Celebrating Film Studies at 25 and Hitchcock at 125
On 13th August, as part of its month-long Sheffield Film Festival, the Showroom Cinema will present a special event to mark 25 years of partnership with Sheffield Hallam University. Since October 1998, the university and the Showroom have jointly run extra-mural evening classes in Film Studies, with three courses offered each year. We lost a year to Covid, hence this belated celebration.
The event takes us back to our beginnings: the subject of the first course was Alfred Hitchcock, the first film shown on it was the 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, and the first tutor was the present author. All three are now back for a one-off talk and screening, which also serve as a prelude to the latest season of courses, set to begin in the autumn.
There’s more: that first course in 1998 was entitled ‘Hitchcock: the 100th Anniversary Edition’, which was slightly premature in that the following year marked the director’s centenary – we wanted to get in first with the tributes! This time, we’re spot on: 13th August is the 125th anniversary of Hitchcock’s birth, so this screening is an ideal way to commemorate his achievement.
The Man Who Knew Too Much, itself now exactly 90 years old, was the film that established Hitchcock’s reputation as a maker of stylish thrillers, the genre in which he would specialise for the rest of his career. It’s also the only one of his 53 features that Hitchcock personally remade. The better-known, more-often-revived 1956 version starred James Stewart and Doris Day, but many critics prefer this original version, which includes the first English-language performance by the great Hungarian actor Peter Lorre.
The Film Studies evening classes have proven a highly popular attraction at the Showroom over the last quarter-century and more. They follow a regular pattern: four films, shown fortnightly, are interspersed with four lecture sessions. The latter are actually more interactive than the word ‘lecture’ implies, as the classes are an opportunity to have your say about the previous week’s film and to engage with the tutor over the topic. Some of our regular ‘students’ have been coming to the classes from the start, but each new subject attracts fresh interest, so if you haven’t been to one before, it’s never too late to start!
Watch: Sheffield Film Festival x Film Studies: The Man Who Knew Too Much at 6.30pm on Tuesday, 13th August at Showroom Cinema. /sfffilmstudies
