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"TENNESSEE
WILLIAMS ON SCREEN AND STAGE"
A CONVERSATION WITH ELLEN BURSTYN, BRYCE
DALLAS HOWARD, JODIE MARKELL, ELAINE STRITCH, AND ELI WALLACH
MODERATED BY
CHARLES ISHERWOOD AT THE TIMES CENTER ON
DECEMBER 9, 2009
also to co-present “Tennessee Williams on Film”
retrospective at the IFC
Center
Museum of the Moving Image will
present an all-star panel discussion and a two-weekend film series exploring
the legacy of Tennessee Williams, one of the most important and influential
playwrights of the 20th century. The panel discussion,
“Tennessee Williams on Screen and Stage,” at The Times Center on
Wednesday, December 9, 2009, will include Ellen Burstyn and Bryce Dallas
Howard, stars of the new film The Loss of a
Teardrop Diamond
Tennessee Williams; Jodie Markell, director of the film; and legendary actors
Elaine Stritch (“The Lighter Side of Tennessee Williams”) and Eli
Wallach (Baby Doll). The
discussion will be moderated by Charles Isherwood, theater critic for The New York Times.
“Tennessee Williams on Film,” a series co-presented by the Museum
and IFC Center, will
take place on weekends from December 5 through 13. Films include The Glass Menagerie
series was programmed by David Schwartz, the Museum’s chief curator and IFC Center’s
John Vanco, vice-president and general manager, and Harris Dew, director of
programs and promotions. A related exhibition of Tennessee Williams movie
posters will be on display in December in the Posteritati at IFC Center
gallery, in the theater’s second floor lobby.
“It is very exciting to have a new film, The
Loss of a Teardrop Diamond
Williams screenplay,” said David Schwartz. “Bryce Dallas
Howard’s performance adds a new character to Williams’s pantheon of
richly drawn, archetypal heroines. This panel discussion offers a great
opportunity to look at Williams’s enduring legacy, and examine what keeps
him such a vital presence. His plays are revived constantly, and his work has
inspired a number of great films.
Three of the panelists for the December 9th discussion are
associated with The Loss of a Teardrop
Diamond
Howard as Fisher Stevens, a rebellious young heiress who flouts the conventions
of proper Southern society by asking the impoverished but handsome son of her
father’s caretaker, Jimmy (Chris Evans), to be her social escort. This
purely business arrangement becomes complicated when Fisher falls in love with
Jimmy. Academy Award-winner Ellen Burstyn, known for her portrayal of strong
and complex women, also co-stars. The film will be released in theaters by
Paladin in late December.
“As a girl growing up in Memphis Tennessee,” says Markell,
”I felt a deep affinity for Williams's sensitive characters as they
search for something authentic in a harsh world. He takes a humanitarian
approach to his characters. He doesn’t judge them. He makes you
understand them even amidst the unusual, mysterious world they inhabit.
Williams's world is ephemeral and haunted. He once said that everything he
ever wrote was about loss. I wanted to bring WIlliams's visually poetic world
to the screen with as much vibrancy, immediacy, and authenticity as I could
achieve in the hopes of inspiring a new audience to re-discover this great
American original voice.”
The veteran stage and screen performers Elaine Stritch and Eli Wallach complete
the December 9 panel. A Tony and Emmy Award-winner, Stritch
recently appeared in the role of Amanda in Tennessee Williams’s
“The Pretty Trap,” in an evening called “The Lighter Side of
Tennessee Williams,” at the South Orange Performing Arts Center. By the
time Eli Wallach made his film debut in Tennessee Williams’s Baby Doll
he had already established himself on the New York
stage in two Williams’s plays: “The Rose Tattoo,” for which
he won a Tony Award, and “Camino Real.”
The Museum’s panel discussion and retrospective join a nationwide
celebration of Tennessee Williams: the induction of Williams into the
Poets’ Corner at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (November 5), the
acclaimed Australian production of “A Streetcar Named Desire”
starring Cate Blanchett and directed by Liv Ullmann at BAM (November
27-December 20), a retrospective of classic Williams teleplays and a
conversation with Liv Ullmann at The Paley Center in New York (December 9-27),
and a film retrospective at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles (December
9).
Program Schedule
Wednesday, December 9, 7:00 p.m.
Williams on Screen and Stage”
A Conversation with Ellen Burstyn,
Bryce Dallas Howard, Jodie Markell,
Elaine Stritch, and Eli Wallach,
moderated by Charles Isherwood, The New York Times
At The Times Center, 242 West 41 Street, Manhattan.
