WEEK-LONG RUNS OF FILMS BY TODD McCARTHY, BELA TARR, AND CARLOS REYGADAS TO BE SCREENED AT MoMA IN SEPTEMBER Extended Runs of McCarthy’s Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema, Tarr’s The Man from London, and Reygadas’ Silent Light Offer Filmgoers More Opportunities to View Significant Recent Films New York, September 9, 2008—MoMA Presents, an initiative launched earlier this year that brings weeklong runs of new and newly rediscovered feature films to The Museum of Modern Art, continues in September with extended runs of new films by Todd McCarthy (Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema), Béla Tarr (The Man from London), and Carlos Reygadas (Silent Light). All three films are receiving their first American theatrical presentations after having been screened at major international film festivals such as Cannes and the New York Film Festival. Todd McCarthy’s Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema (2007), a dramatic and rousing portrait of filmmaker, film programmer, and cinephile Pierre Rissient, a pivotal figure in the international film community since the 1950s, runs from September 18 through 24. One of the critically acclaimed films at Cannes in 2007, the documentary illustrates the many and varied accomplishments of one of the world’s most influential film fans, whose efforts brought such filmmakers as Abbas Kiarostami, Clint Eastwood, and Jane Campion to the international spotlight. It is accompanied by From the Archives, A Pierre Rissient Selection, seven films from MoMA’s collection that inform an understanding of Rissient’s career, including a rare screening of Rissient’s own film Cinq et le Peau (1982), from September 18 through 21. Both exhibitions are organized by Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art. Béla Tarr’s The Man from London (2007) is the North American premiere of the French/English release of the haunting feature based on the popular crime novel L’Homme de Londres by Georges Simenon. Tarr, one of contemporary filmmaking's international masters, uses his signature inventive style to translate a popular crime story to the big screen. The film sets a shady transaction, a murder, and the discovery of a suitcase full of money amidst the rainy nighttime streets of a small town, perfectly capturing an atmosphere of dread, entrapment, and moral ambiguity. Running September 22 through 28, it is organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art. Carlos Reygadas’ Silent Light (2007), running September 24 through 29, frames the story of one man’s inescapable love for two women, and the spiritual crises and redemption that follow. Set among a group of pacifist Mennonites residing in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, its emotional authenticity is underscored by a cast of Mennonite non-actors, who appear to live and breathe the deep convictions of their faith and traditions, lending a documentary-like feel and a metaphysical dimension to the work. MoMA Presents: Reygadas: Silent Light is part of a Filmmaker in Focus presentation that also includes a Reygadas retrospective (including rarely seen early shorts and all his 3 features) and two accompanying screenings of Carl Th. Dreyer's Ordet (1955), a work that clearly inspired Silent Light and is being offered as a further insight into the filmmaker's working aesthetic. Organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art. No. Press Contact: Margaret Doyle (212) 408-6400, or [email protected]. For downloadable images, please visit www.moma.org/press and register for user name and password. Public Information: The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019 Hours: Wednesday through Monday: 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday: 10:30 a.m.-8:00 p.m. Closed Tuesday Museum Adm: $20 adults; $16 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D.; $12 full-time students with current I.D. Free, members and children 16 and under. (Includes admittance to Museum galleries and film programs) Target Free Friday Nights 4:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. Film Adm: $10 adults; $8 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D. $6 full-time students with current I.D. (For admittance to film programs only) Subway: E or V train to Fifth Avenue/53rd Street Bus: On Fifth Avenue, take the M1, M2, M3, M4, or M5 to 53rd Street. On Sixth Avenue, take the M5, M6, or M7 to 53rd Street. Or take the M57 and M50 crosstown buses on 57th and 50th Streets. The public may call (212) 708-9400 for detailed Museum information. Visit us at www.moma.org SCREENING SCHEDULE MOMA PRESENTS: PIERRE RISSIENT: MAN OF CINEMA September 18-24 Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema. USA/France. 