From the Film Vault
A Tribute to Cliff Robertson
Good looking, versatile and almost impossible to pigeon hole, Cliff Robertson was the kind of actor who left himself behind when he slipped into a role.
Program Notes: Avalon (1990)
Avalon is a movie about becoming an American.
It’s also about losing, little by little, the connections to their previous lives that informed the original generation of immigrants.
Off-the-Wall Preview: Synecdoche, New York
The American Heritage Dictionary defines a synecdoche as a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part...
Keep that in mind while watching Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York (2008).
Movie Quiz: Stage Names
Nowadays it’s OK for movie stars to embrace the names their parents gave them. But back in Hollywood’s heyday actors were given a full makeover by the studio publicity departments, a process that often entailed replacing their unpronounceable or funny-sounding (or just boring) names with snazzy new movie-star monikers.
Program Notes: Goodbye Solo (2009)
In this era of anti-immigration rhetoric, it’s sometimes useful to consider what a newcomer to the U.S. brings to the table — namely a sense of enthusiasm and hope.
