<<< June 2007 >>>

Discuss this series with other film fans on:
http://www.myspace.com/americancinematheque

Wednesday, June 6 - 7:30 PM

Director Stuart Cooper In Person!

OVERLORD, 1975, Janus Films, 88 min. OVERLORD was the code-name given to the plans for the Allied invasion and liberation of Europe in June 1944. It was also the greatest amphibious undertaking in the history of warfare. Using the Imperial War Museum’s unique collection of documentary and photographic records of the Second World War, director Stuart Cooper has created a monumental backdrop for the simple story of a young soldier, the quiet Tom (Brian Stirner), from induction into the British army to the invasion of the beaches at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Winner of the Berlin Film Festival 1975 Silver Bear. "Disarmingly lyrical…deserves to join the pantheon of essential World War II combat movies!" -- A.O. Scott, The New York Times; "A different kind of war film…OVERLORD combines its newsreel and fictional footage so effectively that it has a greater impact than all fiction, or all documentary, could have achieved." --Roger Ebert, Chicago-Sun Times; "An unbelievable forgotten film…Both a remarkable stylistic stunt and a touching, incredibly intimate drama, it’s a must-see classic." -- New York Magazine Discussion following with Stuart Cooper.

Thursday, June 7- 7:30 PM

Sneak Preview! BROKEN ENGLISH, 2007, Magnolia Pictures; 96 min. Zoe Cassavetes’ directorial debut is a romantic comedy exploring the longing for a relationship. Nora Wilder (Parker Posey), a cynical thirty-year old Manhattanite plugs away at her job in a posh downtown hotel and can't help but wonder what it is she has to do to find a relationship as ideal as her friend Audrey's (Drea De Matteo) "perfect marriage." It doesn’t help that her overbearing mother (Gena Rowlands) takes every opportunity to remind Nora that she's still unattached. After a series of disastrous first dates, she meets Julien (Melvil Poupaud) a seemingly devil-may-care Frenchman with a passion for living. She finds herself in Paris looking to break old patterns. Discussion following with Director Zoe Cassavetes, Parker Posey, other guests to be announced. NOT ON DVD

Wednesday, June 20 – 7:30 PM

Sneak Preview!

EVENING, 2007, Focus Feature, 119 min. Award winning cinematographer Lajos Koltai’s second feature as a director offers a truly extraordinary cast! Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Vanessa Redgrave, Patrick Wilson, Hugh Dancy, Natasha Richardson, Mamie Gummer, Eileen Atkins, Meryl Streep and Glenn Close, breathe life into Susan Minot and Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham's adaptation of the beloved novel Evening. A timeless, universal, and deeply emotional story about the secrets we share and the defining moments of connection between mothers and daughters, family and friends, and the loves of our lives. Opening in theatres on June 29. Discussion following with director Lajos Koltai.

Thursday, June 21 - 7:30 PM

50 Years Ago Double Feature:

12 ANGRY MEN, 1957, MGM, 96 min. Reginald Rose’s 1954 Studio One teleplay is brought to the screen by director Sydney Lumet (NETWORK, DOG DAY AFTERNOON) in his debut behind the camera. Henry Fonda produces and stars as juror number 8, the lone hold-out in a racially-charged jury deliberation. The all-male cast includes stunning performances by Jack Klugman, Lee J. Cobb (as Fonda’s number one foil) E. G. Marshall, Robert Webber, Jack Warden and Ed Begley Sr. Nominated for 3 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. A near perfect film, a true American masterpiece, championed by wonderful characters and dialogue. Sweeny and Voskovec reprise their roles from the 1954 TV broadcast.

WITNESS TO THE PROSECUTION, 1957, MGM Repertory, 116 min. Accused murderer Tyrone Power (in his final film) is defended by ailing barrister Charles Laughton in director Billy Wilder's dark, delightful courtroom nailbiter. Marlene Dietrich as Power's duplicitous spouse helps supply one of the most insanely out-of-left-field twists in any mystery. With great support from Elsa Lanchester, John Williams, Torin Thatcher, Una O’Connor and Ruta Lee. "For a courtroom melodrama pegged to a single plot device -- a device that, of course, everybody promises not to reveal -- WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION…comes off extraordinarily well…and the air in the courtroom fairly crackles with emotional electricity, until that staggering surprise in the last reel…" – Bosley Crowther, New York Times

Memorial Tribute to Cinematographer Freddie Francis – Double Feature:

THE ELEPHANT MAN, 1980, Paramount, 124 min. Based on two books about the real-life Elephant Man, John Merrick, director David Lynch recounts this severely deformed man’s perilous life in Victorian England in breathtaking black-and-white. Sir Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins), rescues Merrick from a circus freak show where he is assumed to be retarded, takes him to a hospital for tests, and discovers that Merrick, in fact, has great intellect and capacity for emotion. John Hurt’s ability to project Merrick’s humanity earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination, along with the film’s seven other nominations including Best Picture and Best Director. Lynch’s use of costumes, makeup, Freddie Francis’ cinematography, and John Morris’ score remain commendably understated, allowing the sadness of the film to avoid sentimentalism. With Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller. "ELEPHANT MAN has the power and some of the dream logic of a silent film, yet there are also wrenching, pulsating sounds--the hissing steam and the pounding of the start of the industrial age. It's Dickensian London, with perhaps a glimpse of the process that gave rise to Cubism."-- Pauline Kael.

