Made at MoMA
November 20, 2004
The
Museum of Modern Art has been a highly visible New York City location
for many American films, as memorable a cinematic geographic locus
as San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo
(1958) or Fifth Avenue's quintessential luxury store in Blake
Edwards's Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). This series features
films from the 1930s through the 1970s that reveal the ever-evolving
appearance of the Museum, demonstrating how brick, mortar, and steel
can function as a compelling on-screen character.
Organized by the staff of the Department of Film and Media.

Moving Day at the Museum.
1937. USA. Directed by Ione Ulrich Sutton. A home-movie
short photographed by Sutton, a former staff member. Among the staff
seen leaving the 54 Street townhouse is Alfred H. Barr, Jr., MoMA's
founding director. 3 min.
Lovers and Lollipops. 1955. USA. Written and directed
by Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin. With Lori March, Gerald O'Loughlin,
Cathy Dunn. Seven-year-old Peggy, her mother Ann, and would-be suitor
Larry spend a relaxed afternoon at MoMA. Peggy sails a boat in The
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden's reflecting pool, much
to the consternation of a Museum guard. 82 min.
Saturday, November 20, 2:00. T1
Architectural
Millinery. 1952. USA. Directed by Sidney Peterson. Narration
by Henry Morgan. This humorous, wry short film examines the rooflines
of buildings in New York City and compares them to hats. The film
opens on the loggia of MoMA's original Goodwin and Stone building
at 11 West Fifty-third Street. 7 min.
Shadows. 1961. USA. Written and directed by John
Cassavetes. With Hugh Hurd, Lelia Goldoni, Ben Carruthers. The story
of three siblings who confront racial issues in Greenwich Village,
against a backdrop of Beat Generation music and ultracool attitude.
In one scene, a conflicted Carruthers studies a statue of a voluptuous
female and a tribal mask in the Museum's Sculpture Garden. 81 min.
Saturday, November 20, 5:00. T1
Breaking It Up at the Museum.
1960. USA. Directed by D. A. Pennebaker. Assisted by Shirley
Clarke, Robert Breer, Ken Tynan. A record of a 1960 event in which
Homage to New York, a kinetic machine built by the artist
Jean Tinguely, destroyed itself in the Museum's Sculpture Garden.
8 min.
Manhattan. 1979. USA. Directed by Woody Allen.
Screenplay by Allen, Marshall Brickman. With Allen, Diane Keaton,
Mariel Hemingway. The newly divorced, perpetually neurotic Isaac
(Allen) romances his best friend's girl (Keaton) at a MoMA opening.
They are seen in the Sculpture Garden alongside Pablo Picasso's
She-Goat (1950). 96 min.
Saturday, November 20, 7:30. T1
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