The Australian Cinémathèque at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) is presenting The Great Detective from Friday 6 July to Sunday 2 September – a film program celebrating detectives on screen, bringing together a curated selection of films that delve into the mysterious and complex world of observation and deduction in the service of investigation.
Curated by Curatorial Manager of Australian Cinémathèque at QAGOMA Amanda Slack-Smith, the program features some of cinemas greatest sleuths from the professional to the amateur, and includes much loved Alfred Hitchcock suspense-thrillers, gritty dramas, and unforgettable characters such as Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot.
With a focus on adaptations of Christie’s novels, The Great Detective further explores the adventures of Detective Poirot in Death on the Nile 1978 and Evil Under the Sun 1982, and Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack’d 1980. Included are adaptations of Agatha Christie’s popular mystery thriller And Then There Were None 1945 and short story ‘Witness for the Prosecution’, adapted in 1957 with the alluring Marlene Dietrich as an enigmatic femme fatale. Other highlights include Clint Eastwood’s Academy Award-winning Mystic River 2003, screening alongside his celebrated performance in Dirty Harry 1971, Niels Arden Oplev’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 2009, and Steven Soderbergh’s Erin Brockovich 2000
Unique to the GOMA program, The Great Detective also includes two special 11am screenings of classic detective silent films Sherlock Holmes 1916 (7 July) and Sherlock Jr. 1924 (22 July) with live musical accompaniment by David Bailey on the Gallery’s rare Wurlitzer style 260 organ, originally housed in Brisbane’s Regent Theatre.
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