One of the most acclaimed writers of contemporary American fiction, Jonathan Lethem is also one of our country’s most observant commentators on American popular culture. The celebrated novelist and essayist will appear in the Dryden Theatre on Saturday, February 9 for the screening of Nicholas Ray’s 1956 masterpiece, Bigger Than Life.
This film stars the subtle and powerful James Mason as a middleclass schoolteacher who undergoes cortisone treatment after contracting a mysterious disease. The drug gives him a miraculous recovery, but it also causes delusions of grandeur and slowly eats away at his sanity, eventually threatening the safety of his family. Director Ray (Rebel Without a Cause) depicts the often-menacing pressures of American suburban life with a vision unlike any other on film.
Movies and pop culture have been a strong influence on Brooklyn native Lethem’s literary works, beginning with his first published novel, 1994’s meld of detective fiction and sci-fi entitled Gun, with Occasional Music. He achieved widespread success and won the National Book Critics’ Circle Award for his 1999 novel Motherless Brooklyn, which also puts a clever, modern-day spin on detective and film noir genre tropes, and he’s currently co-writing a screen adaptation of his deeply personal 2004 bestseller about superheroes and gentrification, The Fortress of Solitude. His most recent novel is You Don’t Love Me Yet.
Some of Lethem’s strongest writing appears in his collection of essays, The Disappointment Artist, including a wonderful piece on how to watch and appreciate a movie, inspired by Lethem’s frequent viewings of John Ford’s The Searchers. The volume also contains the finest appreciation of John Cassavetes’ films yet published. Lethem will introduce Bigger Than Life, and a discussion about the film and cinephilia in general will follow. The evening will conclude with a book signing, with books available from the Eastman House Store.
~Jim Healy, Assistant Curator, Exhibitions, Motion Picture Department
(Joss Whedon, US 2005, 119 min., 35mm)
The crew of the cargo spaceship Serenity, led by Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion of Waitress), protects a mysterious young girl by avoiding the fascist Alliance and a powerful bounty hunter (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Their evasive plan leads them into direct battle with the cannibalistic Reavers. Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, made this thrilling feature-length extension of his abruptly cancelled sci-fi/Western TV series Firefly after diehard fans of the show demanded more.
(Abraham Polonsky, US 1948, 78 min., 35mm)
John Garfield plays an attorney trying to juggle allegiances with underworld bosses and his own brother in the slimy New York numbers racket. In his directorial debut, Polonsky delivered one of the key films of the 1940s, but being on the Hollywood blacklist in 1951 prevented him from directing again for 20 years. At 8:30 p.m.: HE RAN ALL THE WAY (John Berry, US 1951, 77 min, 35mm) In his final role, John Garfield is a cop killer on the lam who holds Shelley Winters and her family hostage in their home. Tense and tough, the performances are memorable, as is the black-and-white cinematography of James Wong Howe.
(JUVENTUDE EM MARCHA, Portugal/France/Switzerland 2006, 154 min., Portuguese with subtitles, 35mm)
Costa’s most acclaimed work to date follows a retired laborer as he visits his fellow Cape Verdean immigrants in the housing project that has replaced a demolished Lisbon slum. Contemplative and beautifully photographed, Costa’s subjects deliver numerous strange and powerful monologues, collectively giving voice to those rarely heard. “Mysterious and wholly beguiling…gorgeously lighted as if a direct invocation of Vermeer”—Manohla Dargis, The New York Times.
(Charles Burnett, US 1977, 83 min., 35mm)
Writer-director Burnett makes his feature debut about a working-class family affected by unemployment in the Watts district of Los Angeles. Burnett’s lyrical, elliptical style often includes matching music to his haunting images. A landmark in American independent filmmaking, it was one of the first films selected for the Library of Congress National Film Registry, and was recently preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. New 35mm print!
