FRI 15 SEPT
WESTBANK
3-5 Thorpe Cl, London W10 5XL




The Boyfriend Remembered with Vicki Russell and Richard Strange


6.30 - 10pm



Frank Phoenix (Virendra Kumar Sahu) 80 mins
Five years ago Frank Phoenix robbed the firm, Betrayed by his own crew and murdered the stolen gold was never found until now! Thriller.

Forward Focus Grenfell Tower Project (15 mins)
Forward Focus is a six-week intensive programme of practical filmmaking workshops and activities for young people living in North Kensington who have been directly or indirectly affected by Grenfell Tower Fire. The initiative is aimed at helping young people to learn the fundamentals of filmmaking, and to understand how film can be a powerful visual outlet to creatively express views, actions and emotions to evoke constructive debate and change; and will culminate in the production of a ten-minute short film that will premiere at Portobello Film Festival on Friday 15th September.

The Boyfriend (Ken Russell) 140 mins
Introduced by Vicki Russell in conversation with Richard Strange.
The plot exists on three levels.
First there is the frame story where in the south of England in the 1920s a struggling theatrical troupe is performing a musical about romantic intrigues at a finishing school for young women in the south of France. To ongoing backstage dramas and audiences smaller in number than the cast, two extra ingredients arrive: a famous Hollywood film producer turns up to see the show, and Polly, the mousy assistant stage manager, is forced to go on when the leading lady breaks a leg. As Polly struggles to keep her cool while acting opposite the male lead she secretly loves, the rest of the company backstab each other trying to impress the impresario.
Next there is the musical itself. Four of the girls at the school are very forward and acquire boy friends but Polly is shy and has nobody to take her to the carnival masked ball that night. Tony, a messenger boy from a dress shop brings her a costume and the two young people are struck with each other. They meet again in the afternoon and reach an understanding, she pretending she is only a secretary so as not to seem above him. He comes to the ball and, when unmasked, is recognised as a peer's son. So Tony and Polly are both rich and can marry openly.
Thirdly, there are extensive fantasy sequences during which the characters' dreams are enacted in music and dance without words.