Müpa Film Club – Richard Lester: Help! (1965)

“Rock n’ Roll? It will be gone by June,” wrote Variety Magazine in 1955. That didn’t age well. It happens. In 1962, a record company from Hamburg made little fuss of parting company with a new band that would be playing in front of rabid crowds in Great Britain just a year later. It had something to do with beetles… By 1964, the film A Hard Day’s Night with its four strange mushroom-headed lads was a runaway success. In 1965 – also with Richard Lester directing – they released Help! Anyone who hasn’t seen it might be in for a surprise as Help! is often like watching Monty Python’s Flying Circus, despite the fact the giants of British humour only began their glorious reign in 1969. It’s a cheeky piece of work. Which is perhaps why Lester was later crowned the godfather of the music video genre.