Manny Farber
January 1–3, 2005

The Department of Film and Media joins P.S.1, a MoMA affiliate, in celebrating the achievements of Manny Farber as both artist and film critic. P.S.1's concurrent exhibition Manny Farber: About Face aptly describes Farber's approach to painting: restless and unpretentious, which is also true of Farber's film writings. Farber's feisty and illuminating perspectives on contemporary commercial cinema refreshed the pages of The New Republic, The Nation, and The New Leader during the 1940s and 1950s. Farber also wrote essays for various journals, and his Negative Space: Manny Farber on the Movies was first published in 1971. Farber is now Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Visual Arts at the University of California.

Organized by Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, Department of Film and Media.

Musketeers of Pig Alley. 1912. USA. Written and directed by D.W. Griffith.With Lillian and Dorothy Gish. Farber was an enthusiast of Griffith's compositions and pacing, calling him a master of "structure." 17 min.

Two Tars. 1928. USA. Directed by James Parrott. Caught in one of cinema's most ferocious traffic jams, Laurel and Hardy reduce it to rubble. "[Laurel and Hardy are] always viewed in relation to American suburbanism, possesionism, commodityism" (Farber). 21 min.

La Règle du jeu (The Rules of the Game). 1939. France. Directed by Jean Renoir.With Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Marcel Dalio. "Renoir tries to make every shot count for as much as possible," wrote Farber in The New Republic. A French count organizes a weekend hunting party at his country estate. Guests and servants interact, and loyalties and lovers shift, in this masterful social satire made on the eve of war. In French, English subtitles. 110 min. Musketeers and Two Tars silent, with piano accompaniment by Stuart Oderman.
Saturday, January 1, 4:30; Monday, January 3, 5:30. T1

One Froggy Evening. 1955. USA. Directed by Chuck Jones. A black comedy about a singing frog and a working man's aspirations. "Jones is out to make you laugh, bluntly, and, as it turns out, cold-bloodedly" (Farber). 7 min.

Pickup on South Street. 1953. USA. Written and directed by Samuel Fuller. With Richard Widmark, Thelma Ritter, Jean Peters. "A marvel of lower-class nuttiness, Richard Widmark is a pickpocket working with a folded newspaper in the subway, almost all of it at night and each all-libido character acting uncorked, totally without propriety checks" (Farber). 80 min.
Sunday, January 2, 2:30; Monday, January 3, 5:00. T2

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