University lecture charts cinema in 60s

The sounds and sights of the era will accompany the launch of a new annual public lecture on the campus – the first James College Annual Lecture.

The theme is British Cinema in the 1960s and will be followed by a reception featuring music from the era, artefacts provided by York Museums Trust and a display of vintage scooters.

Prof Duncan Petrie, from the Department of Theatre Film and Television, will deliver the talk focusing on how the 1960s saw British cinema develop.

At the start of the decade, British cinema was in transition, two of its guiding lights, Ealing and London Films, having collapsed in 1958. Much of British entertainment would now be brought to the big screen by American money which helped keep afloat a UK industry already suffering from TV. The start of the decade was marked by socially conscious northern films such as 1960's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, starring emerging Hull-born actor Tom Courtenay, and This Sporting Life.

By the mid-sixties, Swinging London was back in the spotlight as the centre of the world's music and fashion with films such as Georgy Girl, before the industry started taking a more cynical look at the scene with films such as Darling and Blowup. After the renaissance of the 1960s, the 1970s was perceived as a much more dismal and fallow period for an industry reduced to making cheap sex comedies and turning successful TV shows into big screen flops.

Provost of James College Dr Neil Lunt said: "James College was named after the first Vice-Chancellor, Lord Eric James who established the university during a time of great social and political change. It seemed fitting to select a first topic that matched the promise and turbulence of the 1960s."

The lecture – British Cinema and The Swinging Sixties – next Wednesday, will start at 6.15pm in Room P/X001 in the Department of Physics.

Admission is by free ticket available from

www.york.ac.uk/tickets, public [email protected], or by calling 01904 432622. For information visit http://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/events