Schedule - AFI 100 Years... Series - Arclight Hollywood
SEPTEMBER 2009 - 100 STARS: LEGENDARY LADIES, LEADING MAN
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 8:00 PM
BLONDE VENUS
1932 93 MIN 35MM
DIR Josef von Sternberg SCR Jules Furthman, S. K. Lauren CAST Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, Cary Grant, Dickie Moore, Gene Morgan, Rita La Roy, Robert Emmett O'Connor, Sidney Toler, Morgan Wallace
Marlene Dietrich was one of the most beautiful, glamorous and ethereal actresses to ever grace the silver screen, and her work with director Josef von Sternberg was one of the great Hollywood director-star collaborations. In this film, Dietrich is dazzling German nightclub performer Helen Faraday, whose affair with the dashing Nick Townsend (Cary Grant), a wealthy playboy, enables her to pay for her sick husband's medical expenses and support her son. The film is racy and extravagant. Dietrich exudes a sexual confidence that burns up the screen and clearly marks the film as "pre-Code," meaning that it was made prior to 1934, the year when the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) began to firmly enforce censorship guidelines.
Marlene Dietrich is the #9 female legend on the AFI 100 Years...100 Stars list.
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 8:00 PM
HOLIDAY
1938 93 MIN 35MM
DIR George Cukor SCR Donald Ogden Stewart, Sidney Buchman (from the play by Philip Barry) CAST Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Doris Nolan, Lew Ayres, Edward Everett Horton, Henry Kolker, Binnie Barnes, Jean Dixon, Henry Daniell
Complications ensue when society girl Linda Seton, played by Katharine Hepburn, falls for her sister's charming, eccentric fiancé, Johnny Case (Cary Grant). One of director George Cukor's (THE WOMEN, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, BORN YESTERDAY, MY FAIR LADY) best films, HOLIDAY is a biting satire of the rich, spiced with verbal acrobatics from Grant and Hepburn.
Katharine Hepburn broke new ground and defied convention with her portrayals of strong, intelligent women. She reigns as the only four-time Oscar recipient for acting.
Katharine Hepburn is the #1 female legend on the AFI 100 Years...100 Stars list.
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 8:00 PM
SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER
1959 114 MIN 35MM
DIR Joseph L. Mankiewicz SCR Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams (based on the Tennessee Williams play) CAST Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift, Albert Dekker, Mercedes McCambridge, Gary Raymond, Mavis Villiers
Catherine Holly's (Elizabeth Taylor) "madness" seems to stem from an incident from the previous summer involving the death of her cousin Sebastian. So, naturally, her unsympathetic aunt, Mrs. Violet Venable (Katharine Hepburn), enlists the assistance of a psychiatrist, Dr. Cukrowicz (Montgomery Clift), to perform a lobotomy on Catherine.
Based on Tennessee Williams's one-act play, SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER is a hothouse of hysteria, Southern gentility, incest, Freudian psychology and horror.
Both Taylor and Hepburn garnered Oscar nominations for their performances.
Katharine Hepburn is the #1 female legend, and Elizabeth Taylor is the #7 female legend on the AFI 100 Years...100 Stars list.
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 8:00 PM
HIS GIRL FRIDAY
1940 92 MIN 35MM
DIR Howard Hawks SCR Charles Lederer (based on the play The Front Page by Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur) CAST Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart, Porter Hall, Ernest Truex, Cliff Edwards, John Qualen, Billy Gilbert, Helen Mack
Walter Burns (Cary Grant) is a conniving but irresistible newspaper editor desperate to woo back the paper's star reporter--who happens to be his ex-wife, Hildegaard 'Hildy' Johnson (Rosalind Russell.) She's tired of the business and is ready to settle down with a new beau. But, as Walter well knows, she has one weakness--she can't resist a juicy scoop. With its timeless charm and machine gun dialogue, HIS GIRL FRIDAY is considered one of the classic screwball comedies.
Cary Grant is the #2 male legend on the AFI 100 Years...100 Stars list, and the film is #27 on the list of AFI 100 Years...100 Laughs.
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 8:00 PM
TO CATCH A THIEF
1955 106 MIN 35MM
DIR Alfred Hitchcock SCR John Michael Hayes (based on the novel by David Dodge) CAST Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis, John Williams, Charles Vanel, Brigitte Aubert, Jean Martinelli, Georgette Anys
John 'The Cat' Robie (Cary Grant) is a retired cat-burglar, and he is quite enjoying his new life of leisure on the Riviera when a string of jewel robberies executed in his signature style make him the main suspect in the police investigation. In order to clear his name, Robie sets out to find the real thief and, in the process, finds the burglar's likely next victim, a wealthy American (Grace Kelly) whose affections are more difficult to ensnare than her jewels.
Cary Grant is the epitome of debonair--a style icon--and Grace Kelly's beauty is legendary. The film was awarded the Oscar for best color cinematography at the 1956 Academy Awards.
