Skip to Content
Twitter Facebook Flickr RSS feed
Cambridge Film Festival

September 2011

iCal feed
   1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
The 2011 Cambridge Film Festival is now over, come back soon for details of next year's festival

Beggars of Life with acc. from The Dodge Brothers

CFF-U certification
Director: William A Wellman. Starring: Wallace Beery, Louise Brooks, Richard Arlen.
United States, 1928. 100 mins.
In this special live performance by the Dodge Brothers, we combine their exuberant skiffle sound with William Wellman's 1928 melodrama BEGGARS OF LIFE, an early sound film featuring Louise Brooks as a girl forced to flee the country after murdering her violent foster father. Assisted by Jim, Richard Arlen's young vagrant, she masquerades as a boy and embarks upon a rail-riding adventure through all walks of life in an attempt to evade the police and escape to Canada.

Offering a powerful insight into American subculture, BEGGARS OF LIFE is both thought provoking and uplifting, qualities mirrored to great effect by the Dodge Brothers' soundtrack. Using motifs redolent of old railway songs and melodies influenced by those of the period, it is imbued with both bittersweet nostalgia and a joyous sense of celebration, managing to be both idiosyncratic and utterly authentic at the same time.

The Dodge Brothers features Mike Hammond (lead guitar, lead vocals), Mark Kermode (bass, harmonica, vocals), Aly Hirji (rhythm guitar, mandolin, vocals) and Alex Hammond (washboard, snare drum, percussion). Culture Show presenter and film critic Kermode, the Dodge Brothers' energetic bass thumper, cites the main preoccupations of the band's distinctive music as "trains, heartbreak, alcohol and death".

This meeting of live music and film promises to be an exhilarating exploration of love, conflict, poverty and the thrill of the journey, creating an electric atmosphere and a compelling study in humour and heartbreak.

This presentation of BEGGARS OF LIFE will include "honorary" Dodge Brother Neil Brand providing accompaniment on the piano.

Screenings (select one to book tickets)

Arts Picturehouse

Sunday 19 September, 4:00PM

Reviews

1 star rating

Beggars of Life with acc. from The Dodge Brothers by Owen Baker

19 Sep 2010

Take it from someone who doubled the number of silent films he's seen in his...
Read more

Reviews are currently closed for this film

Beggars of Life with acc. from The Dodge Brothers by Kal Morton

19 Sep 2010

Reviews are currently closed for this film

Beggars of Life with acc. from The Dodge Brothers by Mike, St Ives

20 Sep 2010

Reviews are currently closed for this film

Beggars of Life with acc. from The Dodge Brothers by Becky Allen

20 Sep 2010

Reviews are currently closed for this film

Beggars of Life with acc. from The Dodge Brothers by Rosalind

21 Sep 2010

Reviews are currently closed for this film

Beggars of Life with acc. from The Dodge Brothers by Festival Daily

22 Sep 2010

Reviews are currently closed for this film

Beggars of Life with acc. from The Dodge Brothers by CFF Student Critics

26 Sep 2010

Reviews are currently closed for this film

Find films

EM Media BFI National Lottery Legacy Trust - Lottery Funded
Studio 24 TTP Group Cambridge Film Trust

Cambridge Film Festival