What's On / Proms Plus

Proms Films

This season's six Proms Films include celebrations of three of the most important composer anniversaries of 2008 - those of Vaughan Williams, Messiaen and Stockhausen - including the 1948 film Scott of the Antarctic (for which Vaughan Williams wrote the soundtrack), taking you to the South Pole in time for Vaughan Williams's Sinfonia antartica later in the season. In a lighter vein, there are animal frolics in the BBC-commissioned animation of Janácek's opera The Cunning Little Vixen.

Films are screened at the Royal College of Music's Britten Theatre, just across the road from the south side of the Royal Albert Hall. Admission is free and unticketed: doors open half an hour before start-time.

Saturday 2 August, 1.00pm
Music Masters: Stockhausen (48 mins); In absentia (23 mins). Double bill introduced by Robert Worby. (Before Prom 20)

A special double bill to celebrate Stockhausen Day. In Music Masters, Charles Hazlewood talks to Stockhausen about his life and work, with archive footage of the composer in rehearsal and performance. The second film, In Absentia, is one of four specially BBC-commissioned films in which Stockhausen worked with celebrated stop-motion animators the Quay Brothers, providing a score for their short film about obsession and loss.

Proms Family Film
Friday 15 August, 1.00pm-2.30pm
The Cunning Little Vixen (58 mins). (Before Prom 40)

Janácek's opera, inspired by the 1920s cartoon strip Vixen Sharpears, returns to its roots in the hands of innovative animator Geoff Dunbar, who brings fresh life to this charming opera in collaboration with Kent Nagano and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester. In this new edition, the story of Sharpears unfolds a tale of love, death and rebirth which will appeal to audiences of all ages. Introduced by Geoffrey Chew.

Sunday 17 August, 1.00pm
Messiaen: La liturgie de cristal (88 mins). A film by Olivier Mille introducing Messiaen's musical universe through a series of archive clips filmed between 1964 and 1987. In French with subtitles.(Before Prom 42)

Olivier Messiaen is perhaps the most original phenomenon of twentieth-century music. He was the most performed composer of his lifetime, and, amongst his French colleagues, enjoyed the widest international acclaim.

The Crystal Liturgy recreates the universe in which Messiaen evolved. Numerous archival clips, filmed between 1964 and 1987 - predominantly of Messiaen discussing his methods and creative processes - have been brought together to create a self-portrait, illustrated with a great number of excerpts from his oeuvre. Introduced by Peter Hill.

Sunday 24 August, 1.00pm
'O Thou Transcendent' (148 mins). Tony Palmer's new biopic of Vaughan Williams, the first full-length documentary on the composer. Introduced by the director. (Before Prom 50)

With many of those who knew and worked with him, including the Gloucester Cathedral Choir, conducted by Andrew Nethsingha; archive performances by Boult and Barbirolli; newly discovered interviews with Vaughan Williams himself; specially recorded extracts from the Symphonies, Job, The Lark Ascending and of course The Tallis Fantasia; and unexpected contributions from Harrison Birtwistle, John Adams, Richard Thompson, Mark Anthony Turnage, Barbara Dickson, Michael Tippett & Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys.

Monday 25 August 1.00pm
Scott of the Antarctic (106 mins). Introduced by Anthony Payne. (Before Prom 53)

Sir John Mills is Captain Scott in a thrilling account of the dangerous 1912 expedition to conquer the South Pole. Scott's intrepid team were beaten by Norway in the arctic race and the heroic journey ended in catastrophe. But the bravery of the ill-fated explorers as they battled blizzards on the treacherous glaciers captured the hearts of the British public and became a legend.

Tuesday 9 September 5.15pm
Beyond the Score (Duration tbc; film produced May 2008). Introduced by Martha Gilmer, Vice President for Artistic and Audience Development, Chicago Symphony Orchestra. (Before Prom 72)

Discover Shostakovich's Symphony No.4 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Beyond the Score film, which offers an examination of the score - its context in history, how it fits into the composer's output of works, the details of Shostakovich's life that influenced its creation - sharing the illuminating stories found 'inside' the music. Written and created by the CSO's creative director, Gerard McBurney, live musical examples are called upon to illustrate the structure of the work.