Manhattan's Popular Bryant Park Summer Film Festival Returns in '98 with a Focus on NYC-themed Classics

by Mark Rabinowitz

On Monday, June 15th, probably as early as 3:30 in the afternoon, several thousand New Yorkers will begin their weekly trek to a patch of grass called Bryant Park to lay out their blankets, open their wine, cheese and baguettes, and jockey for space with their neighbors in preparation for a couple of hours of classic films in the great outdoors. June 15th brings the return of a New York institution to Midtown Manhattan with the first installment of the 6th Annual Bryant Park Summer Film Festival, a weekly exhibition of classic American film, this year starring Gary Cooper, Katherine and Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Jack Lemmon, Jimmy Stewart and Marilyn Monroe in films by directors George Cukor, Frank Capra and Blake Edwards, among others.

This year's fest is sponsored by HBO and Banana Republic and runs on Mondays from June 15-August 24. To celebrate the Centennial of the incorporation of Greater New York (the 5 boroughs became a city in 1898), the 1998 selections all reflect a New York theme. The festival "kicks" off with the classic 1933 Lloyd Bacon musical "42nd Street," with songs by Harry Warden and Al Dubin including "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" and "You're Getting to be a Habit With Me." This screening will be preceded by a performance from the cast members of the off-Broadway show STOMP.

"Bryant Park is the place to be on Monday nights in the summer," said HBO chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes in a prepared statement, adding, "In celebration of the Greater New York Centennial this year, we're proud to show some of the greatest, timeless movies set in New York -- with the skyline as a backdrop." The festival continues on June 22nd with a showing of the 1957 Twentieth Century Fox film, "An Affair to Remember." Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr star in this timeless romance that inspired scenes in films like "Sleepless in Seattle" and even an entire mediocre 1994 remake, "Love Affair," starring Warren Beatty and Annette Benning. (The latter film has little to offer, but does enable the viewer to watch a spirited Katherine Hepburn say "fuck" in her last big screen role).

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July 6th features the 1936 Frank Capra comedy, "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," starring Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur and Lionel Stander (Max from "Hart to Hart"), while July 13th's program features a 1938 George Cukor screwball comedy, "Holiday," starring Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. (She doesn't swear in this one!) The comedies continue on July 20th when Marilyn Monroe, Betty "Million Dollar Legs" Grable and Lauren Bacall hit the Big Apple on the hunt for rich husbands. William Powell co-stars. July 27th's entry in the fest is Elia Kazan's directorial debut, 1945's "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn," starring Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn, Lloyd Nolan, and Peggy Ann Garner. Jack Lemmon's big screen debut, 1954's "It Should Happen To You" screens on August 3rd. This second Cukor film in the fest stars Judy Holliday as a young woman who will do a lot to see her name in lights in New York...like rent billboard space in Columbus Circle. The film also stars Peter Lawford. Jack Lemmon is back in August 10th's "Bell, Book and Candle," a 1958 comedy starring Jimmy Stewart as a New York book publisher enchanted, literally, by the most beguiling witch on film, Kim Novak. Co-starring Lemmon, Hermione Gingold and Elsa Lanchester as Novak's witch family and Ernie Kovacs as a skeptical "expert" on witches. August 17th's entry is "Stage Door," a comedy/drama starring Katherine Hepburn, Eve Arden, Lucille Ball, Adolphe Menjou and Ginger Rogers, and the series rounds out with Blake Edwards' classic 1961 film, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" the following week. The film stars Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard in a film that spawned theme parties and hundreds of pet felines named "Cat." Moon River indeed. [For festival information and raindates, call 212-512-5700.] posted on June 2, 1998 |Share