Sidney Lumet series coming to the Cleveland Museum of Art

[Press release from the Cleveland Museum of Art.]

For 50 years, Sidney Lumet (1924–2011) was one of America’s most prolific, heralded, and dependable filmmakers. His movie career, which produced such classics as Network, Fail-Safe, The Pawnbroker, and The Verdict, began in 1957 with Twelve Angry Men. But during the five years before that he directed almost 40 episodes of TV shows. Born to two Yiddish theater performers, Lumet dabbled in acting until he turned to directing. His films, many adapted from acclaimed stage plays and novels, were celebrated for their superb performances. They also reflected his progressive political bent, his concern for societal justice, his fascination with personal conscience, and his love for New York City, where many of his best movies were set.

Lumet is now the subject of a new documentary, showing on November 11. During subsequent weeks we will screen nine of Lumet’s more than 40 feature films, all from 35mm prints. Some of his best-known works (Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon) will rub elbows with others that are lesser known but equally well regarded. Three of the movies feature Lumet’s favorite actor—not Al Pacino, but Sean Connery.

 

John Ewing

Curator of Film

 

All films (except the first) directed by Sidney Lumet. All shown in the Morley Lecture Hall. Except as noted, all films are $11; CMA members, seniors 65 & over, students $9; no CMA Film Series vouchers.

Network (through April 7 at the Nightlight in Akron)

Sidney Lumet's scathing multiple Oscar nominee NETWORK is the movie that predicted the advent of `trash TV.' This being the 1970s, pre-AIRPLANE!, its satire is not a bellylaugh parody but rather a stern, grownup Swiftian broadside, shock-and-awe dialogue still capable of making the pulse quicken, even if some of the details are hardly farfetched anymore, in the 21st-century tubescape of voyeuristic `reality shows,' sleazycore gossip channels, news sensationalism and circus-freak daytime talk. Kids who come home from school to Jerry Springer might wonder a little bit what the fuss is all about. 

But NETWORK bristles with righteous anger, featuring especially caustic dialogue by magisterial writer Paddy Chayefsky, who was one of the great script authors of early television drama. By the mid-1970s he didn't like what he was seeing, and the narrative takes place in a post-Watergate atmosphere of darkest cynicism, homegrown terrorism, Third-World atrocities, oil shortages, inflation, recession, amorality and all-around bad news. Just about every character, even minor ones, gets to do angry oratory that could blister wallpaper. 

The network of the title here is a mythical, low-rated, fourth TV channel called Fox...no, just kidding, it's UBS, operated by a giant company called CCA. The order comes to lay off the aging UBS nightly-news anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch), newly widowed (sounds like it wasn't a happy marriage anyway; none of them here are). Beale reacts by announcing live on the air that he'll shoot himself on his farewell broadcast.

The Pawnbroker (March 8th and 9th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[THE PAWNBROKER screens Saturday March 8th at 7:10 pm and Sunday March 9th at 8:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

The international news media noted the death of Czech-born pianist Alice Herz-Sommer, the oldest known survivor of the Nazi Holocaust, passing away in London hospital at age 110. She ascribed her longevity - after witnessing the horrors of the Terezin prison camp and losing her husband and family members in the genocide - to keeping an upbeat attitude, and devoting herself to a love of music. She manifested an ennobling view of the human race, saying often that there is much good as well as bad, and there always has been.

What makes the obituary particular poignant is that Herz-Sommer had just been profiled in the documentary short film THE LADY IN NUMBER 6, which has garnered an Academy Award nomination. It was even reviewed by me on this blog, so the news that Alice is no longer with us set me to thinking:

Surviving a Final Solution death camp just downwind of Auschwitz...living to convey a message of hope and optimism past a full century...Seeing the rise and fall of Soviet Communism, German and Italian Fascism, Japanese Emperor-worship militarism, Red-scare McCarthysm, fanatical Chinese Maoism, death-squad-friendly Reaganism...yet when did the amazing Alice Herz-Sommer's health finally give out? What finally brought her down? WHEN SHE GOT INVOLVED IN MOVIES, THAT'S WHEN!

King: A Filmed Record...Montgomery to Memphis (January 19th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[KING: A FILMED RECORD...MONTGOMERY TO MEMPHIS screens Sunday January 19th at 7:15 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

I happened to be reading a 1998 Newsweek article (remember when Newsweek was an actual magazine, on paper?) about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's final years. There I found a revelation I didn't know. It seems that King helped campaign in Cleveland for Carl Stokes' ultimately historic run for mayor of Cleveland. During the Stokes victory celebration, Dr. King was in a hotel room here, expecting to get a call inviting him to attend. The call never came.

Newsweek's spin on this went thus: Dr. King was becoming an increasingly marginal figure in the civil-rights movement, arguably because of the success he and his heroic fellow marchers had in overcoming American racism. Empowered black leaders such as Stokes, `keeping their eyes on the prize,' no longer needed the benediction of an MLK, or a JFK, or an RFK, or a WEB DuBois, or anybody, to have access and equality they should have been getting all long. Thus, King was not invited to the party, and it was actually a positive sign of the changing times for Afro-Americans.

Of course, there’s another: Clevelanders are just SOB ingrates.

Network (November 19th at the CWRU Film Society, Strosacker Auditorium)

[NETWORK screens Saturday November 19th at 7 pm and 9:30 pm at the CWRU Film Society, Strosacker Auditorium.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Sidney Lumet's scathing multiple Oscar nominee NETWORK is the movie that predicted the advent of `trash TV.' This being the 1970s, pre-AIRPLANE!, its satire is not a bellylaugh parody but rather a stern, grownup Swiftian broadside. Its shock-and-awe dialogue is still capable of making the pulse quicken, even if some of the details are hardly farfetched anymore in the climate of the 21st-century's voyeuristic "reality" shows, sleazycore gossip channels, news sensationalism and circus-freak daytime talk.