THX 1138: A Tribute to Robert Duvall

Director Francis Ford Coppola once praised Robert Duvall as "one of the four or five best actors in the world". No surprise seeing as he played ‘adopted’ son to the Corleone Family in
The Godfather, played a pivotal role in The Conversation and breathed life into the infamous "I love the smell of napalm in the morning". This May we pay tribute to the actor with a
rare screening of George Lucas’s seminal debut THX1138.

Robert Duvall was often mooted as the best actor of his generation – debatable when his contemporaries included friends such as Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford
and Al Pacino! The accolades and awards that he won during his lifetime confirm that he was certainly one of the greatest, even if not as internationally well known.

When he died in February the number of outstanding films on his resume - whether portraying characters in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, Parts I and II, The Conversation (our first Remembrance Sunday) and Apocalypse Now, or pivotal parts in Network, Deep Impact, We Own the Night and his Academy Award-winning performance in Tender Mercies – ran as nothing less than legendary and truly seminal. Rather than screen a familiar epic to pay tribute to Duvall, this May we will screen THX1138, the dystopian sci-fi feature debut by George Lucas, adapted from his student short film.

Citizens are controlled by android police, while emotions and individual thinking are suppressed by pharmaceuticals and sex is prohibited. Compliance is enforced so that inhabitants will execute dangerous tasks, identity is reduced to a code. On release THX1138 received mixed reviews, though within a few short years Lucas changed the landscape of sci-fi filmmaking with Star Wars. This now revered film provides the perfect opportunity to experience ideas that would form both a blueprint to the original trilogy and to many subsequent films and TV series.

Remembrance Sunday celebrates the life and craft of a recently passed cinematic legend. On the first Sunday of each month, we pay tribute to those who have made an impact in front of or behind the camera, and whose work has inspired audiences and helped to shape modern cinema. Devised and introduced by Ilona Cheshire.

Ilona has worked in the film industry for 20 years and counting, across film production, publicity, programming, exhibition and distribution in both the UK and USA.

She has worked for organisations such as the BFI, Cinecittà, HBO and Sikelia Productions, with industry credits that include Hugo and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Ilona was also the first woman to work in the legendary Rough Trade record store, Covent Garden and music supervision is her side hustle, having worked on Vinyl and The Souvenir, parts I and II. 

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