Moving Image's SEE IT BIG! Series Tributes Great Cinematographers, 11/8-12/29

Museum of the Moving Image's ongoing series See It Big! presents classic and contemporary films on the big screen in the beautiful Sumner M. Redstone Theater. In November and December, the Museum will showcase 22 films photographed by some of the world's greatest cinematographers, including Gordon Willis, Vittorio Storaro, Vilmos Zsigmond, Néstor Almendros, Raoul Coutard, James Wong Howe, and more. The series, See It Big!: Great Cinematographers, runs from November 8 through December 29, 2013.

See It Big! is programmed by Reverse Shot editors Michael Koresky and Jeff Reichert, Chief Curator David Schwartz, and Assistant Film Curator Aliza Ma. "These are truly some of the most visually stunning films ever made, with a wide range of examples of great cinematography, including black-and-white and color, classic Hollywood, international art films, and contemporary independent movies," said David Schwartz. "We are especially pleased to be featuring the work of cinematographers who have been guests at the Museum in the past, including Néstor Almendros, Gordon Willis, Vilmos Zsigmond, Roger Deakins, Ed Lachman, Vittorio Storaro, Sven Nykvist, and Allen Daviau."

The series opens Friday, November 8, with cinematographer Ed Lachman in person to introduce I'm Not There, Todd Haynes's unconventional bio pic of Bob Dylan which featured six different actors playing Dylan corresponding to six different visual styles.

Other titles in the series include:

• double-feature presentation of Eric Rohmer's La Collectionneuse (1967) and My Night at Maud's (1969), both shot by Néstor Almendros (December 7)
• revival screening of the The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), shot by Roger Deakins, with director Andrew Dominik in person (December 7, encore screening on December 8)
• a trio of noir classics, each anchored by stunning chiaroscuro lighting, including Alexander Mackendrick's Sweet Smell of Success (1957, James Wong Howe) on December 6, Joseph H. Lewis's The Big Combo (1955, shot by John Alton) on December 13, and Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955, Stanley Cortez) on December 15
• European art-house classics, including Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist (1970, shot by Vittorio Storaro) on November 22, R.W. Fassbinder's The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978, Michael Ballhaus) on December 8, Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975, Babette Mangolte) on December 14, Jacques Demy's Lola (1961, Raoul Coutard) on December 22, and Ingmar Bergman's Persona (1966, Sven Nykvist) on December 29
• Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977), shot by Luciano Tovoli, presented in an imported 35mm print of the uncut UK version on December 15
• American independent film Down by Law (1986), directed by Jim Jarmusch, shot by Robby Müller, a longtime collaborator of Jarmusch as well as Wim Wenders, on December 15
• Children of Men, the 2006 sci-fi drama directed by Alfonso Cuarón and shot by Emmanuel Lubezki on December 20; the same team that created this year's astonishing Gravity
• John Ford's How Green Was My Valley (1941), shot by Arthur Miller, which beat out Citizen Kane for the Best Picture Oscar (December 21)
• a rare 35mm showing of Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun (1987), shot by Allen Daviau, on December 21
• Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus (1946), shot by Jack Cardiff, presented in a restored DCP on December 22
• three notable American films from the 1970s: Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972, shot by Gordon Willis) on December 27, Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971, Vilmos Zsigmond) on December 28, and John Huston's Fat City (1972, Conrad L. Hall) on December 28
• David Lean's big-screen epic Doctor Zhivago (1965), based on Boris Pasternak's story of love amidst the Bolshevik Revolution, captured by Freddie Young's sweeping camera, on December 29.

All films screen in the Museum's state-of-the-art Redstone Theater, considered by cinephiles and critics alike as the best movie theater in New York City. Films will be presented in the best available formats, which include archival 35mm prints as well as new digital restorations.

Unless otherwise noted, tickets for screenings are free with paid Museum admission ($12 adults / $9 seniors and students) and free for Museum members. Members may also reserve tickets in advance. For information about Museum membership and to join, visit http://movingimage.us/support/membership or call 718 777 6877.

SCHEDULE FOR 'SEE IT BIG!: GREAT CINEMATOGRAPHERS,' NOVEMBER 8-DECEMBER 29, 2013
Unless otherwise noted, screenings are free with Museum admission (and free for Museum members) and take place in the Sumner M. Redstone Theater at Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue, in Astoria. *Cinematographers for each film are noted above the title.

ED LACHMAN
I'm Not There
Introduced by Ed Lachman
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 7:00 PM
Dir. Todd Haynes. 2007, 135 mins. 35mm. With Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, Richard Gere, Marcus Carl Franklin. Todd Haynes's majestic and freewheeling meditation on the different identities of Bob Dylan is a cinematic tour de force that features six different actors as Dylan. This approach called for six different visual styles, masterfully created by cinematographer Ed Lachman.

