We continue our afternoon film matinee series with performances by some of the greatest film actresses of all time. Join film and art historian and series host Laura Stewart for background information, discussion and audience Q & A.
Select Wednesdays at 1:30pm |
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February 9 - ITDir. Badger (USA, 1927) silent, 79 min.
Shop girl Betty Lou (Clara Bow) has designs on the handsome owner of the department store where she works. It is also an effortless cruise through the manners and morals of the flapper era. Clara Bow's performance does more to define "It" than anything else, and clearly sets the future course for Marilyn Monroe and Madonna.
February 16 - DIARY OF A LOST GIRL
Dir. Pabst (USA, 1931) silent, 116 min.
The mystique and stunning beauty of Louise Brooks are on glorious display in this restrained performance that a lesser actress would've taken over the top. Brooks strikes a resonant note of innocence, tenacity, and worldliness as Thymian, the idealistic daughter of an unscrupulous pharmacist.
February 23 - THE TROJAN WOMEN
Dir. Kakogiannis (USA/Greece, 1971) 105 min.
Katharine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, Genevieve Bujold, Irene Pappas. Hecuba and the other women of Troy find their city in ruins and their cause lost. The city has fallen into Greek hands and the women are likely to become slaves of Greek soldiers. A messenger approaches to inform them that the lots have been drawn and each woman will be taken to the man who drew for her.
March 2 - BLONDE VENUS Dir. von Sternberg (USA, 1932) 93 min.
Marlene Dietrich, Cary Grant. American chemist Ned Faraday marries a German entertainer and starts a family. However, he becomes poisoned with Radium and needs an expensive treatment in Germany to have any chance at being cured. Dietrich returns to nightclub work to raise the money.
March 9 - PYGMALION Dir. Asquith (UK, 1939) 89 min.
Cranky Professor Henry Higgins takes a bet that he can turn Cockney guttersnipe Eliza Doolittle into a "proper lady" in a mere six months in this delightful comedy of bad manners based on the play by George Bernard Shaw.
March 23 - LAURA
Dir. Preminger/Mamoulian (USA, 1944) 87 min.This stylish film noir mystery twists and turns with new suspects, new evidence and unexpected revelations. Gene Tierney, whose heart-shaped face mixes the exotic with the girl next door, brings poise and calm to her role as the object of every man's gaze and the target of a killer. Laura, handsomely shot in dreamy black and white, is the first and best of Otto Preminger's cool, controlled murder mysteries.
March 30 - AUNTIE MAME Dir. DaCosta (USA, 1958) 143 min. (TV_MA)An exuberant and immensely amusing comedy that can be seen repeatedly. Rosalind Russell plays the flamboyant aunt who takes in poor, orphaned Patrick. Bohemian Mame raises her nephew in a world filled with acceptance and her oddball friends. April 6 - BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S Dir. Edwards (USA, 1961) 115 min.Hepburn's urban sophisticate Holly Golightly, an enchanting neurotic living off the gifts of gentlemen, is a bewitching figure in designer dresses and costume jewelry. April 13 - CAT BALLOU Dir. Silverstein (USA, 1965) 97 min.Jane Fonda. Prim, proper, beautiful school teacher returns home to find her father threatened by evil men looking to build a railroad through property that he refuses to sell. An altogether enjoyable comedy, the film is full of small surprises and wonderful character turns. April 20 - ROBIN AND MARIAN Dir. Lester (UK, 1976) 106 min.The Robin Hood legend some twenty years after most versions of the story, with Robin and his sidekick Little John returning to their old Sherwood haunts world-weary from the Crusades. Marian greets Robin's return with mixed feelings. April 27 - MIGHTY APHRODITE Dir. Allen (USA, 1995) 95 min. (Rated R)Lenny and Amanda have an adopted son Max. Lenny, a New York sportswriter bored by his wife becomes obsessed with finding Max's real parents. Mira Sorvino won an Oscar for her performance as a bubbleheaded hooker and porn star who happens to be Max's mother. May 4 - THE HOURS Dir. Daldry (USA, 2003) 114 min.Three interwoven stories: in the 1920's Virginia Woolf grapples with her inner demons and slowly works on her novel Mrs. Dalloway; in 1949 housewife Laura Brown feels her own destructive impulses; and in 1999 a book editor--much like the title character of Woolf's novel--prepares to throw a party, in honor of her friend, a seriously ill poet. |
