Playing A Part: The Story of Claude Cahun. A Film by Lizzie Thynne.
Playing a Part: The story of Claude CahunJoin us in the Lee Miller Gallery for a special, free screening of Playing a Part: The story of Claude Cahun, which explores the life and work of Claude Cahun (1894 –1954), one of the greatest, yet almost forgotten, 20th century photographers. The film features movement sequences devised by choreographer Lea Anderson.
The film will be introduced by Lizzie Thynne, film maker, with a Q&A with Lizzie to follow the screening.
Thursday 22 August 2024. 6.30pm
Playing A Part: The Story of Claude Cahun. A Film by Lizzie Thynne.
Cahun collaborated with her life-long lover and stepsister, Marcel Moore, to produce an astounding series of images of herself from her teens to her death that defy a fixed gender and identity. Influenced by Oscar Wilde, the pair were part of the vibrant artistic life of interwar Paris. Posing as a treacherous German soldier, the women carried out an ingenious counter-propaganda campaign against the Nazi Occupation of Jersey, where they had moved in 1937, until their arrest and condemnation to death. Combining rarely seen war archive and contemporary footage, the film mimics the photographer’s own surreal style.
Key critics, including David Bate, Mary Ann Caws and Elisabeth Lebovici highlight her significance to modern art and personal acquaintances recount memories of this remarkable couple.
Featuring Anna Pons Carrera as Claude Cahun and Mary Herbert as Marcel Moore.
Produced and directed by Lizzie Thynne
Director of Photography: Melissa Byers Editor: Phil Reynolds Research Assistant: Louis Bailey Art director/Stills photographer: Jess Hooks UK 2005
Black and white/colour 45 minutes
In English with French subtitles.
Playing a Part has accompanied major exhibitions of the artist’s work including at the Jeu de Paume (2011) La Virreina Centre de L’Imatge (Barcelona, 2011 – 12), MoCa (Sydney, 2006) and the Hayward touring show ‘Claude Cahun: Beneath this mask’. It was included in a special display on women in WW2 at IWM North (2015-16) and was invited for fifteen film festivals. It is screened internationally at museums and events.
‘…a richly informative and innovative character study, that manages at the same time to be both a compelling piece of story telling, and an acute analysis of an artist’s work.’ – Gen Doy, The Art Book, 14 (1) Feb 2007
