Join us for this season introduction event, celebrating the wit, the sass and, of course, the dance routines of the great Ginger Rogers. In this panel discussion, speakers Lucy Bolton, Pamela Hutchinson and David Benedict will explore the wide range of roles Rogers played, covering comedies, musicals and dramas, while delving into her unique star persona and iconic legacy.
About the panel
Pamela Hutchinson is a freelance critic, curator and film historian. She writes for Sight and Sound, Criterion, Indicator, The Guardian and Empire and she regularly appears on BBC radio. Her publications include BFI Film Classics on The Red Shoes (forthcoming) and Pandora’s Box, as well as essays in several edited collections. She has curated film seasons including Marlene Dietrich: Falling in Love Again and In the Eyes of a Silent Star: The Films of Asta Nielsen for BFI Southbank and the nationwide touring programme Pre-Code Hollywood: Rules Are Made to Be Broken, with Christina Newland. She also edits Sight and Sound’s Weekly Film Bulletin and her website SilentLondon.co.uk is devoted to silent cinema.
Lucy Bolton is Reader in Film Studies at Queen Mary University of London, where she teaches and researches film and philosophy and film stardom. She has published widely in these fields and is currently working on a monograph on philosophy and film stardom combined. She is co-editor of Lasting Screen Stars: Images that Fade and Personas that Endure, author of Contemporary Cinema and the Philosophy of Iris Murdoch, and of Film and Female Consciousness: Irigaray, Cinema, and Thinking Women.
Culture critic and broadcaster David Benedict read drama at Hull University and worked as an actor and director before becoming a daily arts columnist and the associate arts editor of The Independent. He was the arts editor of The Observer then joined Variety as its chief London critic in 2006. He has written extensively for the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times and Wall Street Journal Europe, is a weekly columnist for The Stage, and a regular guest on TV and radio including Newsnight, Discovering Classical Music and Front Row. His lecture on gays and musicals – Oklahomo! – was presented at the BFI where he has co-curated retrospectives of Doris Day and Rita Hayworth and conducted onstage interviews with Leslie Caron, Celeste Holm and more. He is writing Stephen Sondheim’s authorised biography for Random House/Picador. David plays Tristram Hawkshaw in The Archers.
GINGER ROGERS: ALL THAT SASS
Vivacious Lady
Sat 1 Apr 15:40; Fri 14 Apr 18:20
Stage Door
Sun 2 Apr 15:30 (+ intro by Sandi Toksvig); Tue 4 Apr 20:40; Fri 7 Apr 18:10
Black Widow
Wed 5 Apr 20:40; Sat 22 Apr 20:45; Sun 30 Apr 18:45
Bachelor Mother
Fri 7 Apr 14:20; Tue 18 Apr 20:50; Sat 22 Apr 15:30
Shall We Dance
Sat 8 Apr 14:00 (+ illustrated talk on the magic of Fred and Ginger by Miles Eady, film writer and curator)
The Barkleys of Broadway
Sat 8 Apr 17:30; Mon 10 Apr 12:50; Tue 25 Apr 20:40
Monkey Business
Mon 10 Apr 15:30; Fri 21 Apr 18:30; Sun 30 Apr 12:00
The Major and the Minor
Tue 11 Apr 20:30; Sat 22 Apr 12:40
25 & Under: Introduction to Ginger Rogers
Wed 12 Apr 19:00
Lady in the Dark
Wed 12 Apr 20:30; Fri 28 Apr 18:10
Gold Diggers of 1933 + Office Blues
Sat 15 Apr 12:30
Primrose Path
Sat 15 Apr 15:10; Wed 19 Apr 20:50
Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman
Sun 16 Apr 12:20; Thu 20 Apr 20:40
Roxie Hart
Mon 17 Apr 18:30; Sat 29 Apr 14:30
Storm Warning
Sun 23 Apr 15:30; Sat 29 Apr 18:00
City Lit at the BFI: Ginger Rogers and All That Sass
Tue 4 Apr 18:30; Tue 11 Apr 18:30; Tue 18 Apr 18:30; Tue 25 Apr 18:30
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Programme notes and credits compiled by the BFI Documentation Unit
Notes may be edited or abridged
Questions/comments? Contact the Programme Notes team by email