Asian Americans in Hollywood: James Wong Howe Ernest Hemingway’s seemingly simple story is brought vividly to the screen by director John Sturges, actor Spencer Tracy, and cinematographer James Wong Howe. Gorgeously shot in early Eastmancolor, the film seamlessly integrated new bluescreen technology, enabling the foreground and background to be captured separately, and earned Howe his seventh Academy Award nomination.
Make Mine Musicals | Judy @ 100 We kick off our Judy Garland centennial celebration, while also providing our monthly entry in the Make Mine Musicals series, with this wartime musical, which provided Judy with her first adult role. Post-film discussion with Michael Lasser.
Conscientious Director: Stanley Kramer Director Stanley Kramer’s multiple award-winning drama explores liberal beliefs by confronting them with a real-life situation. Among the socially prominent citizens of San Francisco are Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy), the publisher of a liberal newspaper, and his wife, Christina (Katharine Hepburn), the owner of a fashionable art gallery.
Masterpieces of Ukrainian Cinema A truly international filmmaker, Sergei Parajanov is responsible for some of the best films in the history of three countries: Armenia, Georgia, and Ukraine. Donations will be collected for ROC Maidan.
Conscientious Director: Stanley Kramer | Judy @ 100 Stanley Kramer’s cinema of social consciousness turns its focus to the causes and effects of fascism. Kramer fictionalizes the Judges’ Trial of 1947, in which German judges and prosecutors were brought in front of a military tribunal for war crimes against their own country.
Masterpieces of Ukrainian Cinema This daring comedy about the misadventures of a “little man” and his camel in a country torn by the Civil War, was banned immediately upon completion as “a nasty lampoon” of the “great historical era” – for the Red Army, the White Army and other military forces of the time were portrayed with equal sarcasm. Donations will be collected for ROC Maidan.
[email protected] Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland are together again in this MGM production featuring melodies by George and Ira Gershwin. The film features splendid choreography by Charles Walters and Busby Berkeley, as well as a musical highlight with Rooney himself playing the piano alongside the Tommy Dorsey band.
Asian Americans in Hollywood: James Wong Howe In one of his signature anti-hero roles, Paul Newman is the title character, a womanizing, self-absorbed son of a Texas cattle rancher (Melvyn Douglas) who destroys his family’s business just as coolly as he seduces the devoted family maid (Patricia Neal, in an Oscar-winning performance).
Asian Americans in Hollywood: James Wong Howe "I'd hate to take a bite out of you. You're a cookie full of arsenic." This is one of numerous memorable lines in a brilliant American cult picture that is, with Touch of Evil, the last of the great films noir, and among the sharpest, most uncompromisingly dark Manhattan street movies—specifically of the old Times Square district—ever made.
Special Event | Director in Person! Join us for a special one night screening of artist Jodie Mack's 16mm experimental film The Grand Bizarre and an accompanying short film. After the films, the artist will join Assistant Curator Gordon Nelson on stage for a Q&A.
Special Event | Director in Person! Fragments of hundreds of films from around the world bring together an ensemble cast of actors with one thing in common: each is no longer alive.
Noir ’47: The Year Darkness came to Light Director Anthony Mann is probably best known for his 1950s westerns, often starring James Stewart, that explore themes found in film noir. In the 1940s, however, he worked within the genre itself and played with the idea of the hero who inadvertently becomes involved in a crime. Mann’s flair for dramatic lighting brings menace to the film, particularly in conjunction with Burr’s vile crime lord.
Brown/ Garbo Director Clarence Brown’s first film with Greta Garbo, Flesh and the Devil, is considered one of the great silent romances. Live piano accompaniment by Dr. Philip C. Carli.
Judy @ 100 Small-town soldier Joe Allen (Robert Walker) meets Alice Mayberry (Judy Garland) on a 48-hour leave in crowded Penn Station when she trips over his foot, breaking the heel off one of her shoes. The Clock serves as Garland’s first dramatic role, breaking her away from the string of MGM musicals she had done previously.
[email protected] Jane Falbury (Judy Garland) is a farmer who receives a surprise visit from her actress sister Abigail (Gloria DeHaven) and Abigail’s theater troupe. Summer Stock was Garland’s final film for MGM and her last onscreen pairing with Gene Kelly.
Brown/ Garbo Based on Michael Arlen’s 1924 best-selling novel The Green Hat, A Woman of Affairs, the film follows childhood friends Diana Merrick (Greta Garbo), Neville (John Gilbert), and David (Johnny Mack Brown), as they rise through the ranks of the British aristocracy. The film had to break all connections from the book—considered too daring in the United States for 1925—including changing the name of the film and renaming all the characters. Live piano accompaniment by Dr. Philip C. Carli.
Make Mine Musicals At the onset of World War II, George M. Cohan (James Cagney), known as “the man who invented Broadway,” comes out of retirement to star as President Roosevelt in the Rodgers and Hart musical, I’d Rather Be Right. Post-screening discussion with Michael Lasser.
Presenting Lily Mars Judy Garland is Lily Mars, a small-town Indiana ingenue who comes from a large family and dreams of performing on the stage. When Broadway producer John Thornaway (Van Heflin) comes to town, he dismisses Lily out of hand, which leads to Lily concocting harebrained schemes to secure an audition.
The New Classics They had us at “hello.” Cameron Crowe’s iconic romance stars Tom Cruise as a sports agent whose world is turned upside down when one of his clients is injured. Loaded with memorable lines and iconic moments, the film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and provided Cuba Gooding, Jr. with the Best Supporting Actor trophy and an equally iconic onstage moment.
