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THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCES PAST AND PROLOGUE: THE FILMS OF RIDLEY SCOTT

Posted Thursday, April 26th, 2012 - Comments Off on THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCES PAST AND PROLOGUE: THE FILMS OF RIDLEY SCOTT
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, NY (April 26, 2012) — The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today a complete retrospective of three-time Oscar-nominee Ridley Scott, whose career began in the 70’s and who has continued to excite and enchant audiences with his remarkable storytelling ability. The retrospective will run from May 25 – June 3 and will include the Director’s cut of KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, a new 35mm print of THELMA & LOUISE and the chance for fans to catch all of their favorites on the big screen.

“With ALIEN and BLADE RUNNER, Ridley Scott has been responsible for two of the most lasting and visionary works of science-fiction cinema,” said Film Society Associate Director of Programming Scott Foundas. “But as a filmmaker, he has seemed just as compelled by stories set in the distant past and those set in the combat zones of the present, always finding the human dimension in the mythic and the mythic dimension in the seemingly everyday. As he makes his long-awaited return to sci-fi with this summer’s highly anticipated PROMETHEUS, we’re delighted to pay tribute to Scott and his extraordinary career.”

Born in South Shields, England in 1937, Scott studied photography at the Royal College of Art in London, where he helped to establish a film department and made his first short subject, BOY AND BICYCLE, starring his younger brother (and future director) Tony. Together, the brothers then launched Ridley Scott Associates, a prolific commercial production company that counted future Oscar nominees Alan Parker (MIDNIGHT EXPRESS) and Hugh Hudson (CHARIOTS OF FIRE) among its stable of directors.

In 1977, Scott made his feature directing debut with THE DUELLISTS, an acclaimed adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novella The Duel, starring the young Harvey Keitel and Ketih Carradine as feuding Napoleonic soldiers. Two years later, ALIEN catapulted him to the top of the Hollywood A-list, though the subsequent BLADE RUNNER would meet with soft box-office and an indifferent critical reaction upon its initial release, only to later be hailed as a classic whose impact and influence spread beyond filmmaking to the realms of real-world architecture and design.

In the decades since, Scott’s work has continued to set a high bar for large-scale studio filmmaking, earning more than $1 billion in domestic box-office receipts, a Best Picture Oscar for GLADIATOR and three Best Director Oscar nominations (for THELMA & LOUISE, GLADIATOR and BLACK HAWK DOWN). In addition, he has maintained a successful television career, serving as executive producer on the long-running CBS series NUMB3RS and THE GOOD WIFE. In 2003, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to the British film industry.

Take advantage of a Double-Shot of Scott!! A double feature package – choose a ticket to any two films for $20 for general public, and $15 for members. Tickets go on sale today at Filmlinc.com, or at the box office. Ticket prices are $13 for the general public, $9 for students and seniors and $8 for members. Screenings will be held at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater (located at 165 West 65th Street, between Amsterdam and Broadway).

Special thanks to the Academy Film Archive/May Haduong, British Film Institute/Fleur Buckley, Chartwell Partners/Denise Orzel, Paramount Pictures/Judy Nicaud, Park Circus/Chris Chouinard, Ridley Scott, Slate PR/Simon Halls and Katherine Rowe, Sony Pictures Repertory/Katie Fry and Christopher Lane, 20th Century Fox/Emily Bear, Caitlin Robertson and Bumble Ward, Universal Pictures/Paul Ginsburg, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Brothers/Marilee Womack.

Films, Descriptions & Schedule

ALIEN

Ridley Scott, 1979, USA, 35mm; 117m

In space, no one can hear you scream…except for the face-hugging, chest-exploding ETs at the center of Scott’s terrifying, hugely influential sci-fi classic.

*MAY 25, 9PM; MAY 28, 3:45PM

AMERICAN GANGSTER

Ridley Scott, 2007, USA, 35mm; 157m

An honest cop (Russell Crowe) works to take down the thriving heroin empire of gangster Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) in Scott’s sprawling, African-American companion piece to The Godfather.

*MAY 25, 1PM; MAY 28, 6:15PM

BLACK HAWK DOWN

Ridley Scott, 2001, USA, 35mm; 144m

This visceral, Oscar-winning account of the 1993 battle between U.S. Army Rangers and Somali insurgents in Mogadishu set a new standard for cinematic depictions of men in war.

*MAY 28, 1PM; JUN 2, 6:15PM

BLACK RAIN

Ridley Scott, 1989, USA, 35mm; 125m

Brash NYC cop Michael Douglas and partner Andy Garcia team with a veteran Japanese lawman (the great Ken Takakura) to track a missing Yakuza henchman in this sleek, suspenseful East-meets-West thriller.

*MAY 26, 1:30PM

BLADE RUNNER

Ridley Scott, 1982, USA; 117m

Scott’s sci-fi masterpiece not only anticipated our future but designed it. With Harrison Ford as the grizzled gumshoe on the trail of renegade humanoid “replicants.”

*MAY 26, 4PM; JUN 1, 9:15PM

BODY OF LIES

Ridley Scott, 2008, USA, 35mm; 128m

Samarra-based CIA operative Leonardo DiCaprio trails an elusive, bin Laden–esque terrorist , while his Langley-based boss (Rusell Crowe) watches from a safe distance in Scott’s razor-sharp look at the War on Terror.

