The
Department of Film and Video at The Museum of Modern Art begins an exciting
and varied fall season on September 20, 1996, after the completion of its
popular summerlong series "Scorsese at the Movies: The Martin Scorsese
Collection at The Museum of Modern Art." The following is a brief digest of
the highlights from the fall schedule:
Restored! Seven Brides
for Seven Brothers September 12, 1996
Using the improved film
stock of the 1990s, Turner Entertainment Company has restored this
immensely popular 1954 classic by director Stanley Donen, giving the new
print the original look as well as a modern stereo track from the original
stereo master recordings. This is the New York theatrical premiere of the
film, which will air on The Turner Classic Movies in October.
Life Begins at 40: The Janus Films Collection at The Museum of
Modern Art September 19October 3, 1996
A longtime donor to
the archives of The Museum of Modern Art's Department of Film and Video,
Janus Films‹established in 1956 by Bryant Haliday and Cyrus
Harvey‹continues to acquire and distribute significant works of world
cinema, holding firm to a mission set forth forty years ago. This selection
features recent acquisitions in the Janus Films Collection, including new,
subtitled prints of Marcel Carné's Les enfants du paradis
(Children of Paradise) (1945) and Akira Kurosawa's Kumonosu-Jo
(Throne of Blood) (1957) and Akahige (Red Beard) (1965).
Ken Jacobs: Nervous System Film Performances September
2022, 2729, 1996
For more than forty years, avant-garde
filmmaker Ken Jacobs has explored the cinematic experience in unfailingly
innovative ways. In these Nervous System pieces, Jacobs uses found archival
footage whose visual detail and historical and social significance are
richly observed through his role as projectionist-performer. He executes
the performances by projecting the films with a specially designed system
of two interlocked projectors. Among the featured works are The Marriage
of Heaven and Hell (1995) and the premieres of Coupling (1996)
and From Muybridge to Brooklyn Bridge (1996).
Whatever
Happened to Baby Peggy?: A Tribute to Diana Serra Cary September
30October 1, 1996
In early 1920s Hollywood the sensational
popularity of Baby Peggy defined what it meant to be a child star,
rivalling Jackie "The Kid" Coogan and predating sound-era darling Shirley
Temple. This series presents rare shorts and the features Captain
January (1924) and Helen's Babies (1924). Diana Serra Cary will
introduce the September 30 screenings in person.
Salute to the
Cinémathèque Française, Musée du
Cinéma
October 431, 1996
A selection of
approximately thirty-five rare French, American, and German films
significant to the development of cinema, from one of the world's most
venerated archives, including previously lost works by Frank Capra (The
Matinee Idol, 1928) and King Vidor (The Family Honor, 1920),
Robert Bresson's first film, Les Affaires Publiques (1934), William
S. Hart's silent western The Cold Deck (1917), and other rarely seen
works by Jean Eustache, Max Ophuls, Maurice Tourneur, Frank Borzage, G. W.
Pabst, and Michael Curtiz.
The Cinémathèque, in Paris, was
created in 1936 by Henri Langlois and Georges Franju, passionate students
of the cinema who recognized that its history was endangered. Their
original vision remains alive today, with the Cinémathèque's
several screens and many daily programs, museum of cinema, publications
program, and collection of several thousand films from virtually every
country in the world.
This series is presented with thanks to
Société Générale.
New Day Films:
Twenty-five Years October 613, 1996
New Day Films was
founded in 1971 as a distribution cooperative of independent producers
whose films addressed timely social issues. It has grown to include
approximately one hundred works that "inform and inspire" by more than
fifty-five film and videomakers from every region of the United
States.
For the twenty-fifth anniversary of New Day Films, the
Department of Film and Video has organized two programs a selection from
the cooperative's recent acquisitions, and a retrospective of eleven films
and videos by venerable New Day artists, including Ralph Arlyck, Joyce
Chopra, Jane Gilooly, Isabel Hill, Julia Reichert, and Amalie S.
Rothschild. Also presented are some of New Day's earliest films, from
MoMA's archives.
BABA: Award-Winning British
Commercials October 2528, 1996
An annual exhibition of
British commercials, organized within various product categories, chosen
by British industry professionals.
Canadian
Video October 1421, 1996
A week celebrating Canadian video
includes premieres of new works: experimental narratives, documentaries,
and work from MoMA's video archives.
Dusan Hanak: A
Retrospective October 19November 1, 1996
Slovak filmmaker
Dusan Hanak's focus on the habits, customs, and environments of his
fictional and real-life characters lucidly reveals sociopolitical details
of life in contemporary Eastern Europe while charting the landscapes of his
protagonists' souls.
All of Hanak's seven feature films will be shown
in this program, preceded by documentary short subjects. The series
includes the Academy Award-nominated documentary Pictures of the Old
World (1972) and the U.S. premiere of Hanak's latest feature film,
Paperheads (1996), nine years in the making, which will be
introduced by the filmmaker.
Melville: The French
Connection November 119, 1996
Jean-Pierre Melville is
considered the spiritual forefather of the Nouvelle Vague, having inspired
such young French filmmakers as Godard and Truffaut. Deeply influenced by
American genre films of the 1930s, Melville reinvigorated the film noir
genre and refashioned films of outsiders and killers in his own style,
mood, and vision. Melville's cinema is at once romantic and tough, cynical
and contemplative, and Bob le Flambeur (1956), Le Doulos
(1963), Le Samourai (1967), and Le Cercle rouge (1970)
are now regarded as classics.
The series includes Melville's thirteen
feature films, which, from Le Silence de la mère (1948) to
Un Flic (1970), made two years before his death, reveal the
distinctive work of a major filmmaker who said that "the cinema for all its
technical complications can still be an extremely personal art."
Sam Spiegel Film and Television School,
Jerusalem November 911, 1996 The Sam Spiegel
Film and Television School, a four-year independent not-for-profit college
in Jerusalem, was the first of its kind in Israel. In the seven years since
its creation, the school's student films have won acclaim around the world.
This two-program exhibition of a dozen works, including fiction and
documentary films and videos, will be introduced by the school's director,
Renen Schorr.
The James Wheeler Collection of African-American
Cinema November 15December 8, 1996
James Wheeler, an
independent film exhibitor in Detroit, has perhaps the most comprehensive
private collection of posters, lobby cards, and photographs of
African-American and "race" films in the country. A Titus 1 Gallery
exhibition of works from Wheeler's collection will be accompanied by twenty
feature-length "race" films‹films made for the black theater circuit,
mostly by African-American filmmakers, with "all colored casts."
These
films range over a sixty-year period, from The Birth of a Race
(1919) to Melvin Van Peebles's Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
(1971), the independent film that obliged Hollywood to recognize and use
black stars and filmmakers. Included are films by such directors as Oscar
Micheaux and Spencer Williams, as well as musicals, mysteries, and
Westerns.
Three Korean Filmmakers: Shin, Yu, and
Im November 21December 5, 1996
An introduction to
the work of three prominent Korean filmmakers with long and distinguished
careers. Five films from each director will be featured, including those
now regarded as classics: Sarangbang sonnim-kwa omoni (My Mother's
Tenant) (1961) by Shin Sang-Ok, Oblatan (The Aimless Bullet)
(1961) by Yu Hyon-Mok, and Sopyonje (1994) by Im Kwon-Taek.
"More than Her Own Weight" November 1996January
1997
A new installation by Boston videomaker Denise Marika. The image of
a woman carrying a man is projected on either side of a large felt screen.
In this endless loop the woman struggles to keep her balance, to prevent
bodily harm.
Filmfest: Works from Commonwealth of Independent
States December 615, 1996
This is the inaugural year of an
annual collaboration between the Confederation of Filmmakers' Unions and
the Department of Film and Video. The program includes recent films from
the former Soviet Republics with discussions by the filmmakers. The Museum
will commemorate one of film history's pioneering giants, director Sergei
Eisenstein, by showing Eisenstein: An Autobiography (1996), the last
work in St. Petersburg filmmaker Oleg Kovalov's trilogy on Soviet
filmmaking. Films by veterans and newcomers to the changing filmmaking
scene of the Commonwealth of Independent States are also included.
Recent Films from Germany December 13January 5,
1997
An annual survey of new films from the Federal
Republic of Germany testifies to the continuing vitality of that nation's
cinema. The program includes debut features by new filmmakers, recent works
by veteran filmmakers, and new documentaries.
Judy
Holliday December 26January 1, 1997
A retrospective of the
short but superb career of actress Judy Holliday, who debuted with Betty
Comden and Adolph Green on stage in Cabaret and in Twentieth
Century-Fox's Greenwich Village (1944), and went on to star in
Columbia and MGM comedies. The Department of Film and Video is
collaborating with Columbia to preserve the films she made at the studio.
The first completed restoration, Born Yesterday (1950)‹one of
four Holliday films directed by George Cukor‹opens the series.
ONGOING PROGRAMS
The Department of Film and Video
continues to present its annual series of the best and most challenging
alternative and experimental film and video. An acclaimed fixture in New
York and international independent film and video communities for the past
three decades, these undersung series continue to break new ground and are
strongly supported by artists and critics alike.
Cineprobe Alternate Mondays, 6:30 p.m.
This series
provides a forum in which independent filmmakers present and discuss their
work. The twenty-ninth season, which begins October 21 and continues
through May 1997, includes works by Sharon Greytak, Barbara Hammer, James
Benning, Steven Dwoskin, and others.
Video
Viewpoints Alternate Mondays, 6:30 p.m.
An ongoing
series of screenings and discussions of video works by artists involved in
their creation and presentation; this twenth anniversary series begins
October 7. Artists in the Fall 1996 schedule include Willie Doherty
(Ireland), and Denise Marika (United States).
New
Documentaries Thursdays, 3:00 and 6:00 p.m.
This series presents
independently made films and videos on social and political issues and on
the arts. The works examine contemporary concerns in fresh, often
controversial ways. The Fall 1996 schedule includes Haiti Untitled
(1996) by Jorgen Leth and Frontierland/Frontierlandia by Ruben
Ortiz and Jesse Lerner.
Video Premieres Fridays, 6:30
p.m.
This series introduces new videos and their directors. Artists in
the Fall 1996 schedule include Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak.
Unless
otherwise indicated, all film and video programs are held in The Roy and
Niuta Titus Theaters 1 and 2.
The Museum's film and video programs are
made possible in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts,
the New York State Council on the Arts, and The Contemporary Arts Council
of The Museum of Modern Art. The video program is also supported by the
Sony Corporation of America.
