Skip to Content
Poster for The Horse’s Mouth

The Horse’s Mouth

Director: Ronald Neame Run Time: 97 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 1958

Starring: Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh, Mike Morgan, Rene Houston, Robert Coote

ART SEEN celebrates the Alec Guinness centennial with THE HORSE’S MOUTH! Screening beforehand is frieze video: Cocteau in Soho.

Based on Joyce Cary’s classic novel and written for the screen by Alec Guinness, The Horse’s Mouth brilliantly shows the struggle of artistic creation and how artistic integrity is often mixed with insanity. British painter Gulley Jimson is hell bent on doing things his own way, often to the detriment of his well being and relationships. Frustratingly, most of his artistic visions seem unfulfilled in his paintings until one day he discovers the public wall in which his work can be realized. Criterion says that Guinness “transforms himself into one of cinema’s most indelible comic figures” as he portrays the scruffy, grumpy and lovable Gulley. A comedic and sincere must see!

ART SEEN is in partnership with friezeFeaturing Absolut Vodka Cocktails.