23-25 November 2018
This year’s festival is themed around Hitchcock and Cary Grant and is packed with screenings, talks and unique events in places relevant to Cary Grant’s life. Find out why Cary Grant was the only actor Hitchcock ever loved and how their enduring partnership resulted in some of the best cinema of all time. Explore some of his darker roles and learn about his troubled past. Full programme now on sale!
Friday 23 November 2018, 7pm
Join us for our opening night reception and special screening of the award-winning Becoming Cary Grant which takes place at UWE Glenside campus, nee Bristol Lunatic Asylum, where Cary Grant’s mother, Elsie Kingdon Leach was committed in February 1915. The screening will be followed by a Q&A panel discussion with director Mark Kidel, and a panel of experts.
Saturday 24 November 2018, 10am
Two illustrated talks exploring Cary Grant’s 20-year collaboration with Hitchcock which led to some of their best and most iconic work. Mark Glancy explores Cary Grant’s and Hitchcock’s archives, looking at the production history of Suspicion and Kathrina Glitre unpacks some of Grant’s darker performances that preceded their collaboration, followed by a Q&A panel discussion chaired by Matthew Sweet.
Saturday 24 November 2018, 11:30am
Joan Fontaine plays the repressed Lina McLaidlaw, a wealthy spinster who falls for Cary Grant’s charming but irresponsible playboy, Johnnie Aysgarth. Don’t miss this opportunity to see Hitchcock’s assured romantic thriller, and his first collaboration with Cary Grant, on the big screen, followed by Q&A discussion with experts Mark Glancy, Kathrina Glitre, chaired by Matthew Sweet.
Saturday 24 November 2018, 2-4pm
SOLD OUT! Join festival director Charlotte Crofts (Associate Professor, UWE Filmmaking) on this fascinating tour of Cary Grant’s Bristol. Born Archibald Leach in Bristol in 1904, Cary Grant went on to become one of Hollywood’s most debonair stars. This walking tour retraces Archie’s hometown haunts and uncovers Bristol’s hidden cinema history in the places where it actually happened.
Saturday 24 November, 4.30pm
Join us for afternoon tea and talks from David Brown, Tom Ryan and Michael Davis on Cary Grant’s Bristol connections and exciting new projects at the Avon Gorge Hotel, nee The Grand Clifton Spa, where Cary Grant used to stay on visits home to Bristol, but could never have dreamed of staying when he was Archibald Leach.
Saturday 24 November, 7.30pm
Watch the Hitchcock classic, North by Northwest, in the suitably starry setting of Bristol’s Planetarium. With a video welcome from Col Needham (founder and CEO of IMDb.com), who even after watching more than 10,000 films still rates North by Northwest as one of his all-time top 10 favourites and names Grant as his favourite film actor + an introduction from Matthew Sweet (presenter of BBC Radio’s Sound of Cinema).
Sunday 25 November, 10am
Cary Grant stars with Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains in this quintessential Hitchcock thriller. Grant plays a government agent tasked with persuading the daughter of a traitor (Bergman) to spy on her father’s Nazi friends hiding out in Rio. But is the courtship business or personal? And who will face the most danger when uranium smuggling is added to the mix? With an introductory talk by actor Paul McGann on why he so admires Cary Grant’s acting style.
Sunday 25 November 2018, 1pm
When hard-boiled newspaper editor Walter Burns (Cary Grant) learns that his ex-wife and former star reporter, Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell), is about to marry bland insurance-man and settle down to domestic bliss in Albany, he attempts to entice her back to report on one last salacious story. Sizzling chemistry and wise-cracking dialogue make this one of the funniest and fastest screwball comedies of all time. Part of the BFI Comedy Genius season with an introduction by Pamela Hutchinson.
Sunday 25 November, 3.30pm
Cary Grant stars as Leopold Dilg, an escapee wrongfully accused of arson and murder, who hides out in the home of his childhood sweetheart, Nora (Jean Arthur). But there’s a problem – she’s just rented the house to Professor Lightcap (Ronald Colman), who’s about to be nominated to the Supreme Court. As Leopold and Lightcap both start falling in love with Nora, they also strike up an unexpected friendship. With an introduction by Kathrina Glitre (UWE Film Studies).
Sunday 25 November 2018, 7pm
Cary Grant and Grace Kelly dazzle in Hitchcock’s classic romantic comedy thriller set on the French Riviera. With bubbly on arrival, live swing music and prizes for the best dressed vintage Hollywood style. Don’t miss the opportunity to catch this Hitchcock classic on the big screen at Trinity Community Arts Centre, just down the road from the Empire Theatre where young Archie used to work. Sizzling chemistry between Grant and Kelly, sumptuous costumes by Edith Head and the glamorous backdrop of Cannes.
Peek behind the scenes of the theatre where Cary worked back stage as schoolboy Archie Leach. Presented by a knowledgeable guide, the tour takes you around front of house, backstage, and includes history, shows, stars, gossip, ghost stories, and of course Cary Grant.
Sit back and explore the city of Archie’s birth – from the floating harbour that inspired him to travel, to the theatre where it all started – and sample the best that Bristol has to offer along the way, including Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s breathtaking suspension bridge (pictured above) and the SS Great Britain.