30 Silver Street, Reading, RG1 2ST

Stand up… opera?

Damien's picture

Film buffs are in for a treat with a restored version of a Powell and Pressburger classic.

This month’s Stand Up Cinema brings Powell and Pressburger’s film adaptation of The Tales of Hoffman to the centre. Their filmed version of Offenbach's opera turned British cinema on its head and has recently been reissued with a new print, restored by Powell’s widow Thelma Schoonmacher – a gifted film editor in her own right, famed for her work with current husband Martin Scorsese.

This new print brings the almost hallucinatory imagery to life once again, as Robert Rounseville’s Hoffmann, regales tavern drinkers with tales of his three former loves: Olympia, Giulietta and Antonia – an automaton, a courtesan and an invalid, three different manifestations of love’s dangerous, seductive power.

The Guardian calls it a “hothouse flower of pure orchidaceous strangeness, enclosed in the studio’s artificial universe, fusing cinema, opera and ballet. It is sensual, macabre, dreamlike and enigmatic”, while Empire names it “The best-ever filmed opera” and admires “special effects techniques Georges Méliès would have understood, but in ravishing Technicolor, with stylised sets and costumes, and amazingly physical performances”.  And if that’s not enough, Scorsese himself has named it one of his biggest influences, too.

For your chance to see this beautifully-crafted classic – as well as short films from local film-makers – head down to the Rising Sun this Friday evening from 7:30pm.

Latest news

Ollie's picture

Refugee Dressmaking Fundraiser

Next week is Refugee Week! In advance to this, we at The Rising Sun are launching our Refugee Dressmaking Campaign!

Ollie's picture

VOLUNTEER CALL OUT: Help us run our one-day festival!

Here Comes The Sun is the biggest event of the year for the Rising Sun Arts Centre and one of its key fundraising events to help keep the place going.
Ollie's picture

u slip into: call for artists

Double Okay are looking for queer experimental artwork!!

Ollie's picture

Social Media Volunteer Callout

We're looking for volunteers to join our marketing team and give 2 hours per week to help us shout about what we do.

 

@risingsunarts