Best known for his smart, character-driven dramas and sophisticated thrillers, Alan J. Pakula excelled at creating tension through precisely rendered screen space combined with a carefully orchestrated atmosphere of paranoia -- a master of mise en scene who was adept with plot secrets, subtleties and subterfuge. He guided eight different actors to Oscar-nominated performances, including early career-boosting performances for Jane Fonda in KLUTE and Meryl Streep in SOPHIE'S CHOICE. Join AFI in taking a closer look at some of Pakula's best and most influential films.

AFI Member passes will be accepted at all films in the In Focus: Alan J. Pakula series.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

#2 AFI 100 Years...100 Cheers
#1 AFI 10 Top 10 - Courtroom Drama
#1 AFI 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains

Alan J. Pakula was exclusively a producer during the first part of his filmmaking career, and his greatest achievement during this time was this masterful adaptation of Harper Lee's beloved novel. Gregory Peck--perfectly cast, in probably his greatest role--portrays Atticus Finch, a small-town lawyer in the Depression-era South defending a black man accused of a crime he didn't commit. A widowed father of two, Peck has to balance his demanding job with raising his precocious children Scout and Jem. As the trial plays out, the children learn about injustices and prejudices, and witness their father's passionate fight for what's right, lending the story its enduring sense of wonder, discovery and moral suasion. Eight Oscar nominations and three wins, including Best Actor for Peck and Best Adapted Screenplay for Horton Foote, and the screen debut of Robert Duvall as the mute and mysterious Boo Radley.

DIR Robert Mulligan; SCR Horton Foote, from the novel by Harper Lee; PROD Alan J. Pakula. US, 1962, b&w, 129 min. NOT RATED

Saturday, April 25, 3:00; Sunday, April 26, 1:00

KLUTE

Jane Fonda won her first Best Actress Oscar for her feisty performance as New York City call girl Bree Daniels, caught up in a missing person/murder investigation and in danger herself. Donald Sutherland is small-town cop turned private detective John Klute, whose investigation of a missing friend reveals some seedy doings on the friend's part...but could he be the man who's been murdering New York City call girls?

DIR/PROD Alan J. Pakula; SCR Andy Lewis, Dave Lewis. US, 1971, color, 114 min. RATED R

Tuesday, April 28, 7:00; Wednesday, April 29, 9:15

THE PARALLAX VIEW

This classic political conspiracy thriller finds Warren Beatty as muckraking journalist Joe Frady. Three years earlier his television reporter ex-girlfriend witnessed the assassination of a popular US Senator and subsequently all of the witnesses have met mysterious ends. She believes she's next. He shakes it off, but after her suspicious suicide, Beatty begins to investigate and discovers that a shady "therapy institute," the Parallax Corporation, might be responsible.

DIR/PROD Alan J. Pakula; SCR David Giler, Lorenzo Semple, Jr., based on the novel by Loren Singer. US, 1974, color, 102 min. RATED R

Monday, April 27, 7:00; Wednesday, April 29, 7:00; Thursday, April 30, 7:00

ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN

#77 AFI 100 Years...100 Movies - 10th Anniversary Edition

Robert Redford as Bob Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein pursue the story of the Watergate burglaries and coverup with dogged intensity, painstakingly puzzling out good leads from red herrings (aided by the occasional helpful clue from their mysterious anonymous source, Deep Throat). The top box office hit of 1976 won four Oscars, including Best Supporting Actor for Jason Robards' memorable turn as The Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, and Best Adapted Screenplay for William Goldman's sharp script. "Not until this riveting screen adaptation of the Watergate book has any film come remotely close to being an accurate picture of American journalism at its best."--Vincent Canby, The New York Times

DIR Alan J. Pakula; SCR William Goldman, from the book by Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein. US, 1976, color, 138 min. RATED PG

Saturday, May 2, 7:00; Sunday, May 3, 1:00

SOPHIE'S CHOICE

#91 AFI 100 Years...100 Movies - 10th Anniversary Edition

Pakula received an Oscar nomination for his first screenplay--after 25 years of filmmaking--for this remarkably faithful adaptation of William Styron's bestselling novel. Meryl Streep set new standards for acting excellence with her Oscar-winning turn as the beguiling, haunted and tragic Polish immigrant Sophie Zawistowski, living in post-WWII Brooklyn with her charismatic but unhinged lover Kevin Kline, and the object of affection for sensitive young writer Peter MacNicol. MacNicol dreams of new possibilities for Streep and himself, especially as Kline descends into madness, but Streep's mysterious past, including her experiences in Auschwitz, won't let her go.

DIR/SCR/PROD Alan J. Pakula; SCR based on the novel by William Styron; PROD Keith Barish. US, 1982, color, 150 min. RATED R

Saturday, May 2, 1:00; Monday, May 4, 6:30