Christopher Guest
April 8–17, 2005

Christopher Guest is one of the most comically gifted and incisive American filmmakers working today. A true polymath—he acts, writes, directs, and composes—Guest has forged a distinctive style of fake documentary filmmaking that relies entirely on unscripted improvisations. Collaborating with an extraordinarily talented ensemble of comedians and musicians that includes Eugene Levy, Michael McKean, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, and Harry Shearer (many of them veterans of SCTV and Second City), Guest creates pitch-perfect portraits of some of America’s daffier subcultures, from Hollywood’s smarmy movie industry in The Big Picture (1987) and smalltown amateur theatrics in Waiting for Guffman (1996) to high-stakes dog shows in Best in Show (2000) and folk-music reunions in A Mighty Wind (2003). These much-revered, oft-quoted films are presented in a mid-career retrospective that also features Rob Reiner’s This Is Spinal Tap (1984) and The Princess Bride (1987), Saturday Night Live sketches and films, rare television pilots, commercials, outtakes, and trailers. Guest introduces the opening night screening of Best in Show, and, as part of MoMA’s Great Collaborations series, performs live on April 9 with McKean and Shearer, followed by an onstage discussion with longtime collaborators Bob Balaban and Parker Posey.

Organized by Joshua Siegel, Assistant Curator, Department of Film and Media.

This tribute is made possible by Alfred Dunhill.

Additional support is provided by The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art.

Hotel accommodations courtesy Millennium Hotels and Resorts.

Special thanks to Lisa Stollar, Jeremy Zimmer (United Talent Agency), Lorne Michaels, Ken Aymong, Lily Tomlin, Jane Wagner, Janice Frey, Mitchell Dearman, Gary Rose (Go Film), and, for the loan of prints, Castle Rock Entertainment (Dave Blasucci, Pam Jones, Cecily Schaefer),Warner Bros. (Vivian Tibbetts), Twentieth Century Fox (Schawn Belston), Sony Pictures Repertory (Michael Schlesinger), MGM Studios (John Kirk), Broadway Video (Clay Mitchell), and Studiocanal (Dominique Hascoet-Brunet).

Best in Show. 2000. USA. Directed by Christopher Guest. Screenplay by Guest, Eugene Levy. With Guest, Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Michael McKean. Vying for top dog at Philadelphia’s prestigious Mayflower Show are the long-faced bloodhound owner from Pine Nut, North Carolina, the high-strung Swans with their Weimaraner Beatrice, and the slutty Cookie Fleck and her two-left-footed husband Gerry with their Norwich terrier Winky. But as Fred Willard, the dog show’s off-color commentator, slyly suggests, Guest’s films are really about the hidden barbs, suppressed desires, and haunted might-have-beens of everyday language. 90 min.
Friday, April 8, 8:30 (introduced by Guest); Thursday, April 14, 6:00. T1

Waiting for Guffman. 1996. USA. Directed by Christopher Guest. Screenplay by Guest, Eugene Levy. With Guest, Levy, Parker Posey, Fred Willard, Catherine O’Hara. Casting their starry eyes on far-off Broadway, the simple folk of Blaine, Missouri, take their cues from flamboyant theater director Corky St. Clair to stage a musical revue about their town’s history.With this hilarious send-up of smalltown pageantry, Guest established his method of working with a troupe of comic actors, each with his or her own style of improvisation, and shooting ten-minute-long takes to let the scenes unfold organically. 84 min.
Saturday, April 9, 2:00; Friday, April 15, 6:00. T1

Great Collaborations: Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Parker Posey, and Bob Balaban: A Musical Performance and a Conversation. Guest, Shearer, and McKean perform an acoustic set, followed by an onstage conversation with Parker Posey moderated by writer, director, actor, and longtime collaborator Bob Balaban. 100 min.
Saturday, April 9, 7:30. T1

Saturday Night Live : Sketches and Films. 1984–85. USA. Directed by and/or starring Christopher Guest. This selection of films and sketches includes Eddie Murphy in “White Like Me,” Harry Shearer and Martin Short in “Synchronized Swimming,” and Billy Crystal and Guest in “Negro Baseball.” 30 min.

