Muriel Box: Simon & Laura

Muriel Box: Simon & Laura

classified PG

Cinema Innovators

Film

Please note: This was screened in July 2019

Director
Muriel Box
Cast
Peter Finch, Kay Kendall, Muriel Pavlow
Details
87 mins, 1955, UK
Primary language
English

A comic melodrama about a star couple of the stage and screen who attempt to revive their ailing careers (and marriage) by starring in their own show on TV (considered by their stage and screen peers as a lesser form of acting), Simon and Laura anticipates reality TV by half a century, and spoofs the BBC with tongue-in-cheek humour.

Playing out in a hilarious and heart-warming series of circumstances, director Muriel Box demystifies the illusion of television and stardom, and even turns the camera on the audience who, to the shock of the producers and TV executives, don’t react as expected.

Box was one of Britain's foremost women filmmakers of the 1950s and '60s, but her films have largely been forgotten by the history books. Cinema Rediscovered is bringing her to the fore once again, showcasing one of her most critically acclaimed films, and the only one she made in glorious VistaVision.


× Close

Help us make our website work better for you

We use Google Analytics to gather information on how our website is used. This information helps us to make changes to our website that improve the usefulness and overall experience for our visitors. If you would like to help us to make continuous improvements to our website, please allow us to set "first-party" cookies (only readable by us) so that we can distinguish visitors and gain greater insights.

Allow cookies for analytics Deny cookies for analytics