| June 21, 2007 | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
Dryden invites you to Audrey Hepburn Wednesdays
Seven-film series in July and August includes Sabrina
and Breakfast at Tiffany's
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House
salutes George Eastman Award-winner Audrey Hepburn this summer with a seven-film
series titled Audrey Hepburn Wednesdays, with screenings taking place at 8 p.m.
every Wednesday, July 18 through Aug. 29.
"It is difficult to precisely describe the impact Audrey Hepburn has on a
movie audience; it's just something you immediately feel when she appears before
your eyes," said Jim Healy, assistant curator, George Eastman House Motion
Picture Department. "She was the epitome of big-screen class and feminine charm
and she maintained a childlike vulnerability that served her well as an
ingénue, but somehow never clashed with her more adult roles. Hepburn also
had generally good taste when choosing her projects and most of her movies are
still fun to watch today."
This is why the Dryden Theatre is presenting excellent 35mm prints of her
best-loved vehicles. The series kicks off July 18 with Billy Wilder's
contemporary fairy tale, Sabrina. Hepburn teamed with Wilder one more
time for the delightful Love in the Afternoon (July 25), but it was
her only collaboration with director Blake Edwards, Breakfast at
Tiffany's (Aug. 1), that provided Hepburn with the role she's still most
identified with today, hipster Holly Golightly.
Cast opposite equally charismatic leading men like Cary Grant in
Charade (Aug. 8) and Peter O'Toole in How to Steal a Million
(Aug. 15), Hepburn used her familiar persona to make smashing entertainments
out of two light European-set capers. However, in the decidedly more sinister
Wait Until Dark (Aug. 22), she revealed another side of her talent as a
blind woman terrorized in her New York apartment by a sadistic hood (Alan
Arkin). The series concludes on Aug. 29 with Stanley Donen's Two for the
Road. Co-starring Albert Finney, the romantic comedy provided Hepburn with
the definitive transitional role as it follows a married couple over 10 years.
Like all the other selections in this lineup, it's the perfect date movie.
Audrey Hepburn Wednesdays
July 18
SABRINA (Billy Wilder, US 1954, 113 min., 35mm)
In the first of her two collaborations with legendary filmmaker Wilder,
Audrey Hepburn is a chauffeur's daughter and object of affection for the two
brothers (Humphrey Bogart and William Holden) who employ her father. Cast
strongly against type, Bogart is an almost nerdily responsible businessman,
while Holden plays the swinging playboy. But the main reason to see this
modern-day variation of Cinderella is Hepburn, who convincingly transforms
herself onscreen from lovestruck teenager to a beautiful and charming young
woman.
July 25
LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON (Billy Wilder, US 1957,
130 min., 35mm)
Gary Cooper is a gallivanting American millionaire in
Paris whose life is narrowly salvaged by the perky and luminous Audrey Hepburn.
This exquisite black-and-white marvel employs the extraordinary art direction of
Alexander Trauner and a sublime performance from Maurice Chevalier as Hepburn's
father. Love in the Afternoon also marks the first collaboration
between director Wilder and his co-writer I.A.L. Diamond, who would together
later bring us Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, and many others.
Members Movie Night: members admitted free.
Aug. 1
BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (Blake Edwards, US
1961, 115 min., 35mm)
In her most cherished performance, Audrey Hepburn
stars as Truman Capote's heroine Holly Golightly in one of the most enduring of
Hollywood romances. Smalltown girl Holly and her pal Cat find a home among the
compulsively hip in New York City, but when Holly falls for neighbor Paul
(George Peppard), cracks start to show in her mod façade.
Aug. 8
CHARADE (Stanley Donen, US 1963, 114 min.,
35mm)
One of this comedy-thriller's charades is its deliberate mimicry of
Hitchcock's stock-in-trade: high chases, low-life villains, witty dialogue, and
an enigmatic plot. The dreamy romantic duo of Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn star
together for the first and last time, and the great supporting cast includes
Walter Matthau, James Coburn, and George Kennedy. Henry Mancini supplies the
lush score and title tune.
Aug. 15
HOW TO STEAL A MILLION (William Wyler, US
1966, 127 min., 35mm)
An art forger's daughter (Audrey Hepburn) teams up
with a suave burglar (Peter O'Toole) to retrieve a fake Cellini statue from a
heavily secured museum. This entertaining caper is helped along by the
enormously charming cast, which includes Charles Boyer, Eli Wallach, and Hugh
Griffith.
Aug. 22
WAIT UNTIL DARK (Terence Young, US 1967, 108
min., 35mm)
Susy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn), blind and alone, is terrorized
in her apartment by three criminals (Jack Weston, Richard Crenna, and a
dynamically creepy Alan Arkin) who seek a stash of heroin that was unwittingly
smuggled into the country by Susy's husband. Frighteningly claustrophobic and
enormously suspenseful, this was adapted from a Broadway smash by Frederick
Knott, author of Dial M for Murder.
Aug. 29
TWO FOR THE ROAD (Stanley Donen, UK 1967,
112 min., 35mm)
The luminous Audrey Hepburn (in what some fans consider her
finest performance) and the charming Albert Finney play a bickering couple who
are traveling in France and thinking back on their 12 years together. Under
Donen's superb direction, the sterling script by Frederic Raphael (co-author of
Eyes Wide Shut) artfully evokes both the thrill of young romance, as
well as the hardships and rewards of married life. A perfect date movie!
Admission at the door for each film is $6 general admission; $5 students; and
$4 members (although members admitted free to Love in the Afternoon on July 25).
For more information visit dryden.eastmanhouse.org or call (585) 271-4090.
Attention Media: For additional information or high-resolution images, please fill out this form to obtain the address of the Press Room's FTP site.
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