The Bigger Picture

Paul Thomas Anderson on Max Ophuls & 'The Earrings of Madame X':

The Bigger Picture film club will be showing ?The Earrings of Madame X? (1953) at 8pm on Thursday, 20 April 2017, Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern. In late 19th century France, the Countess Louise, wife of a wealthy general, sells the earrings her husband gave her on their wedding day to pay off debts, and she claims to have lost them. Her husband quickly learns of the deceit, which is the beginning of many tragic misunderstandings, all involving the earrings, the general, the countess and her new lover, the Italian Baron Donati. Director: Max Ophuls France 100 minutes Cert U We say: It would be easy to dismiss this film for its mannered cinematography, those long lingering shots of costumes and jewellery - but what costumes and what jewellery! It's contrived, it's a classic and it's a film with a lot of heart. Just up our street. Bar opens from 7pm. Film at 8pm. Tickets ?7 from WeGotTickets: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/390761 The Bigger Picture website: http://www.thebiggerpic.co.uk/ The Bigger Picture Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thebiggerpic/ Location: Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern 1 Lordship Lane London SE22 8EW Rail: East Dulwich; Buses: P13, 37, 185, 176, 40, 484

Here's a trailer for 'The Second Mother', our film on 16 March 2017:

The Bigger Picture film club will be showing ?The Second Mother? (2015) at 8pm on Thursday, 16 March 2017, Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern. Val is a live-in domestic servant in S?o Paulo, whose life is thrown into disarray when her grown daughter Jessica arrives from their hometown to study for her college entrance exams. The understood boundaries that rule Val?s life with her employer B?rbara don?t apply to this vibrant, smart young woman, whose questions bring everything into clearer focus. ?The Second Mother," said Director Anna Muylaert, "is a very feminine story. It?s about relationships and power and education. When people ask me ?Do women direct differently than men??, I believe in a feminine way of looking and a masculine way. Almodovar is very feminine, Woody Allen has a feminine look. Bigelow she has a masculine look. It doesn?t matter who?s directing, man or woman, but how you look?. Director: Anna Muylaert Brazil 112 minutes Cert 15 We say: A funny, but nevertheless accurate study of class in modern-day Brazil. Given a big thumbs up by three of The Bigger Picture team - particularly Katy, who hasn't let us forget for a moment that we voted for its inclusion in our programme a year ago. Bar opens from 7pm. Film at 8pm. Tickets ?7 from WeGotTickets: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/390760 The Bigger Picture website: http://www.thebiggerpic.co.uk/ The Bigger Picture Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thebiggerpic/ Location: Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern 1 Lordship Lane London SE22 8EW Rail: East Dulwich; Buses: P13, 37, 185, 176, 40, 484

Tickets will be available on the door for 'Pierrot Le Fou' tonight. The film starts at 8pm. See you there!

The Bigger Picture film club will be showing ?Pierrot Le Fou? (1965) at 8pm on Thursday, 16 February 2017, Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern. Godard?s 10th film, and an anarchic take on the road movie in which a couple are on the run from bourgeois life (and gangsters), provides Godard with the entertaining opportunity to reference the conventions of Hollywood filmmaking. Uninterested in his wife (Raymond Devos), Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo) wearies of his stagnant life. But when the couple hire an enigmatic baby-sitter, Marianne Renoir (Anna Karina), Ferdinand falls head over heels in love with her and abandons his family. He soon discovers, however, that his mistress is not who she seems. Pursued by foreign thugs, Ferdinand and Marianne flee Paris, steal a car and embark on a crime spree through the French countryside all the way to the Mediterranean. Abandoning the conventions of narrative cinema, Godard invents his own subversively anarchic tropes with a virtuosity that captivates and entertains. Director: Jean-Luc Godard with Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina France 110 minutes. Cert 15. All tickets ?7. Bar opens from 7pm. Film at 8pm. Tickets ?7 from WeGotTickets: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/351066 The Bigger Picture website: http://www.thebiggerpic.co.uk/ The Bigger Picture Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/thebiggerpic?ref=tn_tnmn Location: Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern 1 Lordship Lane London SE22 8EW Rail: East Dulwich; Buses: P13, 37, 185, 176, 40, 484

