On the weekend of 11-13th February 1998 The North West Group of the British Federation of Film Societies presented a weekend with Neil Sinyard Head of the English Department, University of Hull at The Edenfield Country House Hotel, Lytham.
It was a full house for the weekend, with the comfortable facilities of the hotel and unseasonably fine weather making it a relaxing as well as informative one. Armed with a sheaf of helpful notes and credits provided by the organiser, Michael Lockwood, people were eager for the start on Friday evening.
Neil is one of the most popular lecturers for the group as well as a prolific author. In his quiet, concise, informative style he made the point that most literary biographers and analysts of Graham Greene ignore his years as a film critic in which he reviewed hundreds of films. Often he interpolated his own views in the guise of a review and his characteristic themes and obsessions were sometimes apparent even then. He was often a fierce critic prepared to buck the trends ... an implication in one of his reviews that not all of Shirley Temple's appeal was innocent brought about a libel suit that helped end one magazine. His strong antipathy to Alfred Hitchcock's work made him later prevent the master from making a film based on Our Man In Havana. On the other hand his sharp remarks about Alexander Korda's films caused Korda to invite him to dinner, at which he was asked for a film idea and began a series of memorable collaborations with Korda's studios.
| The screenings on 16mm and projection video covered films of which Greene approved and some he did not. The best known are, of course, Brighton Rock with a young Richard Attenborough, The Third Man with Orson Welles's eight minutes of screen time stealing the show and the gentle comedy/thriller Our Man In Havana where Alec Guinness gets caught up in MI6 machinations. | |
One of Greene's own favourites is Fallen Idol in which his frequent themes of lying and deceit are neatly tied up in a well wrought , often funny and touching, film. The audience had strong reactions to Went The Day Well which were voiced when Mr. Sinyard invited comment on why it should have been thought faintly seditious in its day.
Mr. Sinyard pointed out how often the villain of a Greene piece can be identified by the name of Carter (apparently the result of a schoolboy feud) and how indigestion is a sure sign of moral corruption in the Greene works.
As usual the only complaint was lack of time to fully discuss each film but resounding applause for Neil Sinyard showed how much the audience had enjoyed his talks.
- Dave Watterson