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40 YEARS “GET CARTER” IN FANTASPORTO 2012

The Winner of Fantasporto in 1990 with "Black Rainbow" in the categories of Best Film and Best Actress (Rosanna Arquette), Mike Hodges, one of the most important British filmmakers, comes to Fantasporto 2012 to receive the Career Award.
The director and writer who says that " films must have a soul and express the difficult truths of the human condition" is honoured in Porto, on the occasion of the 40thanniversary of the release of his first feature film "Get Carter”, considered by many his masterpiece.

But it would be unfair to reduce the importance of Mike Hodges in the panorama of world cinema just to this brilliant foray into the current of British realism. Mike Hodges has kept a very interesting link to fantasy film in its various subgenres. He accepted the challenge of adapting the classic comic of the 20’s "Flash Gordon" and although it suffered in the hands of the editors to serve the interests of producers, the film carries the legacy of its creator. In the sci-fi field, he directed "Terminal Man", a Michael Crichton adaptation, as well as an alien comedy, "Morons From Outer Space" (also screened in Fantasporto) that also reveal something about the director. In the subgenre of satanic terror, Hodges made a brief passage with "Damien: Omen II" and the psychological thriller is represented by his most dazzling work "Black Rainbow". He wrote and directed this supernatural thriller which tells us the story of a "medium" that seemingly has prophetic powers. But the line between fraud and foretelling is very narrow and can sometimes be quite terrifying.

In a period dominated by the figure of the producer, Hodges cultivated the image of an Author, being too much of a cinephile in times when money ruled the industry, thus limiting his career to just ten movies when he clearly deserved more.

Born in Bristol on July 29, 1932, Mike Hodges had a typical middle-class education and became a chartered accountant. But it took only two years for Hodges to realize that he wanted to do something more creative with his life. In the 1960s he worked on television, directing numerous documentaries, and in the early 1970s began working in feature films, alternating with several TV series and music videos like "Body Language", a foray into the world of Queen.

In this homage Fantasporto screens "Get Carter", the work that launched Mike Hodges to fame. Michael Caine plays Jack Carter, a gangster who returns to London to investigate the sudden death of his brother. The film evokes a society undergoing profound change, capturing a sense of disillusion that marked the replacement of the "idealism of the 1960’s" by the "rampant materialism" of the 70’s. Carter is an ambivalent figure, a seemingly emotionless killer, yet unable to resist mourning the death of his brother.
"Get Carter" acquired a cult-film status, and is considered one of the best and most influential British thrillers. The screenplay was written by Hodges himself, and was adapted from the book of Ted Lewis "Jack's Return Home".
Mike Hodges can be thus considered one of the most significant voices of British cinema that asserts himself as a universal director with unique characteristics.