| solid gould / Early Fridays in May at 7:30pm |
 He has charm, intelligence, "ethnic" appeal, unflappable cool — no, it's not Barack Obama we're talking about, it's Elliot Gould, who forever redefined the role of the Hollywood Leading Man by embodying the conflicting concerns of American males in the 1970s. From reluctant swingers to wisecracking private eyes, hard-luck gamblers to blithe bohemians, his morally ambiguous, self-deprecating antiheroes set the tone for a decade of innovative filmic risktaking. Breaking out in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Gould's fidgety sex appeal somehow made the prospect of cheating on Natalie Wood seem inevitable. For Robert Altman's subversive and entertaining M*A*S*H, California Split and The Long Goodbye, Gould created an inimitable, indelible persona, triumphing wit over action and improvisation over melodrama. And, in Little Murders and The Silent Partner, Gould explored even darker sides of his persona, balancing surreal and disturbing material with casual, off-the-cuff performances. With a series spotlighting both his most beloved and most overlooked roles, the Cinefamily is thrilled to salute an actor who profoundly altered our image of marquee-idol masculinity forever.
5/2 @ 7:30pm / SERIES: solid gould
 M*A*S*H
Richard Schiekel, writing for Time Magazine in 1970, declared “M*A*S*H is what the new freedom of the screen is all about!" Even with our culture’s deep re-evaluation of the artistic high points in '70s cinema, it’s still hard for anyone young enough to not seen M*A*S*H upon its theatrical release to fully understand how groundbreaking Robert Altman’s use of overlapping dialogue, realistic war gore, and a devil-may-care attitude towards the horrors of war really were in American film. Easy Rider may have unlocked the gates of prudishness, but M*A*S*H helped to dynamite the gate doors right off their hinges, and the whole enterprise would have never worked without the twin leads of Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland, who effortlessly complement each other’s comedic timing with an immaculate Marx Brothers flair. The comedy of M*A*S*H is very much of its time, but Gould in particular keeps today’s viewer smiling with his portrayal of Trapper John, the ballsy, hypercool military surgeon trying to retain his sanity amongst a mountain of casualties by any batty means necessary.
Dir. Robert Altman, 1970, 35mm, 116 min.
Tickets - $10
5/9 @ 7:30pm / SERIES: solid gould
 Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
A cheeky glance at the Sexual Revolution from a middle-aged, upper middle-class SoCal perspective, director Paul Mazursky’s first feature has aged agreeably — much like Elliot Gould. Ted (Gould) and Alice (a gorgeous Dyan Cannon) are friends with Bob (Robert Culp) and Carol (Natalie Wood, also gorgeous). Having dealt with marital problems, the latter couple return from a New Age retreat, and in a new spirit of openness, shares the details of their love lives and affairs with a simultaneously terrified and titillated Ted and Alice. These disclosures forge a closer bond between the couples, and, in the twilight of the Swingin’ Sixties, the question is: how close is too close? Fortunately, Mazursky goes for keenly observed humor instead of soap opera, and brings out the best in his performers. Gould grabbed a “Best Supporting Actor” Oscar nod in 1970 for this, his first high-profile film role.
Dir. Paul Mazursky, 1969, 35mm, 105 min.
Tickets - $10
5/16 @ 7:30pm / SERIES: solid gould
Little Murders
A bitterly zany black comedy caked in post-'68 disillusionment, Little Murders is perhaps the perfect vehicle for Elliot Gould's rumpled charisma. Alan Arkin, making his directorial debut, translates Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Jules Pfeiffer's stage play, an off-the-wall cocktail of fairy-tale, farce, paranoia thriller and comedy of errors. As Alfred Chamberlain, a shut-in photographer so resentful of his own success that he's turned to taking photos of feces, Gould personifies the deep ambivalence of the era, delivering a performance both poignant and irreverent. Alfred falls in love, improbably, with Patsy, a waspy Manhattan interior decorator whose unwavering determination to happiness in a crumbling society gives Alfred a reason to believe — at least, until random acts of terror shatter their dreams. Hilarity does eventually ensue, thanks in part to some unforgettable appearances by Arkin as a hysterical detective, and Donald Sutherland as a hippie priest officiating what is easily the greatest wedding sequence in cinema history.
Dir. Alan Arkin, 1971, 35mm, 110 min.
Tickets - $10
5/23 @ 7:30pm / SERIES: solid gould
The Silent Partner
In some ways, the enormously entertaining cat-and-mouse caper The Silent Partner represents a turning point in Elliot Gould's career. Toying with his image in bold and unexpected ways, Gould plays mild-mannered bank teller Miles Cullen, a man valued not too highly around the workplace. When he catches on to department-store Santa Christopher Plummer's robbery scheme before the fact, he squirrels away a bag full of cash and blames Santa for the full tab. Soon, Plummer catches on Miles having caught on, and makes Miles' life miserable. Made in Toronto at the height of the Canadian "Tax Shelter" film industry, with an exceptional cast (including the game Susannah York and an exceptionally sadistic Plummer, sporting a variety of imaginative costumes), The Silent Partner gives Gould a chance to show off the depth of craft: in his hands, Miles is alternately a bumbler, a trickster, a lover and a nobody.
Dir. Daryl Duke, 1978, 35mm, 106 min.
