EXHIBITIONS
Dreaming in Color: The Davide Turconi Collection of Early Cinema
Closing June 24, 2018
Dreaming in Color: The Davide Turconi Collection of Early Cinema is dedicated to a unique collection of more than 24,000 original nitrate frames of 35mm films from the early years of cinema (1897–1915). One of the world’s leading experts in the history of silent cinema, Davide Turconi (1911–2005) gathered these rare frames in the 1960s from a large collection of films acquired by Jesuit priest Josef-Alexis Joye (1852–1919) in Basel, Switzerland. Today, the collection is a primary source for the study of early cinema, and of color technology in particular. The museum acquired the Turconi nitrate frames collection in 2004, and immediately undertook a massive digitization project, completed after twelve years of painstaking work. The sheer beauty of the nitrate frames and their colors can now be shared with the public.
David Levinthal: War, Myth, Desire
June 1, 2018–January 2, 2019
David Levinthal: War, Myth, Desire is the first museum retrospective of the artist’s work in more than twenty years. Since the mid-1970s, David Levinthal has been exploring the relationship between photographic imagery and the fantasies, myths, events, and characters that shape contemporary America’s mental landscape. The exhibition will feature photographs from all of Levinthal’s major series to date—including Hitler Moves East (1972–1975), Modern Romance (1983–1985), The Wild West (1986–1989), Desire (1991–1992), Blackface (1995–1998), Barbie (1997–1998), Baseball (1998–2004), and History (2010–2015)—in addition to never-before-exhibited outtakes, commissions, and archival materials.
Ongoing Exhibitions:
A History of Photography
The George Eastman Museum's History of Photography Gallery is dedicated to rotating installations that demonstrate photography’s historical trajectory through photographs and cameras drawn from the collection. Sponsored in part by ESL Federal Credit Union.
From The Camera Obscura to the Revolutionary Kodak Ongoing, Mansion
This three-part exhibition examines early photographic processes through cameras and related equipment from the museum’s collections. A walk-in camera obscura provides a unique view of the West Garden; Making Photographs: The First 50 Years focuses on daguerreotype, wet plate, and dry plate photography; and The Revolutionary Kodak tells the story of one of the most important cameras in the history of photography
JUNE EVENTS
Friday, June 1, 12 p.m.
GALLERY TALK with Photographer David Levinthal
Photographer David Levinthal and Curator in Charge Lisa Hostetler will be in conversation and guide guests through the exhibition War, Myth, Desire, the first museum retrospective of Levinthal’s work in more than twenty years. Free to members; included w/ museum admission.
June 4-8
PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP: Erie Canal Tintype Excursion
Inspired by the canal excursions of the Philadelphia Photograph Exchange Club back in the 1870s, we’ll pilot a 42-foot canal boat on the Erie Canal and tie up along the banks to take full-plate tintypes of the local scenery. SOLD OUT—Please contact us to be added to the waitlist. Registration & full schedule: eastman.org/workshops or contact photographicworkshops@eastman.org.
Saturday, June 9, 11 a.m.
SIGN-LANGUAGE MUSEUM TOUR
Signed 45-minute house tours are led by docent Bob Menchel. Reservations strongly recommended. Private signed tours are available with advance notice. Reservations and info: tours@eastman.org or (585) 327-4838.
Saturday, June 9, 12 p.m., Curtis
FOCUS 45 TALK: Women in Photography
Women have been essential to the production of photographic objects and the progression of the medium since photography’s invention. Join Rachel E. Andrews, assistant collection manager in the Department of Photography, for a discussion of the photographs exhibited in the most recent installation of the museum’s History of Photography Gallery. The selections in this rotation highlight works by women photographers,
Wednesday, June 13, 11 a.m.
SIGN-LANGUAGE GARDEN TOUR
Signed 45-minute garden tours are led by docent Bob Menchel. Reservations strongly recommended. Private signed tours are available with advance notice. Reservations and info: tours@eastman.org or (585) 327-4838.
June 18-22
PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP: Gelatin Dry Plates in the Woods of Letchworth State Park
If you like camping, hiking, and large-format photography, this workshop is for you. Make your own silver bromide gelatin emulsion, coat glass to produce negative plates, and then travel to Letchworth State Park to set up camp in rustic cabins in the woods and photograph with a 4×5 view camera. Registration & full schedule: eastman.org/workshops or contact photographicworkshops@eastman.org.
Wednesday, June 20, 6–8 p.m.
GARDEN VIBES SUMMER CONCERT: Ruby Velle & The Soulphonics
Atlanta’s Ruby Velle and the Soulphonics are the heirs to the thrones of the old school masters—deep funk, southern soul, Motown—but they bring these classic sounds glimmering into the now with a fresh new modern sheen. Ruby Velle and the Soulphonics have made a name for themselves captivating audiences with their stirring live performances. Sponsored by the Eastman Museum Council, Hyatt Regency Rochester, Bop Shop Records, Canandaigua National Bank, and Wegmans. Tickets: $10 general, $8 members, free to 12 & under (with paid adult admission); tickets available at the gate. Gates open 5 p.m.; music from 6 to 8 p.m.
