Program Notes for Clark Summer Film Series

10 Under 50 =
Top Ten Directors Younger Than The Clark

Free Films Fridays at 4:00 pm at The Clark.

The Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute presents, as part of its 50th anniversary celebration, a selection of the best young filmmakers born since its opening in 1955, the careers to watch in coming years. These films are brash and bold, challenging and youth-oriented. This ain’t your grandpa’s Clark Art Institute, this is – ta-da! – The Clark, busily reinventing itself for the 21st century. And these are filmmakers for the 21st century, whose names will be attached to some of the most thought-provoking, funny, and passionate movies forthcoming. So herewith, a decade of directors for the decades ahead:

Viewer Advisory: Almost all these films are R-rated, but more importantly, each deals with mature themes in a fearless manner. They are shown without admission charge in The Clark auditorium, by digital projection from DVD.

July 1: Almost Famous. (2000, 162 minutes.) Cameron Crowe’s charmed and charming autobiographical tale of a 15-year-old rock journalist on the road with a band and its groupies in the early ’70s is presented in the director’s expanded “Bootleg Cut.” With Patrick Fugit, Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Frances McDormand.

July 8: Three Kings. (1999, 115 minutes.) David O. Russell’s subversive, energetic caper set in the chaos of America’s first Gulf War is more relevant than ever, but just as swift and funny. With George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Ice Cube. Shown with Russell’s recent documentary on the second Iraq war, Soldiers Pay (2005, 36 min.), which was suppressed from the dvd reissue.

July 15: Ararat. (2002, 116 minutes.) Atom Egoyan digs deep into his Armenian heritage to unearth the story of the Turkish genocide of his people in the waning days of the Ottoman empire, weaving historical reconstruction with lives of characters in exile, including Arshile Gorky. With Charles Aznavour and Egoyan’s homegrown repertory company.

July 22: Election. (1999, 105 minutes.) Alexander Payne hit his stride long before Sideways, with this wicked satire on high school politics, scathingly funny while remaining all too true to life. Reese Witherspoon shines as the irrepressible student politician, and Matthew Broderick suffers Ferris Bueller payback as the hapless teacher who wishes he could repress her.

July 29: Waking Life. (2001, 99 minutes.) Richard Linklater offers an offbeat summation of his films to date, from Slackers to Before Sunset, in this innovative, mind-expanding meditation on dreaming, stunningly animated by computer from a live-action original. Take a trip through the outer limits of Austin, Texas.

Aug. 5: Great Expectations. (1999, 111 minutes.) Alfonso Cuaron navigates masterfully from Mexican originals to English literary adaptations, here transposing the Dickens masterpiece to present day Key West and Manhattan. Ethan Hawke is the Pip character, now a painter (paintings by Francesco Clemente), and Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Bancroft, and Robert DeNiro represent Estella, Miss Havisham, and Magwitch.

Aug. 12: Welcome to Sarajevo. (1997, 102 minutes.) Michael Winterbottom is a prolific and eclectic filmmaker, plunging into different times and places, from Victorian England to contemporary Afghanistan, but here he examines the war in Bosnia and the siege of its cosmopolitan capital. Woody Harrelson is an American journalist, working with British reporters to get to the heart of the breaking story.

Aug. 19: Together. (2000, 106 minutes, Swedish with subtitles.) Lukas Moodysson casts an amused but sympathetic eye on a Stockholm commune in the 1970s, a hippie stew of idealism and ideology spiced by dashes of idiosyncrasy and desire, in which we learn that love is never altogether free. Frank and funny about sex and politics, the film demonstrates that family is where you find it.

Aug. 26: The Virgin Suicides. (1999, 97 minutes.) Sofia Coppola established herself as a major talent with Lost in Translation, but promised much with this first effort, an adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’ elegaic novel of love and death among teenagers in suburbia. With Kirsten Dunst as one daughter and Kathleen Turner as the mother of five, this is a film of family from a distinguished film family.

Sept. 2: What's Cooking? (2000, 109 minutes.) Gurinder Chadha brings a multicultural brio to her orchestrations of communities in flux. Best known for Bend It Like Beckham, here she takes a panoptic look at an assorted group of Los Angeles families getting ready for the trial of Thanksgiving. Alfre Woodard leads a diverse and delightful cast.


Programmer’s Note (from Steve Satullo): Unlike most film series at The Clark, “10 Under 50” courts controversy, not just in the subject matter of the films, but in the very choice of filmmakers. In an era of effects-driven corporate blockbusters, heavyweight stars, and franchised sequels, here the director is the star, the guiding visionary to whom attention must be paid. My choices are debatable, of course, and I urge viewers to debate them. Filmographies and career retrospectives will be posted week by week on Cinema Salon. I welcome comments posted here or emailed to: ssatullo@clarkart.edu