Bird of Paradise
King Vidor Retrospective
August 5 - 14, 2022
A Pre-Code romance between a strapping young sailor (Joel McRea) and a Polynesian princess (Dolores Del Rio), the movie is something of an outlier in Vidor’s filmography, but for this very reason it stands as a testament to his versatility.
Writing in his autobiography, A Tree Is a Tree, Vidor recalled producer David O. Selznick’s rather open-ended request for this film, a Pre-Code romance between a strapping young sailor (Joel McRea) and a Polynesian princess (Dolores Del Rio): “Just give me three wonderful love scenes like you had in The Big Parade and Bardelys the Magnificent. I don’t care what story you use so long as we call it Bird of Paradise and Del Rio jumps into a flaming volcano at the finish.” The movie is something of an outlier in Vidor’s filmography; as an auteur he’s not typically associated with exocitized scenarios, but for this very reason it stands as a testament to his versatility and his ability to bring his unique compositional intelligence to every frame he oversaw, no matter the setting or genre.
Read More
Kamal Aljafari on With Hasan in Gaza and ‘The Camera of the Dispossessed’
Our 63rd New York Film Festival Talks featured a special conversation with With Hasan in Gaza director Kamal Aljafari, moderated by Film Comment editor Devika Girish.
Lucrecia Martel on Our Land (Nuestra Tierra), the Filmmaker’s First Feature Documentary
On the latest episode of FLC Luminaries, our video series that spotlights talent at all levels of the filmmaking process who uplift the art and craft of cinema, Our Land (Nuestra Tierra) director Lucrecia Martel discusses her expansive and enlightening first feature documentary.
Carla Simón on Her Poignantly Autobiographical Romería
This week we’re excited to present a conversation from the 63rd New York Film Festival with Romería director Carla Simón, moderated by NYFF Main Slate selection committee member Florence Almozini.
