Festival of Film Classics Boasts Favorite Female Stars

By MAL VINCENT

YOUR HUMBLE Virginian-Pilot movie and theater critic will host the fifth annual festival of classic films, beginning Monday with Katharine Hepburn in “The Philadelphia Story.”

Also featured will be Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Alan Ladd and Gary Cooper.

There is only one place where you can see these stars and these films on the big screen in a theater setting – the way they were meant to be seen. That place is the Naro Expanded Cinema this summer.

The festival began five years ago when I agreed to host a one- time event to share some of my favorite movies . It was a surprising success , and restaurants in Ghent saw their usually dead Monday nights filled with movie lovers.

I programmed a festival to feature the collaboration of author Ernest Hemingway and actress Ava Gardner and followed with a festival featuring the films of actress Jennifer Jones and her producer-husband, David O. Selznick.

For the most part, the films have featured “Mal’s Favorite Women” or, rather, performances I thought should be seen in a theater, featuring Melina Mercouri, Simone Signoret, Bette Davis and many others. On the final night, the audience votes to choose the best performances.

This year’s scheduling is something of “Mal’s Favorite Women – Part III,” featuring Ava Gardner in her Oscar-nominated performance in “Mogambo,’ the tragic Jean Seberg in “Bonjour Tristesse” and Melina Mercouri in the crime-heist thriller “Topkapi.” To add variety, there are my two favorite Westerns, “Shane” and “High Noon.” The festival will close Aug. 25 with “The Last Picture Show.”

Thom Vourlas, co-owner of the Naro, said that finding theatrical prints of the chosen films has been difficult. A screening of “Mogambo,” which co-stars Clark Gable and Grace Kelly, has been delayed for five years because a print couldn’t be found. The print to be screened of “Bonjour Tristesse,” Vourlas said, is the only print in existence.

While most of the films are available on DVD or video tape, the studios have refused to re-release them in theaters. Consequently, theatrical prints are scarce.

I don’t fancy myself as any kind of public speaker, but the prospect of getting these films into a theater makes me become brave – again. These films are a relief from the usual comic-book action repeats dominating the commercial theaters this summer. The public deserves a choice.

festival highlights Monday – “The Philadelphia Story” (1940) the romantic comedy starring Katharine Hepburn with James Stewart (who won the Academy Award for this performance) and Cary Grant. It was later remade as the musical “High Society” (1956). Directed by George Cukor. (It also won an Oscar for best writing, screenplay.)

July 14 – “Mogambo” (1953) Directed by John Ford and filmed on location in French Equatorial Africa, it features the only Oscar nominated performance for Ava Gardner, who was once a high school student in Newport News and went on to become one of the screen’s legendary beauties. Grace Kelly also received an Oscar nomination in the role that made her a star.

July 21 – “Bonjour Tristesse” (1958) Based on the novel by teenage French writer Francoise Sagan, it created a literary furor before it became a movie. The discussion will cover the rich history of the film and the tragic career of Iowa-native Jean Seberg, who became an overnight star as a result of a national search – only to face critical derision and FBI investigations that led to her suicide in Paris in 1979. Directed by Otto Preminger, the cast includes Deborah Kerr and David Niven. It was filmed both in color and black and white on the French Riviera .

July 28 – “Topkapi” (1964) Filmed in brilliant color in Turkey, it concerns a planned robbery at a famous museum, starring the legendary Greek actress Melina Mercouri . Peter Ustinov contributes an Oscar-winning supporting role.

Aug. 11 – “Shane” (1953) Directed by George Stevens, the classic Western received the Academy Award for its photography of the American West. Alan Ladd stars as the mysterious gunfighter who aids a family of homesteaders that includes Van Heflin and Jean Arthur. Jack Palance was Oscar-nominated as the evil gunman. There are several local connections to the film to be discussed.

Aug. 18 – “High Noon” (1952) Gary Cooper won the Oscar for playing Will Kane, the town marshal who must stand up alone against four killers who are arriving on the noon train. Directed by Fred Zinnemann, the cast includes Grace Kelly, Katy Jurado, Lloyd Bridges and Lee Van Cleef. Tex Ritter sings the Oscar-winning ballad of the same name.

Aug. 25 – “The Last Picture Show” (1971) Small-town America dies when its only movie theater is closed as a result of television and Friday night football. Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, the cast includes Ellen Burstyn, Cloris Leachman, Cybil Shepard, Ben Johnson, Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms and Virginia Stage Company veteran Eileen Brennan.

All Monday screenings are at 7:15 p.m. The films repeat on Tuesdays at various times. For more information, call (757) 625- 6276 or 625-6275.

Originally published by BY MAL VINCENT.

(c) 2008 Virginian – Pilot. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.