80th Anniversary of D Day
Overlord - Plus Intro by Paul Sargent
A young British soldier's experiences as part of the war machinery, including his premonitions of death, including D-Day, where our hero is among the first to storm the beach.
Director: Stuart Cooper
Cast includes: Nicholas Ball, Davyd Harries and Julie Neesam
plus Introduction by Paul Sargent, for the 80th Anniversary of D Day
85 mins / 1975 / UK
This is not a war film. To mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day we are screening Stuart Cooper’s thought-provoking drama of a young man’s immersion in the preparations for war – his hopes, fears, relationships – which conveys a truly human picture of the impact of the conflict.
Featuring Brian Stirner as Tom the 20-year-old conscript, with Nicholas Ball (Arthur), Davyd Harries (Jack) and Julie Neesam (Tom’s girl), the film follows Tom’s experiences from raw recruit to ‘battle-ready’ soldier.
Shot in black and white and incorporating extensive archive footage from the Imperial War Museums, the film seamlessly weaves together the fictional images with the original archive film.
Filmed by John Alcott (Stanley Kubrick’s cinematographer), who used 1930s camera lenses to recreate the period feel and lighting in keeping with the war photography, together with research based on diaries and letters of real service personnel, the film reconstructs the months leading up to the Normandy landings with stark realism.
Winner of the Silver Bear Special Jury Prize at the 1975 Berlin Film Festival, the film is shown here in its 2014 fully restored version.
Thursday morning screenings include a free cuppa with your ticket.
About Paul Sargent
We are delighted that this screening will be introduced by Paul Sargent, former Head of the Imperial War Museums Film Archives.
Paul Sargent worked as a film archivist for 33 years in the Imperial War Museums film archive. Joining as a Researcher in 1979 he became Deputy Keeper of the Film Archive and finally Head of the Film Archive. He was awarded Lifetime Achievement by the Federation of Commercial Film Archices (FOCAL) in 2013. He retired in 2012.
Learn more about Paul's background in archive film in this spotlight interview with him, shared on our website a few years ago.
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