Celluloid Sinatra

An Illustrated talk by Adrian Wootton

Adrian Wootton, CEO of Film London, former artistic director of the London Film Festival and long-time Sinatra aficionado, has curated programmes and written about Sinatra over the last 15 years.In this illustrated talk Wootton gives an overview of Sinatra’s 60-plus years in showbiz and the more than 50 feature films in which he appeared, interspersed with plenty of anecdotes and affectionate stories. The talk was followed by a screening of ‘Some Came Running’, made in 1958 (when Sinatra was at the peak of his career) - one of director Vincent Minnelli’s finest and most stylish melodramas starring Frank, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine,

Never stopping for too long in one place and illustrating various points with both audio and film clips, Adrian puts a particular focus on Sinatra’s films.  Sinatra’s film career ranged from him teaming up with Gene Kelly for three classic MGM musicals, Anchors Aweigh, Take Me Out to the Ball Game and On the Town to his Oscar® winning performance in From Here to Eternity.

Many sides of Sinatra are uncovered including the mercurial creative artist who always liked to be in control (one of his nicknames was Chairman of the Board) to his more well-known public persona which always seemed to involve ‘booze, broads, brawls’ and whispers of connections to the mob to some of the highlights of his movie career. Celluloid Sinatra also reveals who was in the original rat pack and these lesser known stories about ol’ Blue Eyes back up the fact that Sinatra did indeed always do it his way.