political pix: the new yorker goes to the movies october 10 - 15, 2000 photo: the confession

Buy tickets online for this program! or see information about our box office sales here. program description That’s right, your four years are up and it’s presidential election time, the civilized equivalent of professional wrestling, only the manners are worse and the patter isn’t as lively. Once again, we’ve teamed up with our friends at The New Yorker to celebrate one of the cinema’s richest subjects – politics. We’re taking a little tour of the political landscape, including stops at demagoguery (ALL THE KING'S MEN and A LION IS IN THE STREETS, dueling films-à-clef about Huey Long), red-baiting (MY SON JOHN), the blacklist (SALT OF THE EARTH, POINT OF ORDER) and the wonderful world of Richard M. Nixon (SECRET HONOR). Political Pix promises some entertaining diversions during the home stretch of the presidential race. Fabrica Cinema is a production company run by Marco Müller and funded by Benetton that acts as the film wing of their permanent “arts laboratory.” We are proud to show two of their films as part of this series. Curated by Kent Jones and David Denby Political Pix is sponsored by ft.com, Jack Spade, Lotus, Panasonic and Omega.

primary courtesy photofest

program: PRIMARY Robert Drew, Al Maysles, D.A. Pennebaker, USA, 1960; 60m One of the groundbreaking films of the cinema verité movement, PRIMARY was the first film in which a camera and sound equipment were used to catch a story as it was unfolding. And what a fascinating story it was: JFK’s battle with Minnesota senator and perennial also-ran Hubert Humphrey over the Democratic nomination in 1960, during the Wisconsin primary. Drew’s collaborators on PRIMARY, at once a fascinating time capsule and a tour de force, included such mainstays of the verité movement as D.A. Pennebaker, Al Maysles and Richard Leacock. Tues Oct 10: 1pm Wed Oct 11: 10pm A PERFECT CANDIDATE R.J. Cutler, David Van Taylor, USA, 1996; 106m R.J. Taylor and David Van Cutler’s 1994 documentary on the Virginia senate race between Oliver North and incumbent democrat Charles Robb (LBJ’s son-in-law) is a hair-raising look inside the machinery of the modern political campaign: substance isn’t merely overshadowed by surface, it’s ceased to exist. Watch Ollie twist his Iran/Contra escapades into a show of patriotic fervor. Watch Robb try to steer around his highly publicized affair with a 19-year-old. Taylor and Van Cutler center the film around Mark Goodin, North’s campaign strategist, and Don Baker, the hard-bitten Washington Post reporter who’s seen too much. Tues Oct 10: 2:20pm Fri Oct 13: 9:35pm

all the king's men

A LION IS IN THE STREETS Raoul Walsh, USA, 1953; 90m Raoul Walsh’s 1953 film is the lesser-known of the two Huey Long-derived dramas of this period. While it may not have the relentless drive of ALL THE KING'S MEN, it has Walsh’s fine eye for detail, an excellent supporting cast (including Lon Chaney, Jr. and the great character actor Frank McHugh) and a not-so-secret weapon named James Cagney in one of his finest later performances. Wed Oct 11: 2 and 6pm ALL THE KING'S MEN Robert Rossen, USA, 1949; 109m Robert (The Hustler) Rossen’s 1949 adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize winner swept that year’s Oscars, and sent chills down the spines of viewers with its merciless portrayal of political demagoguery in the making. Broderick Crawford became a star with his all-stops-out performance as Willie Stark, whose rise from the county seat to the state house was closely modeled on the career of Louisiana’s own Huey Long. Wed Oct 11: 3:50 and 7:50pm SALT OF THE EARTH Herbert Biberman, USA, 1954; 94m Director Herbert J. Biberman and writer Michael Wilson’s 1954 movie is often complimented for the courage of its creators and many of its actors – blacklist victims who surmounted incredible difficulties to film the true story of the Empire Zinc mine strike in New Mexico. With some exceptions, including Will Geer as the weak-kneed sheriff and Rosaura Revueltas as the woman who heroically stands up to the bosses, the sheriff and the chauvinist union men, many of the cast members were non-professionals, and the film has a true sense of working-class life. A beautiful, touching, heroic movie. Fri Oct 13: 1 and 5:20pm

