미영화박물관(MOMI) 스티븐 손하임 추모전(4/1-5/1)
MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE PRESENTS TEN-FILM TRIBUTE TO STEPHEN SONDHEIM
AS PART OF ITS SIGNATURE ‘SEE IT BIG’ SERIES
Opening April 1 with the Spielberg-directed West Side Story and running through May 1
West Side Story (2021, Dir. Steven Spielberg) / courtesy of Criterion Pictures
Astoria, New York, March 14, 2022 — Museum of the Moving Image is pleased to announce See It Big: Sondheim, a ten-film series devoted to the celebrated composer, lyricist, author, artist, and all-around innovator Stephen Sondheim. When Sondheim died last November, he didn’t just leave behind an extraordinary corpus of work—he had exited a world that his art had forever changed. Though he will be first and foremost remembered for revolutionizing musical theater with his fully integrated narrative songs and mind-bogglingly complex melodies and librettos, his mark on the moving image is also indelible. The Museum’s survey offers audiences the chance to see a selection of filmic interpretations of Sondheim’s stage work in MoMI’s grand Redstone Theater: musicals written for the screen; unexpected dramas to which he contributed scores or screenplays; and the documentary Original Cast Album: Company, that allows viewers access to his process. See It Big is a collaboration between Museum of the Moving Image and Reverse Shot.
The series opens on Friday, April 1, with a big-screen presentation of West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg (showing again on April 3), followed by screenings of the original movie version of West Side Story (1961) the same weekend; and continuing through May 1 with screenings of Gypsy (1962), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), Original Cast Album: Company (1970), Stavisky (1974), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Into the Woods (2014), The Last of Sheila (1973), and Dick Tracy (1990). The full schedule is included below and will be posted online at movingimage.us/series/
For the safety of all, the Museum requires all attendees to wear face masks in its theaters. Please review all visitor safety guidelines here.
SCHEDULE FOR ‘SEE IT BIG: SONDHEIM,’ APRIL 1–MAY 1, 2022
All screenings take place in the Redstone Theater at Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Ave, Astoria, NY 11106. Advance tickets are available online; walk-ups are also welcome. Tickets are $15 with discounts for seniors, students, youth, and Museum members.
West Side Story (2021)
FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 6:30 P.M.
SUNDAY, APRIL 3, 4:00 P.M.
Dir. Steven Spielberg. U.S. 2021, 156 mins. DCP. With Rachel Zegler, Ansel Elgort, Ariana DeBose, Mike Faist, David Alvarez, Rita Moreno, Corey Stoll. Spielberg’s masterful update of the epochal 1957 stage musical is an explosion of color, movement, balleticism, and unabashed emotion, with a brilliant, meticulously updated script by Tony Kushner, reconceived yet faithful to the show’s original story and essential power. Featuring an extraordinary cast of new talent performing Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s classic songs with bravura and fearsome skill, Spielberg burrows to the core of the tragic tale of star-crossed lovers in fifties Upper West Side New York City, their romance torn asunder by territorial gang warfare and bigotry. Effortlessly directing his first full-length musical, Spielberg proves himself yet again one of the most versatile filmmakers the form has ever known; working with cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, he has created a film that is visually dazzling almost shot for shot.
West Side Story (1961)
SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1:00 P.M.
SUNDAY, APRIL 3, 12:30 P.M.
Dirs. Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise. 1961, 151 mins. DCP. With Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, Russ Tamblyn, George Chakiris. West Side Story won ten Oscars including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress (Moreno), and has stood the test of time as one of the greatest film musicals. In its adaptation of the Romeo and Juliet story—featuring unforgettable songs by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and choreography by Jerome Robbins—feuding families are replaced by warring New York City gangs, the white Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks. When forbidden love escalates their rivalry, tragedy strikes and doesn't stop until the powerful finale.
Gypsy
SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1:00 P.M.
SUNDAY, APRIL 10, 1:00 P.M.
Dir. Mervyn LeRoy. 1962, 143 mins. 35mm. With Rosiland Russell, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden. Thanks to a perfectly cast Rosiland Russell as ultimate monster stage mother “Mama Rose” Hovick, taking over from originator Ethel Merman with brash bravado, LeRoy’s splashy screen adaptation of the Broadway masterpiece—featuring legendarily great songs by Sondheim and Jule Styne—is one of the movie musical movie treats of the early sixties. Based on the memoirs of groundbreaking burlesque entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee (played by Natalie Wood, just one year after West Side Story), it’s a caustic, clever, and emotionally complex depiction of the travails of show business and those who remain forever on its margins. “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” “Small World,” “All I Need Is the Girl,” “Let Me Entertain You”... musical devotees know the deal: there may not be a more perfect song score.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
SUNDAY, APRIL 10, 4:30 P.M.
SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 1:00 P.M.
