The founding of the Department of Film Studies in 2006 marked the institutional beginning of film studies at the University of St Andrews; however, the study and promotion of film has a much longer heritage in St Andrews. From the founding of the Dundee and St Andrews Film Society in 1935 to symposiums like the 1967 BFI Summer School, the town and university community have fostered a vibrant moving image culture throughout the past century.
An Image of St Andrews in 1845
St Andrews, North Street, Fishergate, Women and Children Baiting the Lines (c. 1845)The earliest surviving films of St Andrews from 1916. The photograph known as St. Andrews, North Street, Fishergate, Women and Children Baiting the Line depicts a group of fisherfolk, predominantly women and children, baiting fishing lines. Found today in the National Galleries Scotland, it was taken by the hugely influential photographers, David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, and is estimated to date from 1845. Yet, this...
read moreCafé Culture: The New Picture House and its Tearoom
‘A Novel Xmas Party’. St Andrews Citizen, 5th December 1931 On 4 July 1931, the New Picture House (NPH) announced that their ‘magnificent cinema café’ would soon ‘complete Fife’s Super Cinema’. The ‘tastefully furnished’ café was set to add ‘the finishing touch to a truly super-cinema’; the jewel in its entertaining crown. Indeed, it went on to become much more than this, serving as a community hub and multifunctional venue in its own right. Yet the café had less than auspicious beginnings. First...
read more‘Caligari Comes To Town: A decline in impact of the classic German horror?’
In 1949, The St. Andrews Film Society – formerly known as The Dundee and St. Andrews Film Society – relaunched on its own, with an opening performance of Raymond Bernard’s Les Otages. For this opening event at the New Picture House on 20 February, each of the 150 members in attendance were personally greeted by Mr. A. B. Paterson, the original founder of The Byre Theatre and a key figure in St. Andrews’ artistic community. While the society would become an integral part of the town’s artistic community – through its Sunday evening...
read moreMonarch News: Long Live the Cinema!
1943: The allies capture Tripoli from the Nazis; Television Broadcasting continues to be suspended; George Harrison is born; and two St. Andrews students begin their film magazine, Monarch News! The ambitious Monarch – a hand-made magazine – was produced from 1943-1944. Manufactured against the backdrop of war, it provides a valuable glimpse into the period from the perspective of students, prospective film critics and members of the armed forces – all rolled into one. Founded by two St Andrews Students, Rollo Mitchell and...
read moreOne of a Kind: Monarch and Mercury Handmade Film Magazines
In the midst of WWII two St Andrews students came together to produce a series of film magazines. Robert Smart Edwards, aged 19 at the time, studied the arts; while William Rollo Mitchell, aged 20, studied the sciences. They took up the project during an intra-fighting period, while on leave from their studies for WWII service. Due to these circumstances, the publications were produced at Edwards’ home address, 20 Primmer Place, Cowdenbeath. The magazines were handwritten on plain, stapled, paperback notebooks. Monarch News, the first title,...
read moreThe first photography shops in St Andrews
St Andrews may be the first town to ever be fully photographed.[1] Some of those first photographs are still in St Andrews, while reminders of this photographic heritage are littered throughout town. For example, The Adamson bar on South Street takes its name from a celebrated local photographer, John Adamson. Adamson worked with Henry Fox Talbot, who developed the influential “calotype” process of photography, to produce pioneering photographs of St Andrews, which have been exhibited around the world. The stories of Talbot and Adamson...
read more‘But why, oh why, must such praise be sung in cinema?’: The Sunday Evening War Time Meetings, 1939 – 1944
Throughout the years of the Second World War, the tight bonds between two of St Andrews prominent institutions, cinema and church, surfaced strongly.
read moreAn Education on Eisenstein
Utilising the academic setting and mode of address, St Andrews Film Society made a significant attempt to edify their members with the work of Eisenstein in February 1953 when they invited “personal friend and biography author” Miss Marie Seton to present a special lecture.
read more‘Religion and Life’ Week held at the New Picture House
In November 1945, clergymen, educators and University students gather at the NPH as part of 'Religion and Life' week.
read moreEstablishment of the Department of Film Studies
The University of St Andrews establishes a Department of Film Studies
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