[SkateDC] Feeling Dickensian? Well, Keep A Stiff Upper Lip[Off Topic]

[George Marinkovich]

Today (Sunday, 12/21/08), the official start of  winter, there are two gems on offer at the warm and cozy NGA:

This Happy Breed

December 21 at  2:00PM
	
East Building Concourse, Large Auditorium








Noël Coward constructed a script from his own play for Lean's first
solo directing endeavor. Set in a suburban household in Clapham during
the interwar years, This Happy Breed is a poignant homage to all the endearing family rituals deeply threatened during wartime. (1944, 35 mm, 110 minutes)






Great Expectations

December 21 at  4:30PM
	
East Building Concourse, Large Auditorium








Professing to take a backseat to Dickens, Lean took his cues from
the novelist's bold renderings for the film's casting and sets. The
Gothic atmosphere, vivid performances from John Mills, Valerie Hobson,
and Alec Guinness among others, and exemplary editing and
cinematography ensure Great Expectations' survival as "the greatest of all Dickens' films" (Roger Ebert). (1946, 35 mm, 118 minutes)
http://www.nga.gov/programs/film/davidlean.shtm#happybreed
The films have been restored to their original luster and will be shown in glorious black and white.

As always, all NGA films are FREE and are screened in the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in the large auditorium located on the concourse level (which I like to think of as the basement).
This is part of an ongoing David Lean Festival:
"The early films of Sir David Lean (1908–1991) have been restored for
his centennial by the British Film Institute National Archive, Granada
International, and Studio Canal. Although Lean's later 70 mm epics are
generally better known, these films of the 1940s are so elegant and
alive, so well
written and constructed that, penned critic David Thomson, "they seem
in love with the screen's power.""






Upcoming classics:  "Oliver Twist" and "Brief Encounter" (see link above for details)

Happy 100th, Sir David!

Cheers,
George