The Art of Film Adaptation with Dr Brian Hoyle – Tuesday 1st October 2013, 6pm

Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in the From Here to Eternity trailer

Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in the From Here to Eternity trailer

This talk from Brian Hoyle (University of Dundee) will discuss the ways in which films are created and will lead you through through a comparison of several Oscar-winning directors, films and the novels and plays they were adapted from.

The talk will specifically focus on the work of two directors: David Lean and Fred Zinnemann, two directors who each won two academy awards for Best Director. Their film adaptations won many additional Oscars. David’s Lean’s adaptations include two novels Bridge Over the River Kwai (1957) and Doctor Zhivago (1965), and Zinnemann’s From Here to Eternity (1953) and A Man for All Seasons (1966) were both multiple Oscar and BAFTA winning adaptations.

Join us in the relaxed atmosphere of the McManus Café for a short talk followed by your chance to ask questions and discuss the topic.

Everyone is welcome. Free. Non-bookable. Please arrive early to avoid disappointment. This event is likely to last one hour.

H.G.Wells and Cinema – Turning Science Fiction into Science Fact – 1st November 2011

An illustration of George Pal's 1960 model of the Time MachineThe  McManus Cafe, Dundee hosted this  short talk and discussion on science fiction and the dawn of cinema.

This event covered H.G.Wells’s most famous story The Time Machine and a range of his other short stories.

Dr. Keith Williams from the University of Dundee discussed how each text imagined the visual technology of the future. Drawing on the cutting-edge science of the late 19th Century, Wells was able to predict the development of new media including cinema, television, virtual reality…..even the internet!

In particular Wells’s writings on how we observe the World influenced one of Britain’s pioneering film-makers, R.W.Paul at the very dawn of the cinematic age.

Dundee Science Festival logoThis event was proud to be part of the 2011 Dundee Science Festival programme.