Cinema Egzotik: Sherlock Night

Egzotik programmer Martin Koolhoven: “We”ve seen numerous Sherlock Homes adaptations, both for the big and the small screen, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jr. as the latest incarnations of the great detective. Tonight we kick off with my personal favourite: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, by none other than Billy Wilder. The film had a troubled production and bombed, but deserves a reappraisal. Followed by an eccentric Holmes interpretation, the Spielberg production Young Sherlock Holmes, released as Pyramid of Fear in the Netherlands and obviously made in the wake of the Indiana Jones blockbusters.”

The Private Life of Sherlock HolmesBilly Wilder (GB 1970) 125”“You see, they're not only midgets, but also anarchists.” It”s one of the hilarious lines spoken in Wilder”s originally three hours long exploration of the possible bromance between top detective Sherlock Holmes (Robert Stephens) and his assistant Dr Watson (Colin Blakely). Might they have been more than just friends? The case to be solved revolves around a husband who vanished in Loch Ness and everything that follows next, including the afore-mentioned midgets and evil Trappist monks. Christopher Lee plays Holmes” brother.+Young Sherlock HolmesBarry Levinson (US 1985) 109”Holmes and Watson as boys in a British boarding school become involved in what will prove to be their first case: it”s a story Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never invented, though it was filmed by Barry Levinson with the respect due to Holmes” creator. Set against a conspiracy of Egyptian gangsters trying to wheedle British businessmen out of their money. “You can get up now, Watson. The war's over.”