Hitting Rock Bottom in Post-War England

Overview

The end of of WWII might have brought the Americans an era of cars, appliances and all sorts of stepford-wife-inducing prosperity, but the Brits weren’t having such a good time. The starkness of austerity measures, the legalisation of homosexuality and the reign of Margaret Thatcher contributed to a sense of both bleakness and change in the midst of which Frances Bacon crafted his paintings. This period of turmoil, captured on film, is the subject of a weekly program of free films held at the Art Gallery of NSW, Hitting rock bottom in post-war England.

Curated by Robert Herbert, the films deal with the changing social structure in Britain from the post-WW2 period to the late 1980s. You can catch pretty much one film a week from now until February. Highlights include: High hopes, a sombre, biting satire of Margaret Thatcher’s England, 10 Rillington Place, director Richard Fleischer’s bleak, true-crime drama is based on one of England’s most famous murder cases and Love is the devil: study for a portrait of Francis Bacon, which probes the mid-life of painter Francis Bacon.

Tickets can be picked up (for free) at the Domain Theatre an hour before screenings and can tend to run out on busy days. Screenings are Wednesdays at 2pm & 7.15, Sundays at 2pm and with two special Saturday screenings (Jan 19 and Feb 16) at 2pm. The screenings will be taking a summer break from December 17 to January 8.