The Bigger Picture film club will be showing ?Come and See? (1985) at 8pm on Thursday, 19 January 2017, Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern. This is the study of the invasion of Byelorussia by the Nazis as experienced from the perspective of a young teenager ready to fight as a partisan for his country, and is considered one of the best films about war in all its incomprehensibility and insanity. Set in 1943 as Nazi troops are invading the Soviet Republic of Byelorussia, the film follows young Florya (Aleksei Kravchenko) as he picks up a rifle to fight for his country. The film is an extraordinary achievement, confronting horror and suffering with the graceful solemnity of its images. Klimov himself had fled Stalingrad with his mother, and his experience informs the film. Through landscape, light, colour and sound as much as people, Klimov produces indelible images as testimony to the bleakness and inexplicable nature of war. Director: Elem Klimov, writer: Elem Klimov and Ales Adanovich, with Aleksei Kravchenko, Olga Mironova Russia 136 minutes. Cert 15. All tickets ?7. Bar opens from 7pm. Film at 8pm. Tickets ?7 from WeGotTickets: https://www.wegottickets.com/event/351065 The Bigger Picture website: http://www.thebiggerpic.co.uk/ The Bigger Picture Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/thebiggerpic?ref=tn_tnmn Location: Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern 1 Lordship Lane London SE22 8EW Rail: East Dulwich; Buses: P13, 37, 185, 176, 40, 484

Here's a trailer for 'Sullivan's Travels':

The Bigger Picture film club will be showing ?Sullivan?s Travels? (1941) at 8pm on Thursday, 15 December 2016, Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern. One of the great classic comedies of 1930s Hollywood, Preston Sturges? Sullivan?s Travels takes a Hollywood director on an odyssey of Depression Era America with surprising and sometimes terrifying results. John L Sullivan (Joel McCrea) tires of making lightweight comedies and decides he wants to make a serious film about the poor. In order to find out what true hardship means, he hits the road as a tramp with a retinue including a butler and valet arranged by the studio as a publicity stunt. Escaping his servants in order to really live as a hobo, he bumps into a young would-be actress (Veronica Lake) and then the trouble starts. Mistakenly identified, reported as dead, locked up on a prison farm, Sullivan?s journey progresses with comedy and tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. With interesting parallels with our previous film, 8 ? , and the inspiration for the Coen Brothers' Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, Sullivan's Travels deliberately employs almost every type of cinematic genre to explore the pretensions and excesses of Hollywood. Director: Preston Sturges, with Joel McCrea, and Veronica Lake US 88 minutes. Cert PG. All tickets ?7. Bar opens from 7pm. Film at 8pm. Tickets ?7 from WeGotTickets: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/351063 The Bigger Picture website: http://www.thebiggerpic.co.uk/ The Bigger Picture Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/thebiggerpic?ref=tn_tnmn Location: Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern 1 Lordship Lane London SE22 8EW Rail: East Dulwich; Buses: P13, 37, 185, 176, 40, 484

Here's a trailer for '8 1/2': You can buy your tickets on line now.

The Bigger Picture film club will be showing ?8 ?? (1963) at 8pm on Thursday, 17 November 2016, Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern. Considered by many to be the best film about filmmaking, and one of the greatest films ever made, Fellini?s 8 ? is a visual feast of dreams and fantasies juxtaposed with the life of a successful director whose life is unravelling as he tries to work on his latest film. 8 ??s protagonist, Guido (Marcello Mastroianni), is a successful film director struggling with his next film, exhausted by his evasions, lies and sensual appetites. Mixing fantasy and reality, Guido flounders between wife (Anouk Aimee) and mistress (Sandra Milo), seeking advice from clerics, doctors, producers and writer as he half-heartedly tries to work on the film. Visually beguiling, the film brought Fellini two Academy Awards, its title a reference to the number of Fellini?s films. Frequently listed in the top ten films of all time, 8 ? is also a hymn to cinematic modernism, a film that altered perspectives on what cinema could do. A tightly-structured assembly of famously original and imaginative scenes which interweave memories, fantasies, dreams with the daily life of Guido, Fellini?s alter-ego, the film exemplifies Fellini?s visual mastery and surreal take on existence. Director: Federico Fellini, writer: Federico Fellini and Ennio Flaiano, with Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimee, Sandra Milo Italy 138 minutes. Cert 15. All tickets ?7. Bar opens from 7pm. Film at 8pm. Tickets ?7 from WeGotTickets: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/351062 The Bigger Picture website: http://www.thebiggerpic.co.uk/ The Bigger Picture Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/thebiggerpic?ref=tn_tnmn Location: Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern 1 Lordship Lane London SE22 8EW Rail: East Dulwich; Buses: P13, 37, 185, 176, 40, 484

Tickets will be available on the door tonight for 'The Bad Seed'. Here's a trailer:

