Kubrick’s pitch-black 1964 satire continues to a have a frightening resonance today, echoing Marx’s phrase “first as a tragedy, then as a farce”, the implication being that history does not learn from its mistakes. Famously starring Peter Sellers in three roles, “… arguably [his] finest hour on screen, with his bravura multi-personality performance, playing Mandrake and also the insidiously bland mandarin President Merkin Muffley, and, most egregiously of all, the ex-Nazi scientist inspired by the V-2 rocket scientist Wernher von Braun.” [Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 2019]
It's also worth drawing your attention to production designer Ken Adam’s spectacular “war room” set which was so compelling it became a template in popular imagination for what a such a thing would look like. When Ronald Reagan, as newly elected US president, was given a tour of the Pentagon by his chief of staff in 1981, he is said to have asked: “But where is the war room?”
“Mr President,” came the reply, “there isn’t one.”
📽️ Doors open 5.30, for drinks, nibbles & classic cocktails.
📽️ Films start 6.30 with a brief introduction from the curators.
📽️ Entry is free with a yearly ticket, although we suggest a small donation of £5 per person to help keep the lights on. Yearly tickets can be purchased on the door (£7.50 adult / £6.00 concessions).
📽️ If you buy tickets and are subsequently unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can give your seat(s) to someone else.