Marty at the Walter Reade.

This past Saturday afternoon marked the first Martin Scorsese appearance (sold out, of course) for the Film Society of Lincoln Center since shortly before 9/11 and was dedicated to unearthing the work (and burnishing the reputations) of mainstream Hollywood collaborators writer/director/producer George Seaton and producer-only William Perlberg. The former was one of Hollywood's better journeyman directors who seemed to have a special eye and perhaps preference for darker, ambivalent stories and characters - though he was equally handy with lighter fare such as the original Miracle on 34th Street and Teacher's Pet. The latter managed to produce (or associate-produce) 57 films, from Josef von Sternberg's 1936 The King Steps Out to the 1965 James Garner/Eva Marie Saint thriller 36 Hours.

It took a few moments for Scorsese and his co-host (FSLC's associate program director Kent Jones) to warm up, but once film clips started rolling, the conversation perked along beautifully. While I have long run hot and cold to Mr Scorsese's oeuvre (and for the past few years, the temperature's been very cold), I find the director a wonderfully open and appealing movie buff, and reading him or listening to his banter is an unalloyed pleasure, particularly when he's in tandem with another buff as knowledgeable and inclusive as Jones. Beginning with film clips from The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954, directed by Mark Robson and co-produced by Perlberg-Seaton), continuing with The Proud and Profane ('56) and closing with The Counterfeit Traitor ('62), the hosts managed to interest us anew in these fine films (Bridges and Traitor are available on DVD; P&P is not) while weaving much of the filmmakers' other work into the conversation.

Among many interesting observations, Scorsese pointed out how unusual it was to find Hollywood product of the battened-down 50s providing truly different views: anti-war (Toko-Ri), showing Americans as both naive and bullying (1950's The Big Lift) and providing main characters who are dishonest and ambivalent (Proud & Profane). You might find some of this in film noir, our hosts admitted, but the films of P/S were not noir; they were mainstream.  Scorsese also pointed out that, while other more famous directors like Otto Preminger were actively bashing certain censorship barriers - The Moon Is Blue, The Man With the Golden Arm, Anatomy of a Murder - these films were, in places, somewhat "overstated" (I believe that is the term the director used, and it's so much gentler than, say, "ham-fisted") at the same time that the Perlberg-Seaton films were coming in under the radar with their own pointed and relatively subtle social critiques.

At times, the program threatened to become a love letter (and a deserved one) to Oscar-winning (and thrice-nominated) actor William Holden, whose "star" work in Toko-Ri, Proud/Profane and Counterfeit Traitor was, as usual, sterling. My biggest objection - I had it, as well, to Scorsese's wonderful documentary on Italian film, My Voyage to Italy - is that the director, who clearly loves and appreciates these films and is able to communicate this in spades, often chooses to show clips that reveal major plot points and even climaxes that will partially spoil the viewing for anyone who has not yet seen the film. I would think that he might be able select his scenes more carefully - or at least tell us in advance: "Spoiler Ahead!"

During the Q&A, a question came up about a list of "Guilty Pleasures" the director had compiled during the 70s (Jones opined that this was perhaps the first "Guilty Pleasures" list Film Comment magazine had ever run), and Scorsese talked incisively and charmingly about films as diverse as Land of the Pharaohs and The Uninvited. During the 70s, he told us, these films - not being perhaps "auteur enough" - were on the outs.  Today, he suggested, any one of them might offer reams of pleasure but little guilt. All in all, this was an hour-and-a-half so pleasantly spent that I wish the FSLC might invite Marty back yearly. He's done yeoman work in helping us re-discover the films of post-war Italy, Powell & Pressburger, and now Perlberg-Seaton. I wonder if he's a fan of Alberto Lattuada, whose dark and funny Mafioso was "rediscovered" last year (and whose utterly gorgeous and sprawling Fraulein Doktor ought to be)? Just a thought. Or maybe a request.

Posted by dwhudson at July 2, 2007 4:13 AM