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F e b r u a r y – M a y 2 0 1 0 A D M I S S I O N : $ 1 2 N on - M e m b e r s / $ 6 M e m b e r s
A Nonprofit Cinema
Since 1970
209 West Houston St. New York, NY 10014
calendar programmed by
BRUCE GOLDSTEIN
FEBRUARY 5-18 TWO WEEKS!
“A MASTERPIECE!
(1985) Literally, Chaos... Resting after a
wild boar hunt among spectacular green
mountainscapes, 16th-century daimyo Tatsuya Nakadai
decides to divide his domain among his three sons,
instructing them with a parable: individually, three arrows
can easily be broken; together, they are strong. And then...
A giant battle between color-coded armies is fought solely
to the great Toru Takemitsu’s plaintive music, culminating
in a single gunshot; an entire castle burns to the ground,
as Nakadai’s glassy-eyed Lord Hidetora staggers down its
steep stone steps; ice-cold, knife-wielding seducer Mieko
Harada stops post-coitus to squash a moth; Hisashi Igawa’s
plotter is so steeped in betrayal that, dared to switch sides,
he cries, “Where could I go?;” a blind man teeters on the
verge of a precipice he can only sense. A decade-long dream
(he had storyboarded the entire film in his own watercolors),
Kurosawa’s adaptation of King Lear proved the master’s flair
for epic sweep and stylistic innovation undimmed at the age
of 75. The culmination of his career — clarified Kurosawa, “I
said culmination, not conclusion.” Four Oscar nominations,
including Best Director, Cinematography, and Art Direction,
with Emi Wada winning for her dazzling, three-years-in-themaking costumes. “More than the brilliant set pieces (the
first big battle scene, an orgy of bloodletting played in almost
total silence) or the stunning images (a single figure in a sea
of grass and rock; a battalion on horseback galloping along
the shore, their herky-jerky movement the effect of shooting
with an ultra-long lens), it’s the shapeliness of the whole
that impresses, as if Kurosawa had held the entire 160
minutes, like a painting, in his mind’s eye.” – Amy Taubin,
Village Voice. “A Lear for our age, and for all time. The shift
and sway of a nation divided is vast, the chaos terrible, the
battle scenes the most ghastly ever filmed, and the outcome
is even bleaker than Shakespeare’s. Indeed the only note
of optimism resides in the nobility of the film itself: a huge,
tormented canvas, in which Kurosawa even contrives to
command the elements to obey his vision. The results are
all that one could possibly dream of.” –Time Out (London).
ALMOST A RELIGIOUS
EXPERIENCE! IT STANDS
OUTSIDE TIME!” – Vincent Canby,
The New York Times
AKIRA KUROSAWA’S
Box Office: (212) 727-8110
E-mail: filmforum@filmforum.org
Victor Fleming
MARCH
5-18
TWO
WEEKS!
Special thanks to Mike Mashon, Rob Stone (Library of Congress); Marilee Womack (Warner Bros.); Todd Wiener, Steven Hill (UCLA Film & Television Archive);
Caitlin Robertson, Schawn Belston (20th Century Fox); Brian Block (Criterion Pictures); Paul Ginsburg, Bob O’Neil (Universal Pictures); Tim Lanza (Rohauer Collection);
Lynn Fero (CBS); Kathryn Zuckerman (Knopf); and Michael Sragow.
Victor Fleming: An American Master, Michael Sragow’s new biography of the director (published by Pantheon), is available
MARCH 5/6 FRI/SAT (2 Films for 1 Admission)
RED DUST
(1932) Raunchily hilarious passion in the jungle, as Saigon
hooker Jean Harlow battles prim socialite Mary Astor for multiwoman rubber planter Clark Gable. “A masterpiece of erotic
choreography.” – Michael Sragow.
Fri 1:00, 4:30, 8:00*
Sat 2:50, 8:00*
MARCH 8 MON (Separate Admission)
THE MOLLYCODDLE
(1933) Jean Harlow’s Lola Burns
— the “IF Girl” — supports sponging
family, endless entourage and
a major Hollywood studio, while
fending off romantic con artist
Franchot Tone and stop-at-nothing
press agent Lee Tracy (see reverse for Lee Tracy festival, Tuesdays,
April 13-May 4). “A cinematic treasure.” – Andrew Sarris.
FRI 2:40, 6:10, 9:40 Sat 1:00, 4:30**, 9:40
*8:00 Fri/Sat shows introduced by Fleming biographer
Michael Sragow
**4:30 show on Saturday is a single feature only
BOMBSHELL
BACK BY
POPULAR
DEMAND!
– Martin Scorsese
“ESSENTIAL VIEWING...
A FILM LIKE FEW OTHERS.”
– Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
“GLORIOUS! JETÉ, DON’T WALK!”
– David Edelstein, New York magazine
Powell &
Pressburger’s
MARCH 7/8 SUN/MON
(2 Films for 1 Admission)
THE WIZARD OF OZ
(1939) “Toto, I’ve a feeling
we’re not in Kansas anymore.” The post-tornado adventures
of Judy Garland’s Dorothy in the magical land of Oz, with pals
Tin Man (Jack Haley), Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), and the Cowardly
Lion (Bert Lahr), are now part of American folklore.
Sun 1:00, 5:10, 9:30 MON 3:40, 9:45*
CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS
Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive in
association with the BFI, The Film Foundation, ITV Global
Entertainment Ltd., and Janus Films. Restoration funding
provided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,
The Film Foundation, and the Louis B. Mayer Foundation.
