Huesca Film Festival
Catalogue
37th Edition
2009
TWO BETTER
THAN ONE
CLASSIC SCREEN
PARTNER CHANGE
- THE FIXER UPPERS
- THE MERRY WIDOW
- THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON
- THE BIG SLEEP
- AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER
- THE SANDPIPER
- THE FRONT PAGE
- UNA GIORNATA PARTICOLARE
SPONSORED BY:
From MacDonald and Chevalier –The Merry Widow– to Loren and Mastroianni –Una Giornata Particolare– there was a lapse of 43 years, enough time for us to realize that life, the way we live it, the way we understand it, lead us to the verification that we human beings are exchangeable, and subject to the inconsistency of giving the past more value than that we give to the present. Let’s take advantage of this idea to better enjoy the cinema.
Of course Franz Lehar’s operetta, The Merry Widow, couldn’t be improved by anybody apart from Ernst Lubitsch. And what about Jeannette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier? Obviously Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in 1935, with Charles Rogers in the direction, in the funny and crazy The Fixer Uppers, don’t manage to overshadow them, although they might try it.
In 1941 Raoul Walsh presented They died with their boots on, where the irreplaceable Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn adhered to the typical, and also trite, features of a classical western. Here we cannot make any exchange with Lubitsch nor with Howard Hawks in The Big Sleep (1946) as neither Humphrey Bogart nor much less Lauren Bacall would be suitable to play the roles of general Custer and his self-sacrificing wife. Likewise, Flynn and Havilland are not adequate for Marlowe, and less for the enigma he sets out.
Eleven years later we had a similar case, although we should point out that here there could be a partner exchange, but regarding performing mastery and excellent filmmaking. We refer to Leo McCarey in his second version of the passionate An Affair to Remember, starring the romantic, good-looking, sensitive and ironic Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr who plan to meet at the Empire State.
And, of course, they have nothing to do with the turbulent Vincent Minnelli in The Sandpiper (1965), where the voluptuous and temperamental Elizabeth Taylor wants to conquer the priest played by Richard Burton. The exchange could be so explosive that even the most unimaginable intentions would melt. That’s the virtue of romance on the screen; however, it seems a good idea.
Cause in 1974 Billy Wilder decided to mimic Hawks and Lewis Milestone to give us an acid, accurate and controversial view of money and power: The Front Page. Both Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau are the ideal partners for any exchange you could imagine. They have that innate ability and nerve of the great players and inborn comedians: gestures are never gratuitous, on the contrary, they are always relevant. As Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni will show us three years later, in that intimate and sentitive film by Ettore Scola so wisely entitled Una Giornata Particolare, in which Hitler visits Italy in 1938, bringing about the encounter of Loren, the uncomplaining wife of a raving mad fascist, and Mastroianni, an outlawed homosexual during a day for fascist exaltation (fairly nominated for the Oscar in 1977, which was given, only God knows why, to Richard Dreyfuss).
All this considerations, maybe superfluous, suggest that partner exchanges are neither bad, nor ridiculous, nor impossible. They are something that cherish in our souls and which many times we dream to fulfill, right from our childhood. Cinema gives us a chance to try it and lets our imagination share the images suggested to us by memories, nostalgia and the future. The rest is silence.
CARLOS LOSADA
STAN LAUREL & OLIVER HARDY
THE FIXER UPPERS
(ESTADOS UNIDOS) -1935- 35 mm. / ByN / 21 minutos.
- DIRECTOR: Charles Rogers.
- GUIÓN: Stan Laurel, Frank Tashlin.
- FOTOGRAFÍA: Art Lloyd.
- MONTAJE: Bert Jordan.
- MÚSICA: LeRoy Shield.
- INTÉRPRETES: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mae Busch, Arthur Housman, Charles Middleton, Bobby Dunn, Bob (Mazooka) O'Connor, Frank Holliday.
- VERSIÓN: Original con subtítulos en español.
- PRODUCTORA: Hal Roach Studios.
Christmas card salesmen Stan and Ollie are persuaded to help a woman spice up her loveless marriage by making her husband jealous. The spouse, a temperamental artist, is however made rather too jealous for comfort, and challenges Ollie to a duel to the death at midnight and pledges to track him "to the end of the world" if he doesn't show up.
JEANNETTE MACDONALD & MAURICE CHEVALIER
THE MERRY WIDOW
(ESTADOS UNIDOS) -1934- 35 mm. / ByN / 110 minutos.
- DIRECTOR: Ernst Lubitsch.
- GUIÓN: Ernest Vajda, Samson Raphaelson, Ernst Lubitsch.
- FOTOGRAFÍA: Oliver T. Marsh.
- MONTAJE: Frances Marsh.
- MÚSICA: Franz Lehár.
- INTÉRPRETES: Jeannette MacDonald, Maurice Chevalier, Edward Everett Horton, Una Merkel, George Barbie.
- VERSIÓN: Original con subtítulos en español.
- PRODUCTORA: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
The small kingdom of Marshovia has a little problem. The wealthy widow Sonia, who pays over the half of the taxes in the kingdom, has left for Paris. So Count Danilo is sent by the king himself after her, to stop her from getting married to a stranger, and her money to fly from the country. But this is not as easy as the ambassador in Paris had planned.
ERROL FLYNN & OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND
THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON
(ESTADOS UNIDOS) -1942- 35 mm. / ByN / 140 minutos.
- DIRECTOR: Raoul Walsh.
- GUIÓN: Aeneas Kline, Wally MacKenzie.
- FOTOGRAFÍA: Bert Glennon.
- MONTAJE: William Holmes.
- MÚSICA: Max Steiner.
