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Archives > 2006 > Special Programs

If...

A VERY SPECIAL EVENING WITH MALCOLM MCDOWELL

hosted by Robert K. Horton

IF...

Using the culture of hazing and persecutions among students and teachers in the British public school system as its metaphor, IF... is a study of revolution against an autocracy that denies individual freedom, a revolution symbolized by Mike Travis (Malcolm McDowell) demanding, "When do we live?" Subject to ever escalating punishments, the students are beaten one by one with a cane after which they are expected to "thank" their tormenter. Ultimately, a group of students headed by Travis discovers a cache of automatic weapons, which they put to use in bloody counter-attack. UK, 1971, 111 min.

Director: Lindsay Anderson; Producer: Lindsay Anderson, Michael Medwin; Screenwriter: David Sherwin, John Howlett; Cinematographer: Miroslave Ondricek; Cast: Malcolm McDowell, David Wood, Richard Warwick, Christine Noonan, Mona Washburn; Print Source: Paramount
SPONSOR: Puget Sound Energy

Laura

FORMATIVE FILMS
with Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne

All movie-lovers have favorite films, movies that have touched them in some way, creating a response that remains with them since first viewing. This year's Formative Film curator is Robert Osborne, who as a film historian is so associated with classic movies he might as well have coined the term. After struggling to be a film actor with little success, at the suggestion of his mentor Lucille Ball, he turned to his second love: writing about movies. In 1965 he wrote the first of several official histories of the Oscar® at the request of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He maintains a weekly column in the Hollywood Reporter, but he is best known as the prime-time host of Turner Classic Movies where he delivers his vast and intimate knowledge in introductions before almost every film. Robert has been a long-time friend of the Rose Theatre and the Port Townsend Film Festival, returning this year for the fourth time.

Robert was a teenager when he saw what became one of his favorite films, Laura.

LAURA

Laura, a 1944 film noir, tells the story of a police detective who falls in love with the portrait of a woman who has been murdered. The story begins with cop Mark McPherson investigating the murder of a beautiful advertising director, Laura Hunt. McPherson interviews a newspaper columnist, who relates how he fell under Laura's spell and used his influence and fame to advance her career. McPherson also questions Laura's fiance, her wealthy aunt, and her loyal housekeeper. Through the testimony of her friends and the reading of her letters, McPherson comes to know Laura and slowly falls in love with the dead woman. He becomes obsessive - using the excuse of trying to solve the murder, he hangs around her apartment and is at one point accused of falling in love with a corpse. He falls asleep under her portrait, drunk, whereupon she enters, like a dream or a ghost. It was not Laura who was murdered, but a model at the advertising agency. Laura's resurrection starts the mysterious plot spinning in new directions. Is someone trying to kill Laura? Is Laura, the woman McPherson has fallen in love with, a murderer?

Laura won an Oscar® for Best Cinematography, black and white; and was nominated for Writing, Director, Actor in a Supporting Role and Art Direction - Interior Decoration, black and white. In 1999 the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. USA, 1944, 88 min.

Director and Producer: Otto Preminger; Original Story: Vera Caspary; Screenwriters: Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, Betty Reinhardt; Cinematographer: Joseph LaShelle; Editor: Louis Loeffler; Cast: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price, Judith Anderson
SPONSOR: Roger Katz & Associates Architects, Inc.

LOL

LOL
with Director Joe Swanberg

The acronym LOL is Internet shorthand for "laugh out loud." A common abbreviation for emails, message boards and text messages, it is meant to simplify communication, but like many other technology- driven shortcuts, its meaning is often misinterpreted. This film about technology addiction and its tendency to damage human relationships follows a cast of characters who all seem to spend most of their time looking into either computer or cell-phone screens. Their dependence on technology and its products becomes increasingly poignant and relevant. The end result is a remarkable film that may herald a new form of filmmaking. USA, 2006, 82 min.

Director: Joe Swanberg; Producer: Joe Swanberg; Screenwriters: Joe Swanberg, C. Mason Wells, Kevin Bewersdorf; Cinematographer: Joe Swanberg; Editor: Joe Swanberg; Cast: Kevin Bowersdorf, Joe Swanberg, C. Mason Wells, Tipper Newton, Brigid Reagan, Greta Gerwig, Kate Winterich; Print Source: Joe Swanberg, info@lolthemovie.com
SPONSOR: The Green Eyeshade

The Whales of August

THE WHALES OF AUGUST
with Producer Mike E. Kaplan
hosted by Robert J. Osborne

A stately, autumnal work by director Lindsay Anderson (If...). Summer in Maine: times are changing. Whales no longer pass close to shore as they did during the youth of two elderly widowed sisters who have a seaside home where they've summered for half a century. Libby (Bette Davis) is blind, contrary, and getting ready to die. Sarah (Lillian Gish) is attentive to her sister, worried about continuing to care for her, and half-interested in an old Russian aristocrat who fishes from their shore and offers them dinner. Sarah invites him to join them, and Libby gets her back up. This unassuming story of small moments nevertheless carries a large supply of emotional freight. Critic Roger Ebert said of Lillian Gish's performance, "At her great age, Gish (she was 90 at the time the film was made) still sometimes looks girlish, capable of teasing and practical
jokes." USA, 1987, 90 min.

