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 François 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 STEEL HELMET
1951, Samuel Fuller, USA, 84 min.
With Gene Evans, James Edwards
The first Korean War film, this tale of an infantry platoon cut off behind enemy lines has the raw urgency of a blood-spattered dispatch smuggled back from the front. It still seems amazingly modern, tackling such issues as military racism, shooting unarmed enemy POWs, and fighting a war whose purpose seems more capitalistic than humanitarian, all served up in Fuller’s punchy, provocative style. 35mm. (MR)
Wednesday, September 5, 6:00 pm
ORPHEUS
(ORPHÉE)
1949, Jean Cocteau, France, 95 min.
With Jean Marais, Maria Casarès
Cocteau’s ingenious updating of the Orpheus-Eurydice myth incorporates elements from both the wartime Nazi Occupation and the postwar Paris of Bohemians and sidewalk cafes. Jean Marais plays the successful but much envied poet whose involvement with Death (Casarès) leads to his wife’s demise and a harrowing trip to the Underworld. Cocteau’s simple but imaginative effects still dazzle; Pauline Kael called ORPHEUS “the masterpiece of magical filmmaking.” In French with English subtitles. 35mm. Guest lecturer on Wednesday: Gabe Klinger. (MR)
Friday, September 7, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, September 12, 6:00 pm
THE STORY OF THREE LOVES
1953, Vincente Minnelli and Gottfried Reinhardt, USA, 122 min.
With Kirk Douglas, Leslie Caron
This stylish anthology film tells three romantic stories. The first, directed by Reinhardt, is a RED SHOES-like tale of an ailing ballerina (Moira Shearer) lured back to the stage by a smitten impresario (James Mason). The second, by Minnelli, is an ironic comedy of a boy (Ricky Nelson) whose opinion of his pretty governess (Caron) changes entirely when he is magically transformed into a man (Farley Granger). The third, by Reinhardt, features Douglas in a superbly athletic performance as a trapeze artist who mentors a suicidal young woman (Pier Angeli). 35mm. (MR)
Friday, September 14, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, September 19, 6:00 pm
A MAN ESCAPED
(UN CONDAMNÉ A MORT S’EST ÉCHAPPÉ)
1956, Robert Bresson, France, 100 min.
With Francois Leterrier, Charles le Clainche
Often cited as Bresson’s most accessible film, A MAN ESCAPED combines elements of the then-popular prison genre with Bresson’s personal vision of earthly spirituality. Incarcerated and condemned to death by the Gestapo, a French Resistance fighter concentrates with single-minded intensity on a daring escape plan. Bresson creates a modern parable of the attainment of grace, as the hero’s quest leads him to a perilous “leap of faith.” In French with English subtitles. 35mm. (FC)
Friday, September 21, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, September 26, 6:00 pm
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, combining the atmospheric mysticism of THE SEVENTH SEAL with the risqué comedy of SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT. 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. But the illusionist has a few tricks up his sleeve, and his assistant has his eye on a lusty widow. In Swedish with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
Friday, September 28, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, October 3, 6:00 pm
Upcoming films in The Great Transition:
October 5 and 10
PARTY GIRL
1958, Nicholas Ray, USA, 99 min.
With Robert Taylor, Cyd Charisse
October 12 and 17
THE PHENIX CITY STORY
1955, Phil Karlson, USA, 100 min.
With Richard Kiley, Kathryn Crosby
October 19 and 24
LOLA
1961, Jacques Demy, France, 90 min.
With Anouk Aimée, Marc Michel
October 26 and 31
STARS IN MY CROWN
1950, Jacques Tourneur, USA, 89 min.
With Joel McCrea, Ellen Drew
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