The First Transition:
World Cinema in the 1930s

Lecturer: Jonathan Rosenbaum

From September 3 through December 10, we offer a series of fourteen programs entitled The First Transition: World Cinema in the 1930s, with weekly lecture/discussions by Jonathan Rosenbaum, internationally renowned film critic 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. Additional screenings of the films on Friday do not include Jonathan Rosenbaum’s lecture. Admission to all First Transition programs is $4 for Film Center members; usual admission prices apply for non-members.

-- Martin Rubin

This two-part series is a “prequel” to my 2007-8 series The Great Transition: World Cinema in the 1950s and The Great Transition: World Cinema in the 1960s only in the sense that the latter transition alludes to the New Wave, whereas the “first transition” alludes to Italian neorealism. More specifically, the first part of the series deals with prewar cinema in a variety of cultural contexts, concentrating on Hollywood during the Depression (CITY LIGHTS, SCARFACE MAN’S CASTLE, TROUBLE IN PARADISE, HALLELUJAH I’M A BUM, SYLVIA SCARLETT), with side-trips to Japan (I WAS BORN, BUT..., THE STORY OF THE LAST CHRYSANTHEMUMS), Germany (M), and France (VAMPYR, ZERO FOR CONDUCT, THE RULES OF THE GAME. The second part of the series, The First Transition: World Cinema in the 1940s, will be presented in spring 2009.

-- Jonathan Rosenbaum

SCARFACE
1932, Howard Hawks, USA, 90 min.
With Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak

“Howard Hawks’s 1932 masterpiece is a dark, brutal, exhilaratingly violent film, blending comedy and horror in a manner that suggests Chico Marx let loose with a live machine gun.”--Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

The most lurid and dynamic of the early gangster classics, SCARFACE was reputedly based on writer Ben Hecht’s idea of mixing the violent rise of Al Capone with the decadent history of the Borgias. Paul Muni gives a ferocious performance as Tony Camonte, an ambitious Chicago hoodlum with a coin-flipping best friend (George Raft) and an overprotected sister (Ann Dvorak). 35mm. (MR)

Friday, August 29, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, September 3, 6:00 pm