THE STRAIGHT STORY, 1999, Buena Vista, 112 min. Director David Lynch reunites with Academy-Award winning cinematographer Freddie Francis. Based on a true story, this is Lynch's most straightforward film, a beautiful and poetic tale of family and American beauty. 73-year-old, Alvin Straight (Richard Fansworth) from Laurens, Iowa begins his odyssey to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin after word comes that his brother has had a stroke. To mend his estranged relationship with his older sibling, Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton), and without a car, he must travel by the only vehicle he owns, an ancient lawnmower. Farnsworth is perfect in his Academy Award-nominated performance and final film. The wonderful and subtle dialogue is by screenwriters John Roach and Mary Sweeney. A great ensemble cast create many memorable characters, including the arguing twins played by Kevin and John Farley. Co-starring Sissy Spacek. "The cinematographer, Freddie Francis, who once made the vastness of Utah a backdrop for THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG, knows how to evoke a landscape without making it too comforting." -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times Director David Lynch will introduce the screening.

Saturday, June 23 - 7:30 PM

70 mm Print! LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, 1962, Sony Repertory, 216 min. The beautiful, near-godlike Peter O’Toole stars as the tortured Man Who Would Not Be King, T. E. Lawrence, who helped the Arabs revolt against European and Ottoman hegemony. Director David Lean’s epic is an absolute masterpiece – as close to perfect as a film can get. Featuring one of the finest casts in any motion picture: Omar Sharif (in his first major English-speaking role), Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins, Claude Rains and Alec Guinness as Prince Faisal. Director of Photography Freddie Young’s 70mm photography is rightly considered to be a work of genius, matched by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson’s screenplay, Maurice Jarre’s stirring score and John Box’s production design. Winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. "When you’re in the desert, you look into infinity … It makes you feel terribly small, and also in a strange way, quite big." – David Lean

Sunday, June 24 - 7:30 PM

Art Directors Guild Hall Of Fame Screening – A Tribute to Boris Leven:

BORIS LEVEN’s (1908-1986) career as an art director started in 1933 as a sketch artist for Paramount, where he learned the craft from the legendary Hans Dreier. He stayed there for three years, believing this was just temporary work until he could start a career in architecture. But moving to 20th Century Fox, he finally found his calling as an art director. His first film for the studio, ALEXANDER’S RAGTIME BAND (1938) earned him his first of nine Oscar nominations. Other nominations included THE SHANGHAI GESTURE (1941), GIANT (1956), THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965), THE SAND PEBBLES (1966), STAR! (1968), THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971) and THE COLOR OF MONEY (1986). He frequently worked with Martin Scorsese and Robert Wise, and his assignments ranged widely from westerns to science fiction to musicals. An Academy Award? winner for his production design work on WEST SIDE STORY (1961), he was a master colorist and achieved his finest work on Technicolor dramas and musicals. He became a freelancer in the early 1950’s and, in 1956, worked on George Stevens’ GIANT, one of the first Hollywood epics to shoot primarily on location.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 1977, MGM Repertory, 163 min. Director Martin Scorsese called it a "film noir musical." A powerful and misunderstood tribute to musical forfathers Vincente Minelli and Stanley Donen, it melds larger-than-life soundstage musicals and kitchen sink realism. Scorsese mainstay Robert DeNiro stars as Jimmy Doyle, a WWII veteran who returns home on V-Day and attempts to pick up Francine Evans (Liza Minnelli) at a huge party. Her career as a singer is on the rise while his inventive saxophone style has not yet caught on. Often improvised, DeNiro's performance comes off like a more musical cousin of Travis Bickle while Minelli soars in the final act. The breathtaking production design is by the legendary Boris Leven, art director of numerous noir films such as CRISS CROSS and SUDDEN FEAR and the classic musicals WEST SIDE STORY and THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Cinematography by Laszlo Kovacs (EASY RIDER, FIVE EASY PIECES). Also features Mary Kay Place, Barry Primus, and Dick Miller.

Wednesday, June 27 - 7:30 PM
An In-Person Tribute to one of the most acclaimed actors of the noir era, Farley Granger, who’ll be making a very rare Los Angeles appearance and signing his autobiography Include Me Out: My Life from Goldwyn to Broadway.

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, 1951, Warner Bros., 101 min. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. A chance encounter on a train triggers an unstoppable race toward double-murder. Hitchcock’s classic thriller is a finely-tuned engine of suspense, taking barely a breath as it steams through a spine-tingling story of fate, coincidence, guilt and psychopathy -- favorite themes of noir writer Patricia Highsmith, whose novel is adapted by the legendary Raymond Chandler. Robert Walker performs in perhaps his most memorable role as the charming, rich, mama’s boy psychopath. Farley Granger is excellent as the tennis champion tormented by his shrewish, estranged wife and trapped in a bizarre murder exchange scheme with Walker. With Ruth Roman. Discussion following with actor Farley Granger. Join us for a booksigning of Include Me Out: My Life from Goldwyn to Broadway at Every Picture Tells A Story (1311-C Montana Ave) at 6 PM with Farley Granger.