I’ve booked to go to this lecture by Sir Christopher Frayling this weekend. I get to see OUATITW on the big screen. Has anyone else booked? If so I’ll see you there! ;D
National Museum of Photography, Film & Television Bradford, Yorkshire, UK Sunday 18th September 2005
The 2005 Lumière Lecture will be delivered by historian, critic and award-winning broadcaster Professor Sir Christopher Frayling on The Cinema of Sergio Leone.
The Lecture, on Sunday 18 September, will begin at 7pm followed by a screening of Once Upon a Time in the West (TBC) at approx 8pm. Tickets are priced at £5 and £3.30 concessions (£4 and £2.30 for Friends of Film).
Christopher Frayling is the author of the critically acclaimed Faber & Faber book Sergio Leone: Something to Do With Death , which the Literary Review called “one of the best film biographies ever written�. His other books include Spaghetti Westerns , The Royal College of Art: 150 Years of Art and Design , Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula , The Art Pack (with Helen Frayling), Clint Eastwood and the BFI monograph on Things to Come .
He is Rector of the Royal College of Art in London, where he is also Professor of Cultural History. Christopher Frayling is well known for his writing and presenting of major television series such as The Art of Persuasion , The Face of Tutankhamun , Strange Landscape: The Illumination of the Middle Ages and Nightmare: The Birth of Horror , all of which were accompanied by best-selling books. Since 2004, he has been Chairman of Arts Council England.
I went to the lecture last Sunday with my 11 year old son. Prof Frayling gave a very interesting lecture, opening with “the trio” on the big screen from GBU. He talked about Sergio Leone’s early life and influences and details about SW production in the 60’s and 70’s. One interesting fact that he gave was from Lee Van Cleef’s widow who said that LVC lost the tip of his finger (as featured in numerous SW’s) when he was building a dolls house for their daughter! A fact that I hadn’t heard before.
The screening of OUATITW was good. It was nice to see it on the big screen. However for the DVD generation, the print was poor quality, very grainy and with background hiss - if you know what I mean, like a radio that is not tuned in.
Prof. Frayling gave a book signing half way through which gave us the opertunity to meet him. He came across as a very friendly man with a great passion for Spaghetti Westerns.
A great night all round for SW fans. I’d like to say thank you to Bradford Film Museum and to Professor Sir Christopher Frayling. Please, let’s have more like it in the future.
as I am typing this i am listening to his stuff on the FAFDM dvd, and i have to say he repeats himself a lot… but he’s very enthusiastic. i have yet to see his work on GBU, FFOD and OUATITW…
