The July/August Pacific Film Archive schedule arrived in yesterday’s mail. It makes me want to move permanently into that theater.
They’re running five series this summer, honoring a director, a cinematographer, a novelist, a studio, and an aspect ratio.
The studio is United Artists, receiving its yet another 90th anniversary retrospective. But unlike the UA series at the Castro this spring, the PFA isn’t ignoring the years before 1950, when UA released (but seldom owned) the works of such heavy-weight independent producers as Samuel Goldwyn, David O. Selznick, Walt Disney, and the four artists who originally united in 1919: Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, D.W. Griffith, and Mary Pickford. (Come to think of it, shouldn’t UA be celebrating its 89th birthday this year?)
and the original, 1932 version of Scarface. Oddly, two of the original founders, Chaplin and Pickford, aren’t on the list (the PFA ran a Chaplin series late last year). Of the later films on the schedule we have Some Like It Hot, Dr. No, Annie Hall, and West Side Story, although I suggest you wait a day for that musical and catch it in 70mm at the Castro. They’re skipping Heaven’s Gate, the movie that brought UA to its knees.
The aspect ratio is 2.35:1, although more precisely, CinemaScope and its assorted imitators. They’re calling the series The Long View: A Celebration of Widescreen. The films scheduled include Lawrence of Arabia, The 400 Blows, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, Harakiri, and McCabe & Mrs. Miller. The last film in the series, on Saturday, April 30, is Akira Kurosawa’s wonderful action comedy Yojimbo, which will be followed by the penultimate movie in the United Artists series, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly–quite a widescreen celebration, itself. The two make a great double-bill, even if you do have to buy separate admission for each movie.
I’m not familiar with the three artists honored with their own series this summer. According to the PFA’s notes, Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira celebrates his centenary this year, which is amazing as he’s still alive and making films. Noir novelist David Goodis seems to have inspired a lot of good movies, including Dark Passage and Shoot the Piano Player. I’ve seen one of the films in the series devoted to Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa–John Ford’s The Fugitive (one of two English-language films in the series). It’s beautifully shot, but otherwise probably Ford’s worst film.
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