BMW develops ‘Origin’ film season with Picturehouse Cinemas (w/VIDEO)

The BMW brand has been synonymous with films ever since the groundbreaking ‘The Hire’ film series of 2001 and 2002, which ignored convention and created the phenomenon now known as online films. Eight short films by critically acclaimed Hollywood directors, were viewed by more than 100 million people and set a benchmark that remains just as untouchable almost a decade later.

BMW has had a long association with the big screen from appearing in James Bond films through to supporting art house pictures from up-and-coming directors and producers.

To celebrate the launch of the new BMW 1 Series, Mark Kermode presents the Origins Film season – a selection of films showcasing great works from the silver screen and exploring the roots from which they originally came. From real life crime epics to classic rites of passage tales, this season takes a fresh look at some movie highlights from the last forty years.

The film season which starts on 19 September, 2011 has been timed to coincide with the advertising campaign that uses the ‘Origins’ theme to underscore the variety of model variants in the new 1 Series.

Just as the new BMW 1 Series Sport and Urban models embody different interpretations of one classic design, the film’s curator Mark Kermode has chosen four pairs of films which explore a single unifying theme in distinct ways.

The theme ‘A Life of Crime’ is explored with screenings of the classic gangster movie ‘Goodfellas’ and Jean-François Richet’s ‘Mesrine: Killer Instinct’ – two films about men seduced by the mythology of crime. Other themes including ‘Rites of Passage’ and ‘Tricks of the Mind’ are personified with films such as ‘Y Tu Mama Tambien’, ‘The Graduate’, ‘Memento’, ‘Adaptation’, ‘A Clockwork Orange’ and ‘Quadrophenia’.

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