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The Great Transition:
World Cinema in the 1950s

Lecturer: Jonathan Rosenbaum

From Sept. 5 through Dec. 12, we offer a series of fourteen programs entitled The Great Transition: World Cinema in the 1950s, with weekly lecture/discussions by Jonathan Rosenbaum, internationally renowned film critic for the Chicago Reader and author of numerous books including Discovering Orson Welles. The series is made possible in part through the sponsorship of American Airlines, the Film Center's Educational Underwriter, and is presented in cooperation with the School of the Art Institute's Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism. Please note that this year's lectures are on Wednesday, rather than on Tuesday as in previous years. Additional screenings of the films on Friday do not include Jonathan Rosenbaum's lecture. Admission to all Great Transition programs is $4 for Film Center members; usual admission prices apply for non-members.

-- Martin Rubin

In between Italian neorealism and the European new waves, one can find a ferment of creativity in many different cinemas around the world. This two-part series will investigate the phenomenon in all its complexity and diversity. Mainstream and independent films from the U.S., France, Sweden, and Japan will be among those represented. In Part One, devoted mainly to the 1950s, the critical writings of such critics and future filmmakers as Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, and Fran¨ois Truffaut will be discussed alongside many of the films they championed and wrote about, such as Nicholas Ray's PARTY GIRL, Robert Bresson's A MAN ESCAPED, and Howard Hawks's THE BIG SKY. The second part of the series, The Great Transition: World Cinema in the 1960s, will be presented in spring 2008.

-- Jonathan Rosenbaum

THE MAGICIAN
(ANSIKTET)
(aka THE FACE)
1958, Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, 100 min,
With Max von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin

THE MAGICIAN is a major, rarely screened work from the height of Bergman’s golden period. A predecessor of THE PRESTIGE and THE ILLUSIONIST, it stars Max von Sydow as a 19th-century magician whose traveling troupe is detained by officials determined to expose them as charlatans. In Swedish with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)

Friday, September 28, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, October 3, 6:00 pm

PARTY GIRL
1958, Nicholas Ray, USA, 99 min.
With Robert Taylor, Cyd Charisse

PARTY GIRL became a cause celebre in the French-led style-over-content polemics that reevaluated American cinema in 1950s -- one Cahiers du cinema critic called the film “a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven.” A gangster film shot like a musical, it features Taylor in one of his more credible performances as a mouthpiece lawyer enthralled to Capone-like mob boss Lee J. Cobb. The highlights are Ray’s dazzling use of ‘Scope and color, and Charisse’s scorchingly sensual dance numbers. 35mm widescreen. (MR)

Friday, October 5, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, October 10, 6:00 pm

THE PHENIX CITY STORY
1955, Phil Karlson, USA, 100 min.
With Richard Kiley, Kathryn Crosby

Decent citizens fight a bloody battle to drive out the vice racket that has earned their Alabama town the title of “Sin City, U.S.A.” Based on fact and shot on location, THE PHENIX CITY STORY is a film of extraordinary visceral power. Its graphic violence was virtually unprecedented in Hollywood, but what makes the film truly innovative is its recognition that new content calls for new form. THE PHENIX CITY STORY is a purposefully ugly movie, full of ugly people, ugly places, ugly camera angles, and ugly, unaestheticized violence. 35mm. (MR)

Friday, October 12, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, October 17, 6:00 pm

LOLA
1961, Jacques Demy, France, 90 min.
With Anouk Aimee, Marc Michel

French New Wave directors put their movies where their politiques had been, giving new spins to American genre archetypes. Director Demy described LOLA as a musical without musical numbers; their place is filled by Raoul Coutard’s swirling camerawork and Michel Legrand’s lilting score. Set in Demy’s seaside hometown of Nantes, the film stars Aimee as a Monroesque dance-hall girl courted by three men while faithfully waiting for the sailor who left her pregnant seven years ago. 35mm widescreen. (MR)

Friday, October 19, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, October 24, 6:00 pm

STARS IN MY CROWN
1950, Jacques Tourneur, USA, 89 min.
With Joel McCrea, Ellen Drew

Tourneur is best known for his atmospheric horror films CAT PEOPLE and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, but this versatile director excelled at many types of film, including westerns, film noir, and this uncategorizable gem that Chicago Reader critic Jonathan Rosenbaum called “one of the most neglected films in the history of cinema.” Set after the Civil War, it recounts a year in the life of a rural town that faces disease, racism, and superstition. The film’s mixture of Southern family drama and anti-racist social criticism has led some critics to compare it to TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, and its strong sense of community has evoked comparisons to John Ford. 35mm. (MR)

Friday, October 26, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, October 31, 6:00 pm

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Upcoming films in The Great Transition:

November 2 and 7
TOUCH OF EVIL
1958, Orson Welles, USA, 111 min.
With Orson Welles, Charlton Heston

November 9 and 14
MURDER BY CONTRACT
1958, Irving Lerner, USA, 81 min.
With Vince Edwards, Herschel Bernardi

November 16 and 21
GOOD MORNING
1959, Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 94 min.
With Chishu Ryu, Kuniko Miyake

November 23 and 28
THE BIG SKY
1952, Howard Hawks, USA, 140 min.
With Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin

December 7 and 12
CURSE OF THE DEMON
1957, Jacques Tourneur, Britain, 95 min.
With Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins