Burning Rubber, Crossing Borders at Hyde Park Picture House
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
Ever since audiences ducked out of the way of the projected image of an oncoming train in 1896, the power of on-screen vehicular mayhem has been obvious. Spectators might have quickly understood that the action in front of them was of no real danger but it was clear that the action spilling out of the projector retained a thrilling appeal.
As steam trains gave way to automobiles in the real world, cinematic fantasies followed suit. The locomotive chase of Buster Keaton’s The General gave way to Howard Hawks’ early race car actioner The Crowd Roars, which in turn led to Vanishing Point, Bullitt, Duel, Mad Max, The Fast and the Furious and a thousand more. From lone heroes traversing romantic visions of the open road, to homicidal road-ragers hell bent on crushing metal, there are varying visions and sub-genres of car-based action.
whether you prefer races, chases, trucks, buses or souped-up supercars, there’s something out there to tickle the fancy of any cinephilic petrolhead
Indeed, whether you prefer races, chases, trucks, buses or souped-up supercars, there’s something out there to tickle the fancy of any cinephilic petrolhead — and Hyde Park Picture House’s latest film season has put together a small taster on their big screens this winter. The Burning Rubber, Crossing Borders season starts in an admittedly unconventional way, with Ryan Reynolds as the voice of Turbo (Sat 9 Nov), a speed-obsessed snail looking to win the Indianapolis 500 race. This animated charmer may not have any rubber to burn as such, but it’s the perfect on ramp for younger film fans to get the racing buzz.
As the man behind the Mad Max universe, few can out-do director George Miller on the automotive destruction stakes. A master of mayhem, Miller’s post-apocalyptic Wasteland is a hellscape where petrol is currency and bands of roving barbarians drive maniacally-modified rigs across the desert in search death and gasoline. In a crossover with Leeds International Film Festival’s The Weird of Oz strand, Miller’s Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior screens on both 12 and 14 November.
Contemporary car-based cinema has been dominated by one franchise, and Hyde Park Picture House has decided to schedule Fast & Furious… In a Day, to help do it justice. Scheduled for Saturday 23 November, this crash course features talks, screenings and discussions designed to help you understand how the Fast & Furious franchise has shaped modern action cinema, and explore how simple story of an uncover cop infiltrating a gang of drag racers has turned into a series of bombastic spy capers, each bigger than the last. The day concludes appropriately enough at the beginning with a showing of the original 2001 The Fast and the Furious.
Finally, on Saturday 7 December, Burning Rubber, Crossing Borders closes with a special introduced screening of 2008’s Death Race. Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, whose disreputable genre cinema always contains a grubby grace and pleasing geometry, the film stars Jason Statham as Jensen Ames, an ex-con forced into a series of brutal prison car races. The film will be introduced by What the Film Club’s Lee Bentham who promises a colourful account of the film’s position within the boundary-pushing genre of automotive action movies.
