<< March 20 - 23, 2008 >>>

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Few directors embody the range and depth possible in the Hollywood studio system as beautifully as George Stevens. After a getting hisstart in B movie comedies, he rose to prominence as a master of all genres: action (GUNGA DIN), melodrama (I REMEMBER MAMA), and the western (SHANE) are only a few of the forms to which Stevens applied his professional touch. Equally capable with "women’s pictures" as he was with hard-edged action, Stevens had an astonishing diversity of interests and skills—and sometimes, as in the epic GIANT, his range could be felt within the confines of one particular film. The Aero will be showing a selection of Stevens classics that represents the breadth of his accomplishments, from the intimate (ALICE ADAMS) to the epic (THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD).

Thursday, March 20 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

ALICE ADAMS, 1935, Warner Bros., 99 min. George Stevens left the world of B-movie comedies for A-list prestige fare with this heartfelt adaptation of Booth Tarkington’s novel. Katharine Hepburn gives one of her most subtle performances as an ambitious young woman seeking to escape her small-town background; although the character is superficially unappealing, Hepburn and Stevens allow the viewer to empathize with her in all her complexity. Solid supporting work from Fred MacMurray is an additional asset in this impeccably mounted drama. Co-starring Hattie McDaniels (GONE WITH THE WIND) and Fred Stone, who nearly steal the film.

I REMEMBER MAMA, 1948, Warner Bros., 134 min. This is one of George Stevens’s most purely affecting works, a sentimental and powerful portrait of a woman (Irene Dunne) keeping her family of Norwegian immigrants together through decades of ups and downs. Stevens pulls out all the stops in this unabashedly manipulative -- and undeniably effective -- classic tearjerker.

Friday, March 21 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

SHANE, 1953, Paramount, 118 min. George Stevens infuses the western genre with mythic grandeur in this timeless classic. Alan Ladd is at his most iconic as the title character, an ex-gunfighter forced out of retirement when a family of homesteaders (Van Heflin, Jean Arthur, Brandon de Wilde) comes under attack by a vicious rancher’s hired guns. Jack Palance is one of the most threatening villains in movie history, and the film itself is both a summing up of the western genre and a sign of things to come in later masterworks like UNFORGIVEN. One of the most influential films ever made—and one of the most entertaining. Loyal Griggs won an Oscar for Best Cinematography.

A PLACE IN THE SUN, 1951, Paramount, 122 min. Montgomery Clift delivers arguably his finest performance as a tormented young man in love with socialite Elizabeth Taylor, but still weighed down by his past fling with factory girl Shelley Winters. Superb, heartbreaking adaptation by director George Stevens of novelist Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy. Winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Director for Stevens.

GIANT, 1956, Warner Bros. 201 min. Dir. George Stevens. Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean (in his last role) star in this sprawling account of the rise of a Texas oil family. Stevens moves back and forth between epic social commentary and intimate family melodrama with ease, and Boris Levin’s stunning art direction is a wonder to behold on the big screen. Stevens won the Academy Award for Best Director.

Sunday, March 23 - 5:00 PM

Special Easter Screening!

THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD, 1965, MGM Repertory, 193 min. Director George Stevens took the biggest risk of his career with this epic account of the life of Jesus, a film that contains some of Stevens' most spectacular images (it was originally photographed in 70mm) and sequences. Max Von Sydow plays Jesus, and gets support from an astonishing all-star cast that includes Claude Rains, Charlton Heston, Sidney Poitier, and many others--including, in a particularly odd bit of casting, John Wayne as a Roman centurion!