Femme Fatales
Femme fatales
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Alraune aka A Daughter Of Destiny 1927 All ages A scientist (Paul Wegener) creates a female demon (Brigitte Helm) originally born to a hanged criminal and streetwalker. Raised as the scientist's daughter, Alraune quickly reverts to type, becoming a perverse seductress who plots a terrible revenge on the man who created her. Wed 12 Nov 4.00pm / Cinema A |
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Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora’s Box) 1929 PG In the role that made her an icon, Louise Brooks plays Lulu, the magnetic, impassive vamp. A masterpiece of atmosphere, this is also one of the most sexually charged films ever made, thanks to Brooks' incendiary performance and the peculiar tastes of director Georg Wilhelm Pabst. Wed 19 Nov 6.00pm / Cinema B |
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Tagebuch Einer Verlorenen (Diary of a Lost Girl) 1929 All ages Georg Wilhelm Pabst's second film with Louise Brooks, and like the first one (Pandora’s Box) ruthlessly attacked by the censors and cut everywhere it was shown. The restoration reveals another dark jewel. An unwed mother (Brooks) escapes from a brutal home for delinquent girls into the security of a brothel. Wed 5 Nov 4.00pm / Cinema A |
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Blaue Engel (Blue Angel) 1930 PG Marlene Dietrich’s defining role as the langourous sex goddess who brings down an inflated, self-pitying school teacher (Emil Jannings). This is the sardonic cabaret film that put German talkies on the map and brought Dietrich to America. Sun 2 Nov 1.00pm / Cinema A |
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The Scarlet Empress 1934 All ages Josef von Sternberg’s version of Catherine the Great’s Life. The director himself characterized the film as “a relentless excursion into style” dominated by Marlene Dietrich and her brilliant fantasist of a fashion designer Travis Banton. Dietrich brings to the role what Judy Bloch calls her female machismo, and Sam Jaffe gives a worrisome performance as her bug-eyed royal husband. Sun 2 Nov 3.00pm / Cinema A |
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Scarlet Street 1945 All ages Inspired by Jean Renoir’s La Chienne, this is one of Frtiz Lang’s most visually intense and enigmatic Hollywood films. A homely, bourgeois Sunday painter (Edward G Robinson) rescues bewitching Joan Bennett from a fake assault. It’s a set-up, but here the victim turns dangerous and in the finale, works extraordinary variations on the classic German Street film formula. Fri 7 Nov 6.00pm / Cinema A |
