Film / News
Cary Grant gets bigger than ever at 2024 Cary Comes Home festival
The sixth edition of Bristol’s biennial Cary Comes Home Festival marks what would have been the 120th birthday of one of the biggest stars of the 20th century, who was born Archibald Leach in Horfield in 1904.
This year’s event focuses on how the great Cary Grant’s early years as an acrobat informed his screen performances and gave rise to his wider impact on action cinema. Eight Grant classics will be shown during the course of the festival, which runs from November 29 – December 1. This year, the main venue is the cinema with the biggest screen in the West country: the Bristol Megascreen (formerly the IMAX cinema) inside Bristol Aquarium.
Cary Comes Home Festival director Charlotte Crofts. Pic: Cary Comes Home Festival
“Grant is usually best remembered for his good looks, style, and charm,” notes festival founder and director Charlotte Crofts. “These qualities are very much on display in all the films we’re screening, but our programming choices also remind us of his deep connection to his roots – from watching action adventures and slapstick silents in local cinemas during his Bristol boyhood to his daring decision to run away with a troupe of acrobats. With them, he learned tumbling, balance, timing and command of his body, which eventually helped him to create some of the finest physical performances in cinema history.”
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Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in ‘Bringing Up Baby’. Pic: BFI
Among the line-up are plenty of Grant’s stunt-filled romcoms, including The Awful Truth, Bringing Up Baby, Holiday and My Favorite Wife. There’s also a special screening of the Hitchcock classic North by Northwest, which forms part of the BFI Film Audience Network’s Art of Action season.
Irene Dunne, Asta the dog and Cary Grant in ‘The Awful Truth’. Pic: Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.
There are a couple of informative panel discussions too, including Animal Magic, which focuses on Cary’s work with a variety of beasts. Matthew Sweet will chair this wide-ranging conversation with Michael Lawrence from the University of Sussex and VFX Supervisor Theo Jones from Framestore, which takes in everything from the evolution of VFX in depicting animals on screen to the outdated practices and ethical considerations of using real animals in films. The panel will also explore Asta the dog’s roles in both Bringing Up Baby and The Awful Truth.
Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in ‘To Catch a Thief’. Pic: Park Circus/Paramount
The grand finale on Sunday 1 December takes place at the Christmas Spiegeltent on Waterfront Square, off Canons Way. It’s a gala screening of the romantic thriller To Catch a Thief, co-starring Grace Kelly. This, we’re promised, will be “enhanced with live circus-themed entertainments”.
Tickets for all events are on sale now. Go here for the full programme.
Main image from North by Northwest: WBEI
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