Bamcinématek Presents Karen Black, an Eight-Film Retrospective in Tribute to the Late Actress, Oct 18—24
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
BAMcinématek presents Karen Black, an eight-film retrospective in tribute to the late actress, Oct 18—24 Three-film sidebar between retrospectives of Black and Bruce Dern of the films in which they both starred, Oct 28, 29 & Nov 5 “Black brings to all her roles a freewheeling combination of raunch and winsomeness. Sometimes she is kittenish. At other times she has an overripe quality that makes her look like the kind of woman who gets her name tattooed on sailors.”—Time magazine The Wall Street Journal is the title sponsor for BAMcinématek and BAM Rose Cinemas. Brooklyn, NY/Sep 27, 2013—From Friday, October 18 through Thursday, October 24, BAMcinématek presents Karen Black, an eight-film retrospective of the late actress The New York Times once described as “something of a freak, a beautiful freak.” Adept at offbeat portrayals of eccentric, often tumultuous characters, Black embodied the adventurous, defiantly nonconformist spirit of 1970s New Hollywood. This series pays tribute to Black, who passed away in August. Opening the series on Friday, October 18 and Saturday, October 19 are two canonical road trip movies that made Black (and her costar Jack Nicholson) a rising American icon: Bob Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces (1970), about an oil rig worker (Nicholson) who travels home to see his ailing father and brings his waitress girlfriend (Black) along for the ride, and Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider (1969), a counterculture fever dream and drug-fueled tour of the American Southwest. Easy Rider kicked off the New Hollywood movement and marked the feature film debut of Black, who plays a New Orleans prostitute on a bad acid trip. Her next role, in Five Easy Pieces, was a challenge; growing up in an urbane household in the Chicago suburbs, Black said she found it difficult to find a common ground with the indelicate Rayette. But it also became one of Black’s most celebrated performances, garnering her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Karen Black collaborated with fellow New Hollywood pioneer Robert Altman on his decade- defining snapshot of country music, Nashville (1975—Oct 20), which Pauline Kael called “the funniest epic vision of America ever to reach the screen.” Playing a glammed up country star performing at a presidential concert rally, Black wrote and performed all of her own songs for the film’s soundtrack. Also in the series is Altman’s unsung film adaptation of the Ed Graczyk play Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982—Oct 23), which he staged on Broadway with almost entirely the same cast. Members of a James Dean fan club (the Disciples of James Dean)—including Sandy Dennis, Cher, Kathy Bates, and Karen Black, playing a transsexual—reunite at a Texas Woolworth’s to honor the 20th anniversary of the actor’s death. Come Back to the Five and Dime screens in a restored 35mm print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Other series highlights include Bill L. Norton’s Cisco Pike (1972—Oct 24), which stars Kris Kristofferson as a down and out musician who becomes entangled in the drug business alongside his loyal girlfriend (Black); Czechoslovak New Wave trailblazer Ivan Passer’s dark comedy Born to Win (1971—Oct 21); John Flynn’s noirish mafia thriller The Outfit (1973—Oct 22); and Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis’ Burnt Offerings (1976—Oct 24), a haunted-house-style thriller that inspired parts of The Shining. As a special sidebar linking retrospectives of Black and Bruce Dern (beginning Nov 16), BAMcinématek presents the three films in which they both starred (Oct 28—Nov 5). Dern and Black carved out careers as intrepid character actors at the forefront of the American New Wave, with a penchant for risk-taking that paid off in some of the most memorable performances of the era, including in Jack Nicholson’s directorial debut, Drive, He Said (1971—Oct 28); Jack Clayton’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby (1974—Nov 5), featuring Black as Myrtle Wilson and Dern as Tom Buchanan; and Alfred Hitchcock’s final film, Family Plot (1976—Oct 29). For press information, please contact: Lisa Thomas at 718.724.8023 / [email protected] Hannah Thomas at 718.724.8002 / [email protected] Karen Black Schedule Fri, Oct 18 2, 4:30, 7, 9:30pm: Five Easy Pieces Sat, Oct 19 2, 4:30, 7, 9:30pm: Easy Rider Sun, Oct 20 2, 5:30, 9pm: Nashville Mon, Oct 21 4:30, 7, 9:30pm: Born to Win Tue, Oct 22 4:30, 7, 9:30pm: The Outfit Wed, Oct 23 7, 9:30pm: Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean Thu, Oct 24 4:30, 9:30pm: Burnt Offerings 