Pam: Yeah.

Stuntman Mike: Well, how do you think they accomplish that?

Pam: CGI?

Stuntman Mike: (laughs) Well, unfortunately Pam, nowadays more often than not, you’re right. But back in the all-or-nothing days, the Vanishing Point days, the Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry days, the White Line Fever days? Real cars smashing into real cars, and real dumb people driving them.

This exchange from Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino’s contribution to the homage-laden Grindhouse,, sums up the idea behind the collection of films in our featured summer series: a salute to the glory days of movie stunt driving in Hollywood features, before the era of computer generated imagery.

There’s something essentially cinematic about the chase sequence, and there’s nothing quite like the thrill of watching a well-shot and well-edited one. The more unusual the location and the more believably dangerous the action is, the more our pulses are likely to join in on the racing. Filmmakers since the silent era have understood this, but our series begins with the original moonshine running movie, Thunder Road (1958), a time when American automobiles had just gotten bigger, and the screens had become wide enough to accommodate them.

Some of the performers featured in these action classics are true movie icons: Robert Mitchum, Steve McQueen, Peter Fonda. But the real stars are the spectacularly talented stunt drivers and, of course, the cars themselves: McQueen’s Ford Mustang in Bullitt; the Dodge Challenger R/T in Vanishing Point; and the countless number of Cook County, Illinois, police vehicles in The Blues Brothers.

And cars aren’t the only things on wheels you’ll see racing and crashing on the Dryden’s screen this summer. We’ve included a special “Truck Night” double feature of White Line Fever and Duel, the little movie that made cinephiles first aware of a young director named Steven Spielberg. David Carradine battles an army of “destructocycles” in Deathsport, and Fonda uses his vacation Winnebago to wage war against a score of satanists in Race With the Devil. (Although it’s not an American movie, you probably should also know about the spectacular moped and car chase through the Paris Métro in Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Diva, screening August 22 & 24).

The series and our summer calendar end with a screening of the complete Grindhouse, featuring the sublime and witty Death Proof; evidence that there’s still a smart way to have real cars smashing into real cars. –Jim Healy, Assistant Curator, Exhibitions, Motion Picture Department

Screenings:

Thursday, July 3

7 p.m. Trailers on Wheels! & at 8 p.m. THUNDER ROAD

(Arthur Ripley, US 1958, 92 min.)

Sunday, July 6 | 7 p.m.

THE BLUES BROTHERS (John Landis, US 1980, 130 min.)

Thursday, July 10 | 8 p.m.

BULLITT (Peter Hyams, US 1968, 113 min.) & bonus Steve McQueen

footage!

Thursday, July 17 | Double Feature

7 p.m. DEATH RACE 2000 (Paul Bartel, US 1975, 78 min.)

8:30 p.m. DEATHSPORT (Allan Arkush & Henry Suso, US 1978, 82 min.)

Thursday, July 24 | Double Feature

7 p.m. THE DRIVER (Walter Hill, US 1978, 90 min.)

8:45 p.m. VANISHING POINT (Richard Sarafian, US 1971, 107 min.)

Thursday, July 31 | 8 p.m.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION (William Friedkin, US 1971, 104 min.) &

chase sequence from The Seven-Ups (US 1973, 10 min.)

Thursday, August 7 | Truck Night! Double Feature

7 p.m. DUEL (Steven Spielberg, US 1971, 90 min., Digital Projection)

8:45 p.m. WHITE LINE FEVER (Jonathan Kaplan, US 1975, 92 min.)

Thursday, August 14 | Double Feature

7 p.m. THE LAST AMERICAN HERO (Lamont Johnson, US 1973, 100 min.)

9 p.m. A SMALL TOWN IN TEXAS (Jack Starrett, US 1976, 95 min.)

Thursday, August 21 | Double Feature

7 p.m. RACE WITH THE DEVIL (Jack Starrett, US 1975, 88 min.)

8:45 p.m. DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY (John Hough, US 1973, 93 min.)

Sunday, August 31 | 7 p.m.

GRINDHOUSE (Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, US 2007, 191 min.)

One of the most critically lauded films of the year, Gus van Sant’s Paranoid Park makes its debut on July 5. This elegant and haunting work of art, the most recent feature from the director of Drugstore Cowboy, Good Will Hunting, and Elephant, is an enigmatic mystery and an observant look at Portland, Oregon’s outsider culture. J. Hoberman of the Village Voice called Van Sant’s latest “wonderfully lucid: It makes confusion something tangible and heartbreak the most natural thing in life.”

On July 18, catch Raoul Ruiz’s Klimt, with the always-inspired John Malkovich bringing to life the famed Austrian artist whose sexually aware and erotically inspired work came to symbolize the art nouveau movement of the late 19th and early 20th century. Told in a series of visions from Klimt’s deathbed, the story veers back and forth between past and present, fantasy and reality, chronicling his battles for artistic freedom, passions for various women, and influential meeting with cinema pioneer Georges Méliès.

