| Rider on the Storm: An In
Person Tribute to Director Kathryn Bigelow
An Egyptian Theatre Exclusive!
Native Californian director Kathryn Bigelow
began her artistic endeavors at the San Francisco Art Institute and the Whitney Museum
Independent Study program, She later transferred into graduate work in filmmaking at
Columbia University’s School of the Arts. Her debut feature, THE LOVELESS, a
quirky indie biker film set in the 1950s starring Willem Dafoe, was co-directed with Monty
Montgomery in 1982. NEAR DARK (1987) was Kathryn’s first feature outing on her
own. An indie box office success, it still remains one of the most beloved classic cult
horror films from the 1980s -- romantic, twisted, iconoclastic. With her following
pictures – such unusual character-driven, adrenaline-charged fare as BLUE STEEL,
POINT BREAK, STRANGE DAYS and K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER -- it has became unmistakably clear
that Kathryn Bigelow is not your stereotypical female movie director. She has excelled at
the hardboiled action movie genre and has fearlessly done it without sacrificing her
uncompromising ideas about the impulses that spark her characters to acts of violence and
heroism. Her new edge-of-your-seat suspense film THE HURT LOCKER, about a bomb
disposal team in the midst of the Iraq War, is no exception and has already garnered
ferocious word-of-mouth acclaim. Please join us in welcoming director Kathryn Bigelow
In-Person for the entire weekend, wrapping up with a Sneak Preview of her newest, THE HURT
LOCKER.
Friday, June 5 – 7:30 PM
Director Kathryn Bigelow In-Person! Sneak Preview!
THE HURT LOCKER, 2009, Summit Entertainment, 131 min. Acclaimed director Kathryn Bigelow brings
together realistic action and intimate human drama in a landmark film starring Jeremy
Renner (THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD), Anthony Mackie (WE
ARE MARSHALL), Brian Geraghty (JARHEAD), and co-starring Ralph Fiennes, David Morse,
Evangeline Lilly ("Lost") and Guy Pearce. In the summer of 2004, Sergeant
Sanborn (Mackie) and Specialist Eldridge (Geraghty) are part of a small counterforce
trained to handle homemade bombs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). The job, a
high-pressure, high-stakes assignment that soldiers volunteer for, requires a calm
intelligence that leaves no room for mistakes. When Staff Sergeant James (Renner)
cheerfully takes over the team, Sanborn and Eldridge are shocked by what seems like his
reckless disregard for military protocol and basic safety measures. Is James really a
swaggering cowboy who lives for peak experiences and the moments when the margin of error
is zero – or is he a consummate professional who has honed his craft to high-wire
precision? The men have only 38 days left in their tour, but with each new mission comes
another deadly encounter. As James blurs the line between bravery and bravado, it seems
only a matter of time before disaster strikes. A gripping portrayal of real-life sacrifice
and heroism, and a probing study of the soul-numbing rigors and potent allure of the
modern battlefield. Based on the first-hand observations of journalist and screenwriter
Mark Boal, who was embedded with a special bomb unit in Iraq -- a squad whose members
spoke of explosions as putting you in "the hurt locker." Discussion following with director Kathryn Bigelow and Stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony
Mackie, Brian Geraghty and screenwriter Mark Boal. Trailer
Saturday, June 6 – 7:30 PM
Director Kathryn Bigelow In-Person! Double Feature:
NEAR DARK, 1987, 94 min. Teenage farmhand Caleb (Adrian
Pasdar) is smitten by pale young drifter Mae (Jenny Wright) and ends up
shanghaied by her strange surrogate family (Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, Bill
Paxton, Joshua Miller), who turn out to be a wandering clan of vampires. Caleb’s
father (Tim Thomerson) and younger sister (Marcie Leeds) try to track him
down to no avail. Romance with Mae is paramount in Caleb’s mind -- the question
remains till the very end whether he’ll be able to detach Mae and himself from the
bloodthirsty pack before he becomes totally transformed into a creature of the night.
Director Kathryn Bigelow’s breakout feature skillfully conjures an atmospheric
hybrid of cutting-edge horror, gothic romance and modern western. Trailer
STRANGE DAYS, 1995, 20th
Century Fox, 145 min. Kathryn Bigelow, directing from a script by James Cameron and
Jay Cocks, follows ex-cop Lenny (Ralph Fiennes) through the chaos-ridden streets of
1999 Los Angeles as he hawks his illegal virtual-reality clips on the eve of the
millennium. Obsessing over the loss of his rock singer girlfriend Faith (Juliette Lewis)
to a sleazy promoter (Michael Wincott), Lenny finds two brutal street cops (Vincent
D’Onofrio, William Fichtner) and an unknown psycho killer on his trail.
Lenny’s best friend, chauffeur Mace (Angela Bassett), tries to help, but
Lenny’s dysfunctional lifestyle and crippled emotions jeopardize them both. "…the
ferocious sci-fi whirlwind that Kathryn Bigelow unleashes around this premise explores its
decadent possibilities in a kinetic, daring fashion. As the film vigorously demonstrates,
a black-market trade in the vicarious means thrills without accountability, a world
obsessed with sex and violence, with lurid exploitation treated as valued
commodity…This film's forward momentum never stops as the last hours of 1999 slip
away, hurtling toward the apocalypse with intense, vividly realized foreboding."
– Janet Maslin, The New York Times Introduction to
screening by director Kathryn Bigelow and actor Lance Henriksen. Trailer
Sunday, June 7 – 7:30 PM
Director Kathryn Bigelow In-Person! Double Feature:
POINT BREAK, 1991, Intermedia Film Distribution Limited,
120 min.100% pure adrenaline from director Kathryn Bigelow with Keanu Reeves
as an FBI agent convinced by his partner (Gary Busey) to go undercover in the surf
community to infiltrate a gang of bank robbers wearing masks of ex-presidents Reagan,
Carter, Nixon and Johnson. Reeves soon finds himself falling under the spell of the
philosophical and charismatic gang leader, Bodhi (Patrick Swayze). The L.A.
surf/crime action movie! "There's enough high-octane, heart-racing excitement for
a dozen movies." – Derek Adams, Time Out (London); "Bigelow
is an interesting director for this material. She is interested in the ways her characters
live dangerously for philosophical reasons…Bigelow and her crew are also gifted
filmmakers…surprisingly effective." – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Trailer
K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER,
2002, Paramount, 138 min. Based on a real-life 1961 incident, this nailbiting suspense
thriller directed by Kathryn Bigelow stars Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson
as rival officers on board a defective Soviet nuclear submarine during the height of the
Cold War. Sent into service before it is fully tested, the sub goes into crisis mode while
fathoms deep, and Ford, Neeson and crew rush to repair a faulty reactor in danger of
meltdown, not only to save themselves, but to keep from triggering an international spark
to global war. "…piles up one nerve-racking crisis after another,
interspersed with moments of ethereal, almost otherworldly beauty." – Dana
Stevens, The New York Times; "…a pulse-pounding thriller that brings
one of the Cold War's darkest and deadliest episodes to the big screen." –
Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com Introduction to
screening by director Kathryn Bigelow. Trailer |