VITTORIO STORARO
The Conformist
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 7:00 PM
Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci. 1970, 111 mins. 35mm. With Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Dominique Sanda. With Vittorio Storaro behind the lens, Bertolucci's adaptation of Alberto Moravia's classic Italian novel becomes a visual fantasia. Every scene boasts eye-popping camera movement, angles, colors, and lighting. All of this inventiveness is in the service of a gripping, brilliantly acted story about an assassin who is desperate to join the Fascist party as it is rising to power, and who is hired to kill a former teacher.

JAMES WONG HOWE
Sweet Smell of Success
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 7:00 PM
Dir. Alexander Mackendrick, 1957, 96 mins. 35mm. With Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis. One of the great New York movies of the 1950s, Sweet Smell of Success pits Lancaster's ruthless columnist J. J. Hunsecker against Curtis's desperate publicist Sidney Falco in a noirish, pitch-dark morality play. The whip-smart script by Clifford Odets is rightly famous, but just as essential is the black-and-white photography by James Wong Howe, a nightmarish riot of light and darkness, much of it filmed on location in New York.

NÉSTOR ALMENDROS
La Collectionneuse
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1.30 PM
Dir. Eric Rohmer. 1967, 89 mins. 35mm. With Patrick Bauchau, Haydee Politoff, Daniel Pommereulle, Allain Jouffroy. Eric Rohmer's first color film was also the first feature film photographed by the great Néstor Almendros. With Almendros's crisp, lucid images, Rohmer explores the ethical and erotic dilemmas of two male friends from the avant-garde art world who are summering in St. Tropez and trying to resist the charms of a bikini-clad young "collector" of men. Almendros said that the film "contains in embryonic form everything I would do later on."

NÉSTOR ALMENDROS
My Night at Maud's (Ma Nuit Chez Maud)
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 3:30 PM
Dir. Eric Rohmer. 1969, 105 mins. 35mm. With Jean-Louis Trintignant, Fran?ois Fabian, Marie Christine Barrault, Antoine Vitez. A pious Catholic who lives by Pascal's wager that there is everything to win and nothing to lose by living as though God exists, finds his beliefs challenged when a beautiful divorcee invites him to spend a platonic night in her apartment. The snowy winter backdrop and intimate conversations are exquisitely filmed in velvety black-and-white by Néstor Almendros.

Roger Deakins
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
With Andrew Dominik in person (Saturday only)
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 6:00 PM
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8, 7:00 PM
Dir. Andrew Dominik. 2007, 160 mins. DCP courtesy of Warner Bros. With Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepard, Mary-Louise Parker, Sam Rockwell. In this reinvention of the Western by Andrew Dominik, Casey Affleck is the awkward young acolyte whose life becomes dramatically intertwined with the charismatic criminal, who is played by Brad Pitt. Stunningly photographed by the great Roger Deakins (No Country for Old Men, A Beautiful Mind, Skyfall), The Assassination of Jesse James is conceived as a reflection on the past, filmed in a series of beautifully realized tableaux.
Tickets: Saturday screening with Andrew Dominik: $20 public / $12 members. Sunday screening with an introduction by Jamieson McGonigle, founder of the Jesse James Revival: $15 public / $9 members. Both screenings are free for Silver Screen members and above. Advance tickets are available online at movingimage.us or by phone at 718 777 6800.

Michael BallHAUS
The Marriage of Maria Braun
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8, 4:00 P.M.
Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder. 1978, 120 mins. 35mm. With Hanna Schygulla, Klaus Lowitsch, Ivan Desny. One of the greatest (and most accessible) films of New German Cinema icon Fassbinder's storied career, The Marriage of Maria Braun stars the commanding Hannah Schygulla in her signature performance as an ambitious woman making her way in devastated postwar Germany. Elegantly and vividly shot, this was the last of the twelve films Fassbinder made with Director of Photography Michael Ballhaus before losing him to Scorsese.

JOHN ALTON
The Big Combo
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 7:00 PM
Dir. Joseph H. Lewis. 1955, 84 mins. Restored 35mm print from UCLA Film and Television Archive. With Richard Conte, Jean Wallace, Cornel Wilde, Brian Donlevy. In one of the last great noirs, photographed by John Alton, and featuring Joseph H. Lewis's (Gun Crazy) blend of violence and morbid sexuality, an obsessive detective pursues a savage mob boss whose motto is "First is first and second is nobody."

