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The Changing Face of the North West: Modernist Dreams and Utopias #3 Manchester as a mythical city 24th January 2013 in Manchester
The Changing Face of the North West: Modernist Dreams and Utopias #3 Manchester as a mythical city 24th January 2013
Manchester as a mythical city
24th January 2013
Professor Steve Hawley, Manchester School of Art
Some cities are mythical, and some are not. Berlin is, and Manchester is, in the way that Sheffield and Birmingham are not. But what makes a city into myth? Manchester is examined through three works of fiction, the 1959 British film noir Hell is a City (filmed on location around Piccadilly), W.G Sebald’s 1993 novel The Emigrants, and Michel Butors’ 1956 novel L’emploi du Temps. The two novels are by outsiders, a Frenchman who comes here in the 1950s and a German who comes in the 1960s, (both incidentally to work at Manchester University). The Manchester from these three sources is very different from cool/music/Hacienda Manchester. It is a soot blackened dystopia, a place of violence (in the case of the film), a shell; a Hell.
6.30pm Talk and film showing by Professor Steve Hawley, Manchester School of Art
Come early and get a drink or snack from the Gallery Cafe, to enjoy during the film showing.
Each event is free, but pre-registration is essential as places are strictly limited. A limited number of places will also be available at 6pm on the day, on a first come first served basis.
The Manchester Modernist Society, the North West Film Archive and Manchester Metropolitan University Geography are pleased to bring to Manchester Art Gallery a curated programme of archive films charting the transformation of the North West landscape through the aspirations of 20th Century dreamers, citizens and planners.
Every third Thursday of the month we present a film screening from 6.30pm in the City Art Gallery Lecture Theatre on Mosley Street, central Manchester. A specialist presenter introduces each screening, followed by informal questions and answers.
Categories: Film
