Category: Newsletters

If you’re looking for something Non-football related to do over the next few days, check out what’s going on over at the Harvard Film Archive! sean

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At the Harvard Film Archive February 1 – February 7, 2008 Arthur Penn, American Auteur February 1 – February 4 Arthur Penn in person February 1 and February 2! Director Arthur Penn in person Special Event Tickets $10 The Chase Friday February 1 at 7pm Penns first great masterpiece is also one of his darkest works, a portrait of small town America as a festering backwater stagnant with avarice, envy and racism. Marlon Brando is magnificent as the weary sheriff appointed by a small towns corrupt patriarch and reluctantly assigned to capture a misunderstood fugitive, played by Robert Redford. As night descends, debauched house parties boil over into a frenzied carnival of raw violence that tears apart the flimsy façade of cracker barrel hospitality erected by the town elders. With an impressive line-up that includes Angie Dickenson, Jane Fonda, James Fox, Bruce Cabot and Miriam Hopkins, The Chase boasts an ensemble cast that draws from both Old and New Hollywood. Directed by Arthur Penn. With Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford US 1966, 35mm, color, 135 min. Screening with The Tears of My Sister In 1953, Penn directed two live television dramas from scripts by Horton Foote, The Death of the Old Man and The Tears of My Sister. The broadcasts mark the beginning of Penn’s work for live television, which would culminate in The Miracle Worker and launch Penn’s film career, as well as the beginning of a partnership with Foote that would be renewed with The Chase (based on Foote’s play and subsequent novel). The Tears of My Sister is narrated by a young girl, whose voice we hear but do not see, played by Kim Stanley, as she watches her older sister struggle with the pressure to marry a man she does not love. Directed by Arthur Penn. With Kim Stanley, Katherine Squire, Frank Overton US 1953, video, b/w, 30 min. Little Big Man Saturday February 2 at 3pm A remarkable adaptation of the Thomas Berger novel, Penns epic recasting of American history blends dark satire with ribald comedy to crack open the myths of the tamingof the Western frontier. Dustin Hoffmans hilarious and heart-wrenching portrait of the stumbling anti-hero, Jack Crabb, brings a poignant vulnerability to Bergers story of the little manswept along by the forces of history. Often cited as one the finest of the revisionist Westerns, Little Big Mans potent outrage over the cruel massacre of Native Americans echoed loudly during the Vietnam War. Directed by Arthur Penn. With Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Martin Balsam US 1970, 35mm, color, 150 min. Director Arthur Penn in person Special Event Tickets $10 Night Moves Saturday February 2 at 7pm One of the strongest of the film noir revivals popular during the 1970s, Night Moves pushes the genre to a bleak point of no return. Gene Hackman is wonderfully cast as a disillusioned Los Angeles detective hired to track down a washed out movie stars daughter while also trying to understand the mystery of his own rapidly disintegrating marriage. Night Moves sinister tale of conspiracy and intrigue powerfully evokes the Watergate-era and stands as one of the quintessential American films of the 1970s. Directed by Arthur Penn. With Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Susan Clark US 1975, 35mm, color, 100 min. Followed by Mickey One Strangely underrated, Penns wonderfully offbeat and inventive film is an extraordinary tour de force and one of his most stylish and satisfying works. Warren Beatty gives a brilliant turn as Mickey, a stand-up comedian on the lam who descends, like Orpheus, into a strange back alley underworld that just might be of his own invention. At turns haunting and comic, Mickey One offers a mysterious allegory of fear and redemption that features gorgeous photography by Robert Bressons favorite cinematographer, Ghislain Cloquet, and an improvised soundtrack by jazz great Stan Getz. Directed by Arthur Penn. With Warren Beatty, Alexandra Stewart, Hurd Hatfield US 1965, 35mm, b/w, 93 min. And The Hightest from Visions of Eight In Penns cinema the human body is frequently explored as expressive medium, with gesture, posture and movement taking on a new level of meaning and subtlety in his filmsoften