- INTÉRPRETES: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Arthur Kennedy, Charley Grapewin, Gene Lockhart, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Ridges, John Litel.
- VERSIÓN: Original con subtítulos en español.
- PRODUCTORA: Warner Bros. Pictures.
The story of General Custer from the time he enters West Point military academy, his romance and marriage with Elizabeth Bacon, through the American Civil War, and finally to his death in the battle against Chief Crazy Horse and his people at Little Big Horn.
HUMPHREY BOGART & LAUREN BACALL
THE BIG SLEEP
(ESTADOS UNIDOS) -1946- 35 mm. / ByN / 114 minutos.
- DIRECTOR: Howard Hawks.
- GUIÓN: William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman.
- FOTOGRAFÍA: Sid Hickox.
- MONTAJE: Christian Nyby.
- MÚSICA: Max Steiner.
- INTÉRPRETES: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers, Dorothy Malone, Charles Waldron, Peggy Knudsen, Regis Toomey, Charles D. Brown.
- VERSIÓN: Original con subtítulos en español.
- PRODUCTORA: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Los Angeles private detective Philip Marlowe is hired to keep an eye on General Sternwood's youngest daughter, Carmen, who has fallen into bad company and is likely to do some damage to herself and her family before long. He soon finds himself falling in love with her older sister, Vivien, who initially takes a deep dislike to Mr Marlowe. However, the plot thickens when murder follows murder...
CARY GRANT & DEBORAH KERR
AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER
(ESTADOS UNIDOS) -1957- 35 mm. / Color / 119 minutos.
- DIRECTOR: Leo McCarey.
- GUIÓN: Leo McCarey, Delmer Daves, Mildred Cram.
- FOTOGRAFÍA: Milton Krasner.
- MONTAJE: James B. Clark.
- MÚSICA: Hugo Friedhofer.
- INTÉRPRETES: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson, Cathleen Nesbitt, Robert Q. Lewis, Charles Watts, Fortunio Bonanova.
- VERSIÓN: Original con subtítulos en español.
- PRODUCTORA: Jerry Wald Productions.
While in a cruise from Europe to New York, playboy Nicky Ferrante meets the gorgeous former night-club singer Terry McKay and they have a romance. Nicky is traveling to meet his fiancée, the inheritor of one of the greatest fortunes in USA, and Terry is returning to the arms of her supportive boy-friend. They schedule a meeting on the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building six months later to decide whether they should marry each other…
LIZ TAYLOR & RICHARD BURTON
THE SANDPIPER
(ESTADOS UNIDOS) -1965- 35 mm. / Color / 115 minutos.
- DIRECTOR: Vincente Minelli.
- GUIÓN: Dalton Trumbo, Michael Wilson.
- FOTOGRAFÍA: Milton Krasner.
- MONTAJE: David Bretherton.
- MÚSICA: Johnny Mandel.
- INTÉRPRETES: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Eva Marie Saint, Charles Bronson, Robert Webber, James Edwards, Torin Thatcher, Tom Drake, Douglas Henderson, Morgan Mason.
- VERSIÓN: Original con subtítulos en español.
- PRODUCTORA: Filmways Pictures.
Laura Reynolds and her son Danny live an idyllic life near California's Big Sur. Laura teaches Danny at home. After Danny shoots a deer, authorities take the boy away to live and study in a parochial school. The unwed mother is distraught. At first, the school administrator, Episcopalian Priest Dr. Hewitt, finds the free-spirited Laura to be morally bereft and without redeeming value. Eventually, Laura and Dr. Hewitt fall in love…
JACK LEMMON & WALTER MATTHAU
THE FRONT PAGE
(ESTADOS UNIDOS) -1974- 35 mm. / Color / 100 minutos.
- DIRECTOR: Billy Wilder.
- GUIÓN: Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond.
- FOTOGRAFÍA: Jordan Cronenweth.
- MONTAJE: Ralph E. Winters.
- MÚSICA: Billy May.
- INTÉRPRETES: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Susan Sarandon, Austin Pendlenton, Carol Burnett, Vincent Gardenia, David Wayne, Jon Korkes, Martin Gabel, Harold Gould, Allen Garfield, Charles Durning.
- VERSIÓN: Original con subtítulos en español.
- PRODUCTORA: Universal Pictures.
Hildy Johnson is the top reporter on a Chicago newspaper during the 1920s. Tired of the whole game he's determined to quit his job to get married. His scheming editor, Walter Burns, has other plans though. It's the day before guilty (but insane) murderer, Earl Williams, is due to go to the gallows and Burns tempts Johnson to stay and write the story.
MARCELLO MASTROIANNI & SOPHIA LOREN
UNA GIORNATA PARTICOLARE
(ITALIA - CANADÁ) -1977- 35 mm. / Color / 107 minutos.
- DIRECTOR: Ettore Scola.
- GUIÓN: Ruggero Maccari , Ettore Scola.
- FOTOGRAFÍA: Pasqualino De Santis.
- MONTAJE: Raimondo Crociani.
- MÚSICA: Armando Trovajoli.
- INTÉRPRETES: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, John Vernon, Françoise Berd, Patrizia Basso, Tiziano de Persio, Maurizio di Paoloantonio, Antonio Garibaldi, Vittorio Guerrieri, Alessandra Mussolini, Nicole Magny.
- VERSIÓN: Original con subtítulos en español.
- PRODUCTORA: Compagnia Cinematografica Champion, Canafox Film.
At the late 1930s, on the occasion of the first meeting between Mussolini and Hitler, Antonietta is left alone in her tenement home when her fascist husband runs off to attend the historic event. She will strike up a friendship with her homosexual neighbour Gabriele. As the day segues into night, they develop a very special relationship that will radically alter both of their outlooks on life.