BRATTLEBORO — Epsilon Spires and the Brattleboro Literary Festival team up to present a new series that will showcase film adaptations of banned books.
The first film, Truffaut’s classic “Fahrenheit 451,” will be screened on Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Sanctuary at Epsilon Spires, 190 Main St. Admission is free for anyone who presents a copy of “Fahrenheit 451” at the door or shows a library card from Brooks Memorial Library. The film and book will be introduced by screenwriter and producer Tim Metcalfe and writer and film buff Tom Bedell. Popcorn and refreshments will be provided.
“Fahrenheit 451” is a 1966 dystopian sci-fi film directed by French new-wave auteur François Truffaut, starring Julie Christie, Oskar Werner and Cyril Cusack. Based on the 1953 novel by Ray Bradbury, set within a tightly controlled future where the government deploys “firemen” to incinerate all literature to prevent any independent thinking that books would encourage that could come to question or challenge the established order.
“Fahrenheit 451” presents a disconnected society where technology and media creates a pacifying virtual world far from the disturbing truths of reality. In the novel, Bradbury portrays television and mass media as a distracting veil that obscures real experience and interferes with the viewers’ ability to think deeply about societal issues or act with agency over their own lives. Ironically, “Fahrenheit 451” has faced multiple censorship and banning attempts throughout the years, primarily for vulgarity and discussions about drugs but also for going against religious beliefs.
Tom Bedell is a journalist, book lover and film buff. He began his writing life as a generalist, writing on anything and just about everything. Now over the 1,000 mark in total articles, interviews, essays, book and beer reviews, he has appeared in hundreds of outlets from Reader’s Digest to Billiards Digest, Men’s Health to Cosmopolitan. He has also published poetry in a variety of literary magazines. Past president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, he is the only writer that is a member of both the Golf Writers Association of America and the North American Guild of Beer Writers, both subjects he writes about extensively. Originally from New York, he resides in Williamsville.
Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) was the author of more than three dozen books, including “Fahrenheit 451,” “The Martian Chronicles,” “The Illustrated Man” and “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” as well as hundreds of short stories.
Tim Metcalfe, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, is a screenwriter and producer. His first film, “Revenge of the Nerds,” was released in 1984, and he has been busy penning a new film every year or two ever since. After nearly 30 years of being stuck in traffic in LA, he and his family moved to Vermont and never looked back. Metcalfe lives in Brattleboro.
François Roland Truffaut (1932 – 1984) was one of the founders of the French “New Wave” in filmmaking, and remains an icon of the French film industry.