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ADRIAN WOOTTON ILLUSTRATED FILM TALKS
Presenting acclaimed illustrated film culture and literary lectures that have travelled the globe from Rome to New York, film culture tsar Adrian Wootton’s Australian talks series is exclusive to Melbourne thanks to MIFF 37ºSouth Market & Accelerator with The Wheeler Centre. A former Director of the London Film Festival, British Film Institute and the UK’s National Film Theatre, Wootton is presently Film London’s Chief Executive, Director of crime and mystery festival Crime Scene, and a program advisor to the London Film Festival, Venice Film Festival and Italy’s Courmayeur Noir Fest. Wootton has also served as BFI Head of Exhibition, Director of Nottingham’s Broadway Media Centre and Director of the Bradford Playhouse. He contributes articles on screen culture to the Guardian and Sight & Sound, regularly broadcasts and reviews films on BBC Radio and is working on several book projects.
Chandleresque: Raymond Chandler on Screen
Monday 25 July, 10.45am – 12.15pm
Just more than 50 years after his death, legendary American crime scribe Raymond Chandler, whose seven completed novels featuring laconic detective Phillip Marlowe (including The Big Sleep, The Lady in the Lake, Farewell My Lovely and The Long Goodbye), remains a profound influence on crime fiction and crime movies. Not only were all of his novels adapted for the screen, but Chandler himself became a screenwriter of note, working with Billy Wilder on 1944’s Double Indemnity, in which he had a small acting cameo and with Alfred Hitchcock on Strangers on a Train. Wootton’s lecture gives insights into the development of Chandler’s writing and his fascination with the crime genre, an overview of reclusive life in the UK and USA, and his adventures in Hollywood and the many movies he worked on.
Celluloid Sinatra
Monday 25 July, 4.15pm – 5.45pm
Wootton, a long-time Frank Sinatra admirer, gives an overview of Sinatra’s 60-plus years in showbiz and the more than 50 films in which he appeared, ranging from classic musicals to his Oscar-winning performance in From Here to Eternity, interspersed with plenty of anecdotes and affectionate stories.
King on Screen: Elvis in the Movies
Tuesday 26 July, 2.15pm – 3.45pm
Wootton, an Elivis aficionado who was intimately involved in curating film and TV celebrations of Elivis’ Hollywood career for the BFI and Turner Classic Movies, recounts the history of Elvis Presley’s extensive career on the silver screen.
Wootton Talk: Movie tie-in (Elvis) Tuesday 26 July, 4pm – 5.45pm
VIVA LAS VEGAS (1964) 85 min
Graham Greene on Screen
Wednesday 27 July, 10am – 11.40am
Best known as one of the greatest English novelists of the 20th Century, penning such masterpieces as Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory, The End of the Affair, Burnt Out Case and The Honorary Consul, as well as short stories, noted plays and children’s book, Graham Greene’s contribution to cinema is less well known. On the 20th anniversary of Greene’s death, Wootton, author of the forthcoming The Films of Graham Greene, gives an illustrated lecture highlighting Green’s long and rich relationship with the cinema – from his time as a film critic through scriptwriting to adaptations of his books and even acting.
Wootton Talk: Movie tie-in (Greene) Wednesday 27 July, 12pm – 1.45pm
THE THIRD MAN (1949) 104 min
Howard Hawks: An Introduction
Thursday 28 July, 10am – 11.30am
Wootton, who was one of the producers of the BBC/BFI documentary Howard Hawks: American Artist, chronicles the fascinating life and range of work from one of America’s most respected directors. A born storyteller, Hawks worked his way up from assistant prop man to become a screenwriter, director and producer in the silent movie era and went on to become one of the most commercially successful independent directors of the age. He was responsible for movies such as The Big Sleep, Scarface, Gentlemen Prefer Blonds and the John Wayne classic Rio Bravo.
Wootton Talk: Movie tie-in (Hawks & Chandler) Thursday 28 July, 11.45am – 1.40pm
THE BIG SLEEP (1946) 114mins
