Film Screening at Naas Library & Cultural Centre
Join us at Naas Library & Cultural Centre as we celebrate the history of cinema with a season of monthly film screenings. This programme is curated by our own (also author/film historian) Wayne Byrne in honour of our premises’ past as the Naas Town Hall Cinema, with a series of films programmed from the era in which the building operated as a popular picture house from 1902 to 1940. One Friday per month we will screen feature films released across those four decades, from silent epics to early talkies, from musicals to comedies, crime to horror, adventures to westerns.
Screening on Friday 15th November at 2.30pm will be a Marx Bros classic released in 1935, the film sees the Marx Brothers aim their sights at high society and the bourgeois milieu of opera as Otis B. Driftwood (Groucho Marx) assists aspiring singer Ricardo (Allan Jones) in his determination to win the affections of fellow performer Rosa (Kitty Carlisle). Aided by Fiorello (Chico Marx) and Tomasso (Harpo Marx), Otis attempts to unite the young couple but faces opposition from the preening star Lassparri (Walter Woolf King), who also has his sights on Rosa. Traveling from Italy to New York, Otis and friends rally to try and win the day.
This was the first Marx Bros film for MGM after five pictures for Paramount, including their iconic Duck Soup (1933), marking a major leap into the next phase of their career under the guidance of young pioneering producer Irving Thalberg. After the freedom to indulge in their absurdist and anarchic whims at Paramount, the films that Thalberg wanted the brothers to produce were to adhere to the tradition of slickly produced and tightly structured pictures made at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. So, in addition to the inspired brand of Marx lunacy there would be a surplus of song, dance, and romance which would be defined with A Night at the Opera. Indeed, the opening roar of Leo the Lion would herald the arrival of Marx at MGM, a new era that would see them reach their biggest audiences yet with this film and the following A Day at the Races in 1937.
So, come along and celebrate the history of Cinema and the legacy of the Town Hall with this exciting retrospective programme, a rare opportunity to see these films on the big screen.
Join us for tea and coffee before the feature presentation!
No Booking Required