Bill Murray wished a public farewell to old friend Harold Ramis at this year’s Oscars
SEE IT BIG! COMEDIES
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Sunday, March 30, free with museum admission, 2:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
At this year’s Oscars, after he and Amy Adams presented the nominees for Best Cinematography, Bill Murray said, “Oh, we forgot one: Harold Ramis for Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, and Groundhog Day.” Ramis, the Chicago-born writer, director, and actor who initially gained fame as a member of SCTV, had passed away six days earlier at the age of sixty-nine. While Ramis did not make or appear in the kinds of films that the academy tends to honor, he was part of some of the most entertaining films of the past thirty-plus years. He directed Caddyshack, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Groundhog Day, and Analyze This, wrote or cowrote National Lampoon’s Animal House, Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters, Back to School, and Analyze This, and appeared in Stripes, Ghostbusters, and As Good as It Gets, among others. (Now’s not the time to talk about Stuart Saves His Family, Bedazzled, or Club Paradise.) His work might not have always shown a great deal of depth, but the man knew funny. The Museum of the Moving Image is honoring Ramis with a triple feature on Sunday, March 30, as part of its “See It Big! Comedies” series. The mini-festival begins at 2:00 with one of the most riotous films ever made, Animal House, which gave a whole new view of the college experience while establishing John Belushi’s place in film history forever. Ramis cowrote Animal House, which was directed by John Landis, with Chris Miller and Doug Kenney, who plays Stork (“What the hell are we supposed to do, you moron?”). Amid all the sexual innuendos and gross-out humor are some smart social statements about class, society, power, and the education system.
Neurologist Harold Ramis has some news for weatherman Phil Connors in GROUNDHOG DAY
Animal House is followed at 4:30 by Ramis’s best film as a director, 1993’s Groundhog Day, in which Murray stars as a bitter and cynical local television weatherman who finds himself waking up on the same day over and over, but with the ability to change things, learning how the smallest shift can impact so many people. Despite being very, very funny, the endlessly clever film, which Ramis cowrote with Danny Rubin and in which he appears as a neurologist, also has a sweet love story (with Andie MacDowell). Like its plotline, Groundhog Day can be watched over and over and over again, offering something new with each viewing. The three-pack concludes at 7:00 with the dark caper comedy The Ice Harvest, which Ramis directed from a script by Richard Russo and Robert Benton, based on the novel by Scott Phillips. The 2005 film features John Cusack, Connie Nielsen, and Billy Bob Thornton as characters involved in a mob heist that goes wrong. In a statement shortly following Ramis’s death, Murray, who had had a long falling-out with Ramis, said, “He earned his keep on this planet.” As this triple feature shows, indeed he did.