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