the Group has its own regular Newsletter which is circulated by email to its members. In addition members receive weekly emails, when time permits, with suggestions for worthwhile films that are coming up on the free-to-air television channels.