Second Tier: George Stevens
This citywide series of screenings dedicated to underappreciated auteurs from Hollywood’s Golden Age and beyond comes to the Film Society with a celebration of the work of director George Stevens. Featuring Vivacious Lady (1938, USA; 90m) and George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin (1994, USA, Digital; 46m).
This citywide series of screening events dedicated to underappreciated auteurs from Hollywood's Golden Age and beyond comes to the Film Society for a night celebrating the work of director George Stevens. A two-time Oscar winner (for the iconic Elizabeth Taylor vehicles Giant and A Place in the Sun), Stevens spent much of his career on the Hollywood A-list, but was roundly dismissed as an empty craftsman by the young Turks of Cahiers du cinéma and by Andrew Sarris in The American Cinema. Today, his intelligent crowd-pleasers and ambitious melodramas beg reevaluation for their acute insights into the American character.
Vivacious Lady | 1938 | USA | 93m
After falling in love at first sight in New York City, a shy professor (Jimmy Stewart) brings his new wife, a nightclub singer (Ginger Rogers), home to his patrician small town family, to mixed results. Rogers and Stewart were actually involved, and the chemistry between the two is palpable, which adds to the screwball frustration of the two newlyweds who cannot get a moment alone. This charming romance is notable for its stretched-out comedic tone (as slow as His Girl Friday is fast) and for what may be the best catfight in cinema history.
George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin | 1994 | USA | 46m
Introduction by Film Comment Editor-at-Large Kent Jones. During WWII, Stevens headed a film unit known as Stevens' Irregulars, and captured breathtaking images of the landing at Normandy, the liberation of Berlin, and-most crucially-some of the only color footage of death camps at Dachau. This footage has been called “an essential visual record” of WWII by the Library of Congress, and was edited into this Emmy-winning documentary by Stevens's son, George Stevens, Jr. The experience documented here marks a transition for Stevens, who was known as a comedy director before the war, but afterwards shifted to a darker, more somber tone. This footage also plays a crucial role in Godard's Histoire(s) du cinéma.
Image courtesy of RKO / The Kobal Collection / John Miehle.
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.
