CfP: Eurospy Symposium

Kiss Kiss Kill Kill: A Symposium on the Graphic Art
and Forgotten Spy Films of Cold War Europe.

University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield. 18-19 September 2010

Coinciding with the Kiss Kiss Kill Kill Exhibition, this 2-day, parallel strand
symposium aims to bring together international scholars, critics, collectors, graphic
artists and cinephiles to explore the issues surrounding the European poster art and the
European spy film between 1950-1985.
The conference will explore the relationship between poster art, graphic design and
espionage cinema during the Cold War, while providing an interdisciplinary forum for the
development and appreciation of cult film, literature and the visual arts. The analysis
of graphic art, poster design and rare film will consider ideas around, film archiving,
marketing, European aesthetics, international audience reception, genre and state
politics.
The symposium will also play host to rare film screenings with special guest
appearances. Films secured for screening will include (TBC):
Danger Route (GB Holt 1968)
This screening of a rare 16mm print of Seth Holt’s
magnificent low budget spy thriller made by Amicus will also include Q & A with leading
actor, Richard Johnson.
The Ear aka Ucho (Kachyna CZ 1970)
A rare screening of the Czech masterpiece of state
surveillance and paranoia, shelved for twenty years.
Se tutte le donne del mondo aka Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die (Levin & Maiuri IT
1966)
We are proud to present this ‘Holy Grail’ classic Italian Eurospy title from
a Tarantino-sought-after, super-rare 16mm print from the US.
Konec agenta W4C prostrednictvím psa pana Foustky aka The End of Agent W4C (Vorlícek
CZ 1967)
This Czech fun spy spoof was made just prior to the austere Soviet
“Normalisation” cultural programme initiated in1968 and has been buried ever since.

Keynote speakers include: Matt Blake (author, The Eurospy Guide 2004) Xavier Mendik
(director, The Cult Film Archive, Brunel University) TBC

•       Genre motifs in European Spy Fiilms
•       European regional €˜difference€™ as  visualized in the spy film
•       Espionage storiies as state propaganda
•       The handpainted traadition in film poster design
•       Jet-setting aand exotica ­ an historical appraisal
•       EurEurospy Auteurs
•       Graphic Design and the Spy Fiilm Poster
•       The power of co-production in Euurope
•       Mainstream vs. Indie Spy film 
          Literature to Film Adaptation and Eurospy

          The Kitsch and the Bombastic in Cold War Film and Poster Design
•       Utopian Imagery in Eastern Blocc filmmaking and posters
•       Lithography, off sset litho and the art of printing in cinema
•       advvertising
•       The European-ness of Eurospy

•       Identity, Gender and Sexuality in Eurospy

•       Supermen and Superwoman ­ archetypes in the he Spy genre.
•       Trash Aesthetics of the Spy Fillm
•       The Lo tech/lo brow aesthetic in East Euuropean Poster Design

Abstracts (200--300 words) for twenty-minute papers as well as proposals for one and a
half hour panels should be submitted as an email attachment to d.elliott AT herts.ac.uk by
June 1st 2010. Abstract should be sent in the following format:
Surname as the document title. (1) Title (2) Presenter(s) (3) Institutional affiliation
(4) Email (5) Abstract. Panel proposals should include (1) Title of the panel (2) Name
and contact information of the chair (3) Abstracts of the presenters.
Presenters will be notified of acceptance by the end of June 2010
Visit: www.kisskisskillkill.co.uk/kkkk.html