AFI PREVIEW Is Published by the Transformation from Dour Soviet AFI 100 Years...100 Songs American Film Institute
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CONTENTS BEAUTIFUL DYNAMITE: THE FILMS OF CYD CHARISSE 2 Beautiful Dynamite: The Films of Cyd Charisse 4 Charlton Heston Remembered 7 Korean Film Festival DC 2009, Part 2 8 Signore & Signore: Leading Ladies of Italian Cinema 10 Best of the 2009 New African Photo courtesy of Everett Collection Films Festival May 9 - June 30 11 Mid-Atlantic Regional Showcase Cyd Charisse, one of the most distinctive names in show busi- The 48 Hour Film Project ness, was born Tula Ellice Finklea Coming Soon in 1921 in Amarillo, TX. After using a succession of faux- 12 The Films of Danny Boyle Russian names while touring with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, 14 SILVERDOCS and a single screen credit under About AFI the name Lily Norwood in 1943, she settled on the moniker that 15 Repertory Calendar – Full Schedule will live forever in movie lore. at AFI.com/Silver She’s Gene Kelly’s mysterious dream girl in SINGIN’ IN THE 16 2009 DC Caribbean Filmfest RAIN, and a more magical kind of fantasy figure for him in BRIGADOON. For Fred Astaire, LOOK FOR THE she was an equal talent who AFI member passes accepted for inspired him to new heights late designated screenings. To find out how to Photo courtesy of Everett Collection in his career, Dancing in the Dark SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN become a member of AFI, see page 14. with him in THE BAND WAGON, #1 on AFI Greatest Movie Musicals and dancing out her character’s #5 on AFI 100 Years…100 Movies AFI PREVIEW is published by the transformation from dour Soviet AFI 100 Years...100 Songs American Film Institute. commissar to Westernized sensu- #3 – Singin’ in the Rain • #49 – Make ‘Em Laugh • #72 – Good Morning SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN Editorial Offices alist in SILK STOCKINGS. And, if Fri, June 12, 7:15; Sat, June 13, 7:30; Sun, June 14, 1:00 American Film Institute film scholar David Thomson is to Silver Theatre and Cultural Center When silent stars Gene Kelly and Jean Hagen’s first sound picture looks like a bomb, movie magic 8633 Colesville Road be believed, her outrageous, sex- saves the day, as Kelly and company rush to recut the movie as a musical, with Debbie Reynolds’s Silver Spring, MD 20910 ually charged performance in lilt dubbed over Hagen’s screech. Vaudevillian Donald O’Connor’s bravura performance of Make For address changes and subscription Nicholas Ray’s PARTY GIRL is not ‘Em Laugh is eclipsed only by Kelly’s splashy song and dance performance of the title track—“the services, contact: only the most daring thing she most celebrated single sequence in the history of the genre,” according to film historian John American Film Institute Wakeman. DIR Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly; SCR Adolph Green, Betty Comden; PROD Arthur ever did on screen, but the great- 2021 N. Western Ave. Freed. US, 1952, color, 103 min. RATED G Los Angeles, CA 90027 est. Charisse’s passing on June 17 Attn: Membership of last year saddened all fans of #17 on AFI Greatest Movie Musicals dance, musicals and the great On the cover: IT’S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, Golden Age of Hollywood. THE BAND WAGON photo courtesy of Everett Collection Sat, May 16, 1:00; Sun, May 17, 1:00; Tues, May 19, Celebrate the work of this one-of- 7:00 Editor: Julie Hill a-kind talent when AFI Silver Writers Comden and Green create a theatrical Production Manager: Brooke Logan takes a look back at some of Cyd variation of SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN’s studio set- Design: Krissy Schmitz Charisse’s finest films. ting, with Fred Astaire as a washed up Holly- Information is correct at press time. Films and wood hoofer aiming for a Broadway comeback. schedule subject to change. When artistic differences with director Jack AFI Member passes will be accepted at Check AFI.com/Silver for updates. Buchanan and co-star Cyd Charisse and a disas- all films in the Beautiful Dynamite: The Films You can also view a copy of this publication trous preview in New Haven threaten to sink online at Gazette.Net. of Cyd Charisse series. Photo courtesy of Everett Collection the production, the troupe turns it around THE BAND WAGON 2 ■ TICKETS & FULL SCHEDULE at AFI.COM/SILVER BEAUTIFUL DYNAMITE: THE FILMS OF CYD CHARISSE Charisse’s gangster boyfriend Lee J. Cobb. One of the best non-musical roles for Charisse, who still gets to dance here, in two show-stopping, hip-shaking numbers. DIR Nicholas Ray; SCR George Wells, based on the story by Leo Katcher; PROD Joe Pasternak. US, 1958, color, 99 min. NOT RATED TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN Sat, June 27, 4:00; Tues, June 30, 7:00 Vincente