An all-star panel of actors and directors will talk
about the enduring legacy of Tennessee Williams, who was among the most
important and influential playwrights of the 20th century. The
upcoming movie The Loss of a Teardrop
Diamond, the directorial debut of actress Jodie Markell, is based on
a rediscovered screenplay by Williams. Markell and two of the film’s
stars, Ellen Burstyn and Bryce Dallas Howard, will be on the panel, along with
the legendary Elaine Stritch, who recently presented an evening “The
Lighter Side of Tennessee Williams,” and the equally legendary Eli
Wallach, who made his memorable screen debut in Elia Kazan’s Baby Doll. Charles Isherwood, theater
critic for The New York Times,
will moderate the program. The evening will include scenes from films including
A Streetcar Named Desire, Baby Doll, and The Fugitive
Kind, and an exclusive look at scenes from The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond.
at http://movingimage.us or 718.784.4520.
Tennessee
Williams on Film, December 5–13, 2009
At IFC
Center,
323 Sixth Avenue
at West 3 Street, Manhattan. More
information at 212.924.7771 or ifccenter.com.
Saturday, December 5, 11:00 a.m.
1950, 107 mins. Warner Bros. Directed by Irving Rapper.
With Jane Wyman, Kirk Douglas, Arthur Kennedy, Gertrude Lawrence. An
outstanding ensemble cast stars in the first screen adaptation of a Tennessee
Williams play. The Glass Menagerie is
generally regarded to be one of Williams’s masterpieces, and also one of
his most autobiographical plays.
Sunday, December 6, 11:00 a.m.
Suddenly, Last Summer
1959, 114 mins. Columbia.
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. With Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn,
Montgomery Clift. Hepburn is an aristocratic Southern matriarch, Taylor her
allegedly insane niece, and Clift is the neurosurgeon caught in the middle, in
one of Williams’s most gothic plays, adapted for the screen by Gore
Vidal. The larger-than-life characters and cast are brilliantly managed by All About Eve director Joseph
Mankiewicz.
Saturday, December 12, 11:00 a.m.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1958, 108 mins. MGM. Directed by Richard Brooks. With
Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives. Paul Newman had his first big screen
success, and earned one of the film’s seven Oscar nominations, and Burl
Ives gives an unforgettable performance as Big Daddy, the dying plantation
owner whose anticipated estate sparks discord in his deeply dysfunctional
family.
Sunday, December 13, 11:00 a.m.
The Fugitive Kind
1960, 119 mins. United Artists. Directed by Sidney Lumet.
With Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, Maureen Stapleton. Brando
plays a dangerous drifter, Valentine “Snakeskin” Xavier who wanders
into a Mississippi town whose
inhabitants include an alcoholic played by Joanne Woodward, an unhappily
married woman played by Anna Magnani in one of her earthiest performances, and
an avant-garde artist played by Maureen Stapleton.
About Museum
of the Moving Image
Founded in 1981, Museum
of the Moving Image is the only institution in the United States
that deals comprehensively with the art, technology and social impact of film,
television and digital media. It houses the nation’s largest collection
of moving image artifacts; screens hundreds of films annually; and offers
education programs to thousands of New York City
students and teachers. Its exhibitions—including the core exhibition, Behind the Screen—are noted for
their integration of material objects, computer-based interactive experiences,
and audiovisual presentations.
A major expansion and renovation of the Museum’s facility is currently
underway. Designed by architect Thomas Leeser, the project will double the size
of the building, completely redesign the first floor and add a new theater, new
galleries and an education center. When completed in the fall of 2010, the new
Museum building will be ideal for showcasing the moving image in all its forms,
ensuring the Museum's place—creatively, intellectually, and
physically—as one of the great moving-image institutions of the world.
Museum
of the Moving Image is grateful for the generous support of numerous
corporations, foundations, and individuals. The Museum receives vital annual
funding from the City of New York
through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York City
Economic Development Corporation. Additional government support for operations
is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for
the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and
Library Services, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Natural Heritage
Trust (administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and
Historic Preservation). The Museum occupies a building owned by the City of New York.
Museum of the Moving Image
36-01 35 Avenue (between 36 and 37
Streets), Astoria, NY
11106
Recorded Information Line: 718.784.0077
Website: http://movingimage.us