salt of the earth

MY SON JOHN Leo McCarey, USA, 1952; 122m MY SON JOHN is a corruscating family drama about a very real, painful subject: what happens when children are more intelligent and sophisticated than their parents. Helen Hayes, in one of her few film performances, is the mother, Dean Jagger is the jingoistic, boorish father, Van Heflin is the FBI agent and Robert Walker, in a performance that surpasses his Bruno in Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, is the witty, effete son. Fri Oct 13: 3 and 7:15pm L'AVEU / THE CONFESSION Costa-Gavras, France/Italy, 1970; 142m Before he came to Hollywood, Greek filmmaker Constantin Costa-Gavras made powerful political melodramas that had the impact of body blows. Written by the great Jorge Semprun, THE CONFESSION is about the arrest and persecution of Anton Ludvik (Yves Montand), the Czech vice-minister of foreign affairs. This impressively harrowing film take us step by step through the process of breaking down a once-honored citizen and priming him to make a confession. Thurs Oct 12: 1pm Sat Oct 14: 8:30pm SECRET HONOR Robert Altman, USA, 1984; 90m During the 80s, Robert Altman abandoned Hollywood and made one surprising independent film after another: you never knew what was coming next, because every new film was like a bolt from the blue. And one of his most surprising films was this one-man show featuring the great and then unsung Philip Baker Hall (Hard Eight, Magnolia) as our 37th president, the paranoid king himself, Richard Milhous Nixon. Thurs Oct 12: 3:45 and 7:35pm POINT OF ORDER Emile de Antonio, USA, 1964; 93m Emile de Antonio’s relentless, crisply edited tour through the downfall of Joseph McCarthy consists of nothing but TV footage of the hearings. De Antonio fashions a genuinely suspenseful drama of inevitability out of the kinescope images: this is one of the American cinema’s most concise portraits of political over-reaching. A great document, and an angry, damning indictment. Thurs Oct 12: 5:40 and 9:30pm

secret honor

MOLOKH / MOLOCH (A Fabrica Film) Aleksandr Sokurov, France/Germany/Russia, 1999; 108m Aleksandr Sokurov’s unjustly overlooked portrait of Hitler. Eva Braun & co. during a weekend at Berchtesgaden is a brooding meditation on power and isolation. The eerie thing about MOLOCH is the relaxed mood and offhanded quality of its observations: at times, it’s as though you’re watching a CEO or a Hollywood executive being fawned over by his lackeys. A gorgeous film of terrific irony and cumulative power. Sat Oct 14: 4:30pm JOURNEY TO THE SUN Mehmet, a recent arrival to the teeming city, is fortunate. He has a shared room, a possible girlfriend and a neat job as a diviner for Istanbul's municipal water system. He meets Berzan, a street music vendor familiar with the metropolis, and his moral education begins. Berzan is a Kurd, harassed by the authorities, and Mehmet's friendship with him combined with his own 'dark skin' puts Mehmet at extreme risk. Yesim Ustaoglu, an architect turned filmmaker, takes her characters on a journey east out of Istanbul into a ravishing and war-ravaged landscape close to the Iraqi border. JOURNEY TO THE SUN may be a story of sanctioned persecution but it is also the chronicle of a remarkable pilgrimage into the unknown. Turkey/The Netherlands/Germany, 1999. 105 min Sat Oct 14: 6:40pm THE BATTLE OF CHILE Patricio Guzman, Chile/Cuba, 1975-76; 4h 48m; in 3 parts with intermissions Guzman and his team were there for the triumphant moment when Chile elected its socialist president Salvador Allende, and they were also also there for his assassination and the bloody military coup d´état led by Augusto Pinochet. Guzman’s epic, tragic three-part documentary has been rightfully called “the major political film of our times" (Tom Allen, The Village Voice). Join us for this rare screening. Sun Oct 15: 4:30pm