Marlene Dietrich

Kent MOMI presents a lineup of unforgettable women—rebels, lovers, warriors, and icons—who challenge expectations, redefine power, and rewrite their own myths. From sultry femme fatales to cross-dressing queens, these films celebrate the electrifying presence of women who refuse to be tamed.

25 April: Morocco (USA 1930, dir. Joseph von Sternberg)

Marlene Dietrich steps onto the screen in a tuxedo, tips her hat, and dares the world to look away. As a cabaret singer in a foreign land, she defies convention, seducing both men and women with her charm and using desire as both a weapon and a shield in this intoxicating tale of love, longing, and power.

2 May: Die Bergkatze (The Wildcat) (Germany 1921, dir. Ernst Lubitsch)

Sex symbol of her time and a masterful actress, Polish star Pola Negri leads an all-out comedic rebellion as Rischka, a fearless female bandit in Lubitsch's most whimsical and visually extravagant German film. With its surreal set designs and absurd humour, this silent-era gem is a wild ride through a world where a woman with a pistol and a wicked grin holds all the power.

9 May: Queen Christina (USA 1933, dir. Rouben Mamoulian) –

Greta Garbo commands the screen as Sweden's legendary queen, a ruler torn between duty and passion. Often read as queer-coded, this lush historical drama explores power, passion, and the intoxicating freedom of living on one's own terms.

16 May: Bombshell (USA 1933, dir. Victor Fleming)

Jean Harlow takes on Hollywood—and wins. Playing a glamorous actress hounded by the press, greedy managers, and men who want to control her, Harlow shines in this fast-paced satire that exposes the tension between a woman's public persona and private desires.

23 May: Hamlet (Germany 1921, dir. Svend Gade, Heinz Schall) –

Asta Nielsen, the silent screen's first true international star, brings extraordinary depth and nuance to this reimagining of Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which the Danish prince is actually a woman disguised as a man. At the height of her fame, Nielsen was celebrated for her astonishing ability to communicate emotion without dialogue. Film theorist Béla Balázs famously praised her "sign language of eroticism" and incredibly expressive eyes that could convey an entire monologue in a glance. That power is on full display here, as she turns Hamlet's existential turmoil into a profoundly personal reckoning with gender, repression, and forbidden love.

30 May: The Lady from Shanghai (USA 1947, dir. Orson Welles)

Known as the ultimate screen siren after Gilda (1946), Rita Hayworth stunned audiences when she dyed her iconic red hair platinum, cut it short and took on this darker, more ambiguous role.

FOR MORE DETAILS AND TICKETS, HEAD OVER TO OUR EVENTS PAGES

Spring is in the air once again and the museum reopened its doors this weekend (April 5), returning to our usual schedule of Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays, 11am-5pm.

 The collection has been thoroughly checked over, the new storerooms and work room shelved and filled, the cabinets polished, the bookshop amply stocked, and the garden brought to a pitch of Spring perfection. Please come to see what's new!

  Our promised exhibition on Production Design has been delayed -- but for the happiest of reasons, to allow us to incorporate both some unexpected and wonderful loans and highlights of the Tony Rimmington collection, donated by his sister Jean Chase.  (above,  Rimmington during the filming of A Bridge Too Far.) 

The exhibition will go ahead a little later in the year. In the meantime, the next couple of months really will be the last opportunity to catch our popular Ealing exhibition in its entirety.

The Ealing Exhibition now includes an audio tour of key Ealing posters, written by the Curator, and read by some of Deal's finest actors and voices.  Guy Scantlebury provides a commentary on The Cruel Sea, which can be accessed by scanning a QR code with your smart phone.

What's new also includes our consolidated exhibition, "Peeping v. Projecting", bringing together peepshow images of far-flung and exotic places, designed for private viewing, in a box, and magic-lantern "Dissolving Views", designed for large-scale projection to public audiences. See original views in an authentic replica of an 18th-century peepshow! No other museum in Britain brings you as close to the visual pleasures of the pre-cinema era.  

Screenings return, with a 6-week series curated by Dr. Natasha: "Out of the Past -- Women, Myth, Power and Desire".  Some favourites, in unfamiliar films, and some complete revelations. Watch this space, or the Events page of our website.  Any guesses as to the image above..?

