EXHIBITIONS

The Museum of Modern Art Film Benefit
A tribute to Tim Burton

Helena Bonham Carter
Johnny Depp
Robert A. Iger and Willow Bay
David and Julia Koch
Co-Chairs

Cocktails at 6:30 p.m.
Presentation at 7:30 p.m.
Dinner at 8:00 p.m.
After-party at 9:00 p.m. to midnight
Featuring music by DJ Justin Miller (DFA Records)

Founded in 1935 as the Film Library, the department now oversees an internationally renowned collection of more than twenty-two thousand films and four million film stills incorporating all periods and genres. Among its holdings are original negatives of the Biograph and Edison companies and the world's largest collection of D. W. Griffith's films.

A Golden Globe–winning and Academy Award–nominated film director, producer, writer, and artist, Tim Burton has become a household name. From his offbeat debut feature Pee-wee's Big Adventure, to the darkly comic Edward Scissorhands, to such blockbuster films as Batman and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the filmmaker has made a lasting impact on pop culture with his uniquely skewed artistic vision. Burton will be honored with a monographic exhibition of his art and films at The Museum of Modern Art from November 22, 2009, to April 26, 2010, and his most recent project, a 3-D reimagination of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, will be released in March 2010.

Tim Burton

Tim Burton Book Signing

Tim Burton signs two new publications
Tim Burton, by Ron Magliozzi and Jenny He
The Art of Tim Burton, edited by Derek Frey, Leah Gallo, and Holly Kempf

Director, producer, writer, and artist Tim Burton makes a personal appearance in conjunction with his major career retrospective at MoMA, signing copies of the Tim Burton exhibition catalogue, as well as the newly published The Art of Tim Burton, a comprehensive, 434-page compilation of forty years of Burton’s artistry.

The signing takes place in MoMA Books, on the second floor of the Museum. Museum admission is required for entry. This event is open to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis. Both books will be available onsite at MoMA Books and the MoMA Design and Book Store. No other books or collectibles will be signed at this event.

Tim Burton Tour Nights

Spice up your November with the fables, fairy tales, and fantasies of one of Hollywood’s most unique visionaries when you experience the highly anticipated Tim Burton exhibition before it opens to the public. This one-hour private tour of Burton’s drawings, paintings, and sketchbooks, as well as film props and costumes, concludes with a priority reserved seat for a screening of Burton's Beetlejuice (1988).

Tim Burton

Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands. 1990. USA. Produced and directed by Tim Burton. Screenplay by Burton and Caroline Thompson. With Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker, Alan Arkin, Vincent Price. Arguably Burton’s most personal film, Edward Scissorhands delves into one of his most prominent themes: disconnection from the world at large and the search for true identity. Edward, clad in a stitched-together leather body suit and left alone in a hilltop castle after his creator’s sudden death, is Burton’s most literal Frankenstein’s monster; incapable of directly touching others with his razor-sharp fingers, he is the physical manifestation of isolation. When a kind Avon lady discovers him and introduces him to suburbia, his chief channel of communication, the ability to shape things—hair, hedges, ice—into wondrous sculptures, engenders a brief welcome, but his acceptance is short-lived in this parable of teenage angst and acceptance. 105 min.

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. 1993. USA. Directed by Henry Selick. Story and characters and produced by Tim Burton. Screenplay by Michael McDowell, Caroline Thompson. With the voices of Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Glen Shadix. Revolving around a manic depressive antihero, The Nightmare Before Christmas straddles the line between a grim children’s fable and a gentle horror story. Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, who annually masterminds the frights of the holiday for the “real world,” becomes dissatisfied with the monotony of success. Obsessed with his new discovery of Christmas and all its trappings and frills, he embarks upon the challenge of being “Sandy Claws.” 76 min.

Actor Chris Sarandon will join us for a special discussion of his work on the film as the voice of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town.

Members-Only Viewing: Tim Burton

Pee-wee’s Big Adventure

Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. 1985. USA. Directed by Tim Burton. Screenplay by Phil Hartman, Paul Reubens. With Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton. Burton established himself as a director with a unique personal vision in this, his first feature, in which Pee-wee embarks on an elaborate search for his missing bicycle, a scenario that allows Burton to indulge in whimsical set pieces and extravagant sight gags. Like the elaborate Rube Goldberg–esque contraption (a familiar Burton motif) that facilitates Pee-wee’s morning routine, this simple plot unfolds in visually complex ways, such as the climactic ride through the Warner Bros. back lot—a montage of zany fun as Pee-wee and his beloved bike zoom through a beach-blanket-bingo set, the North Pole, Godzilla’s rampage, a Twisted Sister music video, and Tarzan’s jungle. 90 min.

David L. Snyder, Production Designer, will join us for a special discussion of his work on the film. Snyder launched his career with Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner, for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Art Direction. Since then, he has designed more than thirty feature films, including Demolition Man, Super Mario Bros., The Whole Nine Yards, Untitled, and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.

Beyond Burbank: Collaborating with Tim Burton

Tim Burton is a film director, producer, writer, concept artist, fiction writer, photographer and illustrator but to fully develop a story and bring it to life on screen, he works with countless collaborators. Join Colleen Atwood, costume designer; Stephen Chiodo, stop-motion animator and director in animation and live action; Danny Elfman, composer; and Rick Heinrichs, sculptor, installation designer and production designer as they discuss their work with Burton on films such as Vincent (1982), Hansel and Gretel (1983), Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Big Fish (2003), and Alice in Wonderland (2010). Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, Department of Film and co-organizer of the exhibition Tim Burton, moderates a discussion.

Tim Burton

Taking inspiration from popular culture, Tim Burton has reinvented Hollywood genre filmmaking as an expression of personal vision. This talk explores the full range of his creative work, tracing the current of his visual imagination from early childhood drawings through his mature work in film.

Jenny He (Curatorial Assistant, Department of Film) and Ron Magliozzi (Assistant Curator, Department of Film) are co-organizers of the exhibition Tim Burton.