more expressive than even dialogue. Penns contribution to the eight-part omnibus film of the 1972 Tokyo Olympics is a wonderful study of the body in motion that follows the thrilling trials of the pole vaulting competition. Directed by Arthur Penn. US/West Germany 1973, video, color Alices Restaurant Sunday February 3 at 3pm Loosely based on Arlo Guthries spoken ballad, Alices Restaurant is Penns first and only credit as a screenwriter. A lament to the end of the countercultural revolution,Penns film vividly evokes the hopes and dreams burnished by the hippie generation. Guthrie himself stars as a wandering soul perplexed by the strange contradictions of America during the Vietnam-era and ultimately engaged in a peaceful one-man battle against the bureaucratic war machine. Effused with a melancholy spirit, Alices Restaurant is one of Penns gentlest and most poignant films. Directed by Arthur Penn. With Arlo Guthrie, Pat Quinn, James Broderick US 1969, 35mm, color, 111 min. Bonnie and Clyde Sunday February 3 at 7pm One of the pivotal films of the 1960s, Bonnie and Clyde is also a wonderful portrait of amour fou, with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the eponymous heroes whose pursuit of love and larceny scars a dark arrow across the heart of America. Penns brilliant evocation of the Depression-era and Americas most notorious bandits caused a scandal for its unusual counterbalance of comedy with a new level of graphic violence hitherto unseen in American cinema. Directed by Arthur Penn. With Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman US 1967, 35mm, b/w, 111 min. Followed by The Left Handed Gun Totally ignored by American critics when it was first released, The Left Handed Gun was recognized as a major first film by the French, who noted the films sensitive portrait of troubled youth and its disturbing vision of violent America. Originally conceived as a vehicle for James Dean, Penns debut explores the first in a line of social outcasts that recur throughout Penns cinema, reinventing the legendary figure of Billy the Kid as a sympathetic misfit unable to integrate into a society deliberately cruel to those who are different. Paul Newman subtly captures Billys fragile, troubled life in a nuanced performance that frequently replaces words with resonant and unexpected gestures. Directed by Arthur Penn. With Paul Newman, Lita Milan, John Dehner US 1958, 35mm, b/w, 105 min. The Miracle Worker Monday February 4 at 7pm Penns first real recognition as a director came from his screen adaptation of the beloved play which he had successfully directed twice on Broadway. For the screen, Penn beautifully captured the tenderness and terror that united Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, played with great sensitivity and power by Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft, respectively. The Miracle Worker is a key work in Penns oeuvre, the film that perhaps makes clearest the concern for non-verbal communication and expressive gestures that runs throughout his films. Directed by Arthur Penn. With Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke, Victor Jory US 1962, 35mm, b/w, 106 min. Missouri Breaks Monday February 4 at 9pm Featuring the incredible pairing of Jack Nicholson as a feckless cattle thief and Marlon Brando as the Irish regulatorhired to hunt him down, Missouri Breaks is a rollicking and highly unusual Western that, in typical Penn fashion, strains the boundaries of the genre. Penns empowerment of performers is taken to a wonderful furthest extreme by the subversive presence of Brandos cross-dressing and unpredictable assassin, who effectively turns codes of masculinity and narrative continuity upon their heads. Once dismissed as an oddityin Penns career, The Missouri Breaks has been reevaluated as one of the more ambitious and original Westerns of its time, placing it in the company of Peter Fondas The Hired Hand and Monte Hellmans The Shooting. Directed by Arthur Penn. With Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid US 1976, 35mm, color, 126 min. The Harvard Film Archive is located on the lower level of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy St. Cambridge 617 495 4700 http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa Check us out on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/harvardfilmarchive or on facebook: http://harvard.facebook.com/profile.php?id=645641425

