Tag Archives: Martin Ritt

FUNNY FACE, PARIS BLUES

Pink is the navy blue of India. — Diana Vreeland

Long before her international fame as editor-in-chief of Vogue in the sixties and the “Empress of Fashion” at the Met’s Costume Institute in the seventies and eighties, Diana Vreeland was a legend in Manhattan creative circles. As Harper’s Bazaar‘s fashion editor, she was the inspiration for Allison Du Bois in the Kurt Weill-Ira Gershwin-Moss Hart musical Lady in the Dark (1941). And Kay Thompson played Maggie Prescott, a version of Vreeland, in the dazzling Paramount musical FUNNY FACE (1957, directed by Stanley Donen).

Upon discovering Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn), a lovely, philosophical clerk in a Greenwich Village bookstore, Prescott and photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire, in a role based on Richard Avedon) sweep Jo uptown for a test shoot. Maggie orders her office minions to chop off Jo’s hair and paint her with a “marvelous mouth.” Jo resists, but gives in once she realizes her new modeling gig comes with a paid trip to Paris, home of Jean-Paul Sartre.

This weekend, as part of its series Runaway Hollywood—Global Production in a Postwar World, the UCLA Film and Television Archive will screen FUNNY FACE, followed by the black-and-white Paul Newman-Sidney Poitier vehicle PARIS BLUES (1961, directed by Martin Ritt). The story of two American jazz musicians in Paris, the tourists they fall for (Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll), and the Latin Quarter dives at the center of their expat scene, PARIS BLUES features a score composed by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.

FUNNY FACE and PARIS BLUES

Saturday, July 27, at 7:30 pm.

Billy Wilder Theater—Hammer Museum

10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.

From top: Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face; Kay Thompson performing the “Think Pink” number; Thompson, Fred Astaire, and Hepburn after wrapping up “Bonjour, Paris!”; Verve album cover; Diahann Carroll and Sidney Poitier in Paris Blues; Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman; Louis Armstrong (left), Poitier, and Newman on set.

NORMA RAE

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Crystal Lee Sutton grew up in a mill town in North Carolina. The J.P. Stevens & Company owned seven textile factories in Roanoke Rapids, as well as most of the housing stock in Crystal’s neighborhood. Her parents and grandparents all worked for the company, and Crystal’s high school offered classes in weaving and loom repair. She wanted out, but started her first job at one of the mills when she was in 11th grade.

Fifteen years later a representative from the Textile Workers Union of America showed up where Crystal was working, and the mother of three became an activist and organizer.

Sally Field portrays a character based on Crystal in NORMA RAE (1979, directed by Martin Ritt). This weekend, labor communications expert Laureen Lazarovici, and the treasurer/chief-of-staff for SEIU United Service Workers West Alejandra Valles will speak at a UCLA Film and Television Archive screening of the film.*

(Jonathan Demme’s SWING SHIFT (1984) will screen as the second half of a double bill. Both films will be projected in 35mm.)

 

NORMA RAE, Saturday, March 10, at 7:30 pm.

BILLY WILDER THEATER, Hammer Museum, 1 Wilshire Boulevard, Westwood, Los Angeles.

cinema.ucla.edu/norma-rae-swing-shift

*SEIU is the Service Employees International Union.

Above: Crystal Lee Sutton. Photograph by Karen Tam.

Below: Sally Field and Sutton at a J.P. Stevens Boycott Benefit in 1980.

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VINTAGE POITIER AT THE WILDER

During the first two decades of his career, Sidney Poitier was the beneficiary and exemplar of so-called Hollywood liberalism, and—carrying the flag of rectitude and racial equality if not harmony—rarely played a “bad guy.” Which makes the opening film of the Poitier double-bill this weekend such a rare treat. In THE LOST MAN (1969)—built on the armature of the IRA thriller Odd Man Out (directed by Carol Reed)—Poitier is a gun-brandishing militant on the run, finding refuge and comfort when and where he can. Poitier met his co-star Joanna Shimkus during filming, and they later went on to marry, celebrating their fortieth anniversary in 2016. The film’s score is by Quincy Jones.

THE LOST MAN was written and directed by Robert Alan Aurthur, who also wrote the second feature, Martin Ritt’s excellent EDGE OF THE CITY (1956), which pairs Poitier with a young John Cassavetes. The evening’s films are part of the UCLA Film and Television Archive series Golden Age Television Writers on the Big Screen.

THE LOST MAN and EDGE OF THE CITY, Friday, August 11, at 7:30.

BILLY WILDER THEATER, HAMMER MUSEUM, 10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Westwood, Los Angeles.

cinema.ucla.edu/lost-man-edge-of-the-city

From top: John Cassavetes (left) and Sidney Poitier in Edge of the City.

Poster, right: Joanna Shimkus.

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