BABETTE MANGOLTE
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2:00 PM
Dir. Chantal Akerman. 1975, 201 mins. 35mm. With Delphine Seyrig. Akerman's singular avant-garde epic-which surveys with unprecedented detail the mundane daily routine of a domestic mother and prostitute-must be seen on a big screen to gain its full impact. Working with the great cinematographer Babette Mangolte, herself an experimental filmmaker, Akerman creates a portrait of an enigmatic woman's inner life by focusing on her chores (cooking, cleaning, letter-writing) and then watches as her perfectly structured life gradually unravels.

ROBBIE MÜLLER
Down by Law
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2:00 PM
Dir. Jim Jarmusch. 1986, 107 mins. 35mm. With Tom Waits, John Lurie, Roberto Benigni, Ellen Barkin. This "neo-beat-noir-comedy," stunningly photographed by Robbie Müller, follows a disc jockey, a pimp, and an Italian tourist from a jailbreak into Louisiana bayou country. "What a sad and beautiful world" muses the tourist; Müller's images capture this strange beauty, offering an outsider's view of the American landscape.

STANLEY CORTEZ
The Night of the Hunter
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 4:30 PM
Dir. Charles Laughton. 1955, 93 mins. 35mm. With Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish. Acting legend Laughton's only screen directorial credit is perhaps cinema's most remarkable one-off. Creepy preacher Henry Powell (a never-more-menacing Mitchum) offers naive widow Willa Harper (Winters) a fresh start, but her kids rightly worry his intentions are less than pure. Part horror film, part fairy tale, The Night of the Hunter is an idiosyncratic, cinematic wonder that feels like no other film, dazzlingly shot by Stanley Cortez.

LUCIANO TOVOLI
Suspiria
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 7:00 PM
Dir. Dario Argento. 1977, 92 mins. Imported 35mm print of uncut UK version. With Jessica Harper, Alida Valli, Joan Bennett. Director of Photography Luciano Tovoli brings a feverish color palette to Italian horror maestro Dario Argento's most beloved film, set in a gothic ballet school for girls that turns out to be run by demonic witches. From the gory and gorgeous Art Deco-inspired dazzler of an opening, it's clear that Suspiria offers a thrilling visual treat, so spectacularly designed and shot it sometimes feels like the most twisted Technicolor musical ever.

EMMANUEL LUBEZKI
Children of Men
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 7:00 PM
Dir. Alfonso Cuarón. 2006, 109 mins. 35mm. With Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor. Emmanuel Lubezki lends some of his most virtuoso camerawork to Alfonso Cuarón's intensely moving tale of future dystopia, starring Clive Owen as a bureaucrat tasked with escorting the world's last pregnant woman to safety amidst devastating civil war. The film's simple science-fiction scenario can't prepare the viewer for the remarkably choreographed single takes by Lubezki, who would next team up with Cuarón on the groundbreaking blockbuster Gravity.

Arthur Miller
How Green Was My Valley
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 3:00 P.M.
Dir. John Ford. 1941, 118 mins. 35mm. With Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, Roddy McDowall. John Ford's breathtakingly beautiful and bittersweet film about a Welsh coal-mining family's conflicts with the labor movement beat Citizen Kane for the 1941 Oscar for Best Picture (and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White). Experiencing this memory film, with its ravishing photography by Arthur Miller, projected on the big screen will convince any viewer that it deserved to win.

ALLEN DAVIAU
Empire of the Sun
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 6:00 PM
Dir. Steven Spielberg. 1987, 152 mins. 35mm. With Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson. Spielberg's spellbinding adaptation of J. G. Ballard's memoir of his experiences growing up with his British expatriate family in Shanghai and being captured by the Japanese during World War II is a modern Hollywood epic of the highest order, and one of Spielberg's most underappreciated achievements. Thirteen-year-old Christian Bale's breakthrough performance anchors this grand tale of survival, packed with Spielberg's trademark visual sublimity, with help from his great cinematographer Allen Daviau.

Jack CardIFF
Black Narcissus
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 22, 3:00 PM
Dirs. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. 1946, 100 mins. New DCP restoration. With Deborah Kerr, David Farrar, Jean Simmons, Kathleen Byron. Dynamic British duo Powell and Pressburger, a.k.a. the Archers, were known for their bravura works of popular art, films of staggering beauty and intellect. But even among their many masterpieces, Black Narcissus stands tall. This tale of a group of missionary nuns setting up a convent in the Himalayas and descending into hysteria is a towering, visually ravishing film that features Oscar-winning Technicolor cinematography by Jack Cardiff.