Dir. Richard Lester. 1966, 99 mins. 35mm. With Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Buster Keaton, Michael Crawford, Michael Hordern, Annette Andre. After breaking out as the lyricist of the stage smashes West Side Story and Gypsy, Sondheim dove into his first musical as both composer and lyricist. The result was a bawdy Broadway hit in 1962, a wild, comic reimagining of the farces of ancient Roman playwright Plautus that starred the inimitable Zero Mostel and won the Tony for Best Musical. Fresh off the Beatles hits A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, Richard Lester directed the movie version and scored a hit, casting not only Mostel but a lineup of comic legends, including Phil Silvers and Buster Keaton in his last film role. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Adapted Score and featuring cinematography by Nicolas Roeg.
Original Cast Album: Company
SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 4:00 p.m.
SUNDAY, APRIL 17, 1:00 p.m.
SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 1:00 p.m.
Dir. D. A. Pennebaker. 1970, 53 mins. DCP. With Elaine Stritch, Dean Jones, Donna McKechnie, Beth Howland, Stephen Sondheim. One of the greatest screen adaptations of Sondheim’s stage work is this revelatory and wildly entertaining documentary by vérité trailblazer Pennebaker. Allowing viewers a rare glimpse into the studio recording sessions for the cast album of Sondheim’s masterpiece Company, which was just about to revolutionize Broadway with its sophisticated adult themes and complex, almost acrobatic melodies, lyrics, and arrangements, Pennebaker captures the skill and strain involved in making an album—which, unlike a live performance, is intended to stand the test of time. Dazzling moments abound, including Dean Jones’s titanic rendition of “Being Alive,” Beth Howland’s breathless tongue-twister “Getting Married Today,” and, especially, Elaine Stritch’s “The Ladies Who Lunch,” which becomes a climactic gauntlet.
Stavisky
FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 7:00 p.m.
SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 4:00 p.m.
Dir. Alain Resnais. 1974, 120 mins. DCP. With Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Anny Duperey, Michael Lonsdale, François Périer. Based on the true story of a con artist who nearly brought France to financial and political ruin in the 1930s, Stavisky is Resnais’s lushest and most opulent production, featuring Art Deco sets, a magnetic central performance by Jean-Paul Belmondo, and a lush musical score by Sondheim. A meditation of the fragility of time and beauty, Stavisky was a triumphant return to filmmaking by Resnais after a hiatus following the commercial failure of his brilliant sci-fi Je t’aime, je t’aime.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 3:30 p.m.
SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 1:00 p.m.
Dir. Tim Burton. 2007, 116 mins. 35mm. With Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Jayne Wisener, Sacha Baron Cohen. Burton proves he was a fitting choice to finally direct the long-anticipated screen adaptation of Sondheim’s masterpiece, the musical that shocked Broadway audiences in 1977 for its unholy mix of operatic tragedy, winking sociopolitical satire, macabre subject matter, and unflinching gore. Casting his recurring muse Depp as the “demon barber,” freshly out of jail and seeking revenge against the corrupt judge (Rickman) who imprisoned him, destroyed his wife, and is now the ward of his grown daughter, Burton hews closely to the source material while giving it his own visual spin, especially in the Oscar-winning set design by Dante Ferretti, which recreates a desperate, Dickensian mid-nineteenth-century London with sinister, theatrical élan. As always, it’s Sondheim’s verbal showmanship and melodic grace that are the real stars here, with one of the greatest scores ever written, including “A Little Priest, “Not While I’m Around,” and “Pretty Women.”
Into the Woods
SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 4:00 p.m.
FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 3:00 p.m.
Dir. Rob Marshall. 2014, 116 mins. DCP. With Anna Kendrick, Meryl Streep, Chris Pine, Emily Blunt, James Corden, Simon Russell Beale, Billy Magnussen, Tracey Ullman. Sondheim and writer James Lapine’s brilliant fractured fairy tale is given the grand-scale Disney treatment, yet miraculously without sacrificing its sophistication, cleverness, or melancholy. A philosophically minded melding of a group of well-known fairy tales (including Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Little Red Riding Hood), Into the Woods locates the loneliness beneath the joy, and questions the possibility of happy endings, even in fantasy. It’s also wildly funny, featuring an eclectic series of beloved songs that show Sondheim at his most deceptively simple and linguistically complex.
The Last of Sheila
SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 6:00 p.m.
SUNDAY, MAY 1, 3:30 p.m.
