ROOM 2 - DUFFER SCREENING IN LONDON W11

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This Sunday (the 9th of May) I'll be introducing a screening of DUFFER (UK, 1971), directed by Joseph Despins and William Dumaresq, at Cinephilia West, 171 Westbourne Grove, London W11. Some of you may recall that I wrote about DUFFER in the Eyeball Compendium back in 2003; the first time the film had been covered in some thirty years. Since its release in 1971 DUFFER had sunk into undeserved obscurity; I myself only saw it because a friend owned a 16mm print, which had fallen into his hands during a clear-out of unwanted materials at the ICA, way back in the late 1970s! The version I saw was taken from this battered 16mm print, projected on a sitting room wall and then recorded to tape via an early 1980s video camera! The results were, to say the least, primitive... All the more reason why I'm thrilled to reveal that DUFFER has now been taken under the wing of the British Film Institute, with a beautiful new transfer from the original elements lined up for DVD/Blu-Ray release later this year!

Sunday's screening at Cinephilia West will be the first time DUFFER has been shown in public for over thirty-five years. It will astonish anyone who loves the the bizarre and the esoteric, and it provides a fascinating glimpse into a forgotten corner of British cinema. Experimental but accessible, disturbing yet oddly comic, it's an extraordinary one-of-a-kind movie, concerning the troubled sex life of a teenage boy as he swings between the ample pleasures of 'Your Gracie', a middle-aged prostitute, and the cruel games of Louis-Jack, a sadistic older man. Duffer tries to keep the increasingly deranged Louis-Jack happy by acquiescing to his twisted sexual demands; however the situation veers out of control when Louis-Jack decides that he and Duffer should have a baby...

I look forward to seeing anyone who can make it along. Doors open at 7pm.

Website: http://www.cinephilia.co.uk/west/
Email: info@cinephilia.co.uk
Telephone: 0207 792 4433