SUMMER 2008
JULY 1 - AUGUST 20
HAL ASHBY'S COMMINGLING SEVENTIES
Hal Ashby was one of the most prolific and successful filmmakers of the 1970s, producing a string of hits beginning with the cult success HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971) and lasting through BEING THERE (1979). Despite this, Ashby is little remembered today and, when he is mentioned in critical anthologies, it is often in condescending and even disparaging terms. David Thomson, for instance, in A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF FILM calls Ashby "a sad casualty who depended on strong collaborators." In addition, Ashby did not direct his first film until the age of 40, so the body of his work as a director is relatively small. But the films that he made show a remarkable sense of black humor and irony, a consistency of theme and characterization and an innovative use of music and editing. Ashby was the quintessential '70s director, one who spoke directly to the era - and lived it, acquiring and breaking a coke habit en route.
Like Bob Rafelson and Robert Altman, Ashby was a voice of the counter-culture, his films promoted radical change and embraced individual awakenings, especially in opposition to mainstream society. An actors' director, Ashby elicited career-highlight performances from Peter Sellers, Jane Fonda, Warren Beatty, Jon Voight, Jack Nicholson, Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Bruce Dern and Shirley MacLaine, among many others. Indeed, Hal Ashby produced an extraordinary group of films over a short period of time. His films from THE LANDLORD through BEING THERE impart a coherent vision that comments on the human condition, through its misfits, sees humanity as often absurd, though not without humor and dignity or beyond redemption. Moreover, his status as a pre-eminent director during the 1970s should be acknowledged and the fine films that he made during this period remembered.
Series passes $20/NWFF members, $35/general
JULY 1 - 2, Tuesday - Wednesday at 7:15, 9:30pm
Tuesday 9:30pm screening introduced by Bobcat Goldthwait!
THE LANDLORD
(Hal Ashby, USA, 1970, 35mm, 112 min)
A devastating satire, THE LANDLORD is Ashby’s outrageous debut, a film that still feels daring, both stylistically and politically. Beau Bridges buys a row house in a New York City ghetto, planning to remodel the home once he has evicted its tenants - but finds all of his preconceptions tested once his and their lives are intertwined.
"THE LANDLORD remains one of the funniest social comedies of the period, as well as the most human." -J. Hoberman, VILLAGE VOICE
JULY 8 - 9, Tuesday - Wednesday at 7:30, 9:30pm
HAROLD AND MAUDE
(Hal Ashby, USA, 1971, 35mm, 91 min)
Harold is 20 years old, rich, obsessed with death and reigned over by a dominant mother whom he tries in vain to prompt towards some show of emotion through his attempts at suicide. He has no interest in girls his age. Free-spirited Maude is 79, obsessed with crazy ideas and is glad to be in the world despite knowing that nothing and no one lasts forever. They both share a curious passion for visiting funerals for the therapeutic value, and it is at one such funeral that they first meet and forge a peculiar romantic relationship, united in their desire to rebel against conventional superstitions of youth, age, death and sex. Hal Ashby’s black comedy is a provocative and unsentimental love story that not only outraged conservative moviegoers at the beginning of the 1970s but rebellious youth as well. The film took on radical positions with humor and an original concept of the world, defying all norms and ideologies. That, coupled with a wall-to-wall Cat Stevens soundtrack, makes this cult classic a sublime experience.
JULY 15 - 16, Tuesday - Wednesday at 7:30, 9:30pm
Darryl Ponicsan, author of the novel THE LAST DETAIL, will introduce the 7:30pm screening on July 15th
THE LAST DETAIL
(Hal Ashby, USA, 1973, 35mm, 103 min)
Screenwriter Robert Towne's adaptation of Darryl Ponicsan's novel accurately catches the flavor of peacetime military life. Randy Quaid is cast as a teenage misfit whose bungled swindle of charity money has landed him in prison. Jack Nicholson and Otis Young, awaiting new assignments at a military receiving station, draw escort duty. With several days of transit time allowed, Nicholson decides to set a leisurely pace. The essence of the story is the exchange of compassion between the guards and prisoner, and the latter's effect on his escorts.
