Friday, 5/2/97 Shaping the Silver Screen In a retrospective look
at his genre-shaping works, legendary director Howard Hawks gets a
chance to wow UCLA audiences.
By Brandon Wilson Daily Bruin Staff hen it comes to film or any
of the arts, time can be the harshest and most damning critic.
Those hailed as visionary in one era may be held up to mockery in
another as an artist’s work may ultimately prove to be too rooted
in a bygone era to transcend the ages. This is not the problem with
Howard Hawks, though. Hailed by the French critics of Cahiers du
Cinema in the ’50s and ’60s as one of America’s premier directors,
Hawks is a model of old Hollywood efficiency and how subtle the
auteur’s mark can be left on a body of work. Though he haunts
virtually any list of the world’s top film directors, Hawks, like
most of his contemporaries, never thought of himself as an artist
or auteur. He considered himself a craftsman, one capable of
working in whatever genre the business demanded. His career dated
back to the silent era, spanning 44 years and 45 films. Directors
as varied as Martin Scorsese, Walter Hill, Peter Bogdanovich,
Michael Mann and Quentin Tarantino constantly cite Hawks as an
influence. And if by now you’re wondering what all the fuss is
about, then you can see for yourself when "Hawks and the Modern
Age," a retrospective co-sponsored by UCLA’s Film & Television
Archive with the special support of Archive council members’ Dini
and Les Ostrov, begins this Saturday at Melnitz Hall’s James
Bridges Theater. The series was inspired by the book, "Howard
Hawks: American Artist," a collection of articles on the director,
co-edited by the Film and Television Department’s Vice Chairman
Peter Wollen (a professor in the Critical Studies program). Wollen
will introduce the series’ first night, a rare screening of Hawks’
fifth film, the silent feature (with live musical accompaniment) "A
Girl In Every Port" (1928). Born in Goshen, Indiana in 1896, Hawks
mastered a form of filmmaking marked not by technical showboating
but by a spartan narrative style as straightforward and no-nonsense
as the man himself (in terms of contemporary American directors,
Clint Eastwood may be the last avatar of Hawks’ film style). Though
he never held pretensions of authorship, Hawks performed within the
studio system as producer and as director. While his business sense
was strong, his ability to make a genre his own was even stronger.
Whether it’s the male camaraderie of "Rio Bravo" and "El Dorado"
(both of which close out the program on June 5), the romanticism of
"The Big Sleep" (screening May 25 with 18 minutes of excised
footage) or "To Have and Have Not" (screening May 6), Hawks always
found ways (even perhaps unbeknownst to himself) to explore his
recurring motifs: such as the incompatibility of the sexes, the
meaning of masculinity, the strain of being in command, and the
music of rapid fire dialogue. If you’re old enough to remember
"Moonlighting" and appreciate its skewed sensibility, then you owe
it to yourself to see the May 17 double bill featuring two of his
great screwball comedies "His Girl Friday" and "Twentieth Century."
And no matter what your taste runs toward: macho adventure,
fast-talking comedy, splashy musicals or even science-fiction, this
most versatile of American auteurs has the range to satisfy
everyone. Filmmakers past, present and future shall try to equal
the standard of sheer pleasure set by Hawks’ cinema. FILM: For more
information, call UCLA’s Film & Television Archive at (310)
206-8013. "Only Angels Have Wings" is one of the many films
featured in the "Hawks and the Modern Age" retrospective series.
UCLA Film and Television Archive One of the films featured in the
festival is the classic Hawk’s masterpiece, "The Thing" UCLA Film
and Television Archive Included in the festival is the classic
Hawk’s masterpiece, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."