Film critic Stephen Whitty
WEST ORANGE, NJ — Film buffs once again have the chance to see some of their favorite films on the big screen with the launch of the West Orange Film Society’s 12th annual Classic Film Festival, which will run every Sunday at the Essex Green AMC Theater through March 12.
This year’s schedule boasts several of the most highly-regarded movies of the 1930s through the 1980s, all suggested by society members themselves. These include Sidney Lumet’s “Network,” John Frankenheimer’s “The Manchurian Candidate,” and the Abbott and Costello vehicle “Hold That Ghost.”
While many of the films being screened for the festival have likely been seen dozens of times by residents, WOFS President Ken Mandel stressed that there is nothing like bonding over a movie with a theater full of fellow cinephiles. And the Classic Film Festival offers attendees the unique opportunity to experience that, Mandel said.
“We linger, we chat, we get to know people, we have a lot of regulars who come almost every week,” Mandel told the West Orange Chronicle in a Jan. 12 phone interview, adding that he has met a lot of great people through the event. “We have a tendency to be isolated now, turning to our phones. I think this is an antidote to that.”