Stephen Chow, the zany comic auteur behind Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, is back with his latest, CJ7, screening on July 26 & 27, a hilarious sci-fi parody about a poor man who brings home a cute but destructive alien creature he finds at a dumpsite. The fantastic CGI effects and Chow’s comic sensibility combine to make a funny and frenetic live-action cartoon.

La France (August 2) is a film best experienced and not read about, but if you must know a little, suffice to say it’s about a strong-willed young woman (Sylvie Testud) who disguises herself as a young man during World War I and becomes an indispensable member of a fighting platoon. The audacious feature directorial debut of Serge Bozon assuredly moves from heartbreaking war scenes to sweet musical numbers. Don’t miss it.

The latest film from Russian master Aleksandr Sokurov is Alexandra (August 8 & 10). Russian opera legend Galina Vishnevskaya stars as an elderly woman visiting her grandson, an officer stationed among the bored, weary troops at a desolate military outpost. Sokurov, whose acclaimed Russian Ark will screen again on August 1, has made a powerful anti-war film in which not a shot is fired.

Giuseppe Tornatore, the man behind Cinema Paradiso, returns with a change of pace, the suspense thriller The Unknown Woman (August 16). A mysterious woman (Xenia Rappoport) uses desperate means in order to be hired as nanny to an upwardly mobile couple’s young daughter. As the story slowly reveals her motives, the woman’s disturbing past comes back to haunt her. Tornatore’s usual composer, Ennio Morricone, contributes another beautiful music score.

Finally, on August 23 & 24, we’ll present John Boorman’s The Tiger’s Tail. The director of Deliverance and Hope and Glory brings us an unusually gripping and witty doppelganger thriller set in contemporary Dublin. The cast is headlined by veteran character actor Brendan Gleeson as a wealthy venture capitalist who finds his world turned upside down when a seemingly malevolent identical lookalike plots to take his place at work and at home with his beautiful but neglected wife (Kim Cattrall). You can also catch Boorman’s masterful Arthurian epic Excalibur on August 17.

Live music will be performed before each screening from 6 to 7:30 p.m., followed by shorts, trailers, and animation from the Eastman House motion picture collection. To further offer the Dryden Theatre experience, each screening will be preceded by a live introduction from Jim Healy, Eastman House’s assistant curator of motion pictures.

The featured films of Cinema at Sunset
Tuesday, Aug. 26: 2001: A Space Odyssey

Wednesday, Aug. 27: Manhattan

Thursday, Aug. 28: North by Northwest (Music by Bobby Henrie & The Goners)

Friday, Aug. 29: American Graffiti (“Cruise Night” plus music by The Hi-Risers)

Saturday, Aug. 30: The Black Cat and The Bride of Frankenstein
(Music by Ancient Youth and Gordon Munding & Curtis Waterman)

The projection and sound elements will be provided by Boston Light & Sound, an internationally renowned company that has overseen recent and dramatic upgrades to the Dryden Theatre’s projection and sound.

Assemblymember Susan John obtained the funds necessary to present Cinema at Sunset from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. Additional sponsors for Cinema at Sunset are Brighton Securities, City Newspaper, Echo-Tone Music, Flower City Glass, Highland Hospital, Time Warner Cable, Sam Adams Brewery, 321 Productions, Pinnacle Printers, C.H. Morse Stamp Shop, HTB Custom Screen Printing, Clarion Riverside Hotel, and ImageOut Film Festival.

Interestingly, no one imagined that Inspector Clouseau would become a breakout character. In fact, The Pink Panther (screening July 2) was devised as a vehicle for David Niven. But almost by accident, Sellers (who filled in at the last minute for Peter Ustinov, originally cast as Clouseau) stole the spotlight—in a big way. Less than a year after The Pink Panther hit the screens, A Shot in the Dark (July 9), Edwards’ and Sellers’ second Clouseau comedy, was released. In the mid-’70s, the director and star teamed again for another trilogy of very funny and hugely successful “Panthers”: The Return of the Pink Panther (July 16), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (July 23), and Revenge of the Pink Panther (July 30).

The “Pink Panther” itself is actually a reference to a diamond in the first film, and not the main character, but it became such a popular phrase that it stuck with all subsequent films, regardless of whether a diamond showed up or not. With the help of the catchy Henry Mancini score, the animated panther who appears in the credit sequences for each of the films ultimately became the star of his own cartoon series, sold a million plush toys, and endorsed a line of fiberglass insulation.