2007. Produced, written, directed, and photographed by Todd McCarthy. Additional photography by Gary Graver, Abbas Kiarostami. With Jane Campion, Claude Chabrol, Clint Eastwood, Buck Henry, Werner Herzog, Abbas Kiarostami, Sydney Pollack, Jerry Schatzberg, and Bertrand Tavernier. Todd McCarthy—documentary filmmaker (Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography, 1993), author (Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood, 1999), and chief film critic of Variety—turns a biographical spotlight on Pierre Rissient, a figure relatively unknown to the public but deeply respected by filmmakers, critics, and film festival directors the world over. In 1993, when MoMA's Department of Film gave Rissient carte blanche to create a film exhibition, he was described as a "filmmaker, scout, festival advisor, programmer, and press strategist." McCarthy's dramatic and rousing portrait of Rissient illustrates the many and varied accomplishments of one of the world's most influential film fans. In English, French; English subtitles. 109 min. SCREENINGS Thursday, September 18, 6:30 Friday, September 19, 8:00 Saturday, September 20, 1:00 Sunday, September 21, 2:30 2 Monday, September 22, 5:00 Wednesday, September 24, 4:30 FROM THE ARCHIVES: A PIERRE RISSIENT SELECTION September 18-21 Thursday, September 18 8:30 The Mothering Heart. 1913. USA. D. W. Griffith. With Lillian Gish. A young wife's trust is betrayed. approx. 22 min. Hell's Hinges. 1916. USA. William S. Hart and Charles Swickard. With William S. Hart, Clara Williams, Jack Standing, Alfred Hollingsworth. Written by C. Gardner Sullivan. A frontier town, a saloon, a church, and a gunslinger hired to keep disorder—an early ferocious Western. 64 min. Rissient chose tinted prints of two classic examples of Americana. Silent with accompaniment. Friday, September 19 6:00 Never Fear (The Young Lovers). 1950. USA. Directed by Ida Lupino. Screenplay by Lupino, Collier Young. With Sally Forrest, Keefe Brasselle. Another filmmaker Rissient finds noteworthy is Ida Lupino. Her feature directorial debut is a medical drama focusing on the disintegration of a young couple. This 35mm preserved print includes the original trailer. 82 min. Saturday, September 20 3:00 The Big Sky. 1952. USA. Directed by Howard Hawks. Screenplay by Dudley Nichols from the novel by A. B. Guthrie Jr. With Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Arthur Hunnicutt, Elizabeth Threatt. Hawks’ saga, shot in part in Grand Teton National Park, traces the 1830’s journey of eastern traders voyaging into the virgin northwest meeting trappers, Frenchmen, Indians, both hostile and friendly, and Teal Eye, a Blackfoot princess. Restored with funding from The Film Foundation/Robert Sturm and the Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Fund, from materials on loan from Warner Bros. and Martin Scorsese. Restored to the original running time of 138 min. 6:00 Cinq et le Peau. 1982. France. Directed by Pierre Rissient. With Feodor Atkine, Eiko Matsuda, Gloria Diaz, and Phillip Salvador. In one of the two films Rissient wrote and directed a Frenchman in Manila wanders the streets, meets women, and muses about the films of Raoul Walsh and Fritz Lang. In French, English subtitles. 95 min. 8:30 The Piano. 1993. Australia/France. Written and directed by Jane Campion. With Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin. Jane Campion’s second feature film is as exceptional and strong as her remarkable heroine, a mute (but not deaf) young Scots widow, who, with her nine-year-old daughter, travels to New Zealand to marry a man she has never met. " 120 min Sunday, September 21 4:30 Bird. 1988. USA. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Screenplay by Joel Oliansky. With Forest Whitaker, Diane Venora, Sam Robards. A romantic yet unsparingly raw biographical drama about jazz saxophone legend Charlie "Bird" Parker. 160 min. 3 MOMA PRESENTS: BÉLA TARR’S THE MAN FROM LONDON September 22–28 A Londoni férfi (The Man from London). 2007. Hungary/Germany/France. Directed by Béla Tarr. Screenplay by Tarr, Laszlo Krasznahorkai, based on L’Homme de Londres by Georges Simenon. With Miroslav Krobot, Tilda Swinton, Erica Bók. The breathtaking twelve-minute panoramic shot that opens The Man from London circles the protagonist, surveys a harbor and a train station, witnesses a shady transaction and murder—and bears the indelible mark of Béla Tarr, the Hungarian director known for his stylistically unique and adventurous films. The story, based upon a novel by popular crime author Georges Simenon (with whom Tarr shares an interest in people’s reactions to their own morally ambiguous actions) follows a railway switchman, Maloin, who finds a suitcase full of money. Cinematographer Fred Kelemen, aided by Mihály Vig’s haunting score, perfectly captures an atmosphere of dread and entrapment amid the falling rain, quiet nighttime streets, and crammed kitchens and bars of a small town. This is the North American premiere of the French/English release version, for which the cast dubbed their own voices. In French, English; English subtitles. 135 min. North American premiere. SCREENINGS Monday, September 22, 7:15 Wednesday, September 24, 8:30 Thursday, September 25, 8:00 Friday, September 26, 6:00 Saturday, September 27, 8:00 Sunday, September 28, 6:00 MOMA PRESENTS: CARLOS REYGADAS’S SILENT LIGHT September 24–29 Stellet Licht (Silent Light).