Another year, here comes our another exclusive report that you don’t get to read elsewhere. This year, however, we are proud to be a partner to present the 2024 edition of the British Film Masters Retrospective in Shanghai.
The annual masters season of British cinema is funded and organised by our partner in China, Shanghai Film Distribution and Exhibition Association and its Shanghai Art Film Federation. We have been supporting the season since the inception of our organisation.
Something we know well about this annual season is that, our Chinese friends have a very unique taste. Some of the films that they pick are even unheard of by British citizens. Unlike previous editions, what makes this year exciting is the inclusion of the latest British award-winning title The Zone of Interest (2023). We continue to be amazed by our friends in Shanghai, by their deep knowledge in the history and development of British cinema.
Most importantly, as we have shared many, many times before, is the enthusiasm that you can find among the audience. Tickets for the season went on sales on the 12 of August. Not surprisingly, some of the screenings were sold out within minutes.
This is how passionate the cinephiles are in this remarkable city, and most of them are young, below 30s.
Let’s take a look of the programme this year, presented by Shanghai.
We value our friendship dearly, but continue to feel ashamed about how we still cannot find any funding from the UK to support this British cinema focused initiative overseas. But at the same time, we feel extremely proud to be the longest supporter of this mission, in kind and spirit, as a partner in crime.
British Film Masters Retrospective 2024 Programme
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) 4K restoration
The Lavender Hill Mob is a 1951 British comedy film from Ealing Studios, written by T. E. B. Clarke, directed by Charles Crichton, starring Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway and featuring Sid James and Alfie Bass. The title refers to Lavender Hill, a street in Battersea, a district in London SW11, near to Clapham Junction railway station.
The British Film Institute ranked The Lavender Hill Mob the 17th greatest British film of all time. The original film was digitally restored and re-released to UK cinemas on 29 July 2011 to celebrate its 60th anniversary. It is one of fifteen films listed in the category “Art” on the Vatican film list.
The Innocents (1961)
The Innocents is a 1961 gothic psychological horror film directed and produced by Jack Clayton, and starring Deborah Kerr, Michael Redgrave, and Megs Jenkins. Based on the 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw by the American novelist Henry James, the screenplay was adapted by William Archibald and Truman Capote, who used Archibald’s own 1950 stage play—also titled The Innocents—as a primary source text. Its plot follows a governess who watches over two children and comes to fear that their large estate is haunted by ghosts and that the children are being possessed.
The Shinning (1980) 4K restoration
Sold out within a minute.
The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick and co-written with novelist Diane Johnson. It is based on Stephen King’s 1977 novel of the same name and stars Jack Nicholson, Danny Lloyd, Shelley Duvall, and Scatman Crothers.
Brazil (1985)
Brazil is a 1985 dystopian science-fiction black comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard. The film stars Jonathan Pryce and features Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, and Ian Holm.
The Adventure of Baron Munchausen (1988)
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a 1988 fantasy adventure film co-written and directed by Terry Gilliam, starring John Neville, Eric Idle, Sarah Polley, Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman, Jonathan Pryce and Valentina Cortese. An international co-production of the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany, the film is based on the tall tales of the 18th-century German nobleman, Baron Munchausen, and his wartime exploits against the Ottoman Empire.
My Left Foot (1989)
My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown is a 1989 biographical comedy-drama film directed by Jim Sheridan (in his director debut) adapted by Sheridan and Shane Connaughton from the 1954 memoir by Christy Brown. A co-production of Ireland and the United Kingdom, it stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Brown, an Irish man born with cerebral palsy, who could control only his left foot. Brown grew up in a poor working-class family, and became a writer and artist.[6] Brenda Fricker, Ray McAnally, Hugh O’Conor, Fiona Shaw, and Cyril Cusack are featured in supporting roles.
Billy Elliot (2000)
Billy Elliot is a 2000 British coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Lee Hall. Set in County Durham in North East England during the 1984–1985 miners’ strike, the film is about a working-class boy who has a passion for ballet. His father objects, based on negative stereotypes of male ballet dancers. The film stars Jamie Bell as 11-year-old Billy, Gary Lewis as his father, Jamie Draven as Billy’s older brother, and Julie Walters as his ballet teacher.
The Zone of Interest (2023)
The Zone of Interest is a 2023 historical drama film written and directed by Jonathan Glazer, co-produced among the United Kingdom, the United States, and Poland. Loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, the film focuses on the life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig, who live with their family in a home in the “Zone of Interest” next to the concentration camp. Christian Friedel stars as Rudolf Höss alongside Sandra Hüller as Hedwig Höss.
Development of the film began in 2014 around the publication of the Amis novel, which is itself based partially on real events. Glazer opted to tell the story of the Hösses rather than the characters they inspired and conducted extensive research into the family, as he sought to make a film that demystifies the perpetrators of the Holocaust as “mythologically evil”. The project was formally announced in 2019, with A24 confirmed to distribute the film. Filming took place primarily around the Auschwitz concentration camp in summer 2021. Additional shots were taken in Jelenia Góra in January 2022.
The Zone of Interest premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 19 May 2023 and was theatrically released in the United States on 15 December 2023. The film received critical acclaim and grossed over $52 million with a $15 million budget. Among its accolades, The Zone of Interest received five nominations (including Best Picture) at the 96th Academy Awards, winning two: Best International Feature (the first for a non-English British film) and Best Sound. The film also won the Grand Prix at Cannes and three British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film Not in the English Language; received three nominations at the Golden Globe Awards; and was named one of the top five international films of 2023 by the National Board of Review.
