Cultureplex Ciné-club at City Lit

In this Ciné Club we will delve into unsettling landscape of folk horror films and consider how this genre, which is having a renaissance today, comes to bear on broader questions about human identity and culture.

Through a selection of films that reflect both canonical classics of the genre, and innovative re-tellings, we will the explore th evolution and surging popularity of folk horror in the twenty-first century, focusing on the ways in which filmmakers continue to redefine the genre or and re-invent common archetypes.

Possible films might include:

- The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)
- A Field in England (Ben Wheatley, 2013)
- Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)
- You Are Not My Mother (Kate Dolan, 2021)
- Lamb (Valdimar Jóhannsson 2021)
- Starve Acre (Daniel Kokotajlo, 2023)

Perfect for cinephiles, horror fans, and anyone curious about the way that folklore evolves and aquires new forms in the modern world.

Come and join us at the Cultureplex Ciné-Club, where once a week, for 12 weeks (and throughout the academic year), we will watch and discuss film. Taking its cue from the famous Parisian ciné-club set up by the celebrated critic and writer, André Bazin, ‘the single thinker most responsible for bestowing on cinema the prestige both of an artform and of an object of knowledge’, and the man who foresaw the emergence of film studies as a legitimate discipline of academic study, our contemporary incarnation of the film club will offer a curated series of films for detailed study, discussion and debate. Each film will be introduced, placed in both its cinematic, cultural and historic context. In sharing our viewing in City Lit’s premier screening room, the Cultureplex, we will approximate the experience of watching film in the cinema, one that is intense and fully focussed in a way that other modes of viewing often are not. After the screening we will devote the rest of the class to a collective exploration of the film, led by the tutor, but involving everyone in a participatory discussion that will allow all to express their responses, their views, their thoughts on the film screened.
Please note that the films screened in this year’s Ciné-Club 2 are a repeat of last year's Ciné-Club (Autumn), so if you attended in 2025-6 you should look for HF211 Culturplex Ciné-Club (Autumn) which runs on Tuesday afternoons and consists of an entirely new suite of films.

Come and join us at the Cultureplex Ciné-Club, where once a week, for 10 weeks (and throughout the academic year), we will watch and discuss film. Taking its cue from the famous Parisian ciné-club set up by the celebrated critic and writer, André Bazin, ‘the single thinker most responsible for bestowing on cinema the prestige both of an artform and of an object of knowledge’, and the man who foresaw the emergence of film studies as a legitimate discipline of academic study, our contemporary incarnation of the film club will offer a curated series of films for detailed study, discussion and debate. Each film will be introduced, placed in both its cinematic, cultural and historic context. In sharing our viewing in City Lit’s premier screening room, the Cultureplex, we will approximate the experience of watching film in the cinema, one that is intense and fully focussed in a way that other modes of viewing often are not. After the screening we will devote the rest of the class to a collective exploration of the film, led by the tutor, but involving everyone in a participatory discussion that will allow all to express their responses, their views, their thoughts on the film screened.

Come and join us at the French Film Ciné-Club, where once a week, for 10 weeks, we will watch and discuss French film. Taking its cue from the famous Parisian ciné-club set up by the celebrated critic and writer, André Bazin, ‘the single thinker most responsible for bestowing on cinema the prestige both of an artform and of an object of knowledge’, and the man who foresaw the emergence of film studies as a legitimate discipline of academic study, our contemporary incarnation of the film club will offer a curated series of films for detailed study, discussion and debate. Each film will be introduced, placed in both its cinematic, cultural and historic context. In sharing our viewing in City Lit’s premier screening room, the Cultureplex, we will approximate the experience of watching film in the cinema, one that is intense and fully focussed in a way that other modes of viewing often are not. After the screening we will devote the rest of the class to a collective exploration of the film, led by the tutor, but involving everyone in a participatory discussion that will allow all to express their responses, their views, their thoughts on the film screened.

Come and join us at the French Film Ciné-Club, where once a week, for 10 weeks (and throughout the rest of the academic year), we will watch and discuss French film. Taking its cue from the famous Parisian ciné-club set up by the celebrated critic and writer, André Bazin, our contemporary incarnation of the film club will offer a curated series of French films for detailed study, discussion and debate. Each film will be introduced, placed in both its cinematic, cultural and historic context. In sharing our viewing in City Lit’s premier screening room, the Cultureplex, we will approximate the experience of watching film in the cinema, one that is intense and fully focussed in a way that other modes of viewing often are not. After the screening we will devote the rest of the class to a collective exploration of the film, led by the tutor, but involving everyone in a participatory discussion that will allow all to express their responses, their views, their thoughts on the film screened.

Come and join us at the Cultureplex Ciné-Club, where once a week, for 10 weeks (and throughout the academic year), we will watch and discuss film. Taking its cue from the famous Parisian ciné-club set up by the celebrated critic and writer, André Bazin, ‘the single thinker most responsible for bestowing on cinema the prestige both of an artform and of an object of knowledge’, and the man who foresaw the emergence of film studies as a legitimate discipline of academic study, our contemporary incarnation of the film club will offer a curated series of films for detailed study, discussion and debate. Each film will be introduced, placed in both its cinematic, cultural and historic context. In sharing our viewing in City Lit’s premier screening room, the Cultureplex, we will approximate the experience of watching film in the cinema, one that is intense and fully focussed in a way that other modes of viewing often are not. After the screening we will devote the rest of the class to a collective exploration of the film, led by the tutor, but involving everyone in a participatory discussion that will allow all to express their responses, their views, their thoughts on the film screened.

Please note that this course is a repeat of the course that ran last year on a Thursday afternoon. For a set of new films please see HF439 Cultureplex Ciné-Club (Summer) with Paul Sutton on Tuesday afternoons.