*JUN 1, 3:45PM; JUN 2, 3:30PM

THE DUELLISTS

Ridley Scott, 1977, UK, HDCAM; 100m

Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine are Napoleonic soldiers who allow a petty squabble to erupt into an absurd, lifelong feud in Scott’s dazzling debut feature, adapted from a Joseph Conrad novella.

**Screening with BOY AND BICYCLE

Ridley Scott, 1965, UK, Digital; 27m.

Scott’s abstract short, made while he was a photography student, stars his brother Tony as a truant schoolboy in an industrial British coastal town.

*MAY 25, 6:30PM; MAY 29, 3:30PM; MAY 31, 1PM

1492: CONQUEST OF PARADISE

Ridley Scott, 1992, USA/UK/France/Spain, 35mm; 154m

Scott’s visually stunning, psychologically complex Christopher Columbus bio-pic views the Italian explorer (played by Gérard Depardieu) as a great but flawed man of his times.

*MAY 27, 3PM

G.I. JANE

Ridley Scott, 1997, USA, 35mm; 125m

Pumped-up Demi Moore joins an elite Navy reconnaissance team under the watchful eye of Master Chief Viggo Mortensen in Scott’s high-octane women-in-the-military actioner.

*JUN 2, 9:15PM

GLADIATOR

Ridley Scott, 2000, USA, 35mm; 155m

In the first of his five collaborations with Scott, Russell Crowe stars as a betrayed Roman General who seeks his revenge through the gladiatorial arena. Winner of five Oscars including Best Picture and Best Actor.

*MAY 27, 6PM; JUN 1, 12:45PM

A GOOD YEAR

Ridley Scott, 2006, USA, 35mm; 118m

London investment banker Russell Crowe inherits a Provence vineyard and falls for the charms of a pre-La Vie en Rose Marion Cotillard in this charming, sun-drenched romantic fable.

*JUN 2, 1PM

HANNIBAL

Ridley Scott, 2001, USA, 35mm; 131m

Hannibal the Cannibal is back in Scott’s mordantly funny, darkly romantic Silence of the Lambs sequel. With Anthony Hopkins in top form, and Julianne Moore ably picking up where Jodie Foster left off.

*MAY 27, 9PM; MAY 29, 1PM

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN (Director’s Cut)

Ridley Scott, 2005, UK/Spain/USA/Germany, 35mm; 192m

A village blacksmith (Orlando Bloom) becomes an unlikely hero in the Christian-Muslim religious wars of the 12th century in Scott’s masterful Crusades drama, presented here in the rarely screened director’s cut.

*JUN 3, 4PM

LEGEND

Ridley Scott, 1985, UK, 35mm; 94m

Mythical hero Tom Cruise teams up with an assortment of elves, fairies and dwarves to vanquish the forces of darkness in this visually extravagant, cult-classic fantasy.

*MAY 25, 4:15PM; MAY 26, 9:15PM

MATCHSTICK MEN

Ridley Scott, 2003, USA, 35mm; 116m

A phobic con artist (Nicolas Cage), his protege (Sam Rockwell) and the teenage daughter (Alison Lohman) he never knew he had team up to pull the heist of a lifetime in this delightful caper comedy.

*MAY 28, 9:15PM

ROBIN HOOD

Ridley Scott, 2010, USA/UK, 35mm; 140m

Russell Crowe is an older, wizened Robin Hood and Cate Blanchett a hesitant, widowed Marian in Scott’s lyrical, revisionist take on the classic legend.

*JUN 3, 1:15PM

SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME

Ridley Scott, 1987, USA, 35mm; 106m

One of Scott’s most underrated and surprising pictures, this elegant modern-day film noir stars Tom Berenger as a detective assigned to protect the wealthy Manhattan socialite (Mimi Rogers) who has witnessed a brutal murder.

*MAY 29, 6PM; MAY 30, 1PM

New 35mm print!

THELMA & LOUISE

Ridley Scott, 1991, USA, 35mm; 130m

Gal pals turned fugitives Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon go on the lam in Scott’s iconic feminist road movie, nominated for six Oscars and winner for Best Original Screenplay.

*MAY 26, 6:30PM

WHITE SQUALL

Ridley Scott, 1996, USA, 35mm; 129m

Jeff Bridges is superb as the disciplinarian headmaster of a youth sailing academy in this fact-based tale of the doomed final voyage of the brigantine Albatross.

*MAY 27, 12:30PM

Film Society of Lincoln Center

Under the leadership of Rose Kuo, Executive Director, and Richard Peña, Program Director, the Film Society of Lincoln Center offers the best in international, classic and cutting-edge independent cinema. The Film Society presents two film festivals that attract global attention: the New York Film Festival, currently planning its 50th edition, and New Directors/New Films which, since its founding in 1972, has been produced in collaboration with MoMA. The Film Society also publishes the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, and for over three decades has given an annual award—now named “The Chaplin Award”—to a major figure in world cinema. Past recipients of this award include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks. The Film Society presents a year-round calendar of programming, panels, lectures, educational programs and specialty film releases at its Walter Reade Theater and the new state-of-the-art Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.

The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from Royal Bank of Canada, American Airlines, The New York Times, Stella Artois, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com and follow #filmlinc on Twitter.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon