BAMcinématek presents Tuesdays with Elliott, a weekly tribute to film critic and longtime Cinemachat host Elliott Stein, Tuesdays Feb 26 Apr 23 Nine films, eight in 35mm! Special guest hosts at every screening, including Howard Mandelbaum, Eric Myers, Jake Perlin, and Clark Frederick The Wall Street Journal is the title sponsor of BAM Rose Cinemas and BAMcinématek. Brooklyn, NY/Feb 4, 2013 On Tuesdays from February 26 through April 23, BAMcinématek presents Tuesdays with Elliott, a nine-film tribute to Elliott Stein. Film critic, historian, script writer, and host of more than 120 monthly Cinemachats at BAMcinématek, BAM s beloved friend passed away last November at the age of 83. This spring, we pay tribute to the incomparable raconteur with a trove of Cinemachat classics and rarities from his near-bottomless wish list each presented by a different guest host. Opening the tribute series on Tuesday, Feburary 26, is Robert Wise s frontier psychodrama (and atypical Robert Mitchum vehicle) Blood on the Moon (1948), which completes the late 40s noir Western trilogy Elliott began with his final two chats, Pursued and Ramrod. Lensed by crack cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca (Out of the Past, The Locket another noteworthy Cinemachat in 2011) and based on a novel by Luke Short (who also wrote Ramrod), Blood on the Moon follows a roving cowboy (Mitchum) embroiled in a turf war between feuding ranchers and homesteaders in what The New York Times called a stand out from run-of-the-range action dramas just about everything that can and should happen in a Western. This screening of a rare archival 35mm print will be followed by a panel discussion with some of Elliott s colleagues and collaborators, including Howard Mandelbaum, Eric Myers, Jake Perlin, and Clark Frederick. Screening on Tuesday, March 5, is the Boulting brothers eccentric British wartime drama Thunder Rock (1942), a film that had always been at the top of Elliott s Cinemachat wish list. This unclassifiable mash-up of oddball propaganda, atmospheric ghost story, and psychological drama starring Michael Redgrave and James Mason, is a quintessential Elliott pick, and its thematic concern with the lasting legacies of those who are gone fits the elegiac mood of this series. Former BAMcinématek programmer Jake Perlin will host the screening. The following week, Elliott s friends Howard Mandelbaum and Eric Myers (co-authors of Screen Deco) present a Michael Curtiz pre-code double feature with The Mad Genius (1931 Mar 12), starring John Barrymore as a Svengali-esque puppeteer-cum-ballet instructor who becomes entangled in his favored male student s budding romance with a fellow dancer (newly-contracted WB starlet Marian Marsh), and Alias the Doctor (1932), a medical melodrama also featuring Marsh about a surgeon who assumes his brother s identity to save his patients lives. Anton Grot, an Academy Award-nominated art director and a longtime collaborator with Curtiz, lends his dramatic style to both films, imbuing the sets with bizarro expressionism and arch-modernist design. Other series highlights include: the gonzo nudie-cutie omnibus Bizarre (aka Secrets of Sex) (1970 Mar 19), which Stein co-wrote and appears in as both The Strange Young Man with a
surprising fetish and a mummified narrator; Don Siegel s hypnotic Civil War-era psychodrama The Beguiled (1971 Mar 19), one of his greatest collaborations with Clint Eastwood; Siegel s Academy Award-winning propagandistic short Hitler Lives (1945 screens with The Beguiled, a reprisal of a vintage 2005 Cinemachat double bill of one of Elliott s beloved B-list auteurs); and Michael Powell s Peeping Tom (1960 Apr 23), which Elliott championed early-on as the director s greatest film. Born December 5, 1928 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, Elliott Stein fell in love with movies at a very young age. He ended up studying film at NYU at age 15 in the 1940s, before cinema studies was an established course of study. He moved to Paris in 1948 and lived there for more than two decades, an experience that shaped a sensitivity and knowledge of film that was original then for an American writer and critic. Over the years, Elliott wrote for The Village Voice, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Sight and Sound, Film Comment, The Financial Times, Opera, and many other publications, and he had an incredibly storied career in New York and Paris arts culture: he rented Giovanni s Room from James Baldwin, taught Yves Montand English, and in part inspired Susan Sontag s landmark essay Notes on Camp. Elliott saw the original King Kong (screening on Apr 9) in first run in 1933 at Radio City Music Hall. It was the film he saw more than any other in his life, way into the many hundreds of times. Decades later, on the eve of the 1976 remake, he wrote an article for Rolling Stone called My Life with Kong, which to this day is considered the definitive story on the original film and one of the most evocative writings on the moviegoing experience. This story of an abiding love affair spans 43 years of his viewings around the world and under the wildest of circumstances, from movie theaters in Brooklyn, Paris, Italy, and Israel to a screening on the 21 st floor of the Empire State Building and finally, back at Radio City in 1974: I was back home with the King in the vast theater where I had first had my mind blown by him 41 years earlier. The popcorn I held made Proust s madeleine seem like a moldy bagel. It was by far his favorite film; he even expressed a desire to have his ashes scattered on the ostensible Indonesian island where Kong was born. Kong will screen in 35mm, the way he was made to be seen, followed by a panel discussion where acclaimed filmmaker, programmer, and Nouvelle Vague film editor Jackie Raynal will present exclusive footage of Stein shot during his later years. Since BAMcinématek s inception in 1999, Elliott programmed, hosted, and presented more than 120 Cinemachats at which he would host a post-film talk peppered with his one-of-a-kind erudition. His first chat, in December 1999, was for John Brahm s Hangover Square, and his last, on October 8, was for André De Toth s Ramrod, presented with friend and fellow film historian Howard Mandelbaum. Elliott defined eclectic taste, programming silent classics (Hitchcock s The Lodger), 30s rough-and-tumble pictures (Lang s Fury), mid-century art-house hits (De Santis Bitter Rice), recent auterist work (Cronenberg s Spider), and everything in between. Elliott also presented Gertrud, Dreyer s film maudit, which he championed resolutely in a seminal review in Sight and Sound upon its original 1964 release in Paris. Elliott Stein was a true film lover, a remarkable story teller, a walking encyclopedia, a living Zelig, and one of the warmest and kindest people we ve ever known. It was an honor to work so closely with him. Press screenings to be announced. For press information, please contact Gabriele Caroti at 718.724.8024 / gcaroti@bam.org Lisa Thomas at 718.724.8023 / lthomas@bam.org Tuesdays with Elliott Schedule Tue, Feb 26 7*, 9:45pm: Blood on the Moon *Panel discussion
Tue, Mar 5 7*, 9:45pm: Thunder Rock *Guest host Jake Perlin Tue, Mar 12 4:30, 7:30pm*: The Mad Genius + Alias the Doctor *Guest hosts Howard Mandelbaum & Eric Myers, authors of Screen Deco Tue, Mar 19 4:30, 9:45pm: Bizarre (Secrets of Sex) 7pm*: The Beguiled + Hitler Lives *Guest hosts Clark Frederick and Judith Kass, author of The Hollywood Professionals: Don Siegel Tue, Apr 9 4:30, 7*, 9:45pm: King Kong *Panel discussion Tue, Apr 23 4:30, 7, 9:45pm: Peeping Tom Film Descriptions The Beguiled (1971) 105min Directed by Don Siegel. With Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page. This haunting and elegant movie combines elements of the Western, the grand guignol chiller, and the gothic black comedy. Eastwood brings his exploration of the male dynamic front and center, giving the most physical performance of his career as a wounded Union soldier who takes refuge in a southern girls school and unleashes the repressed libidos of the ladies. 