What's new also includes a unique resource: our comprehensive moving-image survey of the entire history of World War One on Film, from the first documentaries to the latest blockbusters, created over several years, with help from numerous brilliant and generous  interns and volunteers. Nothing like this has been seen in Britain or elsewhere: it's a Kent MOMI special. 

A NOTE ON YEARLY TICKETS

Tickets for entry remain valid for a year, and all tickets previously purchased will be honoured to account for the period of the museum's closure.

Finally, to keep pace with the times and keep the lights on, we have been obliged to raise the price of a standard adult ticket to £7.50. 

Concessions, over 65s and children under 16 stay at £6 and £4, respectively.

Kent MOMI is pleased to announce a new eight week programme of screenings at the museum, ‘CINEMA OF DESIRE’

The screenings will run every Friday evening from 16th august to 4th october.

Please see the events section for full details.

'Winter Warmers' - a five week pre-Christmas season of Silent Comedy screenings begins Friday 17th November

View Screenings and book seats online

In celebration of Kent MOMI’s new Buster Keaton mural, and in the spirit of the wider season of celebration, we present Five Weeks of Silent Comedy delights in the run-up to Christmas.

We are still sourcing some hard-to-find titles, but the programme is as follows:

Friday 17th November.  Before and Becoming the Tramp.  Shorts by the Frenchman Max Linder (Chaplin’s “ Professor”), Mack Sennett and the Keystone Corp., “Fatty” Arbuckle”, and Charlie Chaplin – up to and including the “birth” of the Tramp, in 1914. 

Friday 24th November.  Chaplin – Triumph of the Tramp.  Three great films, exhibiting all sides of the Tramp persona:  the one-reelers The Pawnshop and Easy Street (both 1916) and Chaplin’s resplendent first feature, “Six Reels of Joy”, The Kid (1921). 

Friday 1st December.  Rival Clowns and Other Chaplins.  Chaplin impersonators of 1916-18, collaborators, cartoon rivals, and inheritors, like the gentle and sometimes great Harry Langdon, in his Chaplinesque but very different Three’s a Crowd (1927). 

Friday 8th December.  Harold Lloyd: American Everyman.  He found the spectacles, then found the character: the character-condensing short film Never Weaken (1921) and Lloyd’s most daring high-wire act, Safety Last! (1923).    

Friday 15th December.  The Genius of Buster Keaton. Shorts, including One Week (1920), the brilliant but less-known short feature Seven Chances (1925), and a surprise or two. 

Please Note:

First come, first served with a limited capacity of 30 places.

Doors open for drinks at 5.30pm. Treats include mulled wine and hot punches, classic cocktails by Dr. Natasha, and small seasonal hot pastries.

 Screenings will average 1 hour 50 minutes. 

All films commence at 6.30pm sharp with a brief introduction.

Screenings are FREE to Kent MOMI yearly ticket holders, but a £5 donation is suggested, to help us keep the lights on.

Museum tickets can be bought at the door, and are valid for a year.

View Screenings & Book Seats Online

Kent MOMI is delighted to announce a new eight-week season of summer movies, every Friday evening from 4th August to 22nd September inclusive. Come and celebrate cinema, summer and the museum’s re-opening!

The weather might not look festive right now, but we have prepared a season of summer-themed films that will bring on a holiday mood.  Come and travel with us across the world (and in time) with eight films selected by, and paired with film-themed cocktails by, Dr. Natasha.

Our opening feature is Billy Wilder’s naughty-but-nice take on one hot summer in Manhattan – and one man’s mid-life crisis: The Seven Year Itch (1955, USA, 105mins).  A middle-aged husband (Tom Ewell, in confession-to-camera mode), left dangerously alone in the steaming-hot city, while his wife and son flee to the country, meets the glamorous young woman who has sub-let the apartment upstairs (Marilyn Monroe in full splendid flight as comedienne, and sporting, in the scene that ended her marriage, the white halter-neck dress that has been voted the most iconic screen costume of all time).  As for the drink of the night … “I’m perfectly capable of fixing my own breakfast,” says Ewell’s character.  “As a matter of fact, I had a peanut butter sandwich and two whisky sours.”

Hm … what inspiration is that?