Minnelli’s THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL enjoys classic status as one of the great insider critiques of Hollywood, but his lesser-known 1962 film, again starring Kirk Douglas, packs just as much of a wallop. Cracked-up actor Douglas, a former star who’s spent the past three years in a sanitar- ium after a disfiguring auto accident, takes an assignment from his old director Edward G. Robinson, now carpetbagging on a low- budget international production at Rome’s Cinecittà. Charisse plays Douglas’s exotic, femme fatale ex-wife, whom he still hasn’t gotten over, the only thing standing in the way of his budding attraction to starlet Photo courtesy of The Kobal Collection Daliah Lavi. DIR Vincente Minnelli; SCR PARTY GIRL Charles Schnee, based on the novel by with song and dance, the knockout numbers Gene Kelly and Van Johnson as the American SILK STOCKINGS Irwin Shaw; PROD John Houseman. US, including That's Entertainment (#45 on AFI’s hunters who get lost in the highlands of Sat, June 6, 3:00; Sun, June 7, 12:40 1962, color, 107 min. NOT RATED 100 Years…100 Songs), A Shine on Your Shoes, Scotland and stumble across the mysterious The Cold War comedy of George S. and Astaire and Charisse’s dream pairing in village of Brigadoon, which appears to be Kaufman’s play Ninotchka, previously adapted Dancing in the Dark, plus the stylish Mickey trapped in the 18th century. Turns out the by Ernst Lubitsch starring Greta Garbo, is Spillane spoof, The Girl Hunt. DIR Vincente spellbound town appears for only one day splendidly remade here as a song-and-dance Minnelli; SCR Betty Comden, Adolph each century—just long enough for Kelly vehicle for Fred Astaire and Charisse, she Green; PROD Arthur Freed. US, 1953, to fall in love with enchanting lass Cyd the icy Soviet bureaucrat who resists the color, 111 min. NOT RATED Charisse. MGM’s stage-bound version of this allure of Paris, and he the Hollywood pro- Scottish Shangri-La is livened up by Kelly’s ducer who convinces her to lighten up. The choreography and lots of local color—tartan first and only reunion of the well-paired kilts, purple heather and Scottish burrs— dancers after their success in THE BAND resulting in a heartwarming fantasy. DIR WAGON, terrific together here in Fated to Vincente Minnelli; SCR Alan Jay Lerner, Be Mated, and solo, with Astaire high step- based on his musical; PROD Arthur ping along with a top hatted chorus in The Freed. US, 1954, color, 108 min. NOT Ritz Roll and Rock, and Charisse legging it out RATED in the scintillating Red Blues. The snazzy songs are by Cole Porter. DIR Rouben IT’S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER Mamoulian; SCR Leonard Gershe, Leonard Fri, May 29, 7:00; Sat, May 30, 12:25, 4:45; Spigelgass, based on Ninotchka by Wed, June 3, 7:00 Melchior Lengyel; PROD Arthur Freed. US, Army buddies Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey and 1957, color, 117 min. NOT RATED Michael Kidd March, March through a dizzy montage of Manhattan’s bars, culminating in a drunken tango with taxicabs and the trio’s “The best work Charisse ever did.” celebrated trashcan lid tap dance, which —DAVID THOMSON Kelly and co-director Stanley Donen con- PARTY GIRL ceived specifically for the widescreen of Sat, May 9, 8:20; Sun, May 10, 1:00; Thurs, May CinemaScope. With middle age comes disap- 14, 7:00 pointment, even cynicism, but their 10-year “ROUGH AND READY! THE TRUTH reunion brings back their youthful élan, with ABOUT THE 'MODELS,' 'ACTRESSES' AND Photo courtesy of Everett Collection BRIGADOON Kelly finding new love—on roller skates— 'DANCERS' WHO PLAY WITH FIRE...AND with sizzling Cyd Charisse, here performing OFTEN GET BURNED!” A neglected noir BRIGADOON Baby, You Knock Me Out with a chorus of bro- melodrama from director Nicholas Ray, ripe Sat, May 23, 12:30; Sun, May 24, 12:30; Mon, ken-nosed boxers. DIR Stanley Donen, for rediscovery. In Prohibition-era Chicago, May 25, 12:30 Gene Kelly; SCR Betty Comden, Adolph dancer/call girl Charisse and lame mob Vincente Minnelli’s CinemaScope adaptation Green; PROD Arthur Freed. US, 1955, lawyer Robert Taylor decide to help each Photo courtesy of Everett Collection of the Lerner and Loewe Broadway hit casts color, 102 min. NOT RATED other go straight, against the wishes of TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN TICKETS & FULL SCHEDULE at AFI.COM/SILVER ■ 3 CHARLTON HESTON REMEMBERED THE BIG COUNTRY explodes across the US border, killing a Sat, May 9, 2:30; Wed, May 13, 6:30 wealthy businessman and his girlfriend. But the crime scene is on the turf of Welles’s Rival Texas ranchers Charles Bickford and sheriff Hank Quinlan, a hulking, sweaty, mani- Burl Ives (in an Oscar-winning performance) acal presence who investigates the case go to war over water rights and access to according to his own perverse agenda.