(1948) “Why do you want to dance?” “Why do you want to live?” Anton Walbrook’s Lermontov is not interested when red-tressed
Moira Shearer desperately wants to join his troupe — but then he sees her dance. And then the Red Shoes ballet, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s tale
of shoes that dance the wearer to death, will be her triumph. But when she finds romance with composer Marius Goring, it’s the eternal battle between
Life and Art. Perhaps the greatest achievement of triply-credited (producers, writers, directors) Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger: a worldwide
smash, Shoes would run 110 straight weeks in New York alone. But in recent years, while relatively decent prints have been in circulation, none have
come close to the brilliance of Jack Cardiff’s legendary original Technicolor photography. UCLA’s Robert Gitt and team have gone back to the damaged
original nitrate materials, including the still-extant three-strip camera negs; his digital restoration led to a negative used to strike this transcendent new
35mm print. “Even if you think you have seen the movie before its restoration, if you’re under 60, you probably haven’t seen it anywhere near its original
Technicolor glory... an insistently designed work of non-naturalism, daubed with startling, unreal, gaudy colors that seem to have been created to blast
away the last traces of wartime drear. The colors in The Red Shoes don’t just exist, they also express.” – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times. “To
view this classic in [its] newly restored print is to experience an epiphany... You’ve simply never seen a deep red like Shearer’s mane when she catches
Walbrook’s eye, or a baby blue the equivalent of his shirt when he offers her the role of a lifetime, or such a lush
forest-green as the train carriage where a Mephistophelean deal is struck. It’s always been essential viewing;
thanks to this hallucinogenically gorgeous restoration, the expressionistic landmark now feels genuinely
life-altering.” – David Fear, Time Out New York. “Passion drives every single, extraordinary moment of
The Red Shoes, and it’s what makes the film’s glorious Technicolor images so forceful and moving... such a
swirl of color and light and sound, all burned into my mind from the very first viewing.” – Martin Scorsese.
1:00, 3:45, 7:00*, 9:35 • AN MGM RELEASE
*Friday’s 7:00 show introduced by Oscar-winning film editor Thelma Schoonmaker,
wife of the late Michael Powell
FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 4 ONE WEEK!
(1926) A divorce lawyer treks off on a hunting trip to get away
from women; only trouble is, the woodsman’s wife is – Clara
Bow! Based on a novel by Sinclair Lewis. “One of the best
showcases for Bow’s pep and
vivacity.” – William K. Everson. Live
piano accompaniment by Steve
Sterner. 6:20 ONLY*
*introduced by Michael Sragow
H
NEW 35mm RESTORATION!
(1937) Overboard from an ocean liner, spoiled rich kid Freddie
Bartholomew is pulled from the drink by Lionel Barrymore’s
fishing ship — but there’s needed mentoring in store from
Portuguese-American
seaman
Spencer Tracy (Oscar, Best Actor).
Adapted from Kipling’s novel.
Sun 3:00, 7:20
MON 1:30, 5:40
*9:45 show on
Monday is a single
feature only
THE FARMER TAKES A WIFE
MARCH 9 TUE (2 Films for 1 Admission)
“A RIVETINGLY COOL, CLEAN THRILLER!”
– Time Out (London)
“A MASTERPIECE OF SEXUAL
CREEPINESS, INSTITUTIONAL CORRUPTION
AND SUFFOCATING, UGLY PASSION!”
– James Ellroy
Joseph
Losey’s
(1942) In the eponymous California fishing village, good-fornothing Spencer Tracy leads the charge of the wine-loving
freeloaders when pal John Garfield finds his jail stint interrupted
by news of a two-house inheritance — which seem to keep
burning down. Adapted from the John Steinbeck novel, with Hedy
Lamarr as Garfield’s hot-tempered flame. 2:45, 6:30, 10:15
A GUY NAMED JOE
(1943) After pilot Spencer Tracy crashes in an aircraft carrier
attack, he gets an after-death mission from “the General”
(Lionel Barrymore): invisibly coach rookie flyboy Van Johnson
— but what if Johnson and Tracy’s
still-grieving love Irene Dunne start
to get together?
Wed 3:15, 7:45 Thu 3:15 ONLY
TEST PILOT
(1924) Ship’s captain Rod La Rocque puts his hand over a
burning lamp to prove he “ain’t yellow,” then makes a desperate
choice in the midst of a storm at night, in a truly hairraising,
how’d-they-do-it?, pre-CGI climax. 4:00, 7:20*
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner
GONE WITH THE WIND
(1939) Mega-epic adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s megabestseller, with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh ideally cast as
Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara. Oscars for Best Picture,
Director, Actress, Screenplay,
etc., etc. “The apotheosis of the
Hollywood film.” – David Shipman.
Sat/Sun 3:00*, 7:30
Mon/Tue 1:30 ONLY
*Molly Haskell, author of
Frankly, My Dear: “Gone with the
Wind” Revisited, will introduce
the 3:00 show on Sunday
MARCH 13/14 SAT/SUN (Separate Admission)
THE WIZARD OF OZ 1:00 ONLY
THE VIRGINIAN
HULA
MARCH 17/18 WED/THU
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
(1941) Spencer Tracy’s doc turns into evil alter ego Hyde, with
a sadomasochistic seduction of Ingrid Bergman’s Cockney
barmaid and a nightmare of being drawn in a chariot by
Bergman and uppercrust fiancée Lana Turner. Perhaps most
disturbing adaptation of Robert Louis
Stevenson’s classic.
Wed 1:10, 3:20, 7:50, 10:00
THU 1:10, 3:20, 5:30
MARCH 17 WED (Separate Admission)
HULA
(1927) “You ain’t seen it all till you
watch Clara Bow do her naughty
wiggle!” Hawaiian hula-hula girl Bow resorts to nude swimming,
drunken dancing, and dynamite to win stiff-upper-lipped engineer
Clive Brook. “Short and snappy.” – William K. Everson. Live piano
accompaniment by Steve Sterner. 6:15 ONLY
MARCH 18 THU (Separate Admission)
JOAN OF ARC
(1948) When Ingrid Bergman’s Joan starts to hear voices, she’s
not going insane — she’s going to save France. A pet project for
Bergman after her Tony-winning triumph in Maxwell Anderson’s
play, this was Fleming’s final film, a lavish production that won
two Oscars (costumes, Technicolor photography) among seven
nominations. Preservation funded by The Film Foundation.
7:40 ONLY*
*introduced by film critic Pia Lindstrom, daughter of
Ingrid Bergman
MARCH 11 THU (2 Films for 1 Admission)
WHEN THE CLOUDS ROLL BY
(1929) “When you call me that, SMILE,” suggests ranch
foreman Gary Cooper to slimy poker-faced opponent Walter
Huston’s Trampas. Adapted from Owen Wister’s 1902 novel.
