Peter Yates: A Screen Remembrance August 6-27 Though not much celebrated as an auteur filmmaker, Peter Yates (1929-2011) enjoyed his fair share of success in Hollywood. He created several dynamic character studies of men going about their work, elevated to existential crises of masculinity — to do their job, to pull off a heist, to not get whacked, to win a race. That these always-entertaining films, including cult classics BULLITT, THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE and BREAKING AWAY, did so without ever losing their sense of humor is much to his credit.

BULLITT

"The way Frank Bullitt is swinging, you know he's headed for a crash." Steve McQueen is the essence of cool as a San Francisco detective looking to nail the mobsters and corrupt cops who whacked a star witness in his care. Car enthusiast McQueen and director Peter Yates insisted on total realism for the film's legendary car chase up and down the hills of San Francisco, resulting in one of the pinnacles of stunt driving and screen action, hugely influential and arguably still unsurpassed today.

DIR Peter Yates; SCR Alan Trustman, Harry Kleiner, based on the novel "Mute Witness" by Robert L. Fish; PROD Philip D'Antoni. US, 1968, color, 114 min. RATED PG

Sat, Aug 6, 2:45; Sun, Aug 7, 9:15; Mon, Aug 8, 7:00

THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE

World-weary Robert Mitchum, a low-level career criminal with a wife and two kids, struggling to make ends meet in the suburbs, contemplates ratting to the cops after getting pinched for driving a truck full of stolen whiskey. Director Peter Yates displays great command of the details, whether it's the taut procedural of a bank heist or fly-on-the-wall observations of criminals in their milieu. The local color of 1970s Boston provides a particularly piquant backdrop, and Mitchum — on the horns of a dilemma, defeated but defiant to the end — gives perhaps the most affecting performance of his career.

DIR Peter Yates; SCR/PROD Paul Monash, based on the novel by George V. Higgins. US, 1973, color, 102 min. RATED R

Fri, Aug 19, 5:20; Sun, Aug 21, 7:25; Tue, Aug 23, 9:30; Wed, Aug 24, 9:10; Thu, Aug 25, 4:45

BREAKING AWAY
#8 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers
#8 on AFI's 10 Top 10 Sports

Peter Yates' poignant and hilarious coming-of-ager focuses on four friends in small-town Indiana, hanging around after high school and before whatever comes next, somewhere between adolescence and adulthood. They discover a sense of purpose when they rally behind their cycling-obsessed friend's dream of winning the local university's elite race, the Little 500. Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley and Dennis Christopher all shine as the friends, just beginning to discover themselves and the realization that they may never be this close again. Steve Tesich's utterly appealing script won him the Best Screenplay Oscar.

DIR/PROD Peter Yates; SCR Steve Tesich. US, 1979, color, 101 min. RATED PG

Fri, Aug 26, 6:30; Sat, Aug 27, 12:30