Commercials and Trailers. USA. Directed by Christopher Guest. A selection of award-winning commercials, including spots for RC Cola and the ESPN Espy Awards, and trailers for Best in Show and A Mighty Wind. 8 min.

Lily Tomlin. 1974. USA. Cowritten by Jane Wagner, Tomlin, Christopher Guest, and others. An Emmy-winning television special in which the always-ingenious Tomlin assumes various comic guises including Lorraine the Clown, lounge singer Bobbi Jeanine, and the precocious, adenoidal Edith Ann. 60 min.

The T.V. Show. 1979. USA. Cowritten by and starring Rob Reiner, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Billy Crystal, and others. A rarely seen television show that spoofs channel surfing, with Spinal Tap’s first appearance. 48 min. Program 146 min.
Sunday, April 10, 2:00; Friday, April 15, 8:00. T1

This Is Spinal Tap. 1984. USA. Directed by Rob Reiner. With Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer. Shot without a script or rehearsals, Spinal Tap achieved a level of spontaneity, authenticity, and absurdity lacking in most American film comedies. Indeed, Guest’s portrayal of the dim-witted, heavy-metal rock star Nigel Tufnel evokes the peculiarly British, chameleonic humor of Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers. As a band, Spinal Tap would later perform such infamous songs as “Big Bottom” and “Stonehenge” to delirious metalheads at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Program 142 min. (including one hour of outtakes).
Sunday, April 10, 5:00; Saturday, April 16, 8:00. T1

A Mighty Wind. 2003. USA. Directed by Christopher Guest. Screenplay by Guest, Eugene Levy. With Guest, Levy, Bob Balaban. Relive your favorite folk hits of the 1960s, from “Old Joe’s Place” to “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow,” as Mitch and Mickey (Levy, Catherine O’Hara), The Folksmen (Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer), and The New Main Street Singers (Parker Posey, John Michael Higgins, and others) pay tribute to their late manager, Irving Steinbloom, at a reunion concert in New York City’s Town Hall. 91 min.
Monday, April 11, 6:00; Sunday, April 17, 5:00. T1

The Big Picture. 1989. USA. Directed by Christopher Guest. Screenplay by Michael Varhol, Guest, Michael McKean. In his feature debut as director, Guest lampoons the pomposities and inanities of Hollywood moviemaking, with a winning performance by Kevin Bacon as a struggling artiste who lets success go to his head and a genial McKean as his spurned best friend. Also ingeniously cast are J. T. Walsh as a sleazy, witless studio chief, Jennifer Jason Leigh as a manic avant-garde filmmaker, and Martin Short as Bacon’s fruitcake of an agent. 100 min.

Morton & Hayes. 1991. USA. Directed by Christopher Guest. Written by Phil Mishkin, Rob Reiner, Joe Flaherty, Guest, and others. With Kevin Pollack, Bob Amaral, Guest. An episode of the short-lived, but wonderful, television series that paid loving homage to Hollywood’s golden age. 30 min.
Monday, April 11, 8:00; Sunday, April 17, 2:00. T1

The Princess Bride. 1987. USA. Directed by Rob Reiner. Screenplay by William Goldman, based on his novel. With Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Christopher Guest. A beloved fairytale comedy with all the requisite conceits: an imaginary kingdom, a dashing swordsman, a fair maiden, a dreamy farmhand, an ancient Yiddische miracle maker and his nagging crone, and a swamp full of oversized rodents. Guest plays the sadistic Count Rugen, user and manufacturer of torture devices and six-fingered right-hand man of the oily Prince Humperdinck. 102 min.
Thursday, April 14, 8:30. T2; Saturday, April 16, 6:00. T1

top