The Sunday Night Film Club will be taking this Sunday off to avoid any collateral insanity associated with the Patriots success (or failure) at the Super Bowl. See you on February 10th!

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Jan 27th at 7:15pm for Billy the Kid at the Coolidge Corner Theatre . Look for Dan wearing a “Grave Digger” monster truck t-shirt in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

Winner of the Best Documentary title at both the SXSW and Los Angeles film festivals this year, BILLY THE KID is a sensitive and humorous verite portrait of Billy, a 15-year-old outsider growing up in small-town Maine. Billy appears, in many ways, like other teenage boys. He’s into heavy metal and martial arts, is an desperate to find a girlfriend, and aspires to a career as an actor and rock star. Yet in other ways Billy is unique. A troubled past and ongoing behavioral issues have left him marked. But he is unapologetic about his personality and refuses to be victimized, creating his own techniques to help him survive in an environment of pain, conformity and prejudice. Billy funny, sharp and strangely funny for his age, and remarkably candid. We witness his life from his perspective — from intimate conversations with his mother, to being bullied at school, to his fantasies of becoming a superhero. We also experience the exhilarating pangs of first love as Billy pursues Heather, a shy 16-year-old waitress. Will Billy get the girl? Will his community accept him on his own terms? BILLY THE KID challenges viewers to imagine themselves beyond labels.

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Jan 20th at 7pm for Cloverfield at the Regal Fenway Stadium 13 . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Jan 13th at 7:15pm for Persepolis at the Kendall Square Cinema . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

With amazing wit and heart, this award-winning animated feature tells the poignant story of a young girl coming-of-age in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Through the eyes of precocious and outspoken 9-year-old Marjane, we see a people’s hopes dashed as fundamentalists take power—forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousands. Clever and fearless, she outsmarts the “social guardians” and discovers punk, ABBA and Iron Maiden. Feeling vulnerable and alone in a strange land after being sent to school in Austria, she has to combat being equated with the religious fundamentalism and extremism she fled her country to escape. Featuring the voices of Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux and Simon Abkarian. Directed by Marjane Satrapi (based on her acclaimed memoir) and Vincent Paronnaud.

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Jan 6th at 6pm for There Will Be Blood at the AMC Harvard Square 5 . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

“The story chronicles the life and times of one Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), who transforms himself from a down-and-out silver miner raising a son on his own into a self-made oil tycoon. When Plainview gets a mysterious tip-off that thereÂ’s a little town out West where an ocean of oil is oozing out of the ground, he heads with his son, H.W. (Dillon Freasier), to take their chances in dust-worn Little Boston. In this hardscrabble town, where the main excitement centers around the holy roller church of charismatic preacher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), Plainview and H.W. make their lucky strike. But even as the well raises all of their fortunes, nothing will remain the same as conflicts escalate and every human value – love, hope, community, belief, ambition and even the bond between father and son – is imperiled by corruption, deception and the flow of oil.”

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Dec 30th at 5:15pm for Charlie Wilson’s War at the Somerville Theatre . Look for Audra wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

“A drama based on a Texas congressman Charlie Wilson’s covert dealings in Afghanistan, where his efforts to assist rebels in their war with the Soviets have some unforeseen and long-reaching effects.”

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Dec 23rd at 5:00pm for Juno at the Coolidge Corner Theatre . Look for Audra wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

“From Jason Reitman, director of previous Coolidge hit THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, comes this equally sharp and touchingly off-beat comedy starring Ellen Page (HARD CANDY) as Juno MacGuff, a whip-smart teen confronting an unplanned pregnancy by her classmate Bleeker (Michael Cera). With the help of her hot best friend Leah, Juno finds her unborn child a “perfect” set of parents: an affluent suburban couple, Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), longing to adopt. Luckily, Juno has the total support of her parents as she faces some tough decisions, flirts with adulthood and ultimately figures out where she belongs.”

Due to inclement weather, tonight’s gathering at the Coolidge Corner Theatre has been cancelled. Stay warm and safe! -sean

CANCELLED!

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Dec 16th at 5:00pm for Juno at the Coolidge Corner Theatre . Look for Sean wearing a nametag in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

“From Jason Reitman, director of previous Coolidge hit THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, comes this equally sharp and touchingly off-beat comedy starring Ellen Page (HARD CANDY) as Juno MacGuff, a whip-smart teen confronting an unplanned pregnancy by her classmate Bleeker (Michael Cera). With the help of her hot best friend Leah, Juno finds her unborn child a “perfect” set of parents: an affluent suburban couple, Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), longing to adopt. Luckily, Juno has the total support of her parents as she faces some tough decisions, flirts with adulthood and ultimately figures out where she belongs.”