09 December 2012
Newsdesk
On Sunday 16th December, the flicker club presents a special festive screening of the Irving Berlin film classic ' White Christmas' starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye at the wonderful Hampstead Theatre, with a surprise special guest reading as a prelude to the film.
the flicker club is a bespoke, intimate and cinematic experience, with a host to welcome you, a story read to you and a film to captivate you. the flicker club screens films adapted from novels and short stories but will happily bend the rules for a screen classic. Here the inspiration comes from one of the most beloved and enduring songs of all time, Irving Berlin's 'White Christmas'
On a hot Californian night in 1940, the legendary composer and lyricist, Irving Berlin, called out to his secretary, "Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I've ever written — heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody's ever written!"
Not a modest claim it's true but when you consider that, according to the Guinness Book of Records, the version sung by Bing Crosby is the best selling single of all time, he had a point.
The 1954 film inspired by the song was the top grossing film of that year and has been a perennial favourite ever since.
Directed by Michael (Casablanca) Curtiz, 'White Christmas' is a feel good festive treat to give us all a warm glow in the bleak mid winter.
In true tradition, the flicker club will pay homage to the written word by inviting a special surprise guest who will read to you before the Christmas classic.. 'The Night Before Christmas'. It is this anonymous 19th Century poem that is responsible for our conception of Santa Clause or Father Christmas. And with previous Christmas guests including John Simm, Tom Hollander and Bill Nighy you can be sure the surprise will be a good one.
So, are you stting comfortably..
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;'
As its Christmas you will not leave empty handed. As well as the flicker club goody bag there will be a secret santa sack. Bring a wrapped copy of a book you'd like to share and you will leave with a new one...