Cary Grant is the #2 male legend and Grace Kelly is the #13 female legend on the AFI 100 Years...100 Stars list, and the film is #46 on the AFI 100 Years...100 Passions.
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AFI DOCUMENTARY SCREENING
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 8:00 PM
MORE THAN A GAME
2008 105 MIN Rated PG
DIR Kristopher Belman PROD Harvey Mason, Jr., Kristopher Belman, Matthew Perniciaro, Kevin Mann FEATURING LeBron James, Willie McGee, Romeo Travis, Coach Dru Joyce II, Sian Cotton, James Dru Joyce III
Five talented young basketball players from Akron, Ohio, star in this remarkable true-life coming of age story about uncommon friendship in the face of all too common adversities. Coached by a charismatic but inexperienced player's father, and led by future NBA superstar LeBron James, the Fab Five's improbable seven-year journey leads them from a decrepit inner-city gym to the doorstep of a national high school championship. Along the way, the close-knit team is repeatedly tested--both on and off the court--as James's exploding worldwide celebrity threatens to destroy everything they've set out to achieve together. MORE THAN A GAME combines a series of unforgettable one-on-one interviews with rare news footage, never-before-seen home videos and personal family photographs to bring this heart-warming and wholly American story to life.
You will cheer from the sidelines as the team rises and falls, and rises again, enduring hardships, pressures and triumphs, all while maintaining a remarkably strong and exceptional bond of brotherhood.
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Schedule - AFI 100 Years... Series - Sherman Oaks
SEPTEMBER 2009 - NEW COMEDY CLASSICS
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 7:30 PM
AIRPLANE!
1980 88 MIN 35MM Rated PG
DIR/SCR Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker CAST Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Leslie Nielsen, Barbara Billingsley, Lorna Patterson, Robert Stack, Stephen Stucker, Otto
AIRPLANE! pulls out all the clichés as alcoholic pilot Ted Striker (Robert Hays) boards a jumbo jet in an attempt to woo back his stewardess girlfriend (Julie Hagerty). Food poisoning decimates the passengers and crew, leaving it up to Striker to land the plane. Directors Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker create the ultimate parody on all that we have come to love and hate about flying. AIRPLANE! is, without question, a comedic masterpiece that takes a timeless tradition and mocks it to the heavens--simple to the bone, but gut-wrenchingly funny.
#10 on the AFI 100 Years...100 Laughs list, and the exchange, "Surely, you can't be serious." "I am serious...and don't call me Shirley," is #79 on the list of AFI 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.
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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 7:30 PM
THIS IS SPINAL TAP
1984 82 MIN 35MM Rated R
DIR Rob Reiner SCR Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner CAST Rob Reiner, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, R. J. Parnell, David Kaff, Tony Hendra, Bruno Kirby, June Chadwick, Fran Drescher
"These go to 11." Christopher Guest's uproarious spoof of heavy metal music, artistic vanity, lower-rung celebrity and music docs themselves launched Guest and company on their careers as mockumentarians (and sometime musicians). One of the funniest movies ever made, a stalwart of the midnight movie and college circuit through the 1980s and '90s, and one with lasting influence--Ricky Gervais frequently acknowledges it as inspiration for his own groundbreaking TV hit, THE OFFICE.
#29 on the AFI 100 Years...100 Laughs list.
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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 7:30 PM
TOOTSIE
1982 116 MIN 35MM Rated PG
DIR Sydney Pollack SCR Larry Gelbart, Murray Schisgal CAST Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, Bill Murray, Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, Sydney Pollack, George Gaynes, Geena Davis, Doris Belack
A brilliant performance by Dustin Hoffman elevates a man-in-drag comedy to serious cinema. When out-of-work actor Michael Dorsey dresses as a woman to audition for a regular part on a daytime soap, and he lands the job and makes it big, a web of mistaken identity is woven that touches hot-button issues regarding gender roles. Like the best romantic comedies of the '40s, Sydney Pollack's TOOTSIE is a farce with underlying social commentary. A huge box office hit, ranked #2 on AFI's list of funniest American films of all time, the comedy got 10 Academy Award nominations and a win for Jessica Lange as best supporting actress, as the sensitive actress Hoffman falls in love with--while her lonely father lusts after Hoffman.
Dustin Hoffman was awarded the 27th AFI Lifetime Achievement Award on February 18, 1999.
#2 on the AFI 100 Years...100 Laughs list, and #69 on AFI 100 Years...100 Movies-10th Anniversary Edition.
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Eclectic and diverse, AFI at ArcLight is an accessible, year-round program of film series, retrospectives and exclusive advance screenings presented by AFI at the ArcLight Hollywood and ArcLight Sherman Oaks.
AFI at ArcLight programs screen classic and contemporary cinema from around the world in a supremely comfortable theater, featuring the best possible picture and sound. Completing the experience, movie-lovers have an opportunity to listen to and engage in thoughtful discussion with directors, actors and other film experts following the film. In keeping with the AFI FEST tradition of hosting the international film community in the film capital of the world, AFI presentations attract LA's film enthusiasts while representing the cultural diversity of the city.