35mm. with Hitler Lives (1945) 17min This Academy Award-winning, propagandistic short, also directed by Siegel, calls for vigilance in the wake of World War II s end. 35mm archival print courtesy of Academy Film Archive. Tue, Mar 19 at 7pm Guest hosts Clark Frederick and Judith Kass, author of The Hollywood Professionals: Don Siegel Bizarre (Secrets of Sex) (1970) 91min Directed by Anthony Balch. With Richard Schulman, Janet Spearman. An exhumed mummy narrates a gonzo psychedelic journey through the extremities to which mankind and more particularly, womankind go in the pursuit of, shall we say, satisfaction. Stein co-wrote this nudesploitation omnibus, stuffed with outrageous Swinging Sixties antics: cat burglar role play, a photographer s studio-cum-s&m dungeon, and Stein himself as The Strange Young Man with a slimy fetish! Digibeta. Tue, Mar 19 at 4:30, 9:45pm Blood on the Moon (1948) 88min Directed by Robert Wise. With Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes. Completing the late 40s noir Western trilogy Elliott Stein began with his final two Cinemachats, Pursued and Ramrod, Wise s (The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Set-Up) superlative psychological Western stars Mitchum as a roving cowboy who becomes embroiled in a turf war between feuding ranchers and homesteaders. Submerged in expressionist noir shadows courtesy of crack cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca (Cat People, Out of the Past), the film s centerpiece is a lengthy, shockingly brutal barroom brawl in near-total darkness. 35mm archival print courtesy of British Film Institute.
Tue, Feb 26 at 7*, 9:45pm *Panel discussion King Kong (1933) 100min Directed by Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Shoedsack With Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot In King Kong, O'Brien created one of the most iconic and enduring characters in film history a gargantuan ape who is captured by a film crew and brought to New York City as a sideshow attraction. The film is remarkable for the unexpected expression and character that O'Brien imbues his beast with, "an immortal tribute to the Hollywood dream factory's ability to fashion a symbol that can express all the contradictory erotic, ecstatic, destructive, pathetic and cathartic buried impulses of 'civilised' man" (Time Out London). Tue, Apr 9 at 4:30, 7*, 9:45pm *Panel discussion The Mad Genius (1931) 81min Directed by Michael Curtiz. With John Barrymore, Marian Marsh. A crippled puppeteer (Barrymore, reprising his deranged Svengali persona) kidnaps a boy and manically molds him into a famous ballet dancer until the young man falls for a pretty ballerina (Marsh), resulting in a seriously gruesome night at the ballet. This triumph of high-expressionist style bizarro, Caligariesque doorways and staircases abound from Warner Bros. maverick Curtiz stars a pre-frankenstein Boris Karloff as Russia s meanest dad. 35mm. with Alias the Doctor (1932) 61min Directed by Michael Curtiz. With Richard Barthelmess, Marian Marsh. A selfless surgeon (Barthelmess) must assume his loutish brother s identity in order to save his patients lives. Curtiz reteamed with Mad Genius art director Anton Grot to transform this shoulda-been-forgettable medical melodrama into a stylistic riot of arch-modernist set design, looming, outsized shadows, and disorienting camera angles. 35mm. Tue, Mar 12 at 4:30, 7:30pm* *Guest hosts Howard Mandelbaum & Eric Myers, authors of Screen Deco Peeping Tom (1960) 101min Directed by Michael Powell. With Karl Böhm, Anna Massey, Moira Shearer. After years of making superbly crafted entertainment, Powell switched gears and one-upped Hitchcock with Peeping Tom. Böhm plays a shy movie technician who murders women on the side, while filming their reactions. A ruthless examination of voyeurism, as well as a contemplation of the inherent violence and sexism of cinema. 35mm Tue, Apr 23 at 4:30, 7, 9:45pm Thunder Rock (1942) 112min Directed by Roy Boulting. With Michael Redgrave, James Mason. This unclassifiable British wartime mash-up of oddball propaganda, atmospheric ghost story, and psychological drama stars Michael Redgrave as an anti-fascist reporter fed up with his country s isolationist stance. Upon retreating to a remote lighthouse, he rediscovers his patriotic fervor via supernatural visitations from drowned 19th-century immigrants and a very much alive, and very marvelous, James Mason. Closer in tone and style to Powell and Pressburger than to the British mainstream, it's weird and unusually gripping (Geoff Andrew, Time Out London). 35mm archival print courtesy of British Film Institute. Tue, Mar 5 at 7*, 9:45pm *Guest host Jake Perlin About BAMcinématek
