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Clowning Glories, Screwball Women & a Comedy Film Gala
As we launch a new hunt for comedy film writers, BEV looks back through the archives to honour the women whose comic brillance lit up the screen, from the earliest days of cinema to Hollywood's golden era... See below for more info on Screwball Women and Clowning Glories: a whole series of special events with guest star comediennes and specially commissioned live music from leading women musicians.
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Star comediennes; Great films; Live music NFT 1
Jo Brand, Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson) and Michelle Gomez host a film-music-comedy extravaganza with riotous gems from cinema's earliest superstars and live music from cutting edge musicians Nikki Yeoh and Serafina Steer. An unmissable launch of BEV's hunt for the UK's new comedy filmmaking talent. |
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Clowning Glories: Women in Film Comedy Before 1930 BFI Southbank March 7-14. Click title above for programme. Women were highly active as directors during cinema’s first decades, and our celebration of women’s contribution to the development of film comedy includes the work of pioneering directors Alice Guy, Florence Turner and Dorothy Arzner. The retrospective also showcases the work of female writers, including the brilliantly acerbic Anita Loos, producers like Mary Pickford, and a wide range of inspired comediennes, from clowns to ‘It’ girls and feisty heroines. Celebrity introductions including Sally Phillips.
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Screwball Women: Comediennes in Classical Hollywood BFI Southbank throughout March The contribution of directors such as Lubitsch and Hawks to Hollywood comedy is undisputed, but the female protagonists of their comic masterpieces deserve more attention. This programme features some of the most brilliant comediennes to ever illuminate the screen, from the ever-sophisticated Claudette Colbert to ‘glacial goddess’ Katharine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, Mae West and others. Celebrity introductions including Maureen Lipman and Arabella Weir. |
Why is Birds Eye View focussing on comedy this year?
There are some who say that women tend to make certain kinds of movies: a bit weepy, a little earnest, kinda intense. We pondered this, and acknowledge that women have excelled at some beautifully crafted, emotionally complex movies. But we also look around at each other and spy some side-splittingly funny sorts. Daft, quick-witted, dry, dappy... So why not on film? Think of Hollywood's greatest comics and a blaze of boys come to mind – the brilliant Jack Black, the unstoppable Woody Allen, Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray… But who are the girls?
We thought, and looked, and started digging around in the dusty depths of the archives, and discovered that in in days gone by far more women were making the silver screen crackle with their comic brilliance. We're not quite sure what's happened. But we want things to change again. And so we're on the hunt for a new generation of comedy film writers, who can pen the characters we're craving. We've already got the likes of Meera Syal, Sally Phillips, Jessica Hynes, Jo Brand on side… So these retrospectives, celebrating the fabulously funny ladies from the beginning of cinema to the golden age of Hollywood, launch a new initiative for Birds Eye View: the BEV comedy film lab gets underway in 2008 – watch this space for a whole new era of girl-tastic giggles.