The Bigger Picture film club will be showing ?The Bad Seed? (1956) at 8pm on Thursday, 20 October 2016, Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern. When a young boy is found drowned at a school picnic, Christine starts to wonder if there is something wrong with her daughter... Cult creepy classic about cherubic 8-year-old Rhoda Penmark (Patty McCormack) who seems to be a perfect schoolgirl, but when one of her school mates is killed, her own mother (Nancy Kelly) starts to wonder what kind of child her daughter is. Adapted from the 1954 novel by William March, The Bad Seed is a precursor of landmark films such as Psycho and The Omen, in which a child is the fulcrum of terror. Has she inherited evil from her family or has it come from what?s around her? Interest in popular psychology became more prevalent in the 1950s and the film explores contemporary ideas of nature versus nurture and what recourse adults have when dealing with a child like Rhoda. A claustrophobic atmosphere pervades this picture of small town America and the tension is ramped up to reveal the chilling truth that the one you love is a sociopathic monster. Wonderful performances by Patty McCormack and Nancy Kelly as mother and daughter. Director: Mervyn LeRoy, screenwriter: John Lee Martin, with Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Henry Jones, William Hopper USA 126 minutes. Cert 12. All tickets ?7. Bar opens from 7pm. Film at 8pm. Tickets ?7 from WeGotTickets: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/351061 The Bigger Picture website: http://www.thebiggerpic.co.uk/ The Bigger Picture Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/thebiggerpic?ref=tn_tnmn Location: Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern 1 Lordship Lane London SE22 8EW Rail: East Dulwich; Buses: P13, 37, 185, 176, 40, 484

The Bigger Picture film club will be showing ?Timbuktu? (2014) at 8pm on Thursday, 15 September 2016, Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern. A delicate balance between hope and despair, Timbuktu is Abderrahmane Sissako?s insightful drama about a family negotiating survival in the desert and the city shattered by an invasion of religious bigotry and violence. Set in the legendary city of Timbuktu, the traditions and ways of life of its inhabitants and older tribal society are being overturned by an invasion of fanatical soldiers from outside the country. Director Sissako creates an interrelated series of characters and tableaux to show scenes of life in the traumatised nation. At the centre is the tragic story of a herdsman?s family, Kidane (Ibrahim Ahmed) his wife Satima (Toulou Kiki) and their daughter. When Kidane angrily confronts a fisherman who has killed his cow, a chain of events with tragic consequences unfolds. A complex depiction of an age old society being transformed by contemporary technology and extreme religious views. Sissako is one of the most interesting and ambitious writer directors; born in Mauritania, he grew up in Mali. This film is a fearless and poetic response to oppression and cruelty. Director: Abderrahmane Sissako, writer: Abderrahmane Sissako and Kessen Tall, with Ibrahim Ahmed, Toulou Kiki, Abel Jafri, Hichem Yacoubi France/Mauritius 97 minutes. Cert 12A. All tickets ?7. Bar opens from 7pm. Film at 8pm. Tickets ?7 from WeGotTickets: https://www.wegottickets.com/event/351056 The Bigger Picture website: http://www.thebiggerpic.co.uk/ The Bigger Picture Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/thebiggerpic?ref=tn_tnmn Location: Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern 1 Lordship Lane London SE22 8EW Rail: East Dulwich; Buses: P13, 37, 185, 176, 40, 484

Tickets will be available on the door for the film tonight, so you can just come along!

The Bigger Picture film club will be showing ?Smiles of a Summer Night? (1955) at 8pm on Thursday, 18 August 2016, Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern. An exquisite romantic comedy in which six individuals find love during an endless summer night. One of cinema?s greatest erotic comedies, Smiles of a Summer Night ushered Bergman onto the international scene. A film about infidelity and desire set in the early 1900s, it centres around Fredrik Engerman (Gunnar Bjornstrand) a middle-aged lawyer whose 19 year old wife Anne (Ulla Jacobsson) refuses to consummate their marriage. He decides to confide in a former mistress, Desir?e (Eva Dahlbeck). Meanwhile Frederik?s son from his first marriage is in love with his stepmother. Over the course of an endless northern summer night, the feelings of the protagonists boil over into seduction, flirtation, deception and adultery. With an air of French farce the film is not entirely without elements of darkness so typical of Bergman, but these are transcended by the smiles of the title. Director/Writer: Ingmar Bergman with Ulla Jacobsson, Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Bibi Andersson Sweden 108 minutes. Cert PG. All tickets ?7. Bar opens from 7pm. Film at 8pm. Tickets ?7 from WeGotTickets: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/351055 The Bigger Picture website: http://www.thebiggerpic.co.uk/ The Bigger Picture Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/thebiggerpic?ref=tn_tnmn Location: Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern 1 Lordship Lane London SE22 8EW Rail: East Dulwich; Buses: P13, 37, 185, 176, 40, 484

Here's a trailer for 'Fear Eats the Soul':