Fleming’s first, completely assured, sound feature. 6:00, 9:30
WOLF SONG
(1929) 1840, and trapper Gary
Cooper comes down from the
mountains and proclaims “I want
a gal to dance with me” at a Taos
fiesta — and up steps Lupe Velez!
And the stars (off-screen lovers,
too) engage in a sexiness contest
— but can an innate wanderer settle
down? Live piano accompaniment
by Steve Sterner. 7:45 ONLY
MARCH 15 MON (2 Films for 1 Admission)
WHEN THE CLOUDS ROLL BY
(1919) Douglas Fairbanks is hand-picked for a mind control
experiment, then falls in love with a girl from “the wilds of
Greenwich Village,” in archetypal screwball comedy highlighted
by a surrealistic nightmare and awe-inspiring hurricane climax.
Directorial debut for Fairbanks’ cameraman Fleming. Live piano
accompaniment by Steve Sterner. 7:30 ONLY*
*introduced by Michael Sragow
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 MINUTES
(1931) The real-life Fairbanks in mile-a-minute, joking-to-thecamera form, as he narrates the travelogue of his round-theworld trip with Fleming and other pals, complete with a bizarre
dream sequence and a Pirandellian conclusion. 6:00, 9:10
JOAN OF ARC
MARCH 26-APRIL 1 ONE WEEK!
(1951) “I’m not any worse than anyone else,” protests Van
Heflin’s uniformed cop Webb Garwood (“as gabby and depraved as
a Jim Thompson character” – Philippe Garnier). But when he and his
partner take a prowler call and find neglected wife and failed actress
Evelyn Keyes (Scarlett’s sister in Gone With The Wind and the thenMrs. John Huston) alone in an echoing Spanish house, even as her d.j.
hubby declaims on late night radio, Heflin suddenly has law-breaking
on his mind. But after hubby has been eliminated in an “accident”
and Heflin’s got the girl, the money, and now that motel he’s always
dreamed about, she’s pregnant with... whose baby? (Censor Joseph
Breen complained of the picture’s “extremely low moral tone, with
emphasis on almost animal-like instincts and passion.”) Co-scripted
uncredited by blacklisted Hollywood Ten member Dalton Trumbo,
designed uncredited by (later blacklisted) John Hubley, shot by
three-time Oscar winner Arthur Miller, and produced by Sam Spiegel
(Lawrence of Arabia, etc.), Prowler was shot fast — 17 days — with
its finale in a Mojave Desert ghost town, where the dead man’s
voice — on a forgotten tape — echoes eerily. “Losey’s first deeply
personal and unmistakable film, a bleak parable on the restless
urge in postwar America to get ahead...the fusion of Film Noir with
an adult intelligence...The first Losey film in which we feel a keynote
of vision: the interaction of place and character, and the way in
which the camera can move through space with the human figures.”
– David Thomson. “In his approach to filmmaking, in his analysis
of human behavior and in the scale of his themes, Losey is already
the von Stroheim of the postwar cinema.” – Paul Mayersberg. “One
of the best films of 1951. A tabloid melodrama of sex and avarice
in suburbia, out of James M. Cain by Joe Losey, featuring almost
perfect acting by Evelyn Keyes as a hot, dumb, average American
babe who takes up with an amoral rookie. Sociologically sharp on
stray and hitherto untouched items like motels, athletic nostalgia,
the impact of nouveau riche furnishings on an ambitious ne’er-dowell, the potentially explosive boredom of the childless, uneducated,
well-to-do housewife with too much time on her hands.” – Manny
Farber. “[This restoration] brings back Losey’s most successful
American picture in all its primal, glorious ooze.” – L.A. Weekly.
Preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Funding provided
by the Film Noir Foundation and the Stanford Theater Foundation.
Special thanks to Eddie Muller and David W. Packard.
NEW 35mm
RESTORATION!
“THE POSTMODERN MASTERPIECE OF THE 90s!”
– David Fear, Time Out New York
“THE Most important film of the last decade!”
– Godfrey Cheshire, NY Press
Abbas Kiarostami’s
CLOSE-UP
NEW 35mm PRINT!
(1990) A reporter frantically going door to door to bum a tape recorder for his Big Story; a middle-class
Teheran family falling for semi-employed movie nut Hossein Sabzian’s spur-of-the-moment impersonation
of acclaimed film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Kandahar) on a crowded bus; a fraud trial over a phony
movie project, the arrest seen twice from different perspectives, including the bleakly staring arrestee’s;
and the real Makhmalbaf appearing in person via motorcycle at the jailhouse door — what’s real and what
isn’t in the first of Abbas Kiarostami’s Chinese box blurrings of documentary and ...? Kiarostami filmed
the real-life trial, the good-sport major participants — including the suckered family and painfully sincere,
passionately movie-crazed Sabzian — played themselves in reenactments; with the climax pure vérité,
complete with in-and-out sound recording thanks to a balky mike. Cannes Palme d’Or winner for Taste of
Cherry, Kiarostami’s oeuvre has been compared at various times to Satyajit Ray, Jacques Tati, and Vittorio
De Sica — but is ultimately uniquely his own; this was in a way his ode to cinema. “Part nonfiction essay,
part neorealist drama and totally revolutionary, Kiarostami’s live-or-Memorex portrait doesn’t break
vérité rules so much as make them irrelevant.” – David Fear, Time Out New York. “The must-see Iranian
Godardian knot of a movie, Close-Up has artichokelike layers that, once peeled, are forever resonant.
His unpredictable, and unpredictably moving, investigation into the silent collision between genuine
experience and cinema isn’t only about the viewer’s perspective, but about Kiarostami’s own...Close-Up
takes questions about movies and makes them feel like questions of life, death, and meaning.” – Michael Atkinson, Village Voice.
“So subtly transmutes our normal sense of what movies can do that we are ultimately left defenseless against the extraordinary
power of its final scenes, which are as transcendent — and as shrewd — as anything in cinema.” – Godfrey Cheshire, NY Press.
