Monday,
February 13 at 7:00pm
Join
us for a free evening of unique
screenings as we say goodbye and good luck to
Film @ International House Program Director Michael Chaiken
on his recent move to New York City.
For
the past five years, Michael has chartered the artistic
direction of the film program at International
House. His talent for curating programs of otherwise unavailable,
unknown or unseen films have helped to revitalize, inspire and
challenge the repertory and independent film community
here in Philadelphia. Michael is leaving us to work with Maysles
Films in New York City where he will be helping
them to develop a new film institute in Harlem.
For
tonight's program, he has selected a handful of rarely
screened portrait films from the earliest days of The Maysles
Brothers pioneering work as documentary filmmakers.
Albert
and David Maysles: Three Portrait Films
Showman
dir.
Albert and David Maysles, USA, 1963, 53 mins, 16mm, b/w
 The
Maysles' first documentary feature is an unflinching portrait
of Hollywood entertainment mogul, Joseph E. Levine, following
the success of Two Women staring Sophia Loren. Levine,
the real-life personality behind Godard's crass film producer
in Contempt (1963), redefined Hollywood film distribution
through his entrepreneurial publicity campaigns of the 1960s.
Revealing as much about the machinations of the Hollywood star
system as it does about Levine's rise to power, Showman
is a fascinating exposé of the commercialization of the
US film industry.
Meet
Marlon Brando
dir.
Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, USA, 1965, 29
mins, 16mm, b/w
 Call
it verité performance: Brando is caught in a Method
conundrum—expected to play "movie star," he wants
to live in the moment. To help his moribund film Morituri
(1965), Brando agreed to participate in a marathon, day-long
series of
filmed interviews with reporters from local TV stations across
the country. This mind-boggling event took place at the Hotel
Vanderbilt in New York and was captured on film by the Maysles.
The end result is Meet Marlon Brando, one of the star's
least-known films where Brando plays himself as master of the
put-down and prince of biting sarcasm.
With
Love From Truman
dir.
Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, USA, 1966, 29
mins, 16mm, b/w
 An
intimate and candid portrayal of eccentric author and playwright
Truman Capote shot during an interview following publication
of his literary experiment In
Cold Blood. Capote's 'non-fiction novel' recreates the
brutal 1959 murder of
a
Kansas family by two teenage misfits. In a case of art imitating
life imitating art, With Love From Truman reflects
Capote's desire to produce art through a creative treatment
of reality.
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