Saturday, June 23, 11 a.m.
SIGN-LANGUAGE GALLERY TOUR
Signed 45-minute gallery tours are led by docent Bob Menchel. Reservations strongly recommended. Private signed tours are available with advance notice. Reservations and info: tours@eastman.org or (585) 327-4838.
DRYDEN THEATRE FILM CALENDAR
JUNE 2018
FEATURED FILM SERIES
- Perfection Personified: William Wyler, June 5–30
- Youth in Love, June 6–28
- Rochester Premieres, June 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
- Senior Matinees—Free for 55+, every Monday (Senior matinees are supported by the Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation)
Friday, June 1, 7:30 p.m. - Rochester Premiere
Claire’s Camera (La caméra de Claire, Hong Sang-soo, France/ South Korea 2017, 69 min., DCP, French and Korean w/subtitles)
A refreshingly sunny performance from Isabelle Huppert is at the center of this comic charmer from South Korean master Hong Sang-soo. Huppert plays Claire, a schoolteacher with a (possibly magical) camera on her first visit to Cannes. She happens upon a film sales assistant, Manhee (Kim Minhee), recently laid off after a one-night stand with a film director (Jung Jinyoung). This unlikely pair become detectives of sorts, as they wander around the seaside resort town, working to better understand the circumstances of Manhee’s firing—and developing new outlooks on life in the process. The second of three films from this prolific director in 2017, Claire’s Camera has been praised as “one of Hong’s most formally intuitive and sharply written films” (Slant Magazine).
Saturday, June 2, 7:30 p.m. - 100 Years of Polish Independence
Pan Tadeusz: The Last Foray in Lithuania (Pan Tadeusz, Andrzej Wajda, Poland/France 1999, 147 min., 35mm, Polish w/subtitles)
To celebrate a hundred years of Polish independence and add an illuminating postscript to last year’s Andrzej Wajda retrospective, we present one of the Polish master’s most ambitious and popular films. Pan Tadeusz is a grandiose historical spectacle, both epic and lyrical, based on the eponymous work by the famed Polish national poet Adam Mickiewicz, depicting the nation’s struggle to define its own identity after centuries of complicated relations with its neighbors and historical European superpowers. Special screening of a 35mm print that was recently kindly donated to our collection by the New York Polish Film Festival. Presented in collaboration with the Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies, University of Rochester.
Monday, June 4, 1:30 p.m. - Senior Matinee
South Pacific (Joshua Logan, US 1958, 140 min., 35mm)
Based on a book by James A. Michener, South Pacific is a Rodgers and Hammerstein classic in gorgeous, widescreen color. The film provides a veritable feast for the eyes and ears as Rossano Brazzi and Mitzi Gaynor find love, anguish, and eventual happiness amid the setting of a war-torn Pacific island. The stellar soundtrack includes such classics as “Bali Ha’i,” “Some Enchanted Evening,” and “Happy Talk.”
Tuesday, June 5, 7:30 p.m. - William Wyler | Silent Tuesday
The Shakedown (William Wyler, US 1929, 66 min., 35mm)
Working with the sole surviving print of William Wyler’s The Shakedown, the Eastman Museum has restored this visual tour de force, proudly presented here in 35mm. James Murray is a boxer whose turbulent life is turned around when he makes the inspiring acquaintance of a young orphan. Look for a 22-year-old John Huston in an uncredited performance and a cameo by director Wyler himself. Live piano by Philip C. Carli.
Wednesday, June 6, 7:30 p.m. - Youth in Love
Love in the Afternoon (Billy Wilder, US 1957, 130 min., 35mm)
Audrey Hepburn is Ariane, daughter of a Parisian detective (cheeky Maurice Chevalier). Eavesdropping on her father’s client who threatens to kill the man with whom his wife is having an affair, Ariane decides to warn the potential victim, an irredeemable ladies’ man (mature Gary Cooper). A romance ensues, but only in the afternoon. Three years after the success of Sabrina, Billy Wilder meets again with Hepburn, by then at the top of her stardom. He co-signs this delightful romantic comedy with screenwriter I. A. L. Diamonds, their first and already fruitful collaboration, before writing future masterpieces such as Some Like it Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960).