“The greatest documentary about filmmaking ever made.” – Werner Herzog. “Kiarostami’s films are extraordinary. Words can’t
relate my feelings. See his movies and then you’ll see what I mean.” – Akira Kurosawa.
20th
Anniversary
Anniversary!
Bob
Rafelson’s
“ONE OF THE BEST AMERICAN FILMS! A MASTERPIECE
OF HEARTBREAKING INTENSITY!” – Roger Ebert
CODE OF THE SEA
(1938) “You’re a funny-looking
gazebo,” remarks Myrna Loy
when daredevil Clark Gable force
lands on her Kansas farm — and
then faithful friend Spencer Tracy arrives as usual to pick up the
pieces. Only teaming of the three super-stars.
Wed 1:00, 5:30, 10:00 Thu 1:00 ONLY
1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 7:40, 9:50
No 7:40 Show on Monday, March 22
(see bottom right for Special Event)
40th
(1934) “Pieces of eight! Awwwk!” Shrieking parrots, secret
treasure maps, peg-legged sea cooks, mutinies, stockade
battles, hairy castaways, all seen through the eyes of Jackie
Cooper’s Jim Hawkins, with Wallace Beery as a very colorful
Long John Silver. Too-little-known adaptation of Robert Louis
Stevenson’s classic. 2:00, 5:20, 8:35
MARCH 13/14/15/16 SAT/SUN/MON/TUE
MARCH 19-25 ONE WEEK!
“A HALLUCINATORY FILM NOIR!
LOSEY’S BEST FILM!” – Dave Kehr
(1930) When trying-to-go-straight Constance Bennett takes a
job at a fancy home, it’s time to play hitting on the maid, with
scion Lew Ayres leading the charge. “Has the sharp trajectory of
a feminist crusade.” – Sragow. 6:00, 9:00
TREASURE ISLAND
MARCH 10/11 WED/THU (2 Films for 1 Admission)
MANTRAP
“TRULY THE MOST BEAUTIFUL
TECHNICOLOR FILM EVER MADE!
A vision that has never been matched!”
COMMON CLAY NEW 35mm PRINT!
TREASURE ISLAND
(1935) Henry Fonda’s not looking for trouble on the Erie Canal,
but Charles Bickford’s always spoiling for a fight, and for boat
cook Janet Gaynor, it’s love at first sight. Fonda’s film debut.
1:00, 4:45, 8:30
MARCH 6 SAT (Separate Admission)
Dazzling New 35mm Restoration!
(1921) Called on to treat a hypochondriac widow, a “mentalist”
(shrink) realizes it’s really her daughter Constance Talmadge
who needs his help. Co-written by Anita Loos. Live piano
accompaniment by Steve Sterner. 7:45 ONLY
MARCH 12 FRI (2 Films for 1 Admission)
THE FARMER TAKES A WIFE NEW 35mm PRINT!
25th anniversary
FEBRUARY 19-25 ONE WEEK ONLY!
MAMMA’S AFFAIR
(1920) Raised-in-Europe Douglas Fairbanks is kidnapped to
the Wild West, then takes on “hopped-up” Hopis and heinous
diamond smuggler Wallace Beery. “An enchanting mixture of
sprightly comedy and lively action.” – William K. Everson. Live
piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner. 7:50 ONLY
TORTILLA FLAT
NEW 35MM PRINT!
MARCH 16 TUE (2 Films for 1 Admission)
BOMBSHELL
1:30, 4:30, 7:30 A RIALTO PICTURES RELEASE
Starring Tatsuya Nakadai
for sale at our concession during the series.
Starring
Jack Nicholson
(1970) “Hold it between your knees.” Supremely alienated oilfield roustabout/piano virtuoso Jack Nicholson (as Bobby Eroica
Dupea), on the run from his well-bred roots, dallies with both blue-collar waitress Karen Black (the name on her uniform is “Rayette”)
and his brother’s classy fiancée Susan Anspach; bowls with buddy Billy “Green” Bush (wived by Fannie Flagg, author of Fried Green
Tomatoes); gives a ride to motor-mouthed hitcher Helena Kallianiotes and a lesson in highway greasy spoon etiquette to a rule-ridden
waitress; tries to reconcile with his stroke-silenced dad; and tosses off a few other easy pieces by Chopin. Long-time Nicholson pal
Carole Eastman (Adrien Joyce) expanded on three sketches by director Rafelson, ultimately basing the character on both Nicholson
and her brother, with scenes based on actual occurrences, for “the best American film for years... Nicholson’s performance was
one of the great charismatic ones” (David Shipman). Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Supporting Actress
(Black). “Rafelson calls our attention to the grimy life textures and the shabby hopes of these decent middle Americans. They live in a
landscape of motels, highways, TV dinners, dust, and jealousy, and so do we all, but they seem to have nothing else. The movie is
joyously alive to the road life of its hero. We follow him through bars and bowling alleys, motels and mobile homes, and we find
him rebelling against lower-middle-class values even as he embraces them. In one magical scene, he leaps from his car in a
traffic jam and starts playing the piano on the truck in front of him; the scene sounds forced, described this way, but Rafelson
and Nicholson never force anything, and never have to. Robert Eroica Dupea is one of the most unforgettable characters
in American movies.” – Roger Ebert. “It’s a striking movie, eloquent, important, written and improvised in a clear-hearted
American idiom that derives from no other civilization, and describing as if for the first time the nature of the familiar American
man who feels he has to keep running because the only good is momentum.” – Pauline Kael.
1:30, 3:30, 5:40, 7:50, 10:00 A SONY PICTURES REPERTORY RELEASE
1:30, 3:30, 5:40, 7:50, 9:50
A JANUS FILMS RELEASE
MONDAY, MARCH 22
THE DOCKS OF NEW YORK
& Selected Shorts in the National Film Registry
(1928, Josef von Sternberg) Dock worker George Bancroft
marries — or does he? — waterfront hooker Betty Compson
after rescuing her from suicide, in Sternberg’s first
expressionist masterpiece, inducted into the National Film
Registry in 1999. Established in 1988, the Registry each year
selects twenty-five “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant
films” for preservation by the Library of Congress. Daniel Eagan,
author of America’s Film Legacy: the Authoritative Guide to the
Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, will introduce
tonight’s program, which also includes selected silent and sound
shorts from the Registry. Print courtesy UCLA FIlm & Television
Archive. Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner. 7:45 ONLY
SPECIAL
EVENT!
