IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is part of Film Society of Lincoln Center celebration of the career of director Norman Jewison
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St.
May 25-30, $9
212-875-5610
www.filmlinc.com
Famed Canadian director Norman Jewison, who will turn eighty-five this July, cut his teeth working on 1950s television variety shows before making two dozen feature films throughout his storied career, from 1963’s 40 Pounds of Trouble through 2003’s The Statement, often dealing with serious social, religious, and cultural issues. Three of his best films, In the Heat of the Night (1967), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), and The Landlord (1970), were just shown at the BAMcinématek series “Movies by Hal Ashby,” as the first two were edited by Ashby and directed by Jewison, the third directed by Ashby and produced by Jewison, but they are also included in the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s upcoming “Norman Jewison: Relentless Renegade.” Running May 25-30 over Memorial Day weekend and costing only nine dollars per screening (and a mere five bucks for the child-friendly 40 Pounds of Trouble), “Relentless Renegade” consists of fourteen of Jewison’s greatest works, and the Protestant octogenarian (no, he’s not Jewish) will be on hand to introduce and/or participate in numerous postscreening Q&As with special guests, including the May 25 screening of Gaily, Gaily (1969) with casting director Lynn Stalmaster, the May 26 screenings of Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) with André Previn and The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming with Robert Osborne, the May 27 screenings of In the Heat of the Night with Lee Grant and Agnes of God (1985) with Meg Tilly, the May 28 screenings of The Cincinnati Kid, Moonstruck (1987) with Olympia Dukakis, and Rollerball (1975) with film executive Michael Barker, the May 29 screenings of Fiddler on the Roof (1971) with lyricist Sheldon Harnick and The Hurricane, and the May 30 screening of The Landlord with Grant and Stalmaster. Jewison worked with some of the best in the business, as this series attests to, with films starring Steve McQueen, Jane Fonda, Al Pacino, Sidney Poitier, Anne Bancroft, James Caan, Rod Steiger, Edward G. Robinson, Denzel Washington, and Faye Dunaway, but despite his success, he lost out all three times he was nominated for a Best Director Oscar, instead getting the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1999.