<<< November 2007 >>>

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

The American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre presents An In Person Tribute to Actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman, November 5 & 6. From his complex supporting characterizations in films like BOOGIE NIGHTS and HAPPINESS to his Oscar-winning turn as Truman Capote, Phillip Seymour Hoffman has proven himself to be one of America’s most versatile actors. Equally at home in comedies (THE BIG LEBOWSKI, FLAWLESS), action films (MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III), and searing character studies (MAGNOLIA), Hoffman exhibits both an unerring sense of taste and a chameleon-like ability to disappear into his roles.

CAPOTE, (2005, Columbia Pictures, 114 min.). Bennett Miller’s procedural about the writing of IN COLD BLOOD is no conventional biopic, but a moving and provocative account of the creative process. In an Academy Award-winning performance, Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays Truman Capote as a charming but ruthlessly self-interested man for whom everything-even friendship and love-is at its core raw material for his art. Chris Cooper and Catherine Keener give rich supporting performances, and Dan Futterman’s literate script is both thrillingly entertaining and unsettlingly dark.

Sneak Preview! THE SAVAGES, (2007, Fox Searchlight). Fortunate to have escaped from the unhappy home of their childhood, the Savage siblings are firmly ensconced in their separate, complicated lives. Wendy Savage (Academy Award® nominee Laura Linney) is a struggling East Village playwright who is involved with a married man and makes ends meet by working as an after-hours temp in the financial district. Jon Savage (Academy Award winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is a writer and college professor in Buffalo who lives an isolated academic life and can’t commit to the Polish woman he has been intimately involved with for years. Despite their emotional handicaps, both of the Savages have so far managed to muddle through their lives. All that changes when a surprise phone call informs them that their father, Lenny Savage (Tony Award® winner Philip Bosco), has developed dementia and can no longer take care of himself. Now, as Wendy and Jon put their already arrested lives on hold, they butt heads over all the decisions that must be made over how to care for their father during his final days. The unfortunate situation brings long dormant conflicts to the surface and forces them to face their past. Despite their quarrels, each of them develops a deeper understanding of what adulthood and family responsibilities really mean. Featuring nuanced performances from an extraordinary cast, THE SAVAGES marks the return of writer and director Tamara Jenkins who won acclaim for the humor and humanity of her previous film, THE SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS. The film stars Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco, Peter Friedman, Gbenga Akinnagbe and Cara Seymour. Discussion following with Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Wednesday, November 7 – 7:30 PM

Sneak Preview!

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, 2007, Miramax, 122 min. A mesmerizing new thriller from Academy Award-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, based on the acclaimed novel by Pulitzer Prize winning American master Cormac McCarthy. The time is our own, when rustlers have given way to drug-runners and small towns have become free-fire zones. When Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds a pickup truck surrounded by a sentry of dead men with a load of heroin and two million dollars in cash still in the back, a chain reaction of catastrophic violence begins that not even the law–in the person of aging, disillusioned Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) – can contain. As Moss tries to evade his pursuers–in particular a mysterious mastermind who flips coins for human lives (Javier Bardem) – the film simultaneously strips down the American crime drama and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily contemporary as this morning’s headline.

Purchase each seminar individually: $20 General; $15 Student/Senior; $12 Cinematheque Member. General admission ticket buyers get both seminars for $35. There is a one hour break between seminars. [Also at the Egyptian on Nov. 17]

SCARLET STREET, 1945, 103 min. Fritz Lang's classic film noir reunited his WOMAN IN THE WINDOW stars Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett and Dan Duryea in a reworking of Jean Renoir's 1931 LA CHIENNE. Robinson's middle-aged bookkeeper and amateur artist becomes hopelessly ensnared by the seductive Bennett and her lover-pimp Duryea. The result is a terse, tense psychological thriller with Robinson's increasing desperation contrasting with his predators unremitting ruthlessness. As with WOMAN IN THE WINDOW, Lang revealed the potential criminal in the average citizen.

The Hypnotic Films of Jean Painlevé!

At the forefront of the Surrealist movement, Jean Painlevé was the director of about 200 short, sharp and luxuriant films, many focusing on aquatic fauna. A loner, though befriended by Vigo, Eisenstein and Artaud, he spent his life in a singularly obstinate pursuit of recording the uncannily familiar behavior of infinitely small creatures, set to scores by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Pierre Henry and Darius Milhaud. Painlevé approaches his subjects with wit and an almost jubilant curiosity. These short, wondrous documentaries are among the great hidden treasures of French cinema.

SCIENCE IS FICTION: THE FILMS OF JEAN PAINLEVÉ, 71 min. One of the first films to use underwater footage, "The Sea Horse," (1934, 14 min.), combines beautiful black & white cinematography and a Darius Milhaud score, with an amazingly dramatic shot of the male sea horse giving birth! "How Jellyfishes Are Born," (1960, 14 min.), underlines the variety of the species, all breeding differently, to music composed by Pierre Conté. "The Sea Urchins," (1954, 11 min.), Painlevé's first color science film, ventures into the forest of spines to reveal breathing, reproductive and feeding habits. Painlevé wrote the music in homage to Edgar Varèse - an organized noise made of pans and forks. "Acera Or The Witches," (1972,13 min.), combines an incredibly gracious choreography of the animal's dances with music composed by Pierre Jansen, with the description of the mating rituals of these hermaphrodite blobs. The extraordinary "Lovelife Of The Octopus," (1965,13 min.), filmed in an aquarium, studies in close-up the breathing, feeding and reproductive processes of the octopus. The music, composed by the founder of electronic music, Pierre Henry, and the poetic narration, give humor and irony to the scientific account of this terrifying animal. "Liquid Crystals," (1976,6 min.), are sensitive to temperature, pressure, humidity and their molecular structure changes shape and color accordingly. For the first time Painlevé synchronizes the images to the music, and not the reverse. The result is an astonishing ballet of light and sound!