7pm: Cisco Pike Black + Dern Schedule Mon, Oct 28 4:30, 7, 9:30pm: Drive, He Said Tue, Oct 29 4:30, 7, 9:30pm: Family Plot Tue, Nov 5 4:30, 7:30pm: The Great Gatsby Film Descriptions All films in 35mm unless otherwise noted. Born to Win (1971) 88min Directed by Ivan Passer. With George Segal. Director Ivan Passer (Cutter’s Way) helmed this unsung gem, a pitch-black comedy about heroin addiction starring George Segal as J, a hairdresser turned dope fiend, whose life spirals out of control. Black plays J’s love interest, and a very young Robert De Niro makes a brief appearance as a cop. Mon, Oct 21 at 4:30, 7, 9:30pm Burnt Offerings (1976) 116min Directed by Dan Curtis. With Oliver Reed, Burgess Meredith. Ben (Reed) and Marian (Black) score a too-good-to-be-true deal on a spooky Gothic mansion (complete with cackling proprietor) in the California country for the summer. This arty take on the classic haunted house chiller (an acknowledged influence on The Shining, with many similarities) has an unsettling, dreamlike atmosphere courtesy of Dark Shadows creator Curtis. Thu, Oct 24 at 4:30, 9:30pm Cisco Pike (1972) 95min Directed by Bill L. Norton. With Kris Kristofferson, Gene Hackman. Washed-up teen idol Cisco (Kristofferson) peddles marijuana to make ends meet and winds up getting blackmailed by a crooked cop (Hackman) into unloading 100 kilos of weed in just three days. Black co- stars as Cisco’s loyal girlfriend in this tense, moody character study. This outstanding example of the sort of loose-limbed, shaggy-dog realism that flourished in the 70s is ripe for rediscovery. Thu, Oct 24 at 7pm Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982) 109min Directed by Robert Altman. With Cher, Sandy Dennis. The members of a James Dean fan club (including Black, playing a transsexual) reunite at a small-town Texas Woolworth’s to observe the 20th anniversary of the actor’s death—and the memories come pouring forth. “A cinematic tour de force… Altman uses both the camera and a wall mirror (which periodically reflects us back to ’55) to explore and open up his single dime-store set and the cracks in the masks of his deluded/deluding characters. Stunning stuff” (Time Out London). 35mm restored print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive; preservation funding provided by The Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Wed, Oct 23 at 7, 9:30pm Drive, He Said (1971) 95min Directed by Jack Nicholson. With William Tepper. Hoop dreams bump up against 70s anti-establishment disillusionment in Jack Nicholson’s directorial debut (co-written by an uncredited Terrence Malick). College basketball star Hector (Tepper) scores both on and off the court—including a fling with a faculty wife (Black)—as political unrest boils over in the background. Dern turns in “a small masterpiece of accurate observation” (Roger Ebert) as Hector’s coach, and Black turns up the sass as the professor’s wife with whom Hector has an affair in this nervy, fractured piece of Godard-style agitprop. Mon, Oct 28 at 4:30, 7, 9:30pm Easy Rider (1969) 95min Directed by Dennis Hopper. With Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson. In the quintessential counterculture movie, chopper-riding hippie dropouts Wyatt, aka “Captain America,” (Fonda) and Billy (Hopper), flush with cash from a coke deal (their contact man is played by Phil Spector), discover America on a road trip from LA to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Along the way there’s Jack Nicholson stealing scenes as a boozy lawyer, an LSD freakout shot in 16mm, and Karen Black as a prostitute on a bad graveyard-set acid trip. Sat, Oct 19 at 2, 4:30, 7, 9:30pm Family Plot (1976) 120min Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. With Karen Black, Bruce Dern, Barbara Harris. The master’s final film, a “light comedy,” is an intricate, savory dual narrative about two couples—one (Dern and Harris) on the hunt for the missing heir to a family fortune and the other a pair (Black and Devane) who kidnap millionaire industrialists—who barely meet through a series of chance encounters and coincidences until coming together in the final reel. Tue, Oct 29 at 4:30, 7, 9:30pm Five Easy Pieces (1970) 98min Directed by Bob Rafelson. With Jack Nicholson. In this key work of the American New Wave, disaffected scion of the upper-crust Robert Eroica DuPea (Nicholson) hides out from respectability on a California oil rig while two-timing his waitress girlfriend (Black, in her only Oscar-nominated performance). When a family illness calls him back home, DuPea embarks on one of the great road trips of 70s cinema—including a now-iconic stop at a particularly stringent diner. Fri, Oct 18 at 2, 4:30, 7, 9:30pm The Great Gatsby (1974) 144min Directed by Jack Clayton.