Director: Lindsay Anderson; Producer: Mike E. Kaplan, Carolyn Pfeiffer; Screenwriter: David Berry; Cinematographer: Mike Fash; Editor: Nicolas Gaster; Cast: Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, Vincent Price, Ann Sothern; Harry Carey Jr.; Print Source: Mike E. Kaplan
SPONSOR: Waltenbaugh Construction
A Clockwork Orange

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

Published as a novel by Anthony Burgess in 1962, the controversial 1971 Stanley Kubrick film version of A Clockwork Orange is set in a futuristic England, circa 1995. It follows the career of a young man named Alex (Malcolm McDowell) whose main pleasures in life are classical music (especially Beethoven), rape, and random acts of "ultra violence." Alex  is alternately subdued, rehabilitated and released to commit more mayhem throughout the film. One of the central moral questions of A Clockwork Orange is the definition of "goodness." Once he has undergone the aversion therapy, Alex behaves like a good member of society, but not through choice; his "goodness" is as artificial as the clockwork orange of the title.

But for all its serious intent and its nomination for a best picture OscarTM, the film's violence and sexually explicit material alienated as many as it enthralled. It was condemned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Film and Broadcasting and withdrawn from circulation in Britain for nearly 30 years. UK, 1971, 136 min.

Director: Stanley Kubrick; Producer: Warner Bros.; Screenwriter: Anthony Burgess (novel); Stanley Kubrick (screenplay); Cinematographer: John Alcott; Editor: Bill Butler; Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates
SPONSOR: Scarecrow Video

Note: Viewers should be advised that the print for this film, the only one available, is considered to be of "poor quality." In addition, this film is Rated R-no one under 17 will be admitted without a parent or guardian.

Brazil

BRAZIL

Another look at the future. Set "somewhere in the 20th century" at 8:49 pm, the retro futuristic world of Brazil is a gritty urban hellhole patched over with cosmetic surgery and "designer ducts for your discriminating taste"; it appears to be almost post-apocalyptic in nature. Life in Brazil has become so hopelessly overcomplicated that entropy has taken over and the world appears to be on the perpetual verge of complete mechanical failure on all fronts. This is due not only to the enemies of the state (terrorists), but to the insanely increasing amount of paperwork (a "bureaucratic implosion") required to get anything done. Sound familiar? Upon release, Brazil performed poorly at the box office. Audiences were confused. Nonetheless, the film has become a cult favorite, particularly among director Terry Gilliam's fans. In tone and setting, it has similarities to Gilliam's later reality-twisting Twelve Monkeys.
UK, 1985, 131 min.

Director: Terry Gilliam; Producer: Arnon Milchan; Screenplay: Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, Charles McKeown; Cinematographer: Roger Pratt; Editor: Julian Doyle; Cast: Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, Ian Holm
SPONSOR: Water Street Brewing and Ale House
Hell's Hero's

HELL 'S HEROES

A powerful story of three outlaws who try to redeem themselves by saving a newborn child, Hell's Heroes has had many incarnations under different titles: The Three Godfathers (1919, 1936, and 1948) and The Godchild (for television, 1974). In 1985, the French reshaped the story as Trois Hommes et un Couffin (Three Men and a Cradle) which Hollywood turned into Three Men and a Baby two years later as a showcase for Steven Guttenberg, Ted Danson and Tom Selleck. In our version, the story goes like this: When four men rob a bank, one is killed and the other three escape into the desert where they lose their horses in a storm. Finding a woman who gives birth, they are made godfathers only to learn that the baby's father was the man they killed in the holdup. When the woman dies they head back with the baby, but they have little water and it is a 40-mile journey. (Based on material in IMDb.) USA, 1930, 68 min.

Director: William Wyler; Producer: Universal Pictures;  Screenplay: Tom Reed, C. Gardner Sullivan;  Cinematographer: George Robinson;  Editor: Harry Marker;  Cast: Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton, Fred Kohler
SPONSOR: The Historic Lynwood Theatre

Show People

SHOW PEOPLE

Marion Davies, one of the great comedians of the silent era, stars in this King Vidor chestnut that has maintained popularity over the decades. In the story, Colonel Pepper brings his daughter, Peggy, to Hollywood from Georgia to be an actress. There she meets Billy who gets her work at Comet Studio doing comedies with him. But Peggy is discovered by High Art Studio and she leaves Billy and Comet to work there. For her new image, she is now Patricia Pepoire and ignores Billy when he sees her on location. When she is not longer wanted by the little people who do not understand "ART", she plans to marry Andre to get a fake title. Billy will not let her go without a fight. Davies' ability as a comedian was repressed by her lover, William Randolph Hearst, who wanted her to appear only in serious films. Show People preserves her delightful comedic gifts. USA, 1926, 82 min.

Accompanied on the piano by Donald Sosin
SPONSOR:Courtsey Ford

Film 2880

FILM 2880

On Friday, September 8, at 7 pm, filmmakers from around the world received a theme, a line of dialog and the name of a common household prop via email. By Sunday night, September 10, again at 7 pm, - exactly 2,880 minutes (or 48 hours) later - filmmakers will have produced a short film of less than 10 minutes that they will have written, shot, edited, and scored, complete with titles and credits - without any creative work done prior to 7 pm Friday.

One week later the top ten films from the 2006 Film 2880 contest will be shown at the historic Rose Theatre on Saturday night during the 7th annual Port Townsend Film Festival. Films are judged on originality, use of prop and dialogue, and adherence to the theme and production values.

Film 2880 exists to challenge the resourcefulness and creativity of filmmakers, film students and anyone crazy enough to sign up. The annual filmmaking project was founded and is still managed by filmmaker Peter Wiant, assisted by graphic designer Lou Faulkner. www.film2880.com.
SPONSOR: Sirens

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