Simon and Laura (Great Expectations – 
Britisches 
Nachkriegskino 
1945–1960)

Thu, 4.6., 7:30 pm, opening with introduction: Esther Buss & Mon, 8.6., 7:30 pm
SIMON AND LAURA Muriel Box UK 1955 35 mm OF 90'
Supporting film: TO BE A WOMAN Jill Craigie UK 1951 DCP Digital file OF 18'
SIMON AND LAURA: Actors Simon (Peter Finch) and Laura Foster (Kay Kendall) have been married for 20 years and are considered the ideal couple - but in reality their relationship is characterized by violent arguments and divorce is on the cards. When they are offered a daily soap filmed in their own home, depicting their idyllic family life, they can't afford to turn down the lucrative offer. Muriel Box, screenwriter, author and the only female filmmaker to direct more than a dozen films in post-war British cinema between 1949 and 1964, shot this adaptation of a play in widescreen VistaVision and Technicolor. SIMON AND LAURA is a firework of wordplay reminiscent of screwball comedies of the 1930s, and Box keeps the plot, which pokes fun at reality TV in a forward-looking way, moving at a rapid pace.
TO BE A WOMAN: Equal Pay for Equal Work is the focus of the feminist short film commissioned by the Equal Pay Campaign Committee (EPCC), which asks the question: "Are we able to fully develop our personalities? Are we playing our proper role in the community? How far have we come from a state of subjugation?" Jill Craigie, a feminist and activist who has worked as a director since the 1940s, had already concluded that "we have not progressed far enough, and the film will show how and why".