Presented in association with
UCLA Film & Television Archive
and the Film Noir Foundation
3
APRIL 2 – 8 ONE WEEK!
4 (plus Monday, April 19)
Tuesdays April 13-May
Y
LEE TRACter
1968),
than Lee Tracy (1898-
“Possibly the greatest
achievement of both Murnau
and the silent film!”
Nobody talked fas
Page’s
the role of The Front
but then, as creator of
dard
stan
gold
the
was
ay, he
Hildy Johnson on Broadw
— a role
und
sho
new
30s
pal
for Hollywood’s archety
sip
ery of wily press agents, gos
interchangeable with his gall
hucksters.
and
,
men
con
s,
ster
shy
columnists, politicos,
– Pauline Kael
APRIL 9/10 FRI/SAT
N EW
3p5rmm
(1951, Billy Wilder) “I can do big news, small news, and if
there’s no news, I’ll go out and bite a dog.” In Wilder’s
most venomous attack on American greed, cold-blooded
reporter Kirk Douglas exploits a doomed man trapped in a
cave-in. Inspired by the actual 1925 Floyd Collins case — the
real reporter won a Pulitzer. “Etched in acid and steeped in
bile...with Douglas spitting zingers as if they were bullets.” –
Manohla Dargis, NY Times. 1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 7:40*, 10:00
*Friday’s 7:40 show introduced by Brooke Gladstone,
co-host of NPR’s On the Media
int!
APRIL 15 THU (Separate Admission)
Thursdays APRIL 15 & 22
HOUSEKEEPING
NEW 35mm Print!
& A Conversation
with Bill Forsyth
Bill
Forsyth
SPECIAL
EVENTS!
(1987) Pacific Northwest, 1950s: orphaned
Sara Walker and Andrea Burchill are “rescued”
by a relative they’ve never met: Christine Lahti’s
Aunt Sylvie, whose kookie lifestyle proves not
all fun and games. Forsyth’s first American film,
based on the novel by Marilynne Robinson.
“Very strange, but wonderful.” – Time Out
(London). Following the screening, Jim Healy,
assistant curator at George Eastman House in
Rochester, will interview award-winning Scottish
director Bill Forsyth onstage about his films,
including Local Hero and Gregory’s Girl (see
April 22, right). 7:15
Special thanks to Jared Sapolin, Grover Crisp, Helena Brissenden (Sony Pictures); Mike Mashon, Rob Stone (Library of Congress);
Paul Ginsburg, Bob O’Neil (Universal Pictures); Caitlin Robertson, Schawn Belston (20th Century Fox); Marilee Womack (Warner Bros);
Peter Langs (IPMA); Fleur Buckley (BFI, London); Ben Barry (Ben Barry Films); Ross Klein (MGM); Brian Block (Criterion Pictures);
Mary Tallungan (Disney); Matthew Fisher (HBO); and Barry Allen, Kathryn Brennan, Chase Schulte (Paramount Pictures).
APRIL 13 TUE (2 Films for 1 Admission)
BLESSED EVENT
LEE
TRACY
(1932, Roy Del Ruth) The apotheosis of Lee Tracy, here machinegunning his way through a raucous send-up of Walter Winchell,
and attaining utter delirium when he talks Allen Jenkins through
his own imagined electrocution. 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00
ADVICE TO THE LOVELORN NEW 35mm PRINT!
(1933, Alfred Werker) After reporter Lee Tracy drunkenly sleeps
through an earthquake, he’s demoted to writing the sob sister
column — which becomes a Good Spot to Be In when his fedup girlfriend Sally Blane writes in for advice. Loosely based on
Nathaniel West’s Miss Lonelyhearts. 2:40, 5:40, 8:40
ACE IN THE HOLE
APRIL 11 SUN (2 Films for 1 Admission)
GREGORY’S GIRL
APRIL 22 THU (2 Films for 1 Admission)
GREGORY’S GIRL
(1981) Desperate after an 8-game losing
streak, a Glasgow school soccer team accepts
a hotshot female player; and although demoted
to goalie, teenage knucklehead Gordon John
Sinclair falls hard, but there’s behind the
scenes feminine conspiracies en route. British
Oscar, Best Screenplay.
1:30, 5:20, 9:10
(1983) Off to buy up
the coastal village of
Furness for a refinery,
Texan Peter Riegert finds
himself falling in love, even as astronomy-loving
boss Burt Lancaster arrives via helicopter
to clinch the deal. But crusty beachcomber
Fulton Mackay has a counterproposal. British
Oscar, Best Director. 3:15, 7:05
APRIL 12 MON (2 Films For 1 Admission)
FRONT PAGE WOMAN
(1935, Michael Curtiz) Romance curdles when reporter George
Brent won’t admit that sob sister Bette Davis is as good a newshound, and then the scoop duel begins, through an execution,
apartment fire, missing person, stabbing murder, faked notguilty verdict, and barroom confession. 1:00, 4:15, 7:40
MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM
(1933, Michael Curtiz) Nosy reporter Glenda Farrell stops at
nothing to find out exactly what’s in those wax dummies, while,
screaming her greatest scream, Fay Wray unmasks the villain,
with Lionel Atwill as the oh-so-mild-mannered museum owner.
Shot in early (two-color) Technicolor. 2:40, 6:05, 9:20
Non-Profit Org.
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Paid
209 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014
Permit #3
New York, NY
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
GREGORY’S GIRL 1:30, 5:20, 9:10
LOCAL HERO 3:15, 7:05
APRIL 23 FRI (2 Films for 1 Admission)
WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS
(1956, Fritz Lang) Loco “Lipstick Killer” John Barrymore Jr.
emerges as the most sympathetic character by default, as
reporters Dana Andrews, George Sanders, and Thomas Mitchell
go nuts in a killer-finding contest
instigated by conniving publisher
Vincent Price — and what is that
picture Ida Lupino’s leering at?
