This film is currently unavailable
A Trick of the Light
The origins of German cinema are given life in one of Wim Wenders’ most charming and playful films, focusing on pioneering inventors, the Skladanowsky brothers.
Director: Wim Wenders, Sebastian Andrae, German Kral, Barbara Rohm, Alina Theodorescu, Sorin Dragoi, Björn Kurt, Florian Gallenberger, Markus Hansen and Britta Sauer
Overview
Working with a group of Munich-based film students, acclaimed director Wim Wenders celebrates a century of cinema by reappraising the importance of the Skladanowsky Brothers, one of the pioneers of early cinema. Part docudrama, part experimental re-enactment, this is Wenders at his most playful and imaginative.
Fictional recreations of the brothers’ development of the ‘bioskop’, a primitive version of the film projector, are framed by an interview with Max Skladanowsky’s surviving daughter, Lucie, whose reminiscences bring a forgotten world back to life. Ultimately, A Trick of Light is a meditation on the nature of film and its ability to capture the world around us, made by a director acutely aware of the medium’s limitations within a rapidly changing world.
Related
2073 2073
Documentary 2024 83 mins Director: Asif Kapadia
Oscar-winning director Asif Kapadia's unsettling drama-documentary delivers a powerful commentary on the state of the world today… and tomorrow.
A Night of Knowing Nothing A Night of Knowing Nothing
Drama-documentary 2021 99 mins Director: Payal Kapadia
All We Imagine as Light director Payal Kapadia’s bold and distinctive feature debut explores the political climate of contemporary India.
8½ 8½
Drama 1963 138 mins Director: Federico Fellini
Fellini triumphantly conjured himself out of writer's block with this magnum opus about a film director experiencing his own creative crisis.
Pasolini Pasolini
Biopic 2014 84 mins Director: Abel Ferrara
Willem Dafoe plays the controversial filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini in this dark, daring drama about the director’s final days, from Abel Ferrara.
Room 237 Room 237
Documentary 2012 103 mins Director: Rodney Ascher
Rodney Ascher's enigmatic essay film weaves together the contrasting theories of five different narrators who believe Stanley Kubrick deliberately buried hidden messages in his 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s novel.
Lotte Reiniger's Art Lotte Reiniger's Art
Documentary 1970 17 mins Director: John Isaacs
The short documentary gives us a wonderful insight into the enchanting animated film world of Lotte Reiniger.
Matinee Matinee
Comedy 1993 99 mins Director: Joe Dante
Joe Dante (Gremlins) directs this affectionate homage to 1950s sci-fi cinema, with John Goodman as a cigar-chomping B-movie producer trying to cash in on the Cuban missile crisis.
Irma Vep Irma Vep
Drama 1996 99 mins Director: Olivier Assayas
Olivier Assayas' sexy and stylish ode to the madness of filmmaking, with Maggie Cheung as the Hong Kong star playing a Catwoman-style anti-heroine.
Suspiria Suspiria
Horror 1977 101 mins Director: Dario Argento
Dario Argento’s phantasmagoric gothic nightmare blends operatic violence, disorienting dream logic and hyper-real visuals to create a horror classic.
Paris, Texas Paris, Texas
Drama 1984 145 mins Director: Wim Wenders
The late, great Harry Dean Stanton's finest role came as the near-mute Travis, on a journey across America to reunite his family, in Wim Wenders' moving tale of loss and redemption.
Wings of Desire Wings of Desire
Fantasy 1987 128 mins Director: Wim Wenders
In director Wim Wenders' (Paris, Texas) most metaphysical work, a guardian angel desires nothing more than to be human.
Fat City Fat City
Drama 1972 97 mins Director: John Huston
A washed-up boxer (Stacy Keach), and young hopeful (Jeff Bridges), navigate dreams and despair in John Huston’s gritty boxing drama.
To Sleep with Anger To Sleep with Anger
Comedy 1990 102 mins Director: Charles Burnett
Charles Burnett's brilliant drama about an African American family reeling from a a surprise visit from an old friend, played by Danny Glover.
The Reckless Moment The Reckless Moment
Film noir 1949 82 mins Director: Max Ophuls
Joan Bennett and James Mason become entangled in a web of secrets and unexpected attraction Max Ophüls masterful domestic noir.
Highway Patrolman Highway Patrolman
Drama 1991 105 mins Director: Alex Cox
Alex Cox’s Mexican film follows the journey of a highway patrolman whose idealism eventually gives way to inevitable corruption.
The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey
Period drama 1988 91 mins Director: Vincent Ward
A group of medieval English villagers find themselves transported to '80s New Zealand, in Vincent Ward's fusion of fantasy and time-travel.
Society Society
Horror 1989 99 mins Director: Brian Yuzna
A teenager uncovers an elite ritualistic society in Brian Yuzna's stomach-churning mix of body-horror and social commentary.