Howard Hawks' BALL OF FIRE at Film Forum, December 25-31

ARCHIVAL 35mm PRINT

FILM FORUM'S CHRISTMAS WEEK CLASSIC
DECEMBER 25-31

FREE BUBBLY ON NEW YEAR'S EVE!
 

Howard Hawks’ BALL OF FIRE (1941), a classic screwball comedy starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck and written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, will be shown in an archival 35mm print at Film Forum for one week beginning on Christmas Day and playing through New Year’s Eve.
 

“Let's get ourselves a couple drinks, light the fire maybe, and you can start working on me right away…” cheerfully suggests Barbara Stanwyck’s hotcha stripper “Sugarpuss” O’Shea to Gary Cooper’s Professor Hiram Potts. Of course they’re just settling in for a research session for the slang section of the all-encompassing encyclopedia he and six other supremely unworldly professors having been slaving away at in their foundation-endowed brownstone for the last nine years. But what’s Stanwyck doing there? There’s no better place to hole up when you’re on the run from both the DA’s men and your own “boyfriend,” Dana Andrews, whose idea of sweet talk, according to henchman Dan Duryea, is “he gets more bang outta' you than any dame he ever knew.” (How did they get this stuff past the censor?)

Wilder and Brackett’s playful adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (in-jokingly noted on a background movie marquee) has Stanwyck going on a wisecrack whirlwind and Cooper tossing off academic gobbledygook, as well as an almost painfully sincere declaration of love, with the great DP Gregg Toland (Citizen Kane) giving it all a surprisingly lustrous sheen — plus jazz legend Gene Krupa’s “Drum Boogie” solo… with matchsticks.

On Thursday, December 31, filmgoers are invited to “Spend New Year’s Eve with Stanwyck and Coop!” All attendees at the 7:30 and 9:45 shows will receive free bubbly in the Film Forum lobby following the screenings.
 

111 min | A Park Circus Release
Director: Howard Hawks | Screenplay: Billy Wilder & Charles Brackett
Music: Alfred Newman | Cinematography: Gregg Toland
With Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Dana Andrews, Dan Duryea
Producer: Samuel Goldwyn
 

Showtimes
DAILY (except SUN) 12:30   2:45   5:15   7:30   9:45
SUN 1:15   3:30   5:45   8:00

FSLC announces free Ron Howard talk for In the Heart of the Sea, November 22

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the next of the popular FREE Film Society Talks with director Ron Howard at 5:00pm on Sunday, November 22 timed to his new film In the Heart of the Sea. Talks are sponsored by HBO and include a combination of clips, trailers, and extended conversations with questions from the audience. Additional fall talks to be announced.  

Ron Howard began his career as an actor, playing beloved television roles such as Opie on The Andy Griffith Show and Richie Cunningham on Happy Days before transitioning into film with American Graffiti (1973). He made his feature directorial debut with Grand Theft Auto in 1977 and amassed a body of work that includes Splash (1984), Cocoon (1985), Parenthood (1989),Apollo 13 (1995), The Da Vinci Code (2006), Frost/Nixon (2008), and A Beautiful Mind (2001), which earned him the Oscar for Best Director. 

On November 22, the director will sit down and discuss his career in front of and behind the camera, as well as the making of this new film, In the Heart of the Sea. The film is set during the winter of 1820 when a New England whaling ship was assaulted by a whale of mammoth size and will, stranding its crew at sea for 90 days. In the Heart of the Sea reveals the encounter’s harrowing aftermath as the ship’s surviving crew is pushed to their limits to stay alive. This real-life disaster inspired Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, and the film stars Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Ben Whishaw, and Brendan Gleeson, and opens in theaters December 11. A presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

For more information, visit www.filmlinc.org

The Last Witch Hunter: A conversation with Brett & Rose

Live Forever.  Hunt Forever.  We recently had the pleasure of speaking to director Brett Eisner and star Rose Leslie, about their new film "The Last Witch Hunter", also starring Vin Diesel, Elijah Wood and Michael Caine. The movie premieres this Friday October 23rd, in theaters everywhere.

The film stars Diesel as Kaulder, an immortal warrior from medieval times, living in the modern era as a slayer of witches and their summoned monsters. Cursed by the Queen of Witches, Kaulder is incapable of dying. Although this would seem to lessen tension in the story, Eisner envisioned the magic of the film's universe to pose a significant threat regardless.

