You may have already been to see the intriguing mannequins on display in Silent Partners, which offers a fascinating – and sometimes rather creepy – insight into the way artists used lay figures to create masterpieces. Still, lifeless, yet strangely like us, artist’s dummies hold a magical fascination which these two films explore.
First up at 3pm on 18 January, take your seats for Vivement le Cinema, Jérôme Prieur’s 2011 documentary on the ‘pre-history’ of modern cinema. Discover how pioneers of optical toys and photographic studies influenced early film, followed by a Q&A with Jérôme Prieur himself and Marta Braun, professor in the history of photography and film, Ryerson University, Toronto. Showing at Emmanuel College, Queen’s Building Theatre. £5.
Next up is 2011’s Hugo, Martin Scorsese’s beautiful Oscar-nominated picture about a boy, an automaton and the wondrous days of early cinema in France. Living a hidden, solitary life above a railway station, Hugo (Asa Butterfield) is fixated on finding the last missing part of a golden figure which belonged to his late father.
Through the intelligent, imaginative Isabelle, he uncovers a deeper mystery which takes him back to the birth of cinema. This one-off screening on 18 January will follow a short animated film by Lizzy Hobbs, shot at the Fitzwilliam Museum. Starts 6pm, £11 for an adult ticket.