The Quad's Repertory Programs for December 2017

In addition to the previously announced William Wyler & Lois Smith series, upcoming repertory programs at the Quad include retrospectives celebrating the incomparable Daniel Day-Lewis & prolific French filmmaker Claude Berri, plus Merchant-Ivory highlights for the holidays

More Than Meets the Eye: William Wyler

December 1-15
In The American Cinema, Andrew Sarris grouped William Wyler in the dreaded “Less than Meets the Eye” category, alongside Huston, Wilder, and Lean as “directors with reputations in excess of inspirations.” And what a reputation Wyler has: this consummate perfectionist worked for nearly half a century, from the silent era to the dawn of New Hollywood, earning the most-ever Best Director Oscar nominations with 12 (and three wins). His name has become virtually synonymous with Hollywood craftsmanship and prestige; Wyler made unapologetically big movies about big themes with big performances. But a closer look reveals countless grace notes between the crescendos, and shows Wyler to be an acute chronicler of mid-century American life. The Quad is proud to present New York’s most extensive Wyler retrospective in 15 years, a much-needed reconsideration of this vital film artist.

Titles include: Ben-Hur (1959, DCP), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, DCP), The Big Country (1958, 35mm), Carrie (1952, 35mm), The Children’s Hour (1961, 35mm), The Collector (1965, DCP), Counsellor-at-Law (1933, 35mm), Dead End (1937, 35mm), The Desperate Hours (1955, 35mm), Detective Story (1951, 35mm), Dodsworth (1936, 35mm), Funny Girl (1968, DCP), The Good Fairy (1935, 35mm), The Heiress (1949, 35mm), A House Divided (1931, 35mm), How to Steal a Million (1966, DCP), Jezebel (1938, 35mm), The Letter (1940, 35mm), The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1969, 35mm), The Little Foxes (1941, 35mm), Mrs. Miniver (1942, 35mm), Roman Holiday (1953, 35mm), These Three (1936, 35mm), The Westerner (1940, 35mm), Wuthering Heights (1939, 35mm)

Prime Lois Smith

December 12-14
Enjoying her seventh decade onscreen, actress par excellence Lois Smith was recently on view at the Quad recreating her stage triumph with her beautiful multifaceted performance in Marjorie Prime—and now she’s back in theaters with Lady Bird. Whether flinty or flustered, sweet or steely, imperious or meek, Smith is memorable every time she materializes as part of the fabric of a film, play, or TV show. To cap off her prime 2017, we’ve gathered together four movies from the first half of her career to which she made valuable contributions, plus a reprise of the acclaimed Marjorie Prime.

Titles include: East of Eden (1955, 35mm), Five Easy Pieces (1970, DCP), Foxes (1980, 35mm), Marjorie Prime (2017, DCP), Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976, DCP)

All or Nothing: The Fearless Performances of Daniel Day-Lewis

December 15-24
On Friday, March 7th, 1986, Manhattan moviegoers opened up newspapers to find glowing reviews and ads for two new films opening that day, My Beautiful Laundrette and A Room with a View. Double takes ensued, for both starred the then-unknown Daniel Day-Lewis—in utterly different guises. Who was this protean talent, this must-see, this one to watch? His lineage indicated a genetic predisposition towards artistic accomplishment; he is the son of Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of England, and Jill Balcon, daughter of Ealing Studios mogul Sir Michael Balcon. But Daniel Day-Lewis has made his own name, flooring audiences and critics with his ability to meticulously root characters in a multitude of eras and locales. Revered by his peers and fellow actors, he has earned a record three Best Actor Academy Awards. On the occasion of a long-awaited new starring role for the actor with the Christmas Day release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1950s UK-set Phantom Thread—which Day-Lewis has stated will mark his screen farewell—we offer up a holiday bounty of his films.

Titles include: The Age of Innocence (1993, 35mm), The Bounty (1984, 35mm), The Boxer (1997, 35mm), The Crucible (1996, 35mm), In the Name of the Father (1993, 35mm), The Last of the Mohicans (1992, 35mm), Lincoln (2012, DCP), My Beautiful Laundrette (1985, 35mm), My Left Foot (1989, 35mm), A Room with a View (1985, DCP), Stars & Bars (1988, 35mm), Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971, DCP), There Will Be Blood (2007, 35mm), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988, 35mm)

Merchant Ivory Gold

December 23-28
With his moving screenplay adaptation of André Aciman’s beloved novel Call Me By Your Name, the 89-year-old James Ivory has enjoyed a true late-career triumph in 2017. Ivory first came to recognition alongside his partner Ismail Merchant as half of the formidable Merchant Ivory team, whose productions set the bar for refined filmmaking for several decades. Often prestige literary adaptations, their films not only honored their source material—novels by Henry James, E.M. Forster, and more—but often transcended it. In hopes of reintroducing audiences to Merchant Ivory’s transporting films, we’re pleased to present recent, gorgeous restorations of five of their best, including three from the Cohen Film Collection.

Titles include: *Heat and Dust (1983, DCP), *Howards End (1992, DCP), *Maurice (1987, DCP), *The Remains of the Day (1993, DCP), A Room with a View (1985, DCP)

*4K Restoration

A Very Berri Christmas

December 22-January 4
Claude Berri is surely the only French filmmaker to have won an Academy Award at the very start of his career—for his 1962 short Le Poulet. A veritable film industry impresario, in addition to directing 21 films, he produced 58 features, and set up distribution company AMLF in 1973. Berri broke into films with small acting roles in movies by Chabrol, Becker, Clouzot, and Renoir among others, and continued to act throughout his career; initially he was a triple-threat actor-writer-director, playing a character called Claude in five semi-autobiographical comedy-dramas. Firmly ensconced in the mainstream, his directing career couldn’t be further from the New Wave and post-New Wave cinema. While a handful of his early films received U.S. distribution, most of his light comedy dramas of the 1970s and early 1980s remain unknown to American audiences. All this changed with his 1987 international breakthrough, the classic Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources diptych, which marked a new phase in his career as he pivoted to a series of large-scale period dramas rooted in French heritage.

The Quad is proud to present this retrospective with a selection of films from both halves of Berri’s career in conjunction with the international premiere of the 50th anniversary 4K restoration of his celebrated first film The Two of Us.

Titles include: The Two of Us (1976, DCP, 4K restoration), The First Time / La première fois (1976, 35mm), Germinal (1993, 35mm), Hard Off / La débandade
(1999, 35mm), Je vous aime (1980, 35mm), Jean de Florette (1986, 35mm), Lucie Aubrac (1997, 35mm), Male of the Century / Le mâle du siècle (1975, 35mm), Manon of the Spring / Manon des Sources (1986, 35mm), Le Sex Shop
(1972, 35mm), Uranus (1990, 35mm)