Inspector Clouseau is an enduringly entertaining character that lights up just about any type of audience. Biographer and film historian Ed Sikov noted that Sellers’ comic value came from his “bedrock dignity in the face of his own buffoonishness,” while Sellers himself said that he had “a certain pathetic charm that the girls found seductive.” On Wednesdays in July, join us as we stumble through the best of the Pink Panther movies.

–Michael Neault, Associate Programmer, Motion Picture Department

Forman studied screenwriting at the Prague Academy of Dramatic Arts, and emerged in 1963 with Audition and his first full feature, Black Peter (both screening July 1). His two subsequent features, Loves of a Blonde (July 8) and The Fireman’s Ball (July 15), were enormous international successes, but in Forman’s homeland of Czechoslovakia, the films were heavily criticized, and The Fireman’ Ball was even banned. Facing an increasingly oppressive situation, Forman left for the United States at the time of the Soviet Invasion in 1968. In these early days, Forman established strong collaborative relationships with fellow screenwriter and director Ivan Passer and cinematographer Miroslav Ondrv ícv ek, both of whom also emigrated to the US.

Forman soon brought his techniques to big-budget Hollywood features, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (July 22) was an astounding international success largely due to the director’s impeccable handling of an extraordinary cast that included Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, and in some of their earliest film appearances, Brad Dourif, Danny DeVito, and Christopher Lloyd. For what was only his second American movie, Forman earned a Best Director Academy Award®, and the film also won Oscars® for Nicholson, Fletcher, and Best Picture.

Forman next set his attentions to bringing the ’60s Broadway milestone Hair (July 29) to the big screen. Gerome Ragni and James Rado’s “Tribal Love Rock Musical” was given a more formally structured story, and the director seamlessly moved between loose, sometimes improvisatory scenes of dialogue and enthusiastically performed musical numbers (brilliantly choreographed by Twyla Tharp) that in many cases completely re-imagined the original stage production. Adapting another Broadway smash, Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus (showing in the director’s cut on July 12), Forman won his second Oscar® for the story of the bitter rivalry between composers Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang A. Mozart. Amadeus also won Oscars® for Best Picture and F. Murray Abraham’s performance as the haunted Salieri.

While in his career Forman has moved from stories about his average fellow countrymen to iconic historical figures, he always finds a way to tell the story of an individual struggling to express himself in an oppressive situation.

The touring retrospective was organized originally by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, with the kind collaboration of the Czech Center New York; the NationalFilm Archive, Prague; and Irena Kovarova, Independent Film Programmer and Tour Manager.

Coincidentally, Cassavetes’ untimely death at age 59 on February 3, 1989, came just two weeks after the Sundance Film Festival premiere of Steven Soderbergh’s independently made Sex, Lies, and Videotape, a watershed event for American indies and Sundance. Sadly, there remains few links between the defiantly personal films of Cassavetes and the avalanche of low-budget, yet decidedly non-personal efforts calculated to appeal to mainstream tastes and acquire distribution that appear every year at Sundance.

An accomplished actor with experience in film, theater, and television before he became a writer-director, Cassavetes was a born rebel who challenged the studios’ and the audience’s expectations and understanding of cinema at every opportunity; his films felt loose and improvised (although they were usually tightly scripted); they rarely seemed to adhere to the traditional rules of “storytelling”; and they focused on human behavior that was not always easy to accept at first glance.

Even though Cassavetes independently financed five of his features (three of which he also distributed on his own), by labeling him the “patron saint” of indies, we do a disservice to some of the marvelous features Cassavetes made within the studio system, like Husbands, Minnie and Moskowitz, and Too Late Blues. Not to mention that calling him the “inventor” of independent cinema is as misleading as saying that sound cinema begins with The Jazz Singer, and unfair to filmmakers like Morris Engel and Lionel Rogosin, who preceded Cassavetes and whose work is being shown in conjunction with this series.

“Independent” has become a, hip, identifiable genre, or worse, a brand name, but even if we accept that “true independent” filmmaking has been in decline since Cassavetes’ death, it is possible to consider his collective body of work as something other than a series of cinematic miracles, made by an angel sent from movie heaven to save us from crass commercialism. What’s more inspiring is that all of his resulting films, with all of their strengths and weaknesses, are not only honest about human relationships, but also authentic reflections of his struggles to make movies, whether or not he had the assistance of corporate funding. These films are more than the work of a true independent; they are films by an artist who was a human being.

Join us in the Dryden during May and June as we celebrate the extraordinary work of John Cassavetes. The series kicks off with a screening of his seminal first film, Shadows, showing in a newly restored 35mm print from the UCLA Film & Television Archive, followed by a discussion with film critic and former Rochesterian Marshall Fine, author of a Cassavetes biography. The centerpiece events for this series will take place the weekend of May 16–18 when Cassavetes company performers Ben Gazzara and Seymour Cassel and producer-cinematographer Al Ruban will participate in discussions following screening of Faces (another UCLA restoration), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and Husbands.—Jim Healy, Assistant Curator, Exhibitions, Motion Picture Department

For an exclusive interview with Al Ruban, please click this link, and for an interview with Seymour Cassel, follow this link.