Thursday, June 7, 7:30 p.m. - William Wyler
Counsellor-at-Law (William Wyler, US 1933, 82 min., 35mm)
In this fast-talking pre-Code melodrama, Wyler follows a day in the life of George Simon (John Barrymore), a successful lawyer who is trying to balance his career by helping the people from his neighborhood while taking high-paying sensationalist cases to pay the bills. After he successfully defends an accused murderer, he takes the case of a young communist who has been beaten by the police, as a favor to a childhood neighbor, but his career may be at risk as a previous case is called into question. Written by prolific playwright Elmer Rice from his own play, the film challenged Wyler’s camera movements to keep up with the action.
Friday, June 8, 7:30 p.m. - Rochester Premiere
The Day After (Geu-hu, Hong Sang-soo, South Korea 2017, 92 min., DCP, Korean w/subtitles)
The last of the three films Hong Sang-soo directed in 2017 and his 21st feature as a director in less than 20 years, The Day After is a mordantly comic tale of infidelity and mistaken identity. Book publisher Bongwan’s (Kwon Haehyo) marriage is on the rocks after his wife (Cho Yunhee) discovers the affair he’s been having with his assistant (Kim Saebyuk). Now that relationship is ending, too, and Bongwan’s new assistant, the sharp and sensitive Areum (Kim Minhee), on her first day in the office, is left to navigate the fallout of all of the turnover in Bongwan’s life. With its ingeniously destabilizing leaps through time and stark black-and-white cinematography, The Day After begins as a darkly hilarious story of a man embroiled in extramarital entanglements but soon shifts—in a way only Hong can manage—into a heartfelt portrayal of a young woman on a quest for spiritual fulfillment.
Saturday, June 9, 7:30 p.m. – Youth in Love
Love in the Afternoon (Billy Wilder, US 1957, 130 min., 35mm)
Tuesday, June 12, 7:30 p.m. - William Wyler
Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, US 1939, 104 min., 35mm)
In this memorable adaptation of Emily Brönte’s classic gothic tale of romance, deceit, and sibling rivalry, Oscar-winning cinematography bathes the doomed lovers in somber tones. Laurence Olivier is the dark, vengeful Heathcliff, determined to destroy the lives of those he loves and hates, and Merle Oberon shines as the capricious and haughty Catherine.
Friday, June 15, 7:30 p.m. - Rochester Premiere
The Guardians (Les gardiennes, Xavier Beauvois, France 2017, 135 min., DCP, French w/subtitles)
After the outbreak of World War I, the women of the Paridier farm in provincial France must protect the homestead in the absence of their husbands, sons, and employees. Family matriarch Hortense (Nathalie Baye) reluctantly brings on a hardscrabble orphan, Francine (Iris Bry), to assist her daughter Solange
(Laura Smet) and sustain the farm. New tools allow the women to triumph over the land, but old jealousies persist, especially when the men return from the front. Described by Cinema Scope as a work that treats us “with flashes of van Gogh–inspired beauty,” The Guardians is truly a marvel of a film: both a rough-hewn tribute to a generation of women who persisted, and a sharp indictment of war that never actually shows any images of war.
Saturday, June 16, 7:30 p.m. - Rochester Premiere
The Guardians (Les gardiennes, Xavier Beauvois, France 2017, 135 min., DCP, French w/subtitles)
Monday, June 18, 1:30 p.m. - Senior Matinee
Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, US 1939, 104 min., 35mm)
Tuesday, June 19, 7:30 p.m. - William Wyler
The Letter (William Wyler, US 1940, 95 min., 35mm)
Wyler’s adaptation of a Somerset Maugham short story opens with a bang—six of them, to be exact, from the gun Bette Davis has just used to kill the man she claims made an unwelcome advance. The wife of a respectable plantation owner, she’ll mostly likely get off—except for that incriminating letter that proves her clear-cut case of self-defense was anything but. Supported by a classic Max Steiner score, Davis has never been better.
Wednesday, June 20, 8:30 p.m. - Youth in Love
Summer with Monika (Sommaren med Monika, Ingmar Bergman, Sweden 1953, 96 min., 35mm, Swedish w/subtitles)
The first Bergman feature released in the US, this is one of films that contributed to the image of European cinema as a more artistic and challenging counterpart to Hollywood. In her first work with Bergman, Harriet Andersson leaves an indelible impression as an adolescent temptress who takes off with an errand boy (Lars Ekborg) on an escapade and walks out in boredom, leaving him to care for their child. This escape from working-class Stockholm to the Swedish countryside pays homage to Italian Neorealism and anticipates the French New Wave. Note later start time.
Thursday, June 21, 7:30 p.m. - William Wyler
Friendly Persuasion (William Wyler, US 1956, 137 min., 35mm)
Gary Cooper stars in this compelling drama depicting a Quaker family’s struggle to maintain their peaceful ways amidst the chaos of the Civil War. When southern troops storm into their quaint Indiana town, patriarch Jess Birdwell has to decide whether to adhere to his beliefs or fight for his home. By turns humorous and touching, Wyler’s visually stunning masterpiece brings out the best in his cast, headlined by Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire as devout Quakers and pacifists wrestling with rebellious children and their own consciences.