“The Last Detail is one superbly funny, uproariously intelligent performance, plus two others that are very, very good, which are so effectively surrounded by profound bleakness that it seems to be a new kind of anti-comedy.” -Vincent Canby, NY TIMES
About Darryl Ponicsan
Darryl Ponicsan is best known as the author of the 1971 novel The Last Detail, which was adapted into a 1973 movie starring Jack Nicholson; and for the 1973 novel and screenplay Cinderella Liberty, starring James Caan. He was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the son of Frank G., a merchant, and Anne Kuleck. He attended Muhlenberg College, (A.B., 1959) and Cornell University, (M.A., 1965). He was teacher of English at a high school in Owego, New York, 1959-62; a social worker for Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, California in 1965, and teacher of English in California from 1966-69. Ponicsan also wrote the screenplays for the CBS movie A Girl Called Hatter Fox (1977), the movies Taps (1981), Vision Quest (1985), Nuts (1987), The Boost (1988), School Ties (1992), the HBO movie The Enemy Within (1992), and the CBS series The Mississippi (1983).
JULY 29 - 30, Tuesday - Wednesday at 7:30, 9:30pm
SHAMPOO
(Hal Ashby, USA, 1975, 35mm, 109 min)
This classic mid-seventies comedy is a harsh and funny time capsule stuffed full of great performances. An elegy to the wasted potential of America’s cultural revolution, SHAMPOO unfolds over the course of one 24-hour period in 1968 when Nixon was elected to office. Warren Beatty excels as an amorous hairdresser sleeping with every woman in sight, from the wife (Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner, Lee Grant) of his business advisor Jack Warden (THE VERDICT, BEING THERE) to Warden’s mistress (Julie Christie) and teenage daughter (Carrie Fisher in her first role). Screenwriters Beatty and Robert Towne provided the brave and challenging Oscar-nominated script that has stood the test of time. SHAMPOO features a great soundtrack by Paul Simon, welcome use of incidental music (including tunes by The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield, The Beach Boys and Jimi Hendrix) and fine camera work by Laszlo Kovacs.
"The most virtuoso example of sophisticated, kaleidoscopic farce that American moviemakers have ever come up with." -Pauline Kael
AUGUST 5 - 6, Tuesday - Wednesday at 7, 9:30pm
BOUND FOR GLORY
Sponsored by KBCS 91.3 FM
(Hal Ashby, USA, 1976, 35mm, 145 min)
Based on the life of Woody Guthrie, BOUND FOR GLORY explores the social, economic and political hardships that molded the legendary folk singer’s beliefs. Beginning with his life in Texas and his terrible experiences in the Southwest Dust Bowl, the film follows Guthrie as he moves to California to begin his radio career. There he discovers the political power of music, which he harnesses by writing and singing his own songs. BOUND FOR GLORY broke new ground as the first feature film in which the Steadicam was used. For his brilliant work, director of photography Haskell Wexler took home an Oscar. The film, which was produced by music promoter Harold Leventhal, was also recognized for its score, which was based on Guthrie's own music.
"Elegantly crafted, hugely beautiful and interesting film, which reveals loving integrity in every frame." -LOS ANGELES TIMES
AUGUST 12 - 13, Tuesday - Wednesday at 7, 9:30pm
COMING HOME
(Hal Ashby, USA, 1978, 35mm, 126 min)
Jane Fonda and Jon Voight won Academy Awards for their work in this Vietnam drama. Fonda stars as Sally, the prim and privileged wife of a Marine Captain who leaves for Vietnam. Left at home, Sally volunteers at a local hospital. There, among the many injured soldiers that have returned from the war, she meets Luke (Voight), an acquaintance from her school days. Once a vain jock, Luke has come home a haunted paraplegic. He gains a new lease on life through Sally and the pair grow close, gradually trapping themselves within a tragic love triangle. Unlike THE DEER HUNTER and APOCALYPSE NOW, the better known Vietnam movies which were released just months after COMING HOME, this film rejects the epic form so often appropriated for accounts of war. Ashby makes COMING HOME a time capsule of a troubled era, faithfully capturing the fashions, attitudes and tunes of the decade. The film comes with a contemporary rock soundtrack that today would cost a fortune to assemble: cuts from Hendrix, Dylan and The Beatles sit alongside an album's worth of Rolling Stones hits.
