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    New Hollywood Deep Cuts Come to the Wex

    To many, the 70s may be the most fruitful and brilliant period in American filmmaking. Post-studio, pre-blockbuster, it’s a time that saw the blossoming of auteurs, envelope pushing and creative indulgence.

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    You know the output: The Godfather, Taxi Driver, The French Connection, Apocalypse Now – it’s a long, much studied list. The Wexner Center for the Arts is not here to disagree with the general consensus that this was a period of unprecedented creative brilliance in American film. They agree. They just want to share some of the brilliant gems of the period that have somehow been overlooked or forgotten.

    According to David Filipi, Wex’s Film/Video Director, the program Deep Cuts was a longtime coming.

    “It’s a series that for maybe seven, eight, nine years Chris (Stults, Associate Film/Video Curator) and I have talked about doing,” Filipi says. “There are quite a few films from the Seventies that have just fallen off people’s radars for some reason. There are plenty of films like this. It wasn’t hard to fill out the series by any means.”

    The program looks at some of the lesser-known films from the great names of the era – directors, performers, or a combination of the two.

    “If you go to really well-known actors and actresses from the era and go from one link to another online, it’s just kind of amazing,” Filipi says. “There are dozens of films like that from that time period, and fifty years from now, there will be films that don’t get revived.”

    Filipi had a strategy for sifting through all the options.

    “It was a combination of picking films like Girlfriends or Leadbelly, for example, that really don’t get revived,” he says. “Because that was the era of the movie brats – Spielberg and Coppola and De Palma and whatnot – and we also wanted to try to include some of those bigger name directors. And people will be aware of their filmography, so we tried to pick some of their films that maybe aren’t as well known.”

    One choice was particularly serendipitous.

    “We knew that Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled was coming out,” Filipi says. “We didn’t know it would win best director at Cannes. A combination of things made Don Siegel’s 1971 version a perfect film to show.”

    There are a few films Filipi is particularly interested in sharing with a Columbus audience.

    “It’s a deeply flawed film, but I really like Reflections in a Golden Eye,” he says. “It’s just mesmerizing how weird of a film it is. Having Elizabeth Taylor’s whole character and performance rammed up against Brando’s character and performance, it’s kind of amazing.”

    Leadbelly is a film that’s unfairly neglected,” he goes on. “It would benefit from a reevaluation.”

    A New Leaf is another one – it’s just incredibly funny,” he says. “Imagine a film made today where it’s Walter Matthau in the lead, but he’s a very unlikeable character, and mousey Elaine May – those are the types of romantic comedies that could be made back then. It wouldn’t be a big Hollywood film today, that’s for sure.”

    He looked for films that would fall across a continuum exemplifying the output of the era.

    “There’s different reason for each film,” he says. “There were some that were from the curio end of the spectrum like A New Leaf, and some of them are truly great films. I think Model Shop is a great film.”

    Wex is partnering with Studio 35 for Deep Cuts. Clintonville’s beloved indie theater will program the complementary series, The New Classics.

    “I thought it was something that maybe Eric Brembeck at Studio 35 would be into,” Filipi says.

    “They’re picking the deep cuts and I’m picking movies that people are more familiar with from the same directors,” Brembeck says.

    With two venues and nearly two dozen films to get to know or revisit, there may be no better time to get to investigate The “New” Hollywood.

    New Hollywood: Deep Cuts 1967-78 – complete program
    Thursday, July 6, 7 p.m.: Leadbelly (Gordon Parks, 1976)
    Friday, July 7, 7 p.m.: Reflections in a Golden Eye (John Huston, 1967)
    Saturday, July 8, 7 p.m.: The Sugarland Express (Steven Spielberg, 1974)
    Thursday, July 13, 7 p.m.: The Beguiled (Don Siegel, 1971)
    Thursday, July 18, 8:50 p.m.: Girlfriends (Claudia Weill, 1978)
    Thursday, July 20, 7 p.m.: Model Shop (Jacques Demy, 1969)
    Thursday, July 27, 7 p.m.: Juggernaut (Richard Lester, 1974)
    Thursday, July 27, 9 p.m.: The Driver (Walter Hill, 1978)
    Tuesday, August 1, 7 p.m.: Inserts (John Byrum, 1975)
    Thursday, August 3, 7 p.m.: A New Leaf (Elaine May, 1971)
    Thursday, August 3, 8:55 p.m.: The Fortune (Mike Nichols, 1975)
    Thursday, August 10, 7 p.m.: Scarecrow (Jerry Schatzberg, 1973)
    Thursday, August 10, 9 p.m.: Emperor of the North (Robert Aldrich, 1973)
    Thursday, August 17, 7 p.m.: The Swimmer (Frank Perry, 1968)
    Thursday, August 25, 7 p.m.: Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 1976)
    Thursday, August 24, 8:40 p.m.: Sisters (Brian De Palma, 1973)

    For tickets and information, visit wexarts.org

    New Classics at Studio 35 – complete program
    July 30, 11 p.m.: A Hard Day’s Night (Richard Lester, 1964)
    August 12, 11:30 p.m.: The Warriors (Walter Hill, 1979) with Fritz the Nite Owl
    August 20, 2 p.m.: The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)
    August 25, 11:30 p.m.: The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
    August 27, 2 p.m.: M.A.S.H. (Robert Altman, 1970)
    September 3, 2 p.m.: Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)

    For tickets and information, visit studio35.com.

    Read more from Hope at MADDWOLF and listen to her podcast THE SCREENING ROOM and FRIGHT CLUB.

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    Hope Madden
    Hope Maddenhttps://columbusunderground.com
    Hope Madden is a freelance contributor on Columbus Underground who covers the independent film scene, writes film reviews and previews film events.
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