RAOUL COUTARD
Lola
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 22, 6:00 PM
Dir. Jacques Demy. 1961, 90 mins. New DCP Restoration. With Anouk Aimée, Marc Michel. Before he teamed up with Catherine Deneuve for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, French director Jacques Demy fashioned this lyrical and melancholy yet endlessly good-natured tale of chance, missed connections, and lost love, shot in widescreen black-and-white by the great Raoul Coutard. Aimée is heartbreaking as a cabaret singer destined to be the great lost love of a wanderer played by Michel-the same character who will marry Deneuve in Cherbourg.

Gordon Willis
The Godfather
Friday, December 27, 7:00 PM
Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. 1972, 175 mins. 35mm. With Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton. The granddaddy of contemporary crime films remains one of Hollywood's greatest works of modern storytelling. With this first part of the multilayered Corleone saga, a violent allegory of American industry, Coppola instantly became a cinematic titan, Brando found a colossal role he would always be remembered for, and Pacino became a bona fide movie star. It is gripping from the first frame to last, with exquisite visual texture courtesy of cinematographer Gordon Willis.

VILMOS ZSIGMOND
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 3:00 PM
Dir. Robert Altman. 1971, 120 mins. 35mm. With Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, David Carradine. Altman turned the Western on its head with this brilliant bit of revisionism, starring Beatty as a huckster and gambler who takes over a small northwestern town at the turn of the twentieth century; Christie, in an Oscar-nominated role, is the madam of the brothel he opens as a business venture. An emotionally complex take on American expansion and a fascinating character study, McCabe & Mrs. Miller is given its unique textures by cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, who films the snowy environs with grim majesty.

CONRAD L. HALL
Fat City
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 6:00 PM
Dir. John Huston. 1972, 100 mins. Restored 35mm print. With Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges, Susan Tyrrell, Candy Clark. Legendary cinematographer Conrad L. Hall imbues John Huston's late-career masterpiece with a gritty, world-weary glow. Keach and Bridges, respectively playing a washed-up boxer and a teenager itching to get in the ring, cross paths in a small California Nowheresville. This aching, superbly realized vision of American losers is one of the great character studies of the 1970s.

SVEN NYKVIST
Persona
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2:00 PM
Dir. Ingmar Bergman. 1966, 83 mins. 35mm. With Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann,. Ingmar Bergman's reflexive 1966 masterpiece Persona, about an exchange of identities between an actress and her nurse on the remote Fårö Island, is at once dreamlike, intimate, and starkly beautiful. It is one of the highlights of the long collaboration between Bergman and cinematographer Sven Nykvist.

FREDDIE YOUNG
Doctor Zhivago
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29, 4:00 PM
Dir. David Lean. 1965, 197 mins. 35mm. With Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger. Grand-scale moviemaking became Lean's forte in the sixties, and Doctor Zhivago was among his grandest triumphs. Based on Boris Pasternak's novel, this tale of a love triangle set against the Bolshevik Revolution is an astonishing feat, as emotionally involving as it is visually spectacular. Highlights include Freddie Young's Oscar-winning cinematography and Maurice Jarre's iconic score.

Museum of the Moving Image (movingimage.us) advances the understanding, enjoyment, and appreciation of the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media. In January 2011, the Museum reopened after a major expansion and renovation that nearly doubled its size. Accessible, innovative, and forward-looking, the Museum presents exhibitions, education programs, significant moving-image works, and interpretive programs, and maintains a collection of moving-image related artifacts.

Hours: Tuesday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Friday, 10:30 to 8:00 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Holiday hours: Museum open November 11 (Veterans Day), December 23, December 30 & 31, January 1 (New Year's Day), 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; closed on November 28 (Thanksgiving Day), December 24 and 25 (Christmas Eve and Day).
Film Screenings: Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays, and as scheduled. Unless otherwise noted, screenings are included with paid Museum admission.
Museum Admission: $12.00 for adults; $9.00 for persons over 65 and for students with ID; $6.00 for children ages 3-12. Children under 3 and Museum members are admitted free. Admission to the galleries is free on Fridays, 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. Tickets for special screenings and events may be purchased in advance by phone at 718 777 6800 or online.
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Subway: M (weekdays only) or R to Steinway Street. Q (weekdays only) or N to 36 Avenue.
Program Information: Telephone: 718 777 6888; Website: movingimage.us
Membership: 718 777 6877, members@movingimage.us

The Museum is housed in a building owned by the City of New York and located on the campus of Kaufman Astoria Studios. Its operations are made possible in part by public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Natural Heritage Trust (administered by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation). The Museum also receives generous support from numerous corporations, foundations, and individuals.