Ellen Cheshire

134 years ago today (in 1889), Charlie Chaplin was a born in South London. 10 years ago (in 2013), I was invited to research and write three chapters for Taschen’s The Charlie Chaplin Archives . The three chapters I wrote covered Chaplin’s childhood, theatre career, his move to Hollywood and first few years there working at Keystone and Essanay, and his signing with Mutual. Little did I know that this commission would lead to so many great opportunities including speaking at

Whenever I visit a new town or city, I am keen to combine my love of film and cinema with exploring places off the beaten track. This may...

I think this may well be the fastest watch of 52 films #DirectedbyWomen. With the 15th batch of 52 completed on 29 January, here's the...

A friend, ProfTonks, set us both the challenge to watch as many of this year’s Oscar Nominated films as possible! As of the afternoon of...

It's 2023, and I’m rewinding 50 years to 1973 to watch seven films from that year that I’ve never seen before. Alongside these, I...

With the notional 'year' element that came with the #52FilmsByWomen pledge out the window, this is now my 15th batch of 52 films since...

Once a month the village hall in the sleepy Sussex village of Slindon gets a Hollywood makeover when it is transformed into Slindon Cinema, screening classic films on 35 mm film. This mini dream palace was a labour of love for student Joe Cornick who, for an A Level Film project, brought the projection box in the Coronation Hall back to use. The box was built in the 1930s but no projector was ever installed. Well, there's one there now and they are currently screening via 35

After popping to the University of Southampton, Avenue Campus I made a detour to a suburb of Southampton to hit the charity shops in...

Whilst clearing out a store room at the Worthing WOW offices we found a couple of boxes of Electric Pictures: A Guide to the Films,...

With thanks to @letterboxd pro stats, compiling this end of year film lists so much simpler. I logged 756 films this year, 596...

Since 1952, the British Film Institute through its magazine, Sight and Sound, has conducted a poll of film critics every decade to find...

In January 2022, I drew up a bucket list . At the top of it was something I had been putting off for far too long: going to film festivals I had always meant to attend but never quite got round to. By the end of the year, I had ticked off not one, not two, but three – all in Bristol. Slapstick Festival Bristol Watershed 28–31 January 2022 This felt like the perfect place to begin. A celebration of silent and classic comedy, it combined screenings, talks and live performance

With the notional 'year' element that came with the #52FilmsByWomen pledge out the window, this is now my 14th batch of 52 films since...

Back in March 2022, for International Women's Day, I did a blog, #DirectedbyWomen 2000 -2021 - Stories Women Tell , where I selected a single film per year, directed by a woman, from 2000 - 2021. I then wondered could I make it all the way back to the beginning of filmmaking? Well I made it through 1970 - 1999 and 1969 - 1940 fairly easily, although there were some years where I only managed to track down one or two films directed by a woman. But how about this last tranc

I originally published this post on the 17 May 2021 when across the UK cinemas started re-opening after covid lockown. And boy, had I...

Visiting Gerrards Cross to deliver a study day on film as part of the Gerrards Cross Summer School. A free evening and the lure of a new cinema brought me to the Everyman Gerrards Cross. It's a lovely looking cinema, but despite the sign, Elvis was not showing. So, sadly didn't see inside as didn't fancy any of the other films on. Especially as 5 times the ticket price of my local! I did pop by St James's Church to say hello and thanks to one of my fave film actors, Margaret

With the notional 'year' element that came with the #52FilmsByWomen pledge out the window, this is now my 13th batch of 52 films since...

For International Women's Day I did a blog, #DirectedbyWomen 2000 -2021 - Stories Women Tell , where I selected a single film per year, directed by a woman, from 2000 - 2021. It was a tough task, as much has been done to see films by female filmmakers commissioned and distributed in the past couple of decades. But what about the 20th century? How far could I go back until I'd not seen a film directed by a woman in that year? Well I managed 1970 - 1999 fairly easily, altho

With the notional 'year' element that came with the #52FilmsByWomen pledge out the window, this is now my 12th batch of 52 films since...

For International Women's Day I did a blog, Stories Women Tell: Films #DirectedbyWomen 2000 -2021 , where I selected a single film per year, directed by a woman, from 2000 - 2021. It was a tough task, as much has been done to see films by female filmmakers commissioned and distributed in the past couple of decades. But what about the 20th century? How far could I go back until I'd not seen a film made by a woman in that year? Well, here's 1970 - 1999. I have indicated the