It sounded the perfect set-up for a film buff/museum nut: the
screening, earlier this evening, of the 1946 British film ‘Caesar and
Cleopatra’ starring Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh, presented in the
surroundings of The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology.
Advertised as a free event, I only just managed to acquire a ticket by the skin
of my teeth. When booking, the Eventbrite website showed that only 3 tickets
were available, but then my order crashed and when I refreshed the screen to
start the process again it had dropped to just 1! Needless to say, I went on to
successfully snap up that final place without any further mishap.
The museum itself is situated in an unassuming building located in
Malet Place, a quiet little road not far from the main University College
London premises in Malet Street. Once inside, up a small flight of stairs into
the main reception and then beyond, it was relatively small, being basically
made up of 2 or 3 gallery style rooms. The rooms were lined with glass display
cabinets, each crammed with numerous Egyptian artefacts. The area designated
for the screening was towards one end of the first main room entered. 6 rows of
chairs had been laid out, with more scattered behind in various places. Glass
display cabinets lined either side of the audience, which assisted in creating
an extra element of atmosphere. When everyone was in, there were probably around
45-50 attendees occupying the available space. In the middle of the seating
area was a small table, atop which was a compact looking laptop and a
projector, all set up and ready to play the DVD of the film onto a pop-up
screen placed at the far end of the gallery.
Modest little plastic cups of wine and soft drinks were laid out
on a long table near the entrance for audience members to help themselves to.
There was only a short amount of time, as everyone else slowly filtered in, to
enjoy the hospitality and browse some of the museum collection, with most
people seating themselves quite early on. When all ticket holders had arrived
and settled into place, the evening could begin proper (albeit around 10-15
minutes later than advertised). We were initially introduced to a smartly
dressed gentleman by the name of John J Johnston, who was described as an
'Egyptologist and film historian'. Mister Johnston then delivered a 20 minute
or so talk on the background to the film, including interesting anecdotes about
the cast and director and some insight into its writing and shooting. The
lights were thereafter brought down and the film began.
The screenplay was written by George Bernard Shaw (or just plain Bernard Shaw, as per the actual film credits and Shaw’s own personal preference), adapted from his original stage play. And, despite a number of larger set pieces that appeared throughout, that was how the overall feel of the film came across, i.e. very stage-performance oriented. Personally, I found the acting style rather hammy and many of the lines of dialogue raised howls of laughter from the various audience members. In truth, the 20 minute talk beforehand by John J Johnston was more absorbing than what came afterwards, but it was nonetheless an interesting piece of film history.
The Petrie Museum (and the film nights) have been on my "to do" list for a while. Thanks for the insight - I really must get to one soon. Looking at the list of events on generally there are some fascinating talks coming up too.
ReplyDeleteYes, I had a browse online and saw some interesting stuff coming up. I definitely want to return. I hardly saw anything of the museum itself.
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