2:50, 6:30, 10:15
(1940, Boris Ingster) Amid a wild
nightmare montage, a reporter
gets second thoughts about having
ticketed hapless Elisha Cook Jr., to the death house — and was
that mysterious stranger... Peter Lorre? 1:00, 4:40, 8:25
APRIL 24 SAT
THE FRONT PAGE
(1931, Mervyn LeRoy) Tabloid editor
Edward G. Robinson’s gloating over
skyrocketing circulation turns to glassshattering horror when mortality ensues
over defrocked clergyman Boris Karloff’s
latest exposé. “Together with The
Front Page, the best of the hard-hitting newspaper melodramas
of the early 30s.” – William K. Everson. 1:30, 5:30, 9:30
APRIL 22 THU (2 Films for 1 Admission) SPECIAL EVENT
STRANGER ON
THE THIRD FLOOR
THE FRONT PAGE
FIVE STAR FINAL
LOCAL
HERO
HOUSEKEEPING
New York
ed to two legendary
This series is dedicat
Sidney Zion
Tallmer and the late
newspapermen: Jerry
(1931, Lewis Milestone) Cynical reporters, corrupt politicos, boneheaded cops, sensation-seeking editors, and a murderer in a
roll-top desk: the first, most faithful, and most purely cinematic
adaptation of Hecht & MacArthur’s classic, with Adolphe
Menjou’s Walter Burns and Pat O’Brien’s Hildy Johnson keeping
the wisecracks, insults, and un-p.c. slurs flying at machine
gun pace. “The greatest newspaper comedy of them all.”
– Pauline Kael. Remade as His Girl Friday
(see April 24). 3:30, 7:30
1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 7:40, 9:50
A CRITERION PICTURES RELEASE OF A TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM
BU LLD OG
EDITION
ALL 35mm PRINTS!
FILED BY BRUCE GOLDSTEIN
ACE IN THE HOLE
(1927) Subtitled A Song of Two Humans: the idyllic marriage of George O’Brien and Janet Gaynor is
threatened when he falls for a cigarette-smoking, jazz-loving vamp from the city — so hard that he
starts contemplating murdering his wife. F.W. Murnau and his screenwriter Carl Mayer were given
an almost unlimited budget and artistic freedom for their first Hollywood picture, creating a nearly
title-less visual poem. From the seduction scene in the misty, moonlit marshes, to the carnival-like
trip to the city, to the hairraising storm on the lake, this is a work of photographic pyrotechnics, from
cameras moving on rails set in the roof of the set, to the lights of the city shimmering on the waters of the lake at night,
to pictorial evocation of sounds and cries, in the last gasp of the silent film. Under Murnau’s direction, Charles Rosher
and Karl Struss won the very first Oscar for cinematography; while Janet Gaynor won Best Actress (for this and two other
films); plus a never-repeated award for “Unique and Artistic Production.” “Simply put, there’s before Sunrise and after
it... It’s easily the most modern film of the silent period...you can see Murnau not only obliterating the
barriers of cinema’s vocabulary but also constructing a new, sophisticated language before
your very eyes.” – David Fear, Time Out New York. “Silent cinema reaches its acme with
the movement of Murnau’s camera through the vaporous fields of an invented America.
Superimpositions and dissolves achieve an almost mythical state of deliquescence.
Light not only flows but melts. Thirty years after its release, the ultimate cinephile
magazine Cahiers du Cinéma declared Sunrise ‘the single greatest masterwork in the
history of cinema.’ It’s an assertion as reckless, romantic, and extravagant as the
movie itself.” – J. Hoberman, Village Voice. Original Musical Score.
KS! H
6 H FOUR WEE
APRIL 9 – MAY
All the fil ms
fit to sho w
R
E
P
A
P
S
W
E
N
E
TH
PICTURE
in Antarctica –
free elsewhere
F.W. MURNAU’S
Express
¢
APRIL 14/15 WED/THU (2 Films for 1 Admission)
DEADLINE U.S.A.
(1952, Richard Brooks) Editor Humphrey Bogart battles two
deadlines: one to get the goods on mobster Martin Gabel, the
second — to do it before his paper is sold out from under him.
Filmed at the Daily News offices on 42nd
St. Wed 3:35, 7:25 Thu 3:35 ONLY
(1940, Howard Hawks) High-octane editor Cary Grant bulldozes
one last scoop from soon-to-be-remarried (to Ralph Bellamy!)
reporter/ex-wife Rosalind Russell, in gender-transposed version
of Hecht and MacArthur’s The Front Page (see April 11).
1:30, 3:30, 5:40, 7:50*, 10:00
* 7:50 show introduced by Randy Cohen, “The Ethicist”
of The New York Times Magazine
(1956, Mark Robson) Ex-sportswriter
Bogart (in his last film) opts for fight-fixing
Rod Steiger’s bucks as he promotes notalent Mike Lane to the championship
— but Max Baer has other ideas. From
Budd Schulberg’s novel based on the career of Primo Carnera
(who sued), kayoed in real life by ... Max Baer.
Wed 1:30, 5:20, 9:10 Thu 1:30, 5:20
APRIL 15 THU (Separate Admission) SPECIAL EVENT
NEW 35mm Print!
& A Conversation with Bill Forsyth
7:15
APRIL 16/17 FRI/SAT
ROXIE HART
(1942, William Wellman) When publicity-hungry Ginger Rogers
gets herself accused of murder, it’s time for Adolphe Menjou’s
“mouthpiece” to orchestrate the gam-flashing courtroom
shenanigans. Musicalized decades later as Chicago. “Quite one
of the best comedies of the forties.” – William K. Everson.