Friday, June 22, 7:30 p.m. - Rochester Premiere
Rat Film (Theo Anthony, US 2016, 82 min., DCP)
“There’s never been a rat problem in Baltimore, it’s always been a people problem.” In his dazzling directorial feature debut, Theo Anthony uses the rat as a passageway into the dark, complicated history of Baltimore. A unique blend of history, sci-fi, poetry and portraiture, Rat Film brilliantly breaks documentary norms and dissects how racial segregation, redlining, and environmental racism built the Baltimore we see today. Frenetic in its focus, the film thrusts the viewer into a kaleidoscopic look at the city, allowing the viewer to create their own connections between scenes. Despite the title, the core of Rat Film is deeply human—an unflinching anthropological look at the racial injustices entrenched in the city’s past. With a haunting score by Baltimore native Dan Deacon, Rat Film is a chilling documentary that refuses any easy answers.
Saturday, June 23, 7:30 p.m. - Youth in Love
Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, US 1971, 91min., 35mm)
By staging elaborate fake suicides, Harold, a bored and depressive young boy, desperately tries to gain the attention of his wealthy and absent mother. To kill time, he goes to funerals, where he ends up meeting another regular attendee, Maude, an intriguing woman who could easily be his grandmother. Maude has a cheerful touch of madness, regardless of her past, which has not always been joyful. At her side, Harold learns to smile and begins to find life more enjoyable. Harold and Maude are certainly one of the most iconic movie couples. Still, when it was released, the bittersweet tone of the film was not really to the taste of the critics. Despite the mixed reviews, the movie has gained popularity over the years to the point of becoming a classic.
Monday, June 25, 1:30 p.m. - Senior Matinee
The Letter (William Wyler, US 1940, 95 min., 35mm)
Tuesday, June 26, 7:30 p.m. - Youth in Love
Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, US 1971, 91min., 35mm)
Wednesday, June 27, 7:30 p.m. - William Wyler
Carrie (William Wyler, US 1952, 121 min., 35mm)
One of Wyler’s most neglected films is a masterful adaptation of Theodore Dreiser’s fatalistic novel Sister Carrie. Jennifer Jones plays a poor girl from the slums of Chicago who is befriended by a kind, but married, restaurant manager Laurence Olivier. When the two become illicit lovers, they each undergo a reversal of fortunes: hers triumphant, his tragic. Wyler’s meticulous direction is matched by Olivier’s peerless portrayal, perhaps his finest on-screen performance.
Thursday, June 28, 7:30 p.m. - Youth in Love
Maurice (James Ivory, UK 1987, 140 min., 35mm)
Cambridge, early 20th century. Two college students, Maurice (James Wilby) and Clive (Hugh Grant), develop a close friendship that rapidly evolves into love. Succumbing to the pressures of British society, they are forced to keep their relationship a secret—taking a toll on both their lives. After the great success of A Room with a View (1985), James Ivory decided to adapt another work by British author E. M. Forster— Maurice, published posthumously in 1971. Ivory’s beautiful direction, Pierre Lhomme’s unmistakable cinematography, and the talented cast breathe new life into Forster’s novel on the perils of being an outsider in a culture of conformity. The whole collection of Merchant Ivory Productions, including more than forty film titles, is proudly held by the Eastman Museum. Free to members.
Friday, June 29, 7:30 p.m. - Rochester Premiere
In the Last Days of the City (Akher ayam el madina, Tamer El Said, Egypt/Germany/UK/United Arab Emirates 2016, 118 min., DCP, Arabic w/subtitles)
Tamer El Said’s ambitious debut feature tells the fictional story of a filmmaker from downtown Cairo (Khalid Abdalla; The Kite Runner, United 93, Green Zone, The Square) as he struggles to capture the soul of a city on edge while facing loss in his own life. Shot in Cairo, Beirut, Baghdad, and Berlin during the two years before the outbreak of revolution in Egypt, the film’s multilayered stories are a visually rich exploration of friendship, loneliness, and life in the shadows of war and adversity.
Saturday, June 30, 7:30 p.m. - William Wyler
The Big Country (William Wyler, US 1958, 171 min., 35mm)
Wyler’s epic western drama returns him full circle to the genre in which he began his career. Jim McKay (Gregory Peck) arrives in San Rafael to reunite with his fiancée, Patricia, whose family owns a large cattle ranch. His desire for a quiet life is thwarted by repeated challenges from the ranchers on two sides of a long-standing feud. Disappointed by his seeming cowardice, Patricia questions their relationship and McKay unwittingly becomes the fulcrum in a brewing range war. The only way out may just be the piece of land between the ranches—and its beautiful trustee Julie Maragon (Jean Simmons).