The Bigger Picture film club will be showing ?Fear Eats the Soul? (1974) at 8pm on Thursday, 21 July 2016, Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern. A lonely working class widow Emy (Birgitte Mira) meets a much younger Arab immigrant working as a mechanic Ali (El Hedi Ben Salem), whom she falls in love with. The poignancy of the love affair is contrasted with the bitterness of family, colleagues and society?s reaction to a love that breaks racial boundaries. Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a hugely influential and prolific director/writer/actor who kick-started a renaissance in filmmaking in West Germany with his distinctive, controversial and ground-breaking work which sought to document and expose the hypocrisies and complacency of the post-war West German society. This film, modelled loosely on Douglas Sirk?s 1955 melodrama All That Heaven Allows (about a middle class widow who falls in love with a much younger gardener), explores the deep-rooted prejudices about race, sex, politics and class in 1970s Germany, which are no less relevant today. Fassbinder is at his best in this film achieving a balance between emotional involvement and critical distance and exemplifies a tenderness not usually seen in his films. Director/writer: Rainer Werner Fassbinder with Birgitte Mira and El Hedi Ben Salem, Barbara Valentin Germany 94 minutes. Cert 15. All tickets ?7. Bar opens from 7pm. Film at 8pm. Tickets ?7 from WeGotTickets: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/351054 The Bigger Picture website: http://www.thebiggerpic.co.uk/ The Bigger Picture Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/thebiggerpic?ref=tn_tnmn Location: Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern 1 Lordship Lane London SE22 8EW Rail: East Dulwich; Buses: P13, 37, 185, 176, 40, 484

You can buy your tickets on line now via: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/351053

The Bigger Picture film club will be showing ?Trouble in Paradise? (1932) at 8pm on Thursday, 16 June 2016, Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern. One of Lubitsch?s best comedy romances and as close to perfection as a film can be: suave, cynical, sophisticated and polished. A pinnacle of romantic comedy and imbued with all Ernst Lubitsch?s charm and wit, Gaston (Herbert Marshall) and Lily (Miriam Hopkins) are a pair of Parisian thieves masquerading as aristocrats who fall in love and set out to rob perfume company executive Mariette (Kay Francis). Gaston becomes her confidential secretary and Lily her typist, but what happens when Gaston falls for Mariette and he is forced to choose between two beautiful women? Director: Ernst Lubitsch, writer: Samson Raphaelson and Grover Jones, with Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall US 81 minutes. Cert U. All tickets ?7. Bar opens from 7pm. Film at 8pm. Tickets ?7 from WeGotTickets: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/351053 The Bigger Picture website: http://www.thebiggerpic.co.uk/ The Bigger Picture Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/thebiggerpic?ref=tn_tnmn Location: Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern 1 Lordship Lane London SE22 8EW Rail: East Dulwich; Buses: P13, 37, 185, 176, 40, 484

Two tickets for the price of one will be available on the door for ?Hiroshima Mon Amour? (1959) at 8pm tonight, Friday, 27 May 2016, Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern.

The Bigger Picture film club has rescheduled and will be showing ?Hiroshima Mon Amour? (1959) at 8pm on Friday, 27 May 2016, Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern. Two tickets for the price of one - available on the door.

Here's a trailer for 'Hiroshima Mon Amour':

The Bigger Picture film club has rescheduled and will be showing ?Hiroshima Mon Amour? (1959) at 8pm on Friday, 27 May 2016, Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern. A French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) and a Japanese architect (Eliji Okada) have an intense affair in post-war Hiroshima. Unable to escape their own personal histories, the affair is both brief and painful as the film interweaves their stories with the memory of momentous and harrowing recent events. Alain Resnais?s first film, Hiroshima Mon Amour, is one of the most influential films ever made and certainly one of the greatest in the canon of La Nouvelle Vague, a stream of groundbreaking films that came out of France in the late 1950s and early 1960s and transformed cinema. The film discards classical narrative and storytelling by using flashbacks of devastating acts of war that contrast with the deeply intimate love story. The film heralded a new cinematic language which even today challenges the boundaries of cinema. A masterpiece of great beauty and gravity, its impact lies in the juxtaposition of imagery with the rhythmic and poetic dialogue written by Marguerite Duras and a striking score by Georges Delerue and Giovanni Fusco. Intertwining the impact of personal sorrow and public remembrance, this film offers one of the most haunting evocations of personal suffering, loss and grief and a profound meditation on the horror of war. Director: Alain Resnais, writer: Marguerite Duras, with Emmanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada France 90 minutes. Cert 12. Two tickets for the price of one - available on the door. (Tickets are normally ?7.) Bar opens from 7pm. Film at 8pm. The Bigger Picture website: http://www.thebiggerpic.co.uk/ The Bigger Picture Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/thebiggerpic?ref=tn_tnmn Location: Upstairs at East Dulwich Tavern 1 Lordship Lane London SE22 8EW Rail: East Dulwich; Buses: P13, 37, 185, 176, 40, 484

Here's a trailer for 'Do the Right Thing':