Slapstick Festical 2016

Slapstick Festival 2016

Season

Please note : this season finished in Jan 2016

Slapstick - the UK’s biggest festival of vintage screen comedy - returns to Watershed for it’s twelfth edition with an exciting programme celebrating the very best in silent, screwball and classic comedy.

Highlights this year here at Watershed include a preview of the latest silent comedies to be rediscovered and restored; a look at what Laurel and Hardy persuaded Mancunian Films to do; screwball fun with Bristol-born Cary Grant; a round-up of the best comedy Westerns and chances to enjoy film and TV nostalgia with Tim Brooke-Taylor, Denise Coffey, members of the Double Deckers, Graeme Garden, Aimi MacDonald, Bill Oddie and Lucy Porter. What better way to start the year off and beat those winter blues!

Check out slapstick.org.uk for the very latest festival news, and for details of what’s happening at venues across the city Wed 20 - Mon 25 Jan including Arnolfini, St George’s and Colston Hall.

Festival Pass: Attend all Watershed and Arnolfini events for just £100.00 full / £75.00 concessions. Please call Watershed Box Office on 0117 927 5100 for more details on purchasing the pass.


Previous screenings & events in this season

Here Come the Double Deckers: Re-united!
Please note: This event took place in Jan 2016
Event

‘Come on board’ for the ride of your life and meet members of the original cast of The Double Deckers!

Laurel & Hardy
Please note: This was screened in Jan 2016
Film

A rib-tickling selection of Stan & Ollie shorts hand picked and introduced by Laurel and Hardy admirer Goodie Bill Oddie.

Bill Oddie's Saturday Banana
Please note: This event took place in Jan 2016
Event

Bill Oddie introduces highlights and extracts from popular slapstick children’s television programmes from the 1960s and early 70s. Bill hosted the popular children’s TV programme Saturday Banana in the late 70s whilst being one third of comedy legend trio The Goodies.

At Last the 1948 Revisited
Please note: This event took place in Jan 2016
Event

What At Last the 1948 Show began the Monty Python and The Goodies would finish in their own inimitable way. Four 'lost' episodes of the show have recently been recovered from the David Frost Collection. Plus Q&A with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Aimi MacDonald.

Chaplin's The Kid: The Inside Story

classified PG Slapstick
Chaplin's The Kid: The Inside Story
Please note: This was screened in Jan 2016
Film

Chaplin authority David Robinson offers fresh insights on Chaplin’s The Kid - presented later this evening with live performance of Chaplin’s own musical score

Douglas Fairbanks in Wild and Woolly
Please note: This was screened in Jan 2016
Film

Starring the King of Hollywood, Douglas Fairbanks, Wild and Woolly is one of the best action packed comedy Westerns of the silent era. Jeff is a rich Easterner who always wanted to live in the Wild West.

Anita Loos: Hollywood Pioneer

classified PG Slapstick
Anita Loos: Hollywood Pioneer
Please note: This was screened in Jan 2016
Film

Lucy Porter talks about the fascinating life of Anita Loos - one of early Hollywood's most talented and prolific screenwriters.

Mack Sennett: King of Comedy

classified U Slapstick
Mack Sennett: King of Comedy
Please note: This was screened in Jan 2016
Film

A selection of his best comedies shorts from the 1910s and 1920s featuring performers from the Keystone stable including Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Roscoe Arbuckle.

Laura La Plante: Home James

classified PG Slapstick
Laura La Plante: Home James
Please note: This was screened in Jan 2016
Film

This is a unique chance to see this rare silent comedy from Kevin Brownlow’s own collection.

Chicago

classified PG Slapstick
Chicago
Please note: This was screened in Jan 2016
Film

Starring Phyllis Haver, in a brilliantly understated comic appearance, this is the original version of the subsequent global musical and Hollywood film Chicago. With live musical accompaniment.

Screwball Comedies: Cary Grant The Awful Truth
Please note: This was screened in Jan 2016
Film

Bristol’s legendary Cary Grant teams with screwball comedy’s most underrated actress, Irene Dunne, in the film that helped in break through as a romantic lead. Introduced by comedian Lucy Porter.

Jollywood! The Golden Age of Mancunian Films
Please note: This event took place in Jan 2016
Event

Performer Mike Livesley (Sir Henry at Rawlinson End/Bonzo Dog-Doo-Dah Band) takes us on whistlestop charabanc ride through the almost mythical world of Mancunian Film studio known affectionately as ‘Jollywood’.

Silent Comedy Westerns
Please note: This event took place in Jan 2016
Event

Oscar® winning director and film historian Kevin Brownlow shares some of his favourite and lesser known Western comedy shorts, with impersonations of famous stars, and gags that mock the best clichés of the genre.

Slapstick International: Ménage à Trois
Please note: This was screened in Jan 2016
Film

Originally billed as a satire and comedy, this film was controversial at the time of its release (1927) in the Soviet Union, due to its focus on human relationships and disregard of state and party.

Rediscovered and Restored

classified PG Slapstick
Rediscovered and Restored
Please note: This was screened in Jan 2016
Film

A renowned film archivist and historian, and co-founder of Lobster Films, Serge Bromberg has helped restore hundreds of rare silent films and here he presents their most recent discoveries.

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