Contact: Joe Martin
530.754.5428
Full schedule and images available for download at:
http://www.MondaviArts.org/press
For immediate release:
Mondavi Center Focus on Film Series to Feature
Shakespeare, Hitchcock, and More
September 2, 2008; Davis, California—The Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing
Arts, UC Davis will become a classic “art house” movie theatre on 10 special Monday nights as the
Focus on Film cinema series returns for the 2008-09 artistic season. Focus on Film will feature a set of
films adapting works by William Shakespeare, three classics by the master of suspense, Alfred
Hitchcock, and four films chosen by Academy Award-winning director Paul Haggis, who will visit the
Mondavi Center in May 2009 as part of the Distinguished Speakers series. Each event will feature a
special guest speaker and a post-screening reception.
Focus on Film will begin with Shakespeare in the Cinema, a set of three films including Looking for
Richard, a 1996 work directed by Al Pacino, on October 6; Twelfth Night (2003, Tim Supple) on
October 20; and Throne of Blood (1957, Akira Kurosawa) on November 17. Next up will be
Hitchcock—The Wrong Man Theme, with Spellbound (1945) on January 5; North by Northwest (1959)
on January 26; and Strangers on a Train (1951) on February 23. Closing out the series will be Paul
Haggis Picks, four films the Academy Award-winning writer and director cited as most influential on his
own work. Haggis’ choices are Z (1969, Constantine Costa-Gavras) on March 30; Rashomon (1950,
Akira Kurosawa) on April 13; Breathless (1960, Jean-Luc Goddard) on April 27, and Dog Day
Afternoon (1975, Sidney Lumet) on May 18. All screenings begin at 6:30 pm.
Tickets will become available on September 15 from the Mondavi Center Ticket Office (8.66.754.2787
toll-free) and online at www.MondaviArts.org. Admission is $10 for adults, and $5 for students and
children. Season tickets for all 10 films are available for $75; “CFO” plans of three films may be
purchased for $27.
Focus on Film is presented in association with the UC Davis Department of Film Studies and scheduled
in three units that coincide with the fall, winter, and spring academic quarters. Shakespeare in the
Cinema, scheduled for fall, includes three films examining how the great playwright has been adapted for
stage and screen:
Press line: (530) 754-5428 ▪ mondaviarts.org/press
Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis
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Looking for Richard: Al Pacino directs, plays the lead role in a production of Richard III, and acts
as interviewer in an informal documentary about the making of the production and the relevance
of Shakespeare in modern life. The Shakespeare play features compelling performances by
Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Aidan Quinn, Winona Ryder, Kevin Spacey, Penelope Allen, and
Estelle Parsons. The documentary segments include observations by Sir John Gielgud, Sir
Derek Jacobi, Kenneth Branagh, Vanessa Redgrave, James Earl Jones, and Kevin Kline.
The film is rated PG-13 and runs 111 minutes.
Twelfth Night: Director Tim Supple’s film version of the Shakespeare comedy blends modern
dress and Elizabethan language and brings together some of the best actors working in Britain
today, including Parminder Nagra (Bend It Like Beckham) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty
Things). The film is not rated, and lasts 125 minutes.
Throne of Blood: Legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa sets Macbeth in medieval Japan,
mixing Shakespearean drama and formal elements of Japanese Noh theatre for a unique cinematic
experience. The film is in Japanese with English subtitles. It is not rated and lasts 90 minutes.
The Shakespeare in the Cinema series comes as part of the Mondavi Center’s Season of Shakespeare, an
exploration of the far-reaching influence of the great playwright taking place throughout the 2008-09
artistic season that includes theatre, lectures, music, and more. For more information, please visit
www.MondaviArts.org.
Hitchcock—The Wrong Man Theme will include three films based upon one of the recurring motifs in the
great filmmaker’s oeuvre: that of the innocent person wrongfully accused. The mini-series will include:
• Spellbound: In this psychological thriller, Dr. Edwardes (Gregory Peck) arrives as the new head
of a mental hospital and falls in love with one of his clinicians, Dr. Constance Peterson (Ingrid
Bergman), but turns out to be an imposter and is soon the primary suspect in the real doctor’s
murder. Peterson believes he is suffering from amnesia and can be exonerated if his repressed
memories can be recovered, and she seeks to solve the mystery using psychoanalysis. The film
features memorable dream sequences designed by surrealist artist Salvador Dali. Spellbound is
not rated and lasts 111 minutes.
• North by Northwest: Cary Grant plays Roger O. Thornhill, an advertising executive who is
mistaken for a government agent and blamed for a murder he didn’t commit. Thornhill crosses the
country looking for the spies who framed him, meeting up with Eva Marie Saint’s Eve Kendall
and finding himself in two of the more memorable—and suspenseful—scenes ever put to film as
he is chased by a crop duster and scrambles across the face of Mt. Rushmore. The film is not rated
and lasts 136 minutes.
