Film Forum celebrates Elia Kazan's centenary with three-week series
Film Forum
209 West Houston St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
October 9-29
212-727-8110
http://www.filmforum.org
Born in Turkey and raised in New York City, Elia Kazan became one of the most influential and controversial theater and film directors of the twentieth century. The Tony and Oscar winner made such Hollywood classics as A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, ON THE WATERFRONT, GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS, EAST OF EDEN, PANIC IN THE STREETS, VIVA ZAPATA! and A FACE IN THE CROWD, all of which are part of Film Forum’s three-week centenary retrospective, which concludes with seven days of Montgomery Clift and Lee Remick heating up the screen in WILD RIVER, shown in a new 35mm Scope print. Kazan will ultimately be most remembered, perhaps, for naming names in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, although he defended his decision to do so till the day he died, at the ripe old age of ninety-four. Many of his films deal with social issues emblematic of the American experience and clearly counter to right-wing fear of the spread of Communism, especially in ON THE WATERFRONT and VIVA ZAPATA!; in fact, Keith Olbermann has taken to referring to Glenn Beck as Lonesome Rhodes, the incendiary TV star played by Andy Griffith in A FACE IN THE CROWD. Kazan also worked with the best of the best; among the Hollywood elite on view here are Gregory Peck, John Garfield, Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, James Dean, Richard Widmark, Warren Beatty, Natalie Wood, Vivien Leigh, Anthony Quinn, Fredric March, Gloria Grahame, and Robert De Niro, among many others.
Friday, October 9
and
Saturday, October 10 ON THE WATERFRONT (Elia Kazan, 1954), 1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 7:40 (introduced by script supervisor Roberta Hodes), 9:50
Sunday, October 11 EAST OF EDEN (Elia Kazan, 1955), 1:00, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45, 10:00
Monday, October 12 EAST OF EDEN (Elia Kazan, 1955), 1:00, 3:15, 5:30
Monday, October 12 AMERICA, AMERICA (Elia Kazan, 1963), 8:00
Tuesday, October 13 PANIC IN THE STREETS (Elia Kazan, 1950) 2:45, 6:20, 10:10, and BOOMERANG! (Elia Kazan, 1947), 1:00, 4:35, 8:15
Wednesday, October 14 BABY DOLL (Elia Kazan, 1956), 1:00, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45, 10:00
Thursday, October 15 BABY DOLL (Elia Kazan, 1956), 1:00, 3:15
Thursday, October 15 PINKY (Elia Kazan, 1949), 8:00 (introduced by film historian Donald Bogle) and GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT (Elia Kazan, 1947), 5:45, 10:00
Friday, October 16
and
Saturday, October 17 SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (Elia Kazan, 1961), 2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30
Leigh and Brando heat up the screen in Kazan classic
Sunday, October 18 A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (Elia Kazan, 1951), 2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30
Monday, October 19 A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (Elia Kazan, 1951), 2:00, 4:30, 9:30
Monday, October 19 VIVA ZAPATA! (Elia Kazan, 1952), 7:00
Tuesday, October 20 A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (Elia Kazan, 1945) 1:00, 3:30, 6:00
Tuesday, October 20 MAN ON A TIGHTROPE (Elia Kazan, 1953), 8:30
Wednesday, October 21 A FACE IN THE CROWD (Elia Kazan, 1957), 2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30
Thursday, October 22 THE LAST TYCOON (Elia Kazan, 1976), 2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30
Friday, October 23
through
Thursday, October 29 WILD RIVER (Elia Kazan, 1960), with Kazan’s widow, Frances, introducing the 7:40 screening on October 23
Innovateur Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman follow up the brilliant BEING JOHN MALKOVICH with this adaptation about a screenwriter (Nicolas Cage) and his twin brother (Nicolas Cage) adapting a story based on a book (THE ORCHID THIEF) created by a magazine writer from her NEW YORKER articles about a Florida botanist (Chris Cooper). You’ll never know who or what is real or made up, and that’s a big part of this movie’s charm. However, the last few moments are such a cop-out that it left us pissed off, and not in the way Jonze intended.
Fritz Lang’s staggering achievement is frightfully more relevant than ever these days, with America suffering an economic meltdown and capitalism on the run. In a brilliantly realized futuristic society, Lang pits workers against owners, man against machine, and father against son amid towering stage sets and dazzling special effects. Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel) wants his son, Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), to follow him and run the city, but after meeting Maria (Brigitte Helm), Freder soon understands the plight of the lower classes, setting in motion a battle for control and a fight for freedom. In 1984, Giorgio Moroder famously added a modern soundtrack to a shortened version of the film; here, pianist Ben Model will play live accompaniment to the longer, restored version of METROPOLIS. If you’ve never seen this majestic work, this is a great opportunity.
In 2003, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno revealed their unique form of anti-corporate performance art with THE YES MEN, a documentary in which they go to elaborate lengths to pose as spokespersons for major international companies, making ridiculous announcements that are often taken for fact at conventions and press conferences around the world. Bichlbaum and Bonanno are back fighting corporate crime in THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD, employing what they refer to as identity correction to bring to light wrongs perpetrated on the public by Exxon, HUD, Halliburton, and Dow. They often start by creating fake Web sites that ultimately get them invited to speak at conferences and on business-related television shows, where they make statements and announce new products and programs that are both absurd and revelatory, especially when they apologize for companies that care more about profits than people. The Yes Men have elements of Sascha Baron Cohen’s Borat character, only better dressed and with less bathroom humor, making important points about the state of the world. THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD was the closing-night selection of this year’s Human Rights Watch International Film Festival and will be followed by a reception.
We love this flick. Takashi Miike incorporates claymation and musicals into this terrific tale of the Katakuris, a family that moves to the middle of nowhere to run a country inn. The only problem is that when guests finally arrive, they all end up dead — in bizarre, ridiculous ways — and the father decides to bury them instead of reporting the incidents, in order to protect the inn. Miike (ICHI THE KILLER, AUDITION, THE GREAT YOKAI WAR) masterfully mixes comedy, romance, music, murder, and mayhem in this enormously entertaining and highly original movie that is filled with a never-ending bag of surprises. Don’t miss it. These screenings are part of the 92Y Tribeca’s Takashi Miike series, which includes AUDITION on October 16 and ICHI THE KILLER on October 23 and 29.