Tickets - $10
5/30 @ 7:30pm / SERIES: solid gould
 The Long Goodbye
shown with
California Split
In Elliot Gould, Robert Altman found the perfect performer to match his own trademark slinky narratives. The Long Goodbye showcases Gould in the role of legendary gumshoe Philip Marlowe; in Altman's vision, Marlowe is a man out of time, with an ethical code deeply at odds with a hedonistic 70's L.A. culture. From the wonderful supporting performances by Sterling Hayden (as a drunken, Bukowski-like author), Henry Gibson and Mark Rydell, to the ingenious, illusion-shattering John Williams score, everything about the film is strange, sly and close to perfection. Next, Gould and George Segal bounce wildly off one another in the loose and engaging California Split, Altman's exploration of compulsive gambling. Gould is the wild-man, living on couches and a diet of cereal; Segal is a successful publisher, the man with something to lose. A feast of detail and subtle characterization, California Split is best experienced in the theater, where, like the casino, you never really know what time of day it is.
The Long Goodbye Dir. Robert Altman, 1973, 35mm, 112 min.
California Split Dir. Robert Altman, 1974, 35mm, 108 min.
Tickets - $10
| preston sturges / Early Fridays in June at 7:30pm |
 Never has Hollywood witnessed a burst of creativity like what happened when Preston Sturges became the first studio screenwriter to escape his script-monkey cage and leap into the director’s chair. Garnering the first “written and directed by” credit, he began his directing career with an incredible unbroken streak of six comedy classics in just five years — all audience faves and critics’ darlings. His fast-paced movies impatiently overflowed with creativity, a non-stop parade of memorable characterizations, zinging dialogue, and comical plot twists. His charm could be attributed to his unique and irresistible blend of biting satire and good-natured farce; his irreverent films pull off the miraculous feet of being cynical, yet never misanthropic. Sturges loves people — every weirdo nutjob one of them. As his director stand-in says in Sullivan’s Travels: "There's a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that that's all some people have? It isn't much, but it's better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan."
6/6 @ 7:30pm / SERIES: preston sturges
 The Lady Eve
Beautiful con artist Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck) leads the aw-shucks beer fortune heir Charles Pike (Henry Fonda) up a windy road of romantic torments in The Lady Eve, Sturges’ riotous meditation on sexual politics, where neither side has much of a chance of besting the other. Harrington meets Pike on an ocean liner and, with the help of her partner-in-crime father, starts to swindle the contents of Pike’s pocketbook through crooked card games, but in the process starts to fall for Pike’s naïve charms. When he discovers her ruse and turns his affection into elaborate torment, she returns back in his life under the assumed identity of faux posh dame Lady Eve Sidwich, with one mission: to make his life just as tormented. One perfectly executed scene of buoyant comedy follows another; The Lady Eve possesses what the Bright Lights Film Journal calls “an obscene number of wonderful moments.”
Dir. Preston Sturges, 1941, 35mm, 97 min.
Tickets - $10
6/13 @ 7:30pm / SERIES: preston sturges
 Sullivan's Travels
In the whimsically self-referential Sullivan’s Travels, Joel McCrea plays a Hollywood filmmaker fresh off a string of successful comedy pictures who longs to bring something other than whimsy to the screen. In an attempt to the get at the heart of the “common man”, he disguises himself as a hobo and hurtles himself into the world of the downtrodden. His “working vacation” comes to an abrupt end when, after his ID is stolen during a mugging, he’s arrested and sent to work in a Southern chain gang. While there, McCrea finally learns that cinema’s version of reality and real reality are two greatly different things. The direct inspiration for the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Sullivan’s Travels is a guaranteed good time, and is regarded as one of the best movies-on-movies ever made.
Dir. Preston Sturges, 1941, 35mm, 90 min.
Tickets - $10
6/20 @ 7:30pm / SERIES: preston sturges
 The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
shown with
Hail the Conquering Hero
Eddie Bracken became a household name in the early ‘40s when Sturges cast him as the wonderfully wimpy lead in two comedies, both released in 1944. The Miracle Of Morgan’s Creek finds Bracken trying desperately to retain his sanity after his sweetheart Betty Hutton parties with every GI on leave in town, only to find herself pregnant and mysteriously married to someone else without exactly knowing – who? Hail The Conquering Hero starts with Bracken as a soldier, honorably discharged for having hay fever. A gang of sympathetic Marines accompany him home and tell the townsfolk he valiantly served in the Pacific. Next thing you know, he’s being commandeered to run for Mayor. The film contains an incredible amount of insight, sensitivity and guts, mocking the capricious nature of hero worship to a wartime audience while subtly acknowledging their real emotional needs.
The Miracle Of Morgan’s Creek Dir. Preston Sturges, 1944, 35mm, 99 min.
Hail The Conquering Hero Dir. Preston Sturges, 1944, 35mm, 101 min.
Tickets - $10
6/27 @ 7:30pm / SERIES: preston sturges
 The Palm Beach Story
Zany (adj.): ludicrously comical. Things don’t get any zanier than in The Palm Beach Story, a picture with a premise so nutty that only someone with Sturges’ prowess could pull it off without effort. Tom and Gerry Jeffers (Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert) are a financially unstable couple banking on Tom’s abilities as an inventor. To bail themselves out of their situation, Gerry hatches the silliest scheme in all of schemedom: she’ll get a divorce and seduce a rich man in Palm Beach, Florida, in order to finance herself and Tom’s new shadow life – and somehow Tom falls for the plan! Gerry shacks up with a Rockefeller clone, and Tom trails the two, pretending to be her brother, unwittingly catching the romantic attention of the rich man’s sister. The whole affair collapses in a sequence of farcical events worth a hundred Wedding Crashers, proving that with this film, Sturges was at the very height of his game.
Dir. Preston Sturges, 1942, 35mm, 88 min.
Tickets - $10
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