Advance tickets for Cassavetes Weekend are available at http:// dryden.eastmanhouse.org, Museum’s admissions desk, and Dryden Theatre box office. No Take-10 tickets or passes. This film series is made possible in part through the generous support of Jacques and Dawn Lipson.

Screenings:

Wednesday, May 7 | 8 p.m.

Marshall Fine in Person!

SHADOWS (John Cassavetes, US 1959, 87 min.)

Wednesday, May 14 | 8 p.m.

TOO LATE BLUES (John Cassavetes, US 1962, 100 min.)

Cassavetes Weekend

Friday, May 16 | 8 p.m.

Seymour Cassel & Al Ruban in Person!

FACES (John Cassavetes, US 1968, 130 min.) No Take-10 tickets or passes.

Saturday, May 17 | 8 p.m.

Ben Gazzara, Seymour Cassel & Al Ruban in Person!

THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE (John Cassavetes, US 1976,

109 min.) No Take-10 tickets or passes.

Sunday, May 18 | 7 p.m.

Ben Gazzara & Al Ruban in Person!

HUSBANDS (John Cassavetes, US 1970, 131 min.) No Take-10 tickets

or passes.

Wednesday, May 21 | 8 p.m.

A CHILD IS WAITING (John Cassavetes, US 1963, 102 min.)

Wednesday, May 28 | 8 p.m.

A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE (John Cassavetes, US 1974, 146 min.)

Wednesday, June 4 | 8 p.m.

MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ (John Cassavetes, US 1971, 114 min.)

Wednesday, June 11 | 8 p.m.

OPENING NIGHT (John Cassavetes, US 1977, 144 min.)

Wednesday, June 18 | 8 p.m.

GLORIA (John Cassavetes, US 1980, 121 min.)

Wednesday, June 25 | 8 p.m.

LOVE STREAMS (John Cassavetes, US 1984, 141 min.)

Before Cassavetes Double Feature!

Thursday, May 15

7 p.m. LITTLE FUGITIVE (Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin, US 1953,

75 min.) & at 8:30 p.m. ON THE BOWERY (Lionel Rogosin, US 1957, 65

min.) Two films for one admission price.

Ridley Scott’s sci-fi masterwork Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford, returns to the Dryden in an all-new “Final Cut” that includes newly remastered special effects and some newly shot footage. The most comprehensive version we could ever expect of this provocative and visually mind-blowing work of speculative cinema, Blade Runner: The Final Cut screens on May 24 and 25.

An unusually funny and deadpan comedy of the sexes, director Sangsoo Hong’s Woman on the Beach (screening June 13) tells the story of a self-centered film director who instigates affairs with two women, and ultimately reveals his awkward, egotistical, and chauvinistic personality. One of South Korea’s most acclaimed contemporary filmmakers, Hong’s talents suggest a Korean equivalent of Albert Brooks.

Finally, Taiwanese filmmaker Hsiao-Hsien Hou travels outside of Asia for the first time, and his resulting effort, Flight of the Red Balloon (June 28 & 29), is a delightful and moving tribute to the transformative powers of all art. Set in a gorgeous Paris, the film pays homage to Albert Lamorisse’s immortal The Red Balloon while following the story of the growing relationship between a single-mother puppeteer (Juliette Binoche) and her film student nanny (Song Fang).

Jenkins first feature, 1998’s Slums of Beverly Hills, follows an itinerant Jewish middle-class family in the typically upscale suburbs of Los Angeles, and stars Natasha Lyonne, Alan Arkin, and Marisa Tomei. Her follow-up film, The Savages (2007), focuses on two siblings (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney) thrust into the roles of caregivers when their father (Philip Bosco) begins to succumb to dementia. The Savages earned Jenkins a Best Original Screenplay nomination at the 2008 Academy Awards®. Jenkins will visit George Eastman House on May 31 to present The Savages and Family Remains, and participate in a post-film discussion.

On May 30, Jenkins will also introduce one of the best and rarely shown films of the 1930s, Leo McCarey’s heartbreaking Make Way for Tomorrow (1937). In the movie that Orson Welles declared “could make a stone cry,” an aging couple (Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore) turn to their grown children when faced with financial problems and potential homelessness. Jenkins cites Make Way as a primary influence on The Savages. McCarey’s film also inspired director Yasujiro Ozu and screenwriter Kôgo Noda to make their celebrated masterwork, Tokyo Story (1953).

Surrounding these special events will be screenings of Slums of Beverly Hills (May 29) and Tokyo Story (June 1). No Take-10 tickets or passes will be accepted for the May 31 screening of The Savages.