Peter Bogdanovich to Visit Wex

“He remains one of the best directors in America....”—David Thomson, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film

Peter Bogdanovich—the storied director, actor, and chronicler of classical Hollywood—will visit the Wexner Center on Saturday, January 16 to introduce a screening of What’s Up, Doc?, his pitch-perfect tribute to classic screwball comedies. The screening will be followed by an onstage conversation about his work. His visit is part of a two-day mini-tribute concentrating on his early films (see schedule below). “We’re thrilled to welcome Peter Bogdanovich to Columbus,” says Wexner Center film curator David Filipi. “He cuts a singular figure in postwar American cinema, and we’re pleased to be able to offer this special event for local and regional audiences.” Deeply versed in the history of Hollywood film, Bogdanovich emerged as a public figure beginning in the 1960s through a series of sympathetic and deeply informed studies and interviews with such legendary directors as John Ford, Howard Hawks, Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, and Allan Dwan, among others. This extraordinary alertness to the legacy of Hollywood filmmaking hence informs his own work as a director, joined to a rare sensitivity in his collaborations with actors; he himself studied under the legendary Stella Adler in the 1950s, and, a gifted raconteur and actor, he occasionally still works in that capacity, perhaps most notably as psychiatrist Dr. Melfi’s own psychiatrist on The Sopranos. Tickets to the January 16 conversation are $10 general public, $8 members, students, and seniors, available at the Wexner Center Ticket Office (614-292- 3535). The schedule for the mini-tribute is below:

FRIDAY, JANUARY 15

The Last Picture Show (1971) – 7 pm Paper Moon (1973) – 9:15 pm

Double feature (tickets $7 general public and $5 members/students/seniors)

Named in 1998 by the Library of Congress to the National Film Registry, The Last Picture Show draws on Larry McMurtry’s novel of life in small-town Texas to paint a beautifully observed story of lives and ways of life being gradually eroded, symbolized by the closing of the town’s only movie theater. Actors Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson both won Oscars in supporting roles; the ensemble cast also includes Ellen Burstyn, Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges and, in her debut, Cybill Shepherd. (126 mins., 35mm) Bogdanovich returned to period Americana with Paper Moon, a charmingly picaresque tale of a small-time con man adventuring his way through the Depression in the company of a 9-year-old girl, played by real-life father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O’Neal; she became the youngest performer ever to win an Academy Award. With Madeleine Kahn. (102 mins., 35mm)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 16

Targets (1968) – 4:30 pm (free admission)

After apprenticing with Roger Corman on The Wild Angels, Bogdanovich was given the chance to write, produce, direct, and act in Targets, a stylish account of a crazed ex-marine (inspired by real-life mass murderer Charles Whitman) whose final act of terror involves shooting at unsuspecting patrons from behind a drive-in movie screen. Paralleling this story is that of an aging horror film star ruminating on his own life; as played by Boris Karloff, it’s a thinly disguised homage to an era of Hollywood passing away alongside him. An uncredited Samuel Fuller contributed to the script. (90 mins., 35mm)

What’s Up, Doc? (1972)

Introduced by Peter Bogdanovich

• Members-only reception with Bogdanovich at 5:30 pm

• Introduction by Bogdanovich and screening at 7 pm

• Film followed by onscreen conversation between Bogdanovich and Wexner Center film curator David Filipi

• Tickets $10 general public; $8 for members/students/seniors.

Bogdanovich will introduce and discuss What’s Up, Doc?, his box-office sensation starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal in a hilarious update of the 1930s screwball comedy tradition as perfected by Howard Hawks, among others. Screenplay by Buck Henry, and featuring Madeleine Kahn. (94 mins., 35mm)