P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
MoMA's Affiliation with P.S.1
Visiting P.S.1
Tim Burton and the Lurid Beauty of Monsters
December 2, 2009–April 26, 2010
In conjunction with the Tim Burton gallery and film exhibitions
In conjunction with MoMA’s career retrospective of artist and filmmaker Tim Burton, the Department of Film presents Tim Burton and the Lurid Beauty of Monsters, a series of films that have influenced, inspired, and intrigued Burton, and which reflect the motifs, themes, and sensibilities of his work. Taking as its starting point horror-movie screenings that Burton organized in his youth, the series spans five decades and includes landmark films of stop-motion animation, German Expressionism, Grand Guignol horror, Universal monsters, and B-grade science-fiction. Burton has said of watching these movies while growing up, “I loved the lurid beauty of these monster movies. They spoke to me. I didn’t understand the world, and these films were somehow symbolic of the way I felt.”
Organized by Jenny He, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Film. Special thanks to Wayne Titus, Alice Remsnyder, Elizabeth Quilter, and Charlie Achuff.
Related Film Screenings
Upcoming
The Towering Inferno
1974. USA. Directed by John Guillermin. Screenplay by Stirling Silliphant, based on The Tower, by Richard Martin Stern, and The Glass Inferno, by Thomas N. Scortia, Frank M. Robinson. With Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden. The world’s tallest building catches fire on its opening night, placing its occupants in mortal peril. With their cavalcades of stars and stunning special effects, over-the-top disaster spectacles such as The Towering Inferno were satirized by Burton in Mars Attacks! 165 min.
Nosferatu
1922. Germany. Directed by F. W. Murnau. Screenplay by Henrik Galeen, based on the novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker. With Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder. A landmark German Expressionist film, this adaptation is distinguished by Schreck’s magnificently eerie, ghoulish performance and Murnau’s inventive treatment of Stoker’s material. 81 min.
The Swarm
1978. USA. Directed by Irwin Allen. Screenplay by Stirling Silliphant, based on the novel by Arthur Herzog, Jr. With Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Olivia de Havilland, Slim Pickens, Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda. Allen’s disaster movie unleashes killer bees on an A-list cast. A sincere thriller marred by unintentional campiness—a common pitfall of the disaster genre—The Swarm provided yet more satire fodder for Burton’s Mars Attacks! 116 min.
Earthquake
1974. USA. Directed by Mark Robson. Screenplay by George Fox, Mario Puzo. With Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy. Another of the decade’s celebrity-bloated disaster epics, Earthquake examines several personal stories during the course of a major seismic event in Los Angeles. Although ostensibly character-focused, the main appeal of the film lies in the mass destruction wrought by the monster quake. 123 min.
The Brain from Planet Arous
1957. USA. Directed by Nathan Juran. Screenplay by Ray Buffum. With John Agar, Joyce Meadows, Robert Fuller. An alien brain with plans of world domination takes over the body of a nuclear scientist. This 1950s sci-fi/horror mainstay features the masterful work of monster makeup artist Jack Pierce 71 min.
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
1949. USA. Directed by James Algar, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney. Screenplay by Erdman Penner, Winston Hibler, Joe Rinaldi, Ted Sears, Homer Brightman, Harry Reeves, based on The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame, and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” by Washington Irving. Narrated by Bing Crosby. Created by the core animators of Disney’s golden age—the famous “Nine Old Men,” a term coined by Walt Disney himself—and featuring visual effects by Ub Iwerks, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is one of Disney’s most influential animated films. Burton, who started his career as a Disney animator during the final days of this golden age, was clearly inspired by this film’s priggish, nervous Ichabod Crane in his own Sleepy Hollow adaptation. 68 min.
Scream Blacula Scream
1973. USA. Directed by Bob Kelljan. Screenplay by Maurice Jules, Raymond Koenig, Joan Torres. With William Marshall, Don Mitchell, Pam Grier. At the neighborhood movie theater, Burton spent much of his childhood watching films like this sequel to the blaxploitation horror classic Blacula (1972), in which the titular black prince of shadows is awakened by voodoo powers to stalk the earth once again. 96 min.
Past
The Omega Man
1971. USA. Boris Sagal. 98 min.
Jason and the Argonauts
1963. USA/Great Britain. Don Chaffey. 104 min.
Mad Monster Party
1967. USA. Jules Bass. 95 min.
Frankenstein
1931. USA. James Whale. 71 min.
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)
1920. Germany. Robert Wiene. 71 min.
Murders in the Rue Morgue
1932. USA. Robert Florey. 61 min.
Plan 9 from Outer Space
1959. USA. Edward D. Wood, Jr.. 79 min.
Dracula
1931. USA. Tod Browning. 75 min.
The Raven
1935. USA. Lew Landers. 61 min.
Glen or Glenda
1953. USA. Edward D. Wood, Jr.. 65 min.
Bride of the Monster
1955. USA. Edward D. Wood, Jr.. 69 min.
Pit and the Pendulum
1961. USA. Roger Corman. 80 min.
The Mummy’s Hand
1940. USA. Christy Cabanne. 67 min.
The Creature from the Black Lagoon
1954. USA. Jack Arnold. 79 min.
The Mummy’s Tomb
1942. USA. Harold Young. 60 min.
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
1970. Great Britain. Val Guest. 96 min.
Revenge of the Creature
1955. USA. Jack Arnold. 82 min.