Sun 1:30, 4:35, 7:50 Mon 1:30, 4:35
THE BIG CLOCK
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PARK ROW
(1952, Samuel Fuller) NYC, 1886: editor-publisher Gene Evans
piles up the scoops — including the lowdown on Steve Brodie’s
Brooklyn Bridge jump — even as he introduces newsstands,
bylines, and the linotype. Self-financed labor of love for exnewspaperman Fuller. 1:00, 4:40, 8:10
THE BIG CLOCK
(1948, John Farrow) Monomaniacal magazine mogul Charles
Laughton orders Crimeways editor Ray Milland to track down
a murderer — with all clues pointing to Milland himself. “Will
remind you of Graham Greene and Hitchcock, with a dash
of Hammett and Ambler.” – David Shipman. 2:50, 6:20, 9:50
APRIL 19 MON (2 Films for 1 Admission)
THE STRANGE LOVE OF
MOLLY LOUVAIN
APRIL 27 TUE (3 Films for 1 Admission)
THE POWER OF THE PRESS
APRIL 18 SUN (2 Films for 1 Admission)
LEE
TRACY
NEW 35mm PRINT!
LEE
TRACY
(1943, Lew Landers) Really venal editor Otto Kruger stops at
nothing — even murder — to keep his rag’s isolationist stance,
with copy editor Lee Tracy doing his bidding, until... Based on a
story by Sam Fuller. 1:15, 5:35, 9:50
(1942, George Stevens) Spencer Tracy’s down-to-earth sports
columnist pairs with Katharine Hepburn’s renowned political
columnist — and sparks fly, in the first of
a nine-film, quarter-century partnership.
Oscar-winning screenplay by Michael Kanin
and Ring Lardner, Jr. 3:20*, 7:40
THE PHILADELPHIA STORY
(1940, George Cukor) Katharine Hepburn’s
spoiled rich girl Tracy Lord casually enchants
Spy reporter James Stewart (Oscar, Best
Actor), who’s covering her second marriage,
while ex-hubby Cary Grant waits in the wings.
“One of the essential American comedies.”
– David Thomson. 1:10, 5:30, 9:50
*3:20 show introduced by writer James Lardner,
son of co-screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr.
APRIL 20 TUE (2 Films for 1 Admission)
DOCTOR X
LEE
TRACY
(1933, Michael Curtiz) “Synthetic flesh! Synthetic flesh!”
Amid the eerie oranges and greens of two-strip Technicolor, scoopsniffing Lee Tracy trails the cannibalistic “moon murderer,” with
love interest Fay Wray in fine scream. 1:00, 4:05, 7:15, 10:25
THE NUISANCE
(1933, Jack Conway) Ambulance chaser Lee Tracy, aided by accident
faker Charles Butterworth and his hard-boozing mentor doc Frank
Morgan, wins one outrageous court case too many, so it’s time for a
trap baited by private eye Madge Evans. But... 2:35, 5:40, 8:50
APRIL 21 WED (2 Films for 1 Admission)
(1952, Robert Wise) On-the-run editor John Forsythe stops to
record his story before getting to the Kefauver Committee in
D.C.: a divorce action leads to a major bookie, leads to murder
before speeding car and brick wall, leads to realization of
rampant corruption. Rich semi-doc Noir. 1:35, 5:25, 9:15
MAY 3 MON (3 Films for 1 Admission)
OKAY AMERICA
(1932, Tay Garnett) ... barks Winchellesque columnist Lew Ayres
on his nightly broadcast, while solving the kidnapping of the
President’s friend’s daughter on the side. 1:10, 5:30, 9:45
THE FINAL EDITION NEW 35mm RESTORATION!
MAY 4 TUE (2 Films for 1 Admission)
THE BEST MAN
LEE
TRACY
(1964, Franklin J. Schaffner) Decent candidate Henry Fonda is
pitted against stop-at-nothing ultra-right-winger Cliff Robertson
in the presidential race, but which one will feisty ex-prez Lee
Tracy endorse? Tracy’s sole Oscar-nominated performance was
his swan song. Screenplay by Gore Vidal. 1:00, 4:30, 8:00
WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
NEW 35mm RESTORATION!
(1932, James Cruze) Pre-Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, as
Congressman Lee Tracy teams up with the Bonus Army
to expose a lobbyist/bootlegger/murderer. Adapted from
muckraker Drew Pearson’s bestseller by poetic playwright
Maxwell Anderson. 3:00, 6:30, 10:00
NIGHT MAYOR New 35mm Restoration!
(1932, Ben Stoloff) Hizzoner Mayor Lee Tracy fends off those
darn reformers, while romancing showgirl Evelyn Knapp. Takeoff on playboy NYC Mayor Jimmy Walker — who resigned two
weeks after the premiere. 4:10, 8:25
ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN
MAY 5 WED (2 Films for 1 Admission)
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
(1934, Frank Capra) During breaks from a New York-bound
Greyhound bus ride, only the “walls of Jericho” separate scoophungry newshound Clark Gable from runaway heiress Claudette
Colbert. Oscars for Best Picture,
Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay
(Robert Riskin). “Made audiences
happy in a way only a few films in
each era can do... the Annie Hall of
its day.” – Pauline Kael.
2:00, 5:40, 9:20
(1932, William Wellman) Lee Tracy and gal Friday Ann Dvorak
spectate as nympho actress/heiress Francis Dee pursues gossip
monger Douglas Fairbanks Jr. — and then there’s this murder.
“The Broadway scene at its sleaziest.” – Clive Hirschhorn.
1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00
(1948, H enry H athaway ) ...if
you’ve got new evidence on
Richard Conte’s 99-year murder
rap. Chicago Times reporter
James Stewart scents a story
when he finds the ad’s been
placed by Conte’s still-hoping
Mom. Based on an actual case.
3:20, 7:10
WOMAN OF THE YEAR
(1934, Marshall Neilan) On the run when he’s robbed of a racetip sucker’s C-note bet, “horse medium” Tracy finds himself
involved with Helen Mack and infant legend Baby Leroy. Based
on Damon Runyon story. 2:45, 7:00
LOVE IS A RACKET
CALL NORTHSIDE 777
MAY 2 SUN (2 Films for 1 Admission)
THE LEMON DROP KID NEW 35mm PRINT!
