States of Danger and Deceit
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home mcr. org home box office 0161 200 1500 States of Danger and Deceit: European Political Thrillers IN the 1970s Sat 4 Nov – Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, 1970 Tue 12 Dec We open the season with Costa-Gavras’ seminal work Z on Sat 4 Nov, 20:20. STATES OF DANGER AND DECEIT: See pages 6 – 9 for our Director in Focus: Costa-Gavras. EUROPEAN POLITICAL THRILLERS IN THE MATTEI AFFAIR (U) + POST-SCREENING THE 1970S DISCUSSION (IL CASO MATTEI) Sun 5 Nov, 18:15 . Dir Francesco Rosi/IT 1972/116 mins/Italian wEng ST Gian Maria Volontè, Luigi Squarzina, Peter Baldwin A key title in the development of Francesco In the winter of 2017 HOME presents a season of nail-biting thrillers that Rosi’s style of investigative thriller, The Mattei expose the political tensions that reverberated across Europe in the 1970s. Affair focuses on the death of Enrico Mattei, an A decade when the social turmoil that marked the late 1960s gave way to a influential businessman who made enemies in the mafia. His story is interspersed with Rosi’s more strident politics that involved stark and sometimes violent contrasts investigation into the disappearance of his friend, between left and right. A decade that was scarred by the emergence of journalist Mauro De Mauro, who was undertaking uncompromisingly radical groups such as the Red Army Faction and the Red research for the film. Driven by a thoughtful Brigades. performance from Gian Maria Volontè, The Mattei Affair is one of Rosi’s finest works. In response to this charged moment a number of filmmakers across Europe This screening will be followed by an informal turned to the format of the thriller. Stylish and enduringly popular with post-screening discussion led by Adalgisa audiences, they saw it as the perfect vehicle through which to explore Serio, Italian Language Tutor CDLCI and conspiracies, authoritarian regimes, and political violence. Freelance Language Consultant, author of Collana Cinema Italia and Italiano al cinema. Beginning with Costa-Gavras’ legendary Z (1969), States of Danger and Deceit: European Political Thrillers in the 1970s offers audiences the chance to discover or revisit some of the decade’s key works including: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970), The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975) and Illustrious Corpses (1976). Films that still influence the way in which politically engaged filmmakers approach their work and engage with popular forms and genres. Programme curated by Andy Willis, Professor of Film Studies at the University of Salford and Senior Visiting Curator: Film at HOME, produced by Rachel Hayward, HOME’s Film Programme Manager, and coordinated by Jessie Gibbs, The Mattei Affair, 1972 HOME Film Team. ONE HOUR INTRO/ POLITICAL THRILLERS IN Programmed by HOME as part of BFI Thriller season, Who Can You Trust? THE 1970S: FROM Z TO CIRCLE OF DECEIT Presented with support of the BFI, awarding funds from The National Lottery. Wed 8 Nov, 18:15 Politically the 1970s was a turbulent decade and many Please note all films will start at the advertised time with no adverts or filmmakers, writers and actors felt driven to explore trailers, please check website for any certificate changes. Where indicated some of its most pressing issues on screen. One of the screenings will feature a BSL interpreted guest introduction, please check results was a memorable cycle of politically motivated thrillers that attempted to bring the charged website for details on intro speakers. atmosphere of the streets onto cinema screens across Europe. Through an exploration of some of the key works and practitioners present in States of Danger and Deceit, this One Hour Intro will help contextualise the season. Led by Andy Willis, Professor of Film Studies at the University of Salford and Senior Visiting Curator: Film Z, 1969 at HOME. 2 3 INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION (18) + INTRO DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING (18) (INDAGINE SU UN CITTADINO AL DI + INTRO SOPRA DI OGNI SOSPETTO) (NON SI SEVIZIA UN PAPERINO) Wed 8 Nov, 19:30 Sat 18 Nov, 20:40 Dir Elio Petri/IT 1970/115 mins/Italian wEng ST Dir Lucio Fulci/IT 1972/102 mins/Italian wEng ST Gian Maria Volontè, Florinda Bolkan, Gianni Santuccio Florinda Bolkan, Barbara Bouchet, Tomas Milian In Elio Petri’s visually stunning and beautifully A great example of the ways in which a popular composed film, a corrupt police official decides to show form, here the giallo style of violent thriller, can how untouchable he is by creating a murder scene be used to critique society’s institutions. Set in where the evidence can only lead investigators to him. rural Italy, Lucio Fulci’s film focuses on a series of Starring the iconic left-wing actor Gian Maria Volontè brutal murders where the killer seems to target who provides a mesmerising performance, this is a sly young boys on the verge of adulthood. As the and slick condemnation of the state and the police media flocks to the village where the victims lived, from one of Italy’s major political filmmakers of the suspicion falls on those residents who due to their 1960s and 1970s. lifestyles are considered outsiders. Rumour has it that Fulci was subsequently blacklisted due to his Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, 1970 critical representation of Italy’s powerful social institutions. THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY (18) Thu 9 Nov, 18:15 Dir John Mackenzie/GB 1980/115 mins Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Paul Freeman In this landmark British thriller, gangster Harold Shand, memorably played with great relish by Bob Hoskins, dreams of developing London’s rundown dockland and Don’t Torture a Duckling, 1972 becoming a legitimate businessman. He also wants a partnership with the American Mafia. However, his plans are put in jeopardy when a number of his associates are attacked. Increasingly paranoid, Harold sets out to discover who is behind them and slowly realises the answer is much more political than he ever The Long Good Friday, 1980 imagined. THE DAY OF THE JACKAL (15) DAYS OF ’36 (12) + INTRO (MERES TOU ’36) Sat 11 Nov, 15:30 RELAXED SCREENING* Sun 12 Nov, 15:15 + POST-SCREENING Mon 20 Nov, 20:30 DISCUSSION Dir Theodoros Angelopoulos/GR 1972/104 mins/Greek wEng ST Vangelis Kazan, Kostas Pavlou, Thanos Grammenos Dir Fred Zinnemann/GB FR 1973/143 mins Edward Fox, Terence Alexander, Michel Auclair During the 1970s Angelopoulos made films that A UK-France co-production, Fred Zinnemann’s legendary were formally challenging and highly stylised. On film explores the attempts of a right-wing paramilitary occasion these used the narrative conventions of group to assassinate French President General De the political thriller to a very different effect to Gaulle following the independence of Algeria. Boasting slick films that make up the majority of this season. a career-defining performance from Edward Fox and In Days of ’36 an imprisoned murderer takes a replete with many political twists and turns, The Day of government official hostage in prison sparking a the Jackal is one of the best thrillers of the 1970s. political crisis. Full of Angelopoulos’ trademark symmetrical compositions, this reads like a thriller The screening on Sun 12 Nov will be followed by but through the director’s use of film form resists an informal post-screening discussion led by Roy the normal pleasures of the genre. Stafford, Freelance Film Educator. This screening will be introduced by Dr *Designed for people with autism spectrum conditions Eleftheria Rania Kosmidou, Lecturer in Film and their families. See homemcr.org/accessibility for Studies at the University of Salford. The Day of the Jackal, 1973 details. Days of ’36, 1972 4 5 CURATOR ANDY WILLIS TELLS US reflected in its opening where a about his activities in the country, the DIRECTOR MORE ABOUT OUR DIRECTOR IN statement appears: ‘Any similarity to government unleashes death squads FOCUS, COSTA-GAVRAS actual events or persons living or dead to counter their influence. is not coincidental. It is intentional’. IN FOCUS: Z (1969) was director Costa-Gavras’ Following State of Siege Costa-Gavras third feature following stints as an After casting Yves Montand in his first turned his attention to the issue of assistant to influential directors such feature, Costa-Gavras had become a collaboration during the German COSTA- as René Clair, Henri Verneuil and Jean close associate of the actor and his occupation of France with Special Becker. He had made his directorial friend the scriptwriter Jorge Semprún. Section. Once again utilising a tension- debut in 1965 with Compartiment Together the three would work on building narrative, the film focuses on GAVRAS tueurs (The Sleeping Car Murder) another two landmark political thrillers a group of judges set up to select six and during that film’s production of the 1970s, The Confession (1970) people to be killed in response to the solidified his friendship with cast and Special Section (1975). Resistance’s killing of a German officer. members Simone Signoret and Yves The Confession is an adaptation of Costa-Gavras’ work in the 1970s Montand, both at the time doyens of Artur London’s account of how he, a represents some of the highest the French left. Once in these circles former resistance fighter who became achievements within the cycle of Costa-Gavras began to work on films a Czech Communist Party official, fell political thrillers produced in Europe that reflected his humanitarian, anti- foul of the regime and was eventually during this period. Later he would authoritarian and left-leaning political sentenced to life in prison. The continue to make political thrillers perspectives. His work also revealed resulting film is a tough condemnation in the USA with the award-winning a deep-rooted desire to engage with of totalitarianism and brought Missing (1982), Betrayed (1988) and audiences, a commitment that led him Montand in particular into conflict Music Box (1989) before returning to to turn to the political thriller with Z.