CinéSalon: HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE (Jean Negulesco, 1953)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, May 12, $13, 4:00 & 7:30
Festival runs through May 26
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org
Fox’s first CinemaScope romantic comedy, How to Marry a Millionaire, is not exactly a feminist’s dream, as a trio of gorgeous blonde models concoct a dubious plan to snare rich husbands in très chic 1950s Manhattan. Mastermind Schatze Page (Lauren Bacall), blind-as-a-bat Pola Debevoise (Marilyn Monroe), and far-from-genius Loco Dempsey (Betty Grable) move into a luxury Manhattan high-rise on Sutton Place when the previous tenant, Freddie Denmark (David Wayne), has to suddenly disappear because of tax problems. The three women are going for the gold, so Schatze refuses the constant attention of Tom Brookman (Cameron Mitchell), a man she thinks is a “gas pump jockey” but is actually one of the richest men in the city. Instead, she soon drapes herself all over aging widower and Texas cattleman J. D. Hanley (William Powell), while Loco goes away with married businessman Waldo Brewster (Fred Clark) and Pola takes up with mysterious oil baron J. Stewart Merrill (Alex D’Arcy). But no one ends up with who they brought to the dance in this outdated, old-fashioned, often annoying, yet still fun farce.
Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, and Lauren Bacall go wealthy husband hunting in 1950s romantic comedy
Director Jean Negulesco (Humoresque, Johnny Belinda) tries to inject some class into the proceedings by beginning the film with Alfred Newman conducting the Twentieth Century-Fox Symphony Orchestra performing part of his score for the 1932 film Street Scene before the opening credits. Cinematographer Joseph MacDonald’s (My Darling Clementine, Pickup on South Street) camera lingers over shots of such iconic locations as Rockefeller Center, the George Washington Bridge, and the United Nations as Monroe, Grable, and Bacall seek out a ritzy future built on the wallets of men. Screenwriter producer Nunnally Johnson (The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, The Three Faces of Eve), who based the story on two plays, Zoë Akins’s The Greeks Had a Word for It and Dale Eunson and Katherine Albert’s Loco, includes inside jokes for each of the three female stars, Bacall referencing husband Humphrey Bogart, Grable mentioning hubby Harry James, and Monroe being told that “diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” Just because the filmmakers know the premise is silly doesn’t excuse it for several ridiculous plot twists and its not-so-subtle misogyny. But it all looks great, especially the lead actresses, who are dressed to the nines in dazzling Christian Dior outfits that earned Charles LeMaire and Travilla an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design (Color), so it is appropriate that How to Marry a Millionaire is screening in the French Institute Alliance Française CinéSalon series “Haute Couture on Film,” part of the larger “Fashion at FIAF” festival, being shown May 12 at 4:00 & 7:30; both presentations will be followed by a wine reception, and Wesleyan professor and All We Know: Three Lives author Lisa Cohen will introduce the later show. The series continues through May 26 with Luis Buñuel’s Belle de jour and Deborah Riley Draper’s Versailles ’73: American Runway Revolution.
A groundbreaking work in the history of world cinema, Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali and its two sequels, Aparajito and Apur Sansar, have been meticulously restored by the Criterion Collection and the Academy Film Archive following a nitrate fire in 1993 — the year after Ray was awarded an honorary Oscar on his deathbed — and now are being shown together as “The Apu Trilogy,” running May 8-28 at Film Forum. Inspired by a meeting with Jean Renoir in Kolkata, where Renoir was shooting The River, and watching ninety-nine films in six months while working as a graphic designer for an advertising agency in London, Ray decided to make his first film, adapting Bibhutibhushan Banerjee’s 1929 novel, which he knew well; Ray had contributed illustrations to a later edition of the book. The film took nearly five years to make as Ray faced repeated financing problems, such delays as cattle eating flowers that were needed for an important scene, and a cast and crew primarily of nonprofessionals. Despite all those issues, Pather Panchali is a stunning masterpiece, a bittersweet and captivating tale of a rural family mired in poverty, struggling to survive in extremely hard times. In a small village, Sarbajaya (Karuna Banerjee) is raising her daughter, Durga (Runki Banerjee), a rambunctious teen, and son, Apu (Subir Banerjee), while her husband, dreamer Harihar (Kanu Banerjee), a wannabe playwright and poet, goes off for months at a time, trying to find work in the city. (The actors shared a common surname but were not related in real life.) Sarbajaya is also caring for their elderly cousin, “Auntie” Indir (retired theater actress Chunibala Devi), who walks very slowly, hunched over and with impossibly leathery skin. The family goes about its business from day to day, as the kids play with friends, figure out how they can get something from the sweets man, and hang out with Auntie, who offers a fresh perspective on life. Sarbajaya is embarrassed that she cannot pay back several rupees she owes her relatively wealthy neighbor, who owns an orchard from which Durga steals fruit. It’s a meager existence, but it avoids being completely dark and bleak because of Auntie’s sense of humor and Apu’s wide-eyed innocence. The film is told from his point of view — in fact, the first time we see him, he is lying down, covered, and one of his eyes pops open, dominating the screen. It’s a difficult, challenging life, but there’s always hope.
Named Best First Film at the 2014 Jerusalem Film Festival, Bazi Gete’s Red Leaves is a compelling cinema-vérité-style tale of an Ethiopian Jewish family dealing with a very stubborn patriarch following the death of his wife. The film opens as a man tries to lead a goat to slaughter, an apt metaphor for what might become of seventy-four-year-old Meseganio Tadela (Debebe Eshetu), a solemn survivor of Sudan who suddenly tells his family that he has sold his home and will spend the rest of his life living with each of them in Tel Aviv. So he shows up unannounced at one son’s home, then another’s, leaving behind psychological wreckage that might never be undone. A stubborn man of few words, Meseganio is determined to preserve the old traditions in changing times that are quickly passing him by. His adherence gets him into trouble with his children and grandchildren, who have different priorities. Gete and cinematographer Edan Sasson use a handheld camera that puts the viewer at the Shabbat dinner table with the family as they playfully joke around with one another but afterward reveals Meseganio sitting by himself as everyone else goes on about their life without him. He can’t keep from interfering in his children’s lives, and he sticks his nose in various situations that turn volatile, from a confrontation with his granddaughter Bosna (Ruti Asarsai) to battles with his son Baruch’s (Meir Dassa) wife, Zehava (Hanna Haiela), and his other son, Moshe (Solomon Mersha). “Nothing to live for,” Meseganio’s friend Achenaf (Molla Megistu) says, but Meseganio has plenty to live for, if he would only recognize it. The final twenty minutes, and the wholly ambiguous ending, are heartbreaking and painful as the old man tries to find his way.
