Headfirst Editor's Pick
"Bristol’s DIY cinema / video rental specialists 20th Century Flicks upgrade to the glorious and underused IMAX for an epic double screening in the grand tradition! Two classic, nostalgic slices of US high school comedy go back to back; it’s George Lucas' influential and bittersweet 60s loveletter American Graffiti vs. Linklater’s 70s stoner romp Dazed & Confused. Cinema buffs shouldn’t be anywhere else."
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A event on Sunday 10th September. The event starts at 16:30.
20th Century Flicks presents a double bill of George Lucas's American Graffiti followed by Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused
Nostalgia ain't what it used to be... To celebrate 50 years of American Graffiti (made in '73, set in '62) and 30 years of Dazed and Confused (made in '93, set in '76) we are screening both in their (beautifully recently restored) big screen glory.
Doors open at 4.30pm. American Graffiti starts at 5pm. Dazed and Confused at 7.15pm. Entrance through side door on Anchor Rd (What 3 Words ///turns.tables.odds)
Almost a half century ago, American Graffiti, directed by George Lucas, hit the big screen. Sandwiched between the quiet THX 1138 (1971) and the blockbuster Star Wars (1977), Lucas’s second feature peered back a decade earlier, taking place at the tail end of the summer of 1962. The movie is filled with images of an era already experienced as bygone—roller-skating diner waitresses, souped-up jalopies cruising the streets—and, just as critically, with its sounds. The latter were accomplished thanks largely to Walter Murch (“Sound Montage and Re-recording,” the opening credits state opaquely), who helped revolutionise the role of sound in film. Age thirty at the time of its release, Murch had just completed similar work on The Godfather, directed by American Graffiti producer Francis Ford Coppola, and would soon move on to Coppola’s The Conversation. Born and raised in New York City, Murch fell in with the California movie mavericks during graduate school at USC.
Nearly twenty years after American Graffiti’s release, literary critic Fredric Jameson, in 1991, singled it out as a central example of what he termed “nostalgia films,” citing it as nothing less than the “inaugural film of this new aesthetic discourse.” The movie’s fiftieth anniversary—this August—provides an opportunity to look back, just as Lucas’s movie itself did. - Marc Weidenbaum
Richard Linklater’s 1993 film Dazed and Confused is heralded as one of the greatest coming-of-age comedies of all time. Starring an ensemble cast including Jason London, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Parker Posey and Matthew McConaughey, the film departs from the over-dramatic narratives of similar movies, focusing rather on the laissez-faire attitude of its characters.
The film centres on the last day of school at Lee High School in Austin, Texas, and follows the fate of several of its students as they prepare for the summer holidays. The freshmen are ardently trying to escape a good “paddling” by the seniors, a ritual that has run in the school for many years, while the seniors themselves are looking ahead to the summer escapades of getting stoned and hanging out before the pressures of their futures come into reality. The beauty of Dazed and Confused is that the stakes and the drama are always pretty low. The worst any of the characters might face is a scolding from their parents for smoking weed, a smack around the arse with a paddle from an angry senior, or a stern word from the school football coach. The result is that the film is a faithful recreation of what it is like to be a high school student, old or young. After all, what is the worst that could really happen? This is a lesson that Linklater is keen to remind us of. - Thomas Leatham
Accessibility/CEA info: When you come in via the Anchor Road entrance, ask for directions to the lifts which will take you up to Floor 2 which has rear access to the auditorium. There is plenty of room either for your partner to simply watch the film from their wheelchair, or we can reserve two seats at the back that you can easily get to (though they will be one step down).Carers are admitted free.
Entry requirements:
Nostalgia ain't what it used to be... To celebrate 50 years of American Graffiti (made in '73, set in '62) and 30 years of Dazed and Confused (made in '93, set in '76) we are screening both in their (beautifully recently restored) big screen glory.
Doors open at 4.30pm. American Graffiti starts at 5pm. Dazed and Confused at 7.15pm. Entrance through side door on Anchor Rd (What 3 Words ///turns.tables.odds)
Almost a half century ago, American Graffiti, directed by George Lucas, hit the big screen. Sandwiched between the quiet THX 1138 (1971) and the blockbuster Star Wars (1977), Lucas’s second feature peered back a decade earlier, taking place at the tail end of the summer of 1962. The movie is filled with images of an era already experienced as bygone—roller-skating diner waitresses, souped-up jalopies cruising the streets—and, just as critically, with its sounds. The latter were accomplished thanks largely to Walter Murch (“Sound Montage and Re-recording,” the opening credits state opaquely), who helped revolutionise the role of sound in film. Age thirty at the time of its release, Murch had just completed similar work on The Godfather, directed by American Graffiti producer Francis Ford Coppola, and would soon move on to Coppola’s The Conversation. Born and raised in New York City, Murch fell in with the California movie mavericks during graduate school at USC.
Nearly twenty years after American Graffiti’s release, literary critic Fredric Jameson, in 1991, singled it out as a central example of what he termed “nostalgia films,” citing it as nothing less than the “inaugural film of this new aesthetic discourse.” The movie’s fiftieth anniversary—this August—provides an opportunity to look back, just as Lucas’s movie itself did. - Marc Weidenbaum
Richard Linklater’s 1993 film Dazed and Confused is heralded as one of the greatest coming-of-age comedies of all time. Starring an ensemble cast including Jason London, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Parker Posey and Matthew McConaughey, the film departs from the over-dramatic narratives of similar movies, focusing rather on the laissez-faire attitude of its characters.
The film centres on the last day of school at Lee High School in Austin, Texas, and follows the fate of several of its students as they prepare for the summer holidays. The freshmen are ardently trying to escape a good “paddling” by the seniors, a ritual that has run in the school for many years, while the seniors themselves are looking ahead to the summer escapades of getting stoned and hanging out before the pressures of their futures come into reality. The beauty of Dazed and Confused is that the stakes and the drama are always pretty low. The worst any of the characters might face is a scolding from their parents for smoking weed, a smack around the arse with a paddle from an angry senior, or a stern word from the school football coach. The result is that the film is a faithful recreation of what it is like to be a high school student, old or young. After all, what is the worst that could really happen? This is a lesson that Linklater is keen to remind us of. - Thomas Leatham
Accessibility/CEA info: When you come in via the Anchor Road entrance, ask for directions to the lifts which will take you up to Floor 2 which has rear access to the auditorium. There is plenty of room either for your partner to simply watch the film from their wheelchair, or we can reserve two seats at the back that you can easily get to (though they will be one step down).Carers are admitted free.
Entry requirements:
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