"[Kaulder] may be immortal but his mind is susceptible. We didn't want witches throwing fireballs. They create spells that enter your mind and make you think they're somebody they're not or they pull out a memory and send you back into that memory. Twist the memory, turn you insane, trap you, force you to face an old memory and that idea of magic seemed unique to me. "

"It's a power that Chloe doesn't necessarily want to tap into," says Leslie, of her character, who teams up with Kaulder in his quest to fight evil. "She holds it with a little trepidation because it is essentially black magic and the fact that she has the ability to enter someone else's mind and warp their perception or thoughts and memories to her advantage, gives her this unsightly feel. It's a nasty, nefarious power."

Leslie, known primarily for her roles on feature-scale shows such as "Game of Thrones" and "Downton Abbey", was right at home on a big budget set. "I realized while I was working on 'The Last Witch Hunter' that the quality that HBO brings to their television shows are absolutely on the same scale as a feature. The kind of cinematography that you're looking at when you watch something like Thrones, the costumes, the locations, the story lines, the characters; it's very much on par with films."

While Leslie spoke of cinema's current trends, Eisner was moved to consider the past.

"[We're in] a world where we can now do almost anything technically, visually that is. When you look at Ridley [Scott]'s earlier movies, those effects are as good if not better than [effects] are today. And all that was done with miniature and stop motion. It's not about the technology necessarily, it's about the person using the technology."

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Director Brett Eisner and Star Rose Leslie with Paul Zapata from myNewYorkeye

Eisner is enthusiastic about the science-fiction genre. His previous credits include a pilot for the Syfy channel production of "The Invisible Man" and the early 2000's miniseries "Taken". "My goal in making movies is to get to big sic-fi films," he says. "And it seems like we're in a renaissance of that…"Blade Runner", "Star Wars, "Alien", those were the movies when I was a kid….2001: A Space Odyssey… I mean it's the greatest Sci-Fi- of all time, clearly."

Of "The Last Witch Hunter" he is quick to enthuse about it. "It's a film that's based on nothing other than the original writer's ideas. That's one of the things I absolutely loved about the movie. The last film I did was a remake of a Romero movie so the next one I wanted to do something wholly unique if that was possible. Not easy, these days." Eisner further talked about his hopes for continuing to explore the possibilities within the movie's universe, possibly in sequels.

"This idea of multiple planes of reality, how can we have Kaulder fight as he's physically fighting this character but also fighting off remnants of this memory where he's seen his family or his own death… to me that was an exciting way to treat the movie and I would love to be able to expand on that more in later films."

For Rose Leslie, the experience was to be treasured. "From the get go I felt so lucky to be surrounded by all these male characters like Elijah Wood and there's Michael Caine and Vin Diesel. I couldn't believe who I was surrounded by. I was constantly in awe of getting to know each one."

Subscribe to TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/sxaw6h Subscribe to COMING SOON: http://bit.ly/H2vZUn Like us on FACEBOOK: http://goo.gl/dHs73 Follow us on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/1ghOWmt The Last Witch Hunter Official Trailer #1 (2015) - Vin Diesel, Michael Caine Movie HD Vin Diesel plays the last remaining witch hunter who must battle against an uprising of witches in modern day New York.

This observation led her to reflect on the disparity between men and women within the industry. "I went to drama school when I was 18 years old. For three years, in London, and it was far more predominantly male within my year. I think they took 26 [students] and there was a solid 20 men in comparison to 6 women and that was when it really struck me that there are far more roles for men within this industry than there are for women. But," and her eyes lit up, "there's a turning of the tide. Hell's yeah! It's about time."

~ By Paul M. Zapata and Christopher Froehlich

Legally Desi: Miss India America

FINALLY- the film Indian-Americans have been waiting for!  This outright hilarious comedy will have you laughing from beginning to end.  It follows Lily a shameless, but brilliant teenager who is competitively driven to achieve her meticulously calculated plans with a complete lack of empathy, for others.  So far her plans are working perfectly; valedictorian of her class, accepted into Harvard, a loving family, and not to mention a cute boyfriend who's going to be an engineer, or so she thought. Turns out her boyfriend didn't like her plans, or ever wanted to become a petroleum  engineer, or her OCD-like controlling behavior very much, so he ran off with the reigning Miss India America. Stunned and Infuriated Lily can't believe it; she's never lost at anything, there has to be some kind of mistake with the world not her. So, she decides she's going to win the Miss India America beauty pageant to get her boyfriend back, not try, but WIN. Hilarity ensues, and lessons are learned as Lily sees what her selfishness is doing to others.

For more details, visit: http://www.missindiaamericapictures.com/