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July 1, 2008
The year that changed Hollywood
It doesn’t seem likely that 2008 will bring us a movie book that is smarter or more entertaining than “Pictures at a Revolution” (The Penguin Press) by Mark Harris.
I wrote about the book at length in this space last winter, but wanted to let you know that Harris will be speaking at the Stratford Library tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. This is another coup for library programmer Tom Holehan who hosted the brilliant Katharine Hepburn biographer William J. Mann last month.
In “Pictures at a Revolution,” the Entertainment Weekly writer and editor takes us back to 1967 and shows us how the five films nominated for the best picture Oscar that year were a perfect representation of the artistic and financial forces that were about to produce a changing of the guard in Hollywood.
Old-school Tinsel Town was represented by the conservative “Doctor Dolittle” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” the brash young revolutionaries were on hand in the form of “Bonnie & Clyde” and “The Graduate” (above) and the fifth film (and eventual winner) was a mix of old and new styles, “In the Heat of the Night.”
Harris takes us behind the scenes of the making of all five Oscar-nominated films. In each case, years were spent simply trying to get the movies into production. The material on “Bonnie & Clyde” is particularly interesting, detailing the half-decade spent by Esquire magazine writers Robert Benton and David Newman trying to interest directors in their off-beat gangster film. Harris shows us how their screenplay grew out of the writers’ love of the French New Wave pictures that opened here in the early 1960s and that “Bonnie & Clyde” was almost directed by Francois Truffaut (he opted instead for “Fahrenheit 451” as his English language debut).
“Pictures at a Revolution” is based on fresh reporting and fresh insights into a pivotal moment in the history of movies.
The free event at the Stratford Library will kick off a five-week Wednesday night film series during which all of the 1967 Oscar nominees will be screened, starting with “In the Heat of the Night” tomorrow at 8:15 p.m.
For more information call the library programming office at 385-4162 or go online to www.stratfordlibrary.org.
Posted by Joe on July 1, 2008 2:08 PM