The four-screen BAM Rose Cinemas (BRC) opened in 1998 to offer Brooklyn audiences alternative and independent films that might not play in the borough otherwise, making BAM the only performing arts center in the country with two mainstage theaters and a multiplex cinema. In July 1999, beginning with a series celebrating the work of Spike Lee, BAMcinématek was born as Brooklyn s only daily, year-round repertory film program. BAMcinématek presents new and rarely seen contemporary films, classics, work by local artists, and festivals of films from around the world, often with special appearances by directors, actors, and other guests. BAMcinématek has not only presented major retrospectives by major filmmakers such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Manoel de Oliveira, Shohei Imamura, Vincente Minnelli (winning a National Film Critics Circle Award prize for the retrospective) Kaneto Shindo, Luchino Visconti,, but it has also introduced New York audiences to contemporary artists such as Pedro Costa and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. In addition, BAMcinématek programmed the first US retrospectives of directors Arnaud Desplechin, Nicolas Winding Refn, Hong Sang-soo, and, most recently, Andrzej Zulawski. From 2006 to 2008, BAMcinématek partnered with the Sundance Institute and in June 2009 launched BAMcinemaFest, a 16-day festival of new independent films and repertory favorites with 15 NY feature film premieres; the fifth annual BAMcinemaFest will run from June 19 30, 2013. Credits The Wall Street Journal is the title sponsor of BAM Rose Cinemas and BAMcinématek. Steinberg Screen at the BAM Harvey Theater is made possible by The Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust. Pepsi is the official beverage of BAM. Brooklyn Brewery is the preferred beer of BAMcinématek. BAM Rose Cinemas are named in recognition of a major gift in honor of Jonathan F.P. and Diana Calthorpe Rose. BAM Rose Cinemas would also like to acknowledge the generous support of The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Estate of Richard B. Fisher, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Delegation of the New York City Council, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, Bloomberg, and Time Warner Inc. Additional support for BAMcinématek is provided by the Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation, The Grodzins Fund, The Liman Foundation and Summit Rock Advisors. Special thanks to: Clark Frederick; Howard Mandelbaum; Eric Myers; Jake Perlin Additional thanks to: Fleur Buckley & Andrew Youdell/British Film Institute; Marilee Womack/Warner Brothers; Paul Ginsburg/Universal; Gary Conner/Gordon Films, Inc; May Haduong/Academy Film Archive; Eric Di Bernardo/Rialto Pictures General Information Tickets: General Admission: $13 BAM Cinema Club Members: $8, BAM Cinema Club Movie Moguls: Free Seniors & Students (25 and under with a valid ID, Mon Thu): $9 Bargain matinees (Mon Thu before 5pm & Fri Sun before 3pm no holidays): $9 BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafé are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, is the newest addition to the BAM campus and houses the Judith and Alan Fishman Space and Rita K. Hillman Studio. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn s only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, is open for dining prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances. BAMcafé also features an eclectic mix of spoken word and live music for BAMcafé Live on select Friday and Saturday nights with a special BAMcafé Live menu available starting at 8pm. Subway: Train: Bus: Car: 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue Barclays Center (2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins St for Harvey Theater) D, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue Long Island Railroad to Atlantic Terminal Barclays Center B25, B26, B41, B45, B52, B63, B67 all stop within three blocks of BAM Commercial parking lots are located adjacent to BAM For ticket and BAMbus information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.