CINECITY AND THE VAMP
There’s some very exciting events taking place across this year’s festival celebrating cinema-going in literature.
Celebrated Icelandic author Sjón, whose work has been translated into more than 40 languages, will be joining us for a very special event at Lewes Depot. Sjón is also a poet and librettist who was Oscar-nominated for his lyrics in the film Dancer in the Dark (2000) and co-wrote the acclaimed films Lamb (2021) and Robert Eggers’ The Northman (2022).
Sjón’s award-winning 2013 novel Moonstone – The Boy Who Never Was, was described by The Guardian as ‘a work of miniaturist perfection: a brief, brilliant jewel of a book in which each paragraph is precision-cut, each sentence burnished’. Set in Reykjavík in 1918, sixteen-year-old Máni is in love with the cinema; he is also secretly in love with Sola G. Her doppelganger is Irma Vep, the iconic queen of the powerful Vampires crime gang operating in the Parisian underworld and played by Musidora in the French crime serial Les Vampires.
Sjón will be joined in-conversation by writer Amy Raphael to discuss his work across literature and cinema followed by a screening of an episode of Les Vampires, in which Irma Vep is introduced.
SJON IN-CONVERSATION + LES VAMPIRES, Lewes Depot, Saturday 8th November, 4pm.
PLAYING THE VAMP, Fabrica, Thursday 13th November, 6pm.
Join author, critic and film historian Pamela Hutchinson for an illustrated talk on ‘The Vamp’.
The vamp is seductive, dangerous and aloof. An urban criminal whose weapons are dark eyes ringed with liner and a cold, cold heart. As embodied by legendary stars such as Theda Bara, Musidora, Asta Nielsen and Louise Brooks, the vamp is one the silent era’s most enduring archetypes.
This illustrated talk with clips will trace the evolution of this most deadly creation, and introduce some of the women who played the role back in the days of the silent screen, thrilling and terrifying the audience. Can you resist the lure of the vamp?
The event will be followed by a screening of one of the last great silent movies, SUNRISE (1927)
As an added bonus, during CINECITY at Fabrica, there will be a display, specially created by CINECITY and 6970 Design to celebrate our latest project CINE FICTION. The display consists of a selection of film posters highlighting some of the luminous, female stars of the silver screen from cinema’s silent era, their films and their moments in print.
