Kent MOMI to close temporarily from 22nd December: New Exhibition announced FOR 2025 & Last call for "PASSPORT TO EALING"

To complete essential collection and exhibition work, we find ourselves obliged to close for 3-4 months from Christmas, with Sunday 22nd December being our last day with usual opening hours. David and Joss have calculated it would take four years to carry out this essential work if we don't, regretfully, bite this bullet.

LAST CALL FOR OUR ACCLAIMED

“PASSPORT TO EALING” EXHIBITION

“Passport to Ealing” celebrates not only Ealing, but the best of British film from the 1940s & 50s, and especially the remarkable posters that resulted when art-lover Michael Balcon took over Ealing Studios, appointing Deal resident, S. John Woods as head of visual publicity. His brief: to commission established and up-and-coming British artists to create film posters with a completely free hand.

If you think you have seen our Ealing exhibition before, there are special features to explore including audio commentaries on key posters; a special exhibit on S. John Woods - by kind permission of his family - and a dedicated cabinet on the art and influences of another very famous artist, and also a Deal resident, Edward Ardizzone.

The museum will re-open, with a new exhibition, to boot --

TERENCE MARSH AND THE

“INVISIBLE ART”

OF PRODUCTION DESIGN

-- as soon as possible in 2025.

A big thank-you to all our visitors and supporters!

Kent MOMI x

NB. All yearly tickets issued will be honoured to account for the pause.

Kent MOMI
'Winter Warmers' - Five Weeks of Silent Comedy Screenings at Kent MOMI

'Winter Warmers' - a five week pre-Christmas season of Silent Comedy screenings begins Friday 17th November

View Screenings and book seats online

In celebration of Kent MOMI’s new Buster Keaton mural, and in the spirit of the wider season of celebration, we present Five Weeks of Silent Comedy delights in the run-up to Christmas.

We are still sourcing some hard-to-find titles, but the programme is as follows:

 

Friday 17th November.  Before and Becoming the Tramp.  Shorts by the Frenchman Max Linder (Chaplin’s “ Professor”), Mack Sennett and the Keystone Corp., “Fatty” Arbuckle”, and Charlie Chaplin – up to and including the “birth” of the Tramp, in 1914. 

 

Friday 24th November.  Chaplin – Triumph of the Tramp.  Three great films, exhibiting all sides of the Tramp persona:  the one-reelers The Pawnshop and Easy Street (both 1916) and Chaplin’s resplendent first feature, “Six Reels of Joy”, The Kid (1921). 

 

Friday 1st December.  Rival Clowns and Other Chaplins.  Chaplin impersonators of 1916-18, collaborators, cartoon rivals, and inheritors, like the gentle and sometimes great Harry Langdon, in his Chaplinesque but very different Three’s a Crowd (1927). 

 

Friday 8th December.  Harold Lloyd: American Everyman.  He found the spectacles, then found the character: the character-condensing short film Never Weaken (1921) and Lloyd’s most daring high-wire act, Safety Last! (1923).    

 

Friday 15th December.  The Genius of Buster Keaton. Shorts, including One Week (1920), the brilliant but less-known short feature Seven Chances (1925), and a surprise or two. 

Please Note:

First come, first served with a limited capacity of 30 places.

Doors open for drinks at 5.30pm. Treats include mulled wine and hot punches, classic cocktails by Dr. Natasha, and small seasonal hot pastries.

 Screenings will average 1 hour 50 minutes. 

All films commence at 6.30pm sharp with a brief introduction.

Screenings are FREE to Kent MOMI yearly ticket holders, but a £5 donation is suggested, to help us keep the lights on.

Museum tickets can be bought at the door, and are valid for a year.

Summer Screen Pleasures

View Screenings & Book Seats Online

Kent MOMI is delighted to announce a new eight-week season of summer movies, every Friday evening from 4th August to 22nd September inclusive. Come and celebrate cinema, summer and the museum’s re-opening!

The weather might not look festive right now, but we have prepared a season of summer-themed films that will bring on a holiday mood.  Come and travel with us across the world (and in time) with eight films selected by, and paired with film-themed cocktails by, Dr. Natasha.

Our opening feature is Billy Wilder’s naughty-but-nice take on one hot summer in Manhattan – and one man’s mid-life crisis: The Seven Year Itch (1955, USA, 105mins).  A middle-aged husband (Tom Ewell, in confession-to-camera mode), left dangerously alone in the steaming-hot city, while his wife and son flee to the country, meets the glamorous young woman who has sub-let the apartment upstairs (Marilyn Monroe in full splendid flight as comedienne, and sporting, in the scene that ended her marriage, the white halter-neck dress that has been voted the most iconic screen costume of all time).  As for the drink of the night … “I’m perfectly capable of fixing my own breakfast,” says Ewell’s character.  “As a matter of fact, I had a peanut butter sandwich and two whisky sours.”

Hm … what inspiration is that?