Poetry Event with Fleur Adcock, plus a screening of Henry V

Sunday 7th September 2008 | 2.00pm book tickets

The Phoenix is pleased to welcome poet Fleur Adcock who will be reading selections of her work and introducing one of her favourite films. Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Fleur spent much of her childhood in England before returning to read Classics at Victoria University in Wellington. She moved to London in 1963 and has been writing full-time since 1981. Her poetry has received numerous awards, many of them from her native New Zealand; she won a Cholmondeley Award in 1976 and was awarded an OBE in 1996. A collected edition of her poetry, Poems 1960-2000, was published in 2000. She was awarded the Queen’s Medal for Poetry in 2006.

"In my youth I used to boast that I'd seen this film three times, in three different countries.  I saw it first in England, during the war, and then again in Dublin, also in 1945, and finally in New Zealand, after we went back there in 1947.  I seem to recall that both the first and the third times I went with parties from my school, but I was perfectly happy to see it so often.  I had a crush on Laurence Olivier, my favourite actor at the time, and I learnt the St Crispin's Day speech by heart; I remember dressing up with a cloak and a sword and standing on the kitchen table to recite it to my family.  I loved the language.  It certainly increased my enthusiasm for Shakespeare.  Now, of course, much of the appeal of the film for me is based on nostalgia, but I was also delighted to discover that it has been digitally enhanced and that the version we'll see is as bright and vivid as the one I first saw in 1945."

Henry V

2hr 17.  UK 1944.  Adapted, directed by and starring Laurence Olivier.  Also starring Robert Newton and Leslie Banks.

Made at the height of the Blitz, Olivier’s dazzling adaptation of Shakespeare's classic drama of victory in the face of overwhelming odds was to bring new hope and resolve to embattled Britons. Yet it is far from mere propaganda. Olivier’s innovative approach starts out with a rather rag-tag bunch of actors performing the play at The Globe. The film gradually increases in scale and grandeur, until the confines of the stage are completely left behind – and the transition from theatrical to cinematic experience is complete. The cavalry charge at Agincourt, with its ranks of armoured knights galloping full tilt in the blazing sunlight, must rank as one of the most rousing moments in British cinema. Not only a stunning directorial debut, but quite simply one of the finest Shakespeare adaptations ever committed to film – presented here in a new digitial restoration.

click here to watch the trailer