The BFI is celebrating 100 years since the birth of composer Benjamin Britten with a season of events showing how his music has been used in film and TV.
Benjamin Britten at 100 runs throughout September and will feature a number of screenings from the GPO Film Unit for which the composer wrote music.
Britten began writing for the unit back in 1935 aged only 21 and worked with John Grierson and Alberto Cavalcanti to provide scores to 27 documentaries, all of which will be shown as part of the season.
Other screenings include The Turn of the Screw (1959) introduced by director Peter Morley OBE and special previews of new films by Tony Palmer and John Bridcut (Nocturne and Britten’s Endgame respectively) followed by director Q&As.
Paul Kildea, author of Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century, will introduce the season with a presentation on how film influenced his visual imagination. This event will utilise movie footage digitised by the BFI National Archive.
Further showings will include Owen Wingrave (BBC, 1971) and versions of both Billy Budd (BBC, 1966) and Gloriana (Illuminations/BBC, 2000).
The season is presented in collaboration with the Britten-Pears Foundation.
Benjamin Britten at 100 runs throughout September and will feature a number of screenings from the GPO Film Unit for which the composer wrote music.
Britten began writing for the unit back in 1935 aged only 21 and worked with John Grierson and Alberto Cavalcanti to provide scores to 27 documentaries, all of which will be shown as part of the season.
Other screenings include The Turn of the Screw (1959) introduced by director Peter Morley OBE and special previews of new films by Tony Palmer and John Bridcut (Nocturne and Britten’s Endgame respectively) followed by director Q&As.
Paul Kildea, author of Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century, will introduce the season with a presentation on how film influenced his visual imagination. This event will utilise movie footage digitised by the BFI National Archive.
Further showings will include Owen Wingrave (BBC, 1971) and versions of both Billy Budd (BBC, 1966) and Gloriana (Illuminations/BBC, 2000).
The season is presented in collaboration with the Britten-Pears Foundation.
