This series celebrates the work of one of the most-loved directors of classical Hollywood cinema. A consummate professional, Howard Hawks (1896-1977) directed more than forty films, completing his first features at the end of the silent era. Often working as both director and independent producer, Hawks maintained his autonomy within the studio system, allowing him control over his own destiny as an artist. Influenced by John Ford, Ernst Lubitsch, and Josef von Sternberg, Hawks directed films in every Hollywood genre: screwball comedies, dramas, gangster films, action adventures, Westerns, science fiction, musical comedies. But no matter the genre, he would make a quintessentially Hawksian film.

Favoring a simple, clear visual style, Hawks was an action director par excellence; few filmmakers have rivaled his speed. Making the transition from silent to sound cinema, he found that he could use rapid-fire dialogue to increase narrative velocity. Yet he relied heavily on actions, not words, to convey his characters' feelings. Hawks's personal credo that "man is the measure of all things" motivates his filmmaking. First and foremost, the Hawksian hero is measured by his (and, less frequently, her) work, and professionalism and camaraderie are paramount in Hawks's films.

Continuing through mid-April, this series surveys the full range of the director's career, including several rarely screened silents. It demonstrates that, like a composer writing a theme and variations, Hawks repeatedly treats the same themes, situations, and actions, transposed from one genre to the next, with a remarkable unity of style.

Featured Works:

25 films

Program information:

Howard Hawks: The Measure of Man

The films of Gregory J. Markopoulos, a leading figure of the American avant-garde and the world of art cinema, have been almost impossible to see during the past forty years. Markopoulos (1928-92) had very specific views on how his films should be exhibited and, in 1967 when he moved from the United States to Europe, made the decision to withdraw his films from distribution. From that point forward, Markopoulos concentrated his limited resources solely on the production of new work. For the next twenty-some years, he and his lifelong companion Robert Beavers devoted their energies to the Temenos, an archive, library, and outdoor theater in Lyssaraia, Greece. Between 1970 and 1990, Markopoulos created over one hundred works, which he arranged into twenty-two film cycles. Since Markopoulos's death, Beavers has devoted much of his time to raising funds for the Temenos Foundation and the preservation of Markopoulos's films.

Born in Toledo, Ohio, to Greek-immigrant parents, Markopoulos was twelve when he made his first film, A Christmas Carol. As a teen, he studied with Josef von Sternberg, a director who was "among the few Hollywood filmmakers Markopoulos felt matched his filmic ideal, and in his work there are echoes of Sternberg's depiction of erotic passion" (Jones).

Following in the tradition of directors like Jean Cocteau and Jean Vigo, Markopoulos was a poet filmmaker whose work falls intro three main categories: mythic themes, film portraits, and films of place. Often taking his inspiration from classic literary works, Markopoulos forged new terrain as a filmmaker exploring abstract narratives. His poetic approach relied heavily on the expressive, even mannerist use of color, composition, rhythm, and fractured temporal structures. He achieved a harmonious and delicate balance of plot, character, and theme. Markopoulos's ideas on narrative form are expressed in his 1963 essay "Towards a New Narrative Film Form."

Central to his cinema was the theme of Eros. "Color is Eros," he claimed in an early note on Psyche. Sensual and elegant, Markopoulos's films concern themselves with beauty and form, sometimes expressing homoerotic love in psychological and dramatic terms (Lysis; Twice a Man, pictured). In his films of place, Markopoulos's response to the beauty of the world was conveyed in a more purely Romantic style apparent in his exquisite architectural studies (represented in this series by Ming Green).

By the late fifties and early sixties, Markopoulos was one of the most prominent figures of the American independent cinema along with Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol, and Jack Smith. His films, which were screened in Europe, had an important influence on the French New Wave directors.

Featured Works:

Don't miss this rare opportunity to view eleven of Markopolous's films, made in the United States between 1940 and 1967.

Program information:

Seconds of Eternity: The Films of Gregory J. Markopoulos