January & February 2013 - Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film ...

1. Rebecca, 1.16.132. The 39 Steps, 1.11.133. North by Northwest,1.30.134. The Lady Vanishes,1.18.135. Strangers on a Train,2.16.136. Shadow of a Doubt,2.22.13 >>FILMSEric Rohmer and Claude ChabrolFriday / 1.18.13Young and InnocentAlfred Hitchcock (U.K., 1937)7:00An underappreciated charmer from Hitchcock’s Britishperiod. Nova Pilbeam, child of The Man Who KnewToo Much, here plays a constable’s daughter who fallsin with a hapless writer (Derrick de Marney) falselyaccused of murdering a movie star. Their search forthe real killer crisscrosses the class categories of theever-so-English countryside as Hitchcock assemblesan array of cleverly drawn types, from roadhousetramps and canny peasants to the haughty auntiewho presides over an excruciating children’s party.It all culminates in a dazzling crane shot that ClaudeChabrol and Eric Rohmer called “the most beautifulforward track . . . in the history of film.” Juliet ClarkWritten by Charles Bennett, Edwin Greenwood, AnthonyArmstrong, based on the novel A Shilling for Candles byJosephine Tey. Photographed by Bernard Knowles. With NovaPilbeam, Derrick de Marney, Percy Marmont, Edward Rigby.(82 mins, B&W, 35mm, From Park Circus)The Lady VanishesAlfred Hitchcock (U.K., 1938)8:40A seamless blend of humor and thrills makes thisfilm’s sinister and bizarre elements less obviouslythreatening than, say, those in Sabotage and, muchlater, Strangers on a Train. The action takes place on atranscontinental train where a young English woman(Margaret Lockwood), having dozed off, awakes tofind that the tweedy-whimsical old lady (Dame MayWhitty) with whom she had been conversing hasdisappeared. Everyone else in the carriage deniesshe was ever there. The Lady Vanishes is squarely1938, as the train speeds through the Tyrolean Alpsto a place where nobody can be neutral. Judy BlochWritten by Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder, based on the novelThe Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White. Photographed by JackCox. With Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas,Dame May Whitty. (96 mins, B&W, 35mm, From Park Circus)Friday / 1.25.13Rear WindowAlfred Hitchcock (U.S., 1954)7:00Dour photojournalist Jimmy Stewart sits with abroken leg watching a split-screen “film” out hisrear window: the lives of his big-city neighbors areplayed out in pantomime with tantalizing snippetsof sound and ingeniously choreographed framing.Stewart is the perfect captive audience, for a movieor a murder. Rear Window is Hitchcock’s brilliantmeditation on cinema and voyeurism, on how we cancreate scenarios to frighten ourselves, and maybeget killed in the process. With Grace Kelly’s elegantenthusiasm playing cat and mouse with Stewart’smorbidity and the lugubrious Raymond Burr as asuspected wife-butcher, this is at once Hitchcock’smost enchanting and ominous film. Judy BlochWritten by John Michael Hayes, based on the short story“It Had to Be Murder” by Cornell Woolrich. Photographedby Robert Burks. With James Stewart, Grace Kelly, WendellCorey, Thelma Ritter. (114 mins, Color, 35mm, From Universal)Wednesday / 1.30.13North by NorthwestAlfred Hitchcock (U.S., 1959) student pick!7:00Hitchcock dubbed this exhilarating comedy-thriller“my final word on the chase film.” In 1959, NNW cynicallylocks horns with the American male identity crisis and,one might say, emerges with a call for individualityfor the decade to come. Cary Grant is your basicgrey-flannel-suited adman, until he is mistaken bythe police for an assassin and by an international spyring for a double agent. The ensuing chase carrieshim across the American landscape, where an effortto expunge him like just one more rural insect makeshim fighting mad, and every national monumentpresents a new challenge to his true identity, not tomention his life. Judy BlochWritten by Ernest Lehman. Photographed by Robert Burks.With Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie RoyceLandis. (136 mins, Color, 35mm, From Warner Bros.)Friday / 2.1.139:00SuspicionAlfred Hitchcock (U.S., 1941)Joan Fontaine and Cary Grant star in this devilishthriller about a shy English lass married to a dashing,charming man, one who may or may not be amurderer. Similar to Rebecca in its awkward-wife-fearful-of-powerful-husbandtheme, Suspicion isenergized by the irrepressible presence of Grant(in his first role with Hitchcock), who combines thewitty appeal of his earlier comedies with the suave,manor-born entitlement of his more serious roles.Tackling class boundaries, newlywed unease, andthe nature of trust, Suspicion was weakened bymultiple script changes by a frightened studio whowanted Grant’s character to be as likable as possible.Jason SandersWritten by Samson Raphaelson, Joan Harrison, Alma Reville,based on the novel Before the Fact by Anthony Berkeley.Photographed by Harry Stradling. With Cary Grant, JoanFontaine, Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce. (99 mins, B&W,35mm, From Warner Bros.)Friday / 2.8.139:00SaboteurAlfred Hitchcock (U.S., 1942)Made just after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Saboteuris a wartime thriller that follows a guileless factoryworker who is falsely accused of torching an aircraftplant. Played with breathless sincerity by RobertCummings, Barry Kane knows that proving hisinnocence rests on finding the real saboteur. Withechoes of The 39 Steps, Hitchcock’s film dogs itsfugitive through an unsettling landscape where civicrespectability seems to mask seamy opportunism.But that great icon of hope, the Statue of Liberty,has the final say, as a Nazi spy clings desperately toits towering torch. Steve SeidWritten by Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison, Dorothy Parker, froma story by Hitchcock. Photographed by Joseph Valentine. WithRobert Cummings, Priscilla Lane, Otto Kruger, Alan Baxter.(108 mins, B&W, 35mm, From Universal)21 BAM / PFA