• Strangers on a Train: In this acclaimed thriller, the sociopathic Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker)
and tennis star Guy Haines (Farley Granger) meet on a train and begin discussing their
problems. After it’s revealed that Anthony wants his father dead and Haines wants to leave his
wife, Anthony suggests they “trade” murders—an idea Haines doesn’t take seriously until he finds
himself falsely accused. The film is not rated and lasts 101 minutes.
Spring 2009 will bring Paul Haggis Picks, a set of four films selected by filmmaker, who has won
Academy Awards for his work writing Million Dollar Baby and directing Crash. Haggis, who will be
visiting the Mondavi Center on May 11 to deliver a lecture entitled From ‘Crash’ to the Valley of Elah:
The Art and Craft of Hollywood, selected the following films as being most influential on his own
filmmaking:
Press line: (530) 754-5428 ▪ mondaviarts.org/press
Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis
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Z: Director Constantine Costa-Gavras uses a gritty documentary style to fictionalize real events
surrounding the death of Greek doctor and politician Gregorios Lambrakis, who was
assassinated by right-wing extremists in 1963. Featuring performances by Yves Montand as the
liberal politician at the center of the tragedy and Jean-Louis Trignanant’s low-key and persistent
police detective, Z is “one of the most potent political films ever made,” said Haggis. “Z serves
not only as a fine example of political agitprop, but is an exciting thriller second to none, and the
editing simply can’t be beat.” The film is in French with English subtitles. It is rated PG and lasts
127 minutes.
Rashomon: Kurosawa retells the story of a rape and murder from four different points of view in
this masterful examination of the subjectivity of truth. The film, a 1953 Academy Award winner,
is among his most influential and surely impacted Haggis’ Crash, which also features different,
interlocking points of view of the same sequences of events. “This is a great study of truth and
human nature, capped by some of the most beautiful cinematography to ever hit a screen,” said
Haggis. Rashomon is in Japanese with English subtitles. It lasts 88 minutes and is not rated.
Breathless: Jean-Luc Godard’s stylish, black-and-white work epitomizes the French New Wave of
the 1960s. It features Jean-Paul Belmondo as a young thief who shoots a policeman then falls in
with a young American woman (Jean Seberg) until the couple’s plans to run away to Italy
disintegrate and they fall into a life of crime. “This film hit me like a ton of bricks when I first
saw it as a young man,” remarked Haggis, who credited Godard for taking his cameras away from
movie sets and into the streets to film in “real life” locations. “Nothing was the same after that,”
said Haggis. “The impact of this film is beyond measure to me. It changed the very way that I
understood what film could be.” Breathless is in French with English subtitles. It is not rated and
lasts 90 minutes.
Dog Day Afternoon: Based on a true story, this film features a great performance by Al Pacino,
whose character, Sonny Wortzik, attempts to rob a Brooklyn bank in order to procure money for
his lover’s sex change operation. The robbery quickly falls apart, and Wortzik and his partner
(John Cazale, who played Fredo Corleone in Godfather II) take hostages, forcing a two-day
standoff with law enforcement that becomes a media circus. The subject matter makes for
gripping drama in the hands of screenwriter Frank Pierson, who won an Academy Award for his
work. “The writing just never disappoints—it’s sharp, witty, lacerating, and hard to pin down,”
said Haggis. “And director Sidney Lumet shows us exactly why he is one of the masters of
American cinema.” Dog Day Afternoon is rated R and lasts 124 minutes.
“Film is one of the greatest art forms of our time—I don’t think a performing arts center program can be
complete without it,” said Don Roth, the Mondavi Center’s executive director. “The Studio Theatre, with
a state-of-the-art digital projector, is a wonderful and intimate viewing room. On these special Mondays,
the Studio becomes a much-needed classic art film house for our region.”
Press line: (530) 754-5428 ▪ mondaviarts.org/press
Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis
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What:
When:
Focus on Film
Looking for Richard: October 6 ▪ 6:30 pm
Twelfth Night: October 20 ▪ 6:30 pm
Throne of Blood: November 17 ▪ 6:30 pm
Spellbound: January 5 ▪ 6:30 pm
North by Northwest: January 26 ▪ 6:30 pm
Strangers on a Train: February 23 ▪ 6:30 pm
Z: March 30 ▪ 6:30 pm
Rashomon: April 13 ▪ 6:30 pm
Breathless: April 27 ▪ 6:30 pm
Dog Day Afternoon: May 18 ▪ 6:30 pm
Where:
Studio Theatre
Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
University of California, Davis
Admission: $10 Adults • $5 Students, Children
Tickets/Info: 530.754.2787
866.754.2787 (toll-free)
http://www.MondaviArts.org
530.754.5402 [TDD]
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Press line: (530) 754-5428 ▪ mondaviarts.org/press