London Philosophy Collective

Goodfellas (stylized as GoodFellas) is a 1990 American biographical gangster film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and produced by Irwin Winkler. It is a film adaptation of Pileggi's 1985 nonfiction book Wiseguy. Starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino, the film narrates the rise and fall of Mafia associate Henry Hill and his friends and family from 1955 to 1980. Goodfellas premiered at the 47th Venice International Film Festival on September 9, 1990, where Scorsese was awarded with the Silver Lion award for Best Director, and was released in the United States on September 19 by Warner Bros. Pictures. When released, the film grossed $47 million against a budget of $25 million and received widespread acclaim. The critical consensus on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes calls it "arguably the high point of Martin Scorsese's career". The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, with Pesci winning Best Supporting Actor. The film also won five awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, including Best Film and Best Director, and was named the year's best film by various critics' groups. Goodfellas is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, particularly in the gangster genre. In 2000, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress. Its content and style have been emulated in numerous other pieces of media.

The All Out of Bubblegum Film Club is like a book club for films. Make sure you watch the film before you attend and then come and join in with the conversation. Please note we will not be showing the film at the meeting.

Philosophy in the Park is a philosophical discussion group. Open to all. No previous philosophical experience necessary.

We will meet at the Baroness Burdett Coutts Drinking Fountain in Victoria Park (East Park). It is marked down as "13" on the official maps found in the park.

Here's how it works:

• At the start of each hour vote on which questions to discuss. You can vote for more than one question if you'd like. The questions with the most votes are the questions we discuss.
• We then break up into groups and each group does a different question. The question is just a starting point and it's cool if you go on tangents and up end talking about different things. You're welcome to join in and participate or if you'd prefer you're welcome to sit back and enjoy the conversation.

After an hour we all come back together, take a quick break and then repeat all over again. So in 3 hours we go around 3 times.

The aim is to have fun, meet new people, generate interesting and thought-provoking conversations, have your horizons expanded, challenge your preconceptions and who knows - you might even learn something?

In order to make the conversations as fun, interesting and productive for everyone as possible please follow these simple guidelines:

1. Keep it Philosophical
   (No Science, no History, no Evolutionary Psychology, no contestable facts, personal anecdotes etc).
2. Think for Yourself
   (No phones, no looking up definitions, no name dropping Philosophers / books you've read).
3. Tangents are Cool
   (Don't worry too much if the subject drifts and you don't answer the question).
4. Keep it Succinct
   (Like this).
5. Be Excellent to Each Other
   (But of course).

Philosophy is about conceptual analysis. It's thinking about thinking. It's not about empiricism or the real world. It's about abstractions, concepts and ideas.

To terms of the right attitude: It's not about debating and trying to win - it's about listening to people and working collaboratively to increase our collective understanding.

No homework or prior knowledge or reading is necessary - simply come and enjoy the discussions.

After the event finishes most people stay. A bunch of us will go to the local supermarket for drinks and snacks. You are very welcome to join us.

If you would like to submit a question please join the Whatsapp group. Question submissions take place on the Thursday before the meeting.

We hope to see you there.

Nice one.

...

Boogie Nights is a 1997 American drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Paul Thomas Anderson. It is set in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley and focuses on a young nightclub dishwasher who becomes a popular star of pornographic films, chronicling his rise in the Golden Age of Porn of the 1970s through his fall during the excesses of the 1980s. The film is an expansion of Anderson's mockumentary short film The Dirk Diggler Story (1988), and stars Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Heather Graham. Boogie Nights premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 1997, and was theatrically released by New Line Cinema on October 10, 1997, garnering critical acclaim. It was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Original Screenplay for Anderson, Best Supporting Actress for Moore, and Best Supporting Actor for Reynolds. The film's soundtrack also received acclaim. It has since been considered one of Anderson's best works and one of the best films of all time.

The All Out of Bubblegum Film Club is like a book club for films. Make sure you watch the film before you attend and then come and join in with the conversation. Please note we will not be showing the film at the meeting.

Dostoevsky’s most revolutionary novel, Notes from Underground marks the dividing line between nineteenth- and twentieth-century fiction, and between the visions of self each century embodied. One of the most remarkable characters in literature, the unnamed narrator is a former official who has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence. In complete retreat from society, he scrawls a passionate, obsessive, self-contradictory narrative that serves as a devastating attack on social utopianism and an assertion of man’s essentially irrational nature.

Available from all good libraries and book shops.

You don't have to have read it to join us - but it'll probably help.