Over three Sundays in October, the Dryden will feature a number of rarely screened works by influential pop artist and experimental filmmaker Andy Warhol, made during the icon’s most productive era, 1964 to 1966. All of the films will be shown in their original 16mm format, and several of the presentations will employ Warhol’s technique of side-by-side dual projections. The programs were curated by University of Rochester professor and Warhol specialist Douglas Crimp.
Restaurant, Outer and Inner Space, and Lupe (all screening October 5) all offer different guises of Warhol’s glamorous, doomed superstar Edie Sedgwick. Warhol’s supreme achievement, Chelsea Girls (October 19), utilizes two projectors to show the lives of a number of bizarre residents of New York’s famed Chelsea Hotel. Callie Angel, curator of the Andy Warhol Film Project, will present a special program of silent film “screen tests” featuring visitors to Warhol’s Factory from 1964 to 1967 on October 26.
Most Tuesdays in September through early December, the Dryden will present its annual series of marvelous movies from the era before synchronous sound. The films are presented in conjunction with the University of Rochester’s course in Silent Cinema, taught by George Eastman House Curator of Motion Pictures Patrick Loughney, and most screenings feature splendid live piano accompaniment from Rochester’s own Philip C. Carli.
Among the diverse offerings on this calendar are the official release version of Erich von Stroheim’s much-abused masterwork, Greed (September 9); D.W. Griffith’s The Avenging Conscience and The Musketeers of Pig Alley (September 16); South (September 23), the remarkable filmed record of Shackleton’s legendary journey to the arctic; Charles Chaplin’s seminal comedies The Kid and The Tramp (September 30); John Barrymore in the deliriously romantic When a Woman Loves (October 7), one of the first films released with a synchronous Vitaphone music score soundtrack; Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu’s Dragnet Girl (October 21); and just in time for Halloween (October 28), Robert Wiene’s expressionistic head trip, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
Within each of us is the power to affect positive changes in the lives of people closest to us and within our communities. We can also influence our culture and the greater world around us. Certain films can help us to see, hear, and feel such power within us and inspire us to make a difference.
In September, the Dryden will launch a series of monthly screenings celebrating the power of the human spirit. These films have been selected in the hopes that they will stimulate thought, discussion, passion, and action. Each selection explores the potential to add meaning in one’s life through contributions, in all manner of ways, to the lives of others.
The series begins September 20 & 21, when we present three showings of A Man Named Pearl. Scott Galloway and Brent Pierson offer a documentary portrait of self-taught topiary gardener Pearl Fryar, whose dazzling, one-of-a-kind plant sculptures in his magical backyard have earned media and tourist attention and revived his once-declining hometown of Bishopville, located in the poorest county of South Carolina. A special panel discussion will follow the 8 p.m. program only on September 20.
On October 25, the second offering of the series is Encounter Point. This acclaimed film by Ronit Avni and Julia Bacha introduces citizens on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for whom an end to the fighting has become a personal crusade. Family members of slain Palestinians and Israelis, both military and civilian, share their stories and how they have turned their grief into a force for change in the region. A panel discussion will follow the screening. See the calendar section for details.
Once, in an unguarded moment in the editing room, Hal Ashby related a story about how he attempted to commit suicide. He planned to swim out in the Pacific Ocean until he drowned, but first determined he should find the perfect bathing suit to do so. However, the search proved futile and Ashby couldn’t find trunks that he liked…so he scrapped the idea altogether.
In October, the Dryden will pay tribute to Hal Ashby with five tragicomic films from the 1970s. Being the perennial misfit himself, Ashby’s stories often follow characters excommunicated from some walk of life. The Landlord (October 1) stars Beau Bridges as an inexperienced businessman who becomes alienated from his well-to-do family after getting involved in a mixed-race and mixed-class relationship. The life of Woody Guthrie is celebrated in Bound for Glory (October 29), as the musician finds himself chafing not only against society, but also against the people who love him. The title characters of Harold and Maude (October 8) are only drawn together by their very inability to fit in anywhere else. Jack Nicholson and Otis Young portray naval officers in The Last Detail (October 15) who think they belong to a group, but learn that they can only rely on each other. In Shampoo (October 22), hairdresser George Roundy, played by Warren Beatty, finds his company coveted by all those around him, but the attention only makes him unhappy. All these stories contain a perfect balance of black humor, poetry, and uncomfortable moments, delivered in a style that has deeply influenced an entire generation of American filmmakers.
After his streak of ’70s hits, Ashby found himself repeatedly outcast from Hollywood in the 1980s. More than any other word, “tragic” is used to describe Hal Ashby’s life. His last ten years were fraught with studio conflicts, aborted pictures, substance abuse, and seriously declining personal relationships. If it weren’t for these bleak moments, however, the rest of his career wouldn’t shine so brightly. Not unlike the anecdote about the suicide and the swimming trunks, Ashby’s stories carry a hint of joy and redemption just beneath the surface. The emphasis when describing Hal Ashby’s work should ultimately be on triumph, and not tragedy.
Get ready for your hair to stand on end. The Dryden’s perennial selection of blood-curdling horror movies will be offered Thursdays in October leading up to Halloween. The frightfest begins October 2, when we screen Sidney Furie’s intense thriller The Entity. This story of a menacing invisible mass that repeatedly attacks an innocent woman (Barbara Hershey) will be preceded by two experimental shorts by Peter Tscherkassky that re-edit The Entity to explore an even more visceral sense of horror.
Two Italian occult classics starring actress Barbara Steele are featured October 9, Black Sunday and Castle of Blood. Robert Wise’s The Haunting (October 16) offers the last word in haunted house movies. Wise’s directorial debut, Curse of the Cat People, is the second half of an October 23 double bill of purr-fect chillers from producer Val Lewton’s low-budget unit at RKO Studios, following the original Cat People.
We’ll celebrate the 30th anniversary of John Carpenter’s horror milestone Halloween with a screening on October 30, and on October 31, George Romero’s politically charged Land of the Dead screens in conjunction with the 19th Rochester Labor Series (see related article).
