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“A marvelous bombshell of a book, by one of our most formidably knowledgeable and insightful writers on film, it is filled with surprises and witty asides. Though Thomson is quick to pounce on the hypocrisies and historical omissions of some of these war movies, there is nothing compromised about his own daredevil judgments. We are in the hands of a master critic/essayist.” —Phillip Lopate
Celebrated film historian David Thomson leads a lecture/screening series on the theme of his latest book, The Fatal Alliance: A Century of War on Film (Harper Collins, 2023), a provocative study of the way film has treated war and done so much to condition us to it. Thomson presents four international films, shown in chronological order based on release dates, and offers insights into the complex nature of how war and cinema in the twentieth century became inextricably linked. Each week, Thomson will give a twenty-minute lecture prior to the film and then lead a post-screening discussion with the audience.
We are excited to welcome Thomson back to BAMPFA, where he has been a frequent guest presenter and guest curator through the years, including both thematic film series such as Vienna and the Movies (2016), Auteur, Author: Film & Literature (2017), Hollywood Outsiders (2017), The British New Wave (2019), and series timed with his book-length publications, such as The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood (2005). Copies of The Fatal Alliance will be available through the BAMPFA Store.
—Susan Oxtoby, Director of Film and Senior Film Curator