(1932, Michael Curtiz) Even reporter Lee Tracy’s got an angle
as Ann Dvorak, stuck with an illegitimate kid, must fend off
both him and killer Leslie Fenton. “As a thorough heel, Tracy
creates such a dynamic screen character that even the last-reel
reformation seems thoroughly logical and convincing.” – William
K. Everson. 2:30, 5:30, 8:30
THE CAPTIVE CITY
(1957, Alexander Mackendrick) “Match me, Sidney,” barks Burt
Lancaster’s Winchellesque gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker
to Tony Curtis’ sycophantic publicist Sidney Falco, in the
quintessential portrait of The Great White Way. Clifford Odets’
stylized dialogue is now legendary, as are Elmer Bernstein’s
jazz score and James Wong Howe’s glistening location-shot
cinematography. 1:30, 3:30, 5:40*, 7:50, 9:50
*5:40 show introduced by V.A. Musetto of the New York Post
(1931, Alfred Santell) Tabloider Linda Watkins and “legit” James
Dunn find romance even as they battle for scoops, including
the diary of an adulterous love suicide and the rescue of a
kidnappee. 4:05, 8:20
(1941, Frank Capra) Gary Cooper gets recruited as the John
“I’m going to jump off City Hall” Doe, invented for circulationboosting campaign by would-be fascist Edward Arnold and sob
sister Barbara Stanwyck; but when he takes the role seriously,
it’s time for several bluffs to be called. 7:50 ONLY
Michael & Donna Sternberg
Susan Talbot
Anonymous (2)
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
SOB SISTER NEW 35mm PRINT!
MEET JOHN DOE
Private contributors
$50,000 & Above
MAY 1 SAT
(1932, Howard Higgin) So, did slow-fused city editor Pat O’Brien
fire reporter Mae Clarke for incompetence or because she
refused to marry him? Oh well, there’s still the murder of the
new police commissioner to solve. 2:40, 7:00
APRIL 26 MON (Separate Admission)
F e b r u a r y – M ay 2 0 1 0
(1952, Phil Karlson) Color that journalism yellow, as
hard-driving editor Broderick Crawford uses a double murder to
tack up circulation, then finds that cub reporter/protégé John
Derek has mastered the art of sensationalism all too well. From
Sam Fuller’s novel The Dark Page. 1:00, 4:35, 8:10
HIS GIRL FRIDAY
(1941, Orson Welles) From its Gothic opening at looming Xanadu,
through its conflicting accounts of a news magnates’s public
rise and private fall, to its legendary final shot, this is still the
most electrifying acting/directing debut in screen history. “More
fun than any great movie I can think of.” – Pauline Kael. Plus an
episode of The March of Time, parodied in Kane as News on the
March! (courtesy HBO) 1:40, 4:20, 7:00, 9:40
Film Forum Fest Runs April 9 – May 6
George Brent and Bette Davis in Michael Curtiz’s
Front Page Woman (April 12)
SCANDAL SHEET NEW 35mm PRINT!
(1937, William Wellman) Carole Lombard learns she isn’t dying
of radium exposure, but why give up that all-expenses-paid trip
to Gotham courtesy Human Interest-mongering reporter Fredric
March? Ben Hecht poisonly penned this send-up of cheap
sensationalism, shot in early 3-strip Technicolor.
Sun 3:00, 6:05, 9:20 Mon 3:00, 6:05
ROXIE HART
Revivals &
Repertory
(1963, Samuel Fuller) Journalist Peter Breck, with eyes
on a Pulitzer, commits himself to an insane asylum, then
— amid a ward full of “nymphos,” an African-American
KKKer, and a Korean vet who thinks he’s a Civil War
general — starts going nuts himself. #5 on Godard’s ’63
Top 10. Preservation funded by The Film Foundation.
2:40, 6:15, 9:50
APRIL 25/26 SUN/MON (2 Films for 1 Admission)
CITIZEN KANE
THE NEWSPAPER PICTURE
www.filmforum.org
tickets online 7 days
in advance!
SHOCK CORRIDOR
NOTHING SACRED
THE HARDER THEY FALL
HOUSEKEEPING
HIS GIRL FRIDAY
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
APRIL 30 FRI (2 Films for 1 Admission)
THE STRANGE LOVE OF MOLLY LOUVAIN
APRIL 28/29 WED/THU (2 Films for 1 Admission)
MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN
(1936, Frank Capra) Gary Cooper’s “pixillated” Vermonter
Longfellow Deeds inherits $20 million — and then he’s whisked to
Park Avenue before he knows what hit him. No wonder newspaper
gal Jean Arthur dubs him “Cinderella Man.” Screenplay by Robert
Riskin. Wed 3:15, 7:10 Thu 3:15, 9:40*
PLATINUM BLONDE
(1931, Frank Capra) Smarttalking newspaperman Robert
Williams breaks the heart of
reporter chum Loretta Young
when he weds socialite Jean
Harlow — a class-crossing that
gets him tagged “Cinderella
Man,” in Capra & Riskin’s
Deeds prototype.
Wed 1:30, 5:25, 9:20
Thu 1:30, 5:25
*Note: 9:40 show on
Thursday is a single feature
IT HAPPENED
TOMORROW
(1944, René Clair) It’s sensational
scoops and a killing at the races for 1890s reporter Dick
Powell when a mysterious old man keeps handing him copies
of tomorrow’s paper ... but — wait a minute — whose death is in
that headline?! With Linda Darnell, Jack Oakie. 4:00, 7:40
MAY 6 THU
ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN
(1976, Alan J. Pakula) Just a “third rate burglary” at Democratic
Party HQ at the Watergate, but then Woodward and Bernstein
(Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman) of The Washington Post
follow it up right through ‘Deep Throat’ to
Nixon’s White House, with editor Jason
Robards (Oscaring as Ben Bradlee)
cheering them on, in hit adaptation of
the team’s smash bestseller.
1:30, 4:10, 6:50, 9:30
APRIL 29 THU (Separate Admission)
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT
(1941, Alfred Hitchcock) Windmills turning against the wind, an
assassination by camera amid a sea of rain-splashed umbrellas
and a mid-ocean plane crash, as the eponymous Joel McCrea
tangles with a spy ring in pre-war Europe. “The climax has never
been surpassed.” – Andrew Sarris. 7:15 ONLY
MEET JOHN DOE