Dir. Herbert Ross. 1973, 120 mins. DCP. With Richard Benjamin, James Coburn, Dyan Cannon, James Mason, Joan Hackett, Racquel Welch. Sondheim’s only foray into screenwriting is this delightful, complexly woven comic-tinged mystery, co-written with his friend Anthony Perkins. A stated inspiration for Rian Johnson’s hit Knives Out, the movie gathers a crackerjack cast of seventies Hollywood all-stars for a sinister, sun-dappled trip into the Mediterranean, hosted by movie producer and obsessed gamesman Clinton Greene (Coburn), who corrals them into increasingly unsettling tricks of one upmanship and truth-telling gambits. A slyly subversive entertainment, The Last of Sheila proves that Sondheim’s gift for twists and turns weren’t just related to song lyrics and invites one to imagine an entire second career path for this polymath.
Dick Tracy
SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 3:30 p.m.
SUNDAY, MAY 1, 1:00 p.m.
Dir. Warren Beatty. 1990, 105 mins. 35mm. With Warren Beatty, Madonna, Al Pacino, William Forsythe, Glenne Headly, Seymour Cassel, Dustin Hoffman, Kathy Bates, James Caan. Beatty’s big-budget, color-drenched adaptation of Chester Gould’s classic mid-century comic strip is a visual delight from start to finish, featuring lovingly detailed noir photography by Vittorio Storaro. Perfectly casting Beatty as the granite-jawed, crime-busting detective and employing a who’s-who of Hollywood stars and character actors, many amusingly hidden behind face-altering latex, Dick Tracy is both summer blockbuster and a kind of personal memory piece, featuring a flawless song score by Sondheim (the Madonna-sung “Sooner or Later” won him his first Academy Award) that is one of his late-career highlights.
스티븐 조슈아 손하임(Stephen Joshua Sondheim)은 1930년 뉴욕에서 태어났다. 아버지 허버트는 패션 사업가였으며, 어머니 자넷은 디자이너였다. 맨해튼 센트럴파크웨스트의 럭셔리 콘서 산 레모에서 살던 손하임은 1942년 부모의 이혼으로 어머니를 따라 펜실베니아주 도일스타운에서 자랐다. 어릴 적부터 피아노와 오르간을 배우기 시작했으며, 브로드웨이 작사가이자 프로듀서인 오스카 해머스타인(Oscar Hammerstein II)의 아들과 친구가 되면서 브로드웨이 뮤지컬의 세계에 눈뜨게 된다.
손하임은 10대에 학교를 풍자한 뮤지컬 'By George!'를 작곡해 오스카 해머스타인에게 보냈다가 비판을 받았지만, 결국 해머스타인의 제자가 된다. 오스카 해머스타인은 리처드 로저스와 콤비로 '오클라호마!' '왕과 나' '사운드 오브 뮤직' 등을 작곡한 거장이다. 손하임은 1950년 윌리엄스대 음악과를 졸업한 후 전위음악 작곡가 밀턴 배빗을 사사한 후 뉴욕으로 왔다.
작곡가 레너드 번스타인과 안무가 제롬 로빈스는 셰익스피어의 '로미오와 줄리엣'을 각색한 새 뮤지컬 '웨스트 사이드 스토리'의 작사가를 찾고 있던 중 손하임을 발탁했다. 1957년 초연된 '웨스트 사이드 스토리'는 흥행을 기록했으며, 손하임은 뮤지컬 '집시(Gypsie)'의 작사도 쓸 기회를 얻었다.
2019년 7월 뉴욕시티센터의 앙코르 뮤지컬 '로드쇼' 공연에 나타난 스티븐 손하임.
1970년대에 연출가 겸 제작자 해롤드(할) 프린스(Harold Prince)와 콤비가 되어 '컴퍼니(Company, 1970)', '폴리스(Follies, 1971)' '리틀 나잇 뮤직(A Little Night Music,1973)', '스위니 토드(Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 1979)'를 작곡했다. '스위니 토드'는 2007년 할리우드에서 팀 버튼 감독의 동명 영화로 제작됐다.
스티븐 손하임은 재치있고, 대화체의 가사에 자연스럽게 용해되는 노래가 장기다. '퍼시픽 오버쳐(Pecific Overture, 1976)'는 일본 하이쿠와 가부키 연극의 영향을 받았다. 1980년대에는 조르쥬 쇠라의 회화 '그랑자트에서의 일요일'에서 영감을 얻은 '일요일 조지와 공원에서(Sunday in the Park with George, 1984)', 고전동화를 원작으로 한 '인투 더 우드(Into the Woods, 1987)' 등을 작곡했다. '인투 더 우드'는 2014년 메릴 스트립, 제임스 코든, 에밀리 블런트가 출연하는 영화로 제작됐다. 1990년엔 영화 '딕 트레이시(Dick Tracy)'의 주제가로 아카데미상을 수상했다.
작곡가로서 평생 토니상 7개, 그래미상 8개, 퓰리처상(1985), 오스카(1990) 등을 거머쥔 손하임은 2021년 11월 26일 별세했다.
*앙코르! '조지와 일요일 공원에서(Sunday in the Park with George)'
