Film series: Pop cinema 29 October 2014 – 1 March 2015

Cinema was a prime source of the imagery of pop art. Hollywood stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley lent their famous faces to the painters and printmakers of the era. Icons from Hollywood’s golden era of animated cartoons such as Mickey Mouse were appropriated by pop artists who injected them with biting irony and paradox.

The pop culture phenomenon occurred in the context of bigger social and political issues such as the African-American civil rights movement, the space race, the feminist movement, the Vietnam War, the Kennedy administration and the gay rights movement.

This collection of feature films, documentary and animation celebrate the influence of cinema on pop art. It explores the social upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s when the popular counter-culture sparked a social revolution throughout much of the Western world.

Screening at the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 29 October 2014 to 1 March 2015 in conjunction with the Pop to popism exhibition, Pop cinema is part of an extensive program of feature films, documentaries and shorts capturing the authentic flavour of the era.

Films

• 29 October, 2 November – Red hot Riding Hood (director Tex Avery, US, 1943, 16mm) + Jailhouse rock (director Richard Thorpe, US, 1957, 35mm)

• 5, 9 November – Swing shift Cinderella (director Tex Avery, US, 1945, 35mm) + Some like it hot (director Billy Wilder, US, 1959, 35mm)

• 12, 16 November – Little rural Riding Hood (director Tex Avery, US, 1949, 35mm) + A hard day’s night (director Richard Lester, US, 1964, 35mm)

• 19, 23 November – Duck amuck (director Chuck Jones, US, 1953, 16mm) + Breathless (director Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1959, 35mm)

• 26, 30 November – The band concert (director Wilfred Jackson, US, 1935, 35mm) + Don’t look back (director DA Pennebaker, US, 1967, 16mm)

• 3, 7 December – Blow-up (director Michelangelo Antonioni, UK, 1966, 35mm)

• 10, 14 December – Alphaville (director Jean-Luc Godard, France/Italy, 1965, 35mm)

• 17, 21 December – The sorcerer’s apprentice (director Ben Sharpsteen, US, 1940, 35mm) + 2001: a space odyssey (director Stanley Kubrick, UK, 1968, 35mm)

• 4 January – Malcolm X (director Spike Lee, US, 1992, 35mm)

• 7, 11 January – JFK (director Oliver Stone, US, 1991, 35mm)

• 14, 18 January – Full metal jacket (director Stanley Kubrick, UK, 1987, 35mm)

• 21, 25 January – Elvis: that’s the way it is (director Denis Sanders, US, 1970, 35mm)

• 28 January, 1 February – Basquiat (director Julian Schnabel, US, 1996, 35mm)

• 4, 8 February – Performance (directors Nicholas Roeg, Donald Cammell, UK, 1970, 35mm)

• 11, 15 February – Easy rider (director Dennis Hopper, US, 1969, 35mm)

• 18, 22 February – King-size canary (director Tex Avery, US, 1947, 35mm) + Boogie nights (director Paul Thomas Anderson, US, 1997, 35mm)

• 18 February – Pink flamingos (director John Waters, US, 1972, 35mm)

• 25 February, 1 March – Bad luck Blackie (director Tex Avery, US, 1949, 16mm) + Rocky horror picture show (director Jim Sharman, UK, 1975, 35mm)