Film Society of Lincoln Center to Present Two Late Films by Fred Zinnemann

The Film Society of LINCOLN Center announced today that the final Film Comment Double Feature of 2014, on December 2, will be Fred Zinnemann's last two films. The evening will begin at 6:30PM with his final work, Five Days One Summer, followed by the multiple Academy Award®-winning Julia. Both will be presented in 35mm. Tickets will go on sale Thursday, November 6. Enjoy two films for the price of one: $13 General Public, $9 Student & Senior (62+) and $8 Film Society Member. Visit filmlinc.com for more information.

"A director should never compromise on important things. He must be determined
to retain his ideas. This can require real stubbornness,
but without it you can lose everything." - Fred Zinnemann

Zinnemann's penultimate film, Julia, explores the test of courage faced by celebrated playwright Lillian Hellman (Jane Fonda), whose childhood friend, wealthy heiress Julia (Vanessa Redgrave), asks her to risk her life in the name of the anti-Nazi cause during a trip from Paris to Berlin in 1930s Europe. Dividing its focus between the Lillian's privileged world of the New York literary scene and the world of refugees and the political underground explored by Zinnemann in his 1943 film The Seventh Cross, this moving portrait of friendship and self-sacrifice had all the trappings of the Prestige Pictures for which Zinnemann was known-and the film duly received multiple Academy Award nominations, with Oscars going to Redgrave, screenwriter Alvin Sargent, and Jason Robards as novelist Dashiell Hammett, Hellman's lover-mentor. But the provocative casting of two actresses-both reviled in some quarters for their politics-in the lead roles makes Julia more than just a tasteful showcase for great performances and middlebrow drama (and led to a notorious Academy Award acceptance speech by Redgrave). Featuring Maxmilian Schell, Hal Holbrook, Rosemary Murphy (as Dorothy Parker), and, in her film debut, a 28-year-old actress by the name of Meryl Streep.

Julia will be preceded by his final film, Five Days One Summer, a PASSION project that harkened back to Zinnemann's youthful mountaineering experiences. Undaunted by age (he was 73), Zinnemann made this rugged mountain-climbing drama in the Swiss Alps, returning him to the prewar European genre of the bergfilm. Set in 1932, it details the unraveling of a covert love affair between a middle-aged doctor (Sean Connery) and his young niece (Betsy Brantley) during an Alpine mountaineering vacation, precipitated by the attentions of their young, attractive mountain guide (Lambert Wilson). Zinnemann's craftsmanship is impeccable, his narrative skills bring out the emotional ambiguities of the material with typical delicacy, and Fellini cameraman Giuseppe Rotunno's visuals are, well, majestic.

Film Comment magazine
Film Comment is an award-winning bimonthly magazine of movie criticism published by the Film Society of LINCOLN Center. It features reviews, analysis, and coverage across the entire continuum of film from the multiplex to the art house to the cinematheque. Founded in 1962, it has been the launching pad for many film critics, including Roger Ebert and Andrew Sarris, and has introduced its readers to exciting new breakthroughs and new talents from across the globe.

Film Society of LINCOLN Center
Founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, the Film Society of LINCOLN Center works to recognize established and emerging filmmakers, support important new work, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility, and understanding of the moving image. The Film Society produces the renowned New York Film Festival, a curated selection of the year's most significant new film work, and presents or collaborates on other annual New York City festivals including Dance on Camera, Film Comment Selects, Human Rights Watch Film Festival, New Directors/New Films, NewFest, New York African Film Festival, New York Asian Film Festival, New York Jewish Film Festival, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema and Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. In addition to publishing the award-winning Film Comment magazine, the Film Society recognizes an artist's unique achievement in film with the prestigious Chaplin Award, whose 2015 recipient is Robert Redford. The Film Society's state-of-the-art Walter Reade Theater and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, located at LINCOLN Center, provide a home for year-round programs and the New York City film community.

The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from Royal Bank of Canada, Jaeger-LeCoultre, American Airlines, The New York Times, HBO®, Stella Artois, The Kobal Collection, Variety, Trump International Hotel and Tower, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com, follow @filmlinc on Twitter, and download the FREE Film Society app, now available for iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android devices.

To post a comment, you must register and login.