ALEXANDER PAYNE IN PERSON!
Alexander Payne Directs Paul Giamatti and Da'Vine Joy Randolph in THE HOLDOVERS
Fresh from his triumph with The Holdovers, the Cinematheque welcomes back filmmaker Alexander Payne, who last visited our screening facilities and the Wisconsin Film Festival in 2014. The two-time Academy Award winner will present The Holdovers, a movie designed to look like it was made in 1970, on one of a limited number of 35mm prints. Payne will also offer an introduction to a movie he recently cited as one of his very favorites, William A. Wellman’s rousing and moving 1951 Western, Westward the Women, also presented on 35mm.
- Fri., Apr. 12 | 7:00 PM4070 Vilas Hall
In the last days of 1970, Paul “Walleye” Hunham (Giamatti), a strict and hated history instructor at an exclusive New England boarding school for boys, is tasked with watching over those few students not spending the Christmas holidays with their families. The isolating circumstances draw Hunham closer in friendship with the smart-but-troubled junior Angus Tully (Sessa) and Mary Lamb (Randolph), the school’s head cook. The witty and humane tale of these three wise misfits, one of the most acclaimed films of 2023, is loaded with emotional grace notes and marvelous performances. Director and two-time Academy Award winner Payne will be present for a post-screening discussion of The Holdovers, presented here on one of a limited number of 35mm prints created for the theatrical release.
- Sat., Apr. 13 | 7:00 PM4070 Vilas Hall
Trail guide Buck Wyatt (Robert Taylor) leads a large group of single females on a wagon train from Chicago to a California valley community where the women will meet and marry the men who are the town’s first settlers. A moving and entertaining Western, filled with drama and heartbreak and romance, Westward the Women was recently cited as one of five favorite movies by filmmaker Alexander Payne, who also called it “a completely neglected masterpiece.” Payne will introduce this screening of an excellent 35mm print, courtesy of the Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research.