The films in detail

VERTIGO (15)

Shown at The Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge on Tuesday, March 13th 2012, 9am - 1pm

Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes. USA 1958. 128 mins.

A piece of classic cinema and a Hitchcock masterpiece, VERTIGO follows John 'Scottie' Ferguson (James Stewart), a retired and acrophobic detective, as he is hired to follow his friend's beautiful wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak). Will Scottie be able to determine the cause of Madeleine's odd behaviour? An introduction to the neuroscience and psychology of phobia will be given by Dr Tim Dalgleish of the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge. There will also be a 50-minute talk on Hitchcock as a film maker. The event is open to the general public, and school groups are particularly welcome. See Get tickets.

BLACK SWAN (15)

Shown at The Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge on Thursday, March 15th 2012, 6pm - 9pm

Director: Darren Aronofsky. Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel. USA 2010. 108 mins.

Natalie Portman plays Nina Sayers, a talented ballerina who pushes herself into dangerous physical and mental territory in a quest for balletic perfection. BLACK SWAN portrays the fine line between intense discipline, and obsessive-compulsive-type disorders. Ms Sigal Spigel of the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies will discuss the complex causes of anorexia, and the ways in which people with this disorder can be helped, before the film. 

CROUPIER (15)

Shown at The Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge, on Sunday, March 18th 2012, 2:30pm - 5:30pm

Director: Mike Hodges. Starring: Clive Owen, Nick Reding and Nicholas Ball. France / UK 1999. 94 mins.

Jack Mansfield (Clive Owen) is an aspiring writer who takes a job as a croupier to make ends meet. As the job begins to take over his life, Jack realises that he may have found the subject of his novel. Dr Luke Clark of the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge will introduce the science behind pathological gambling, and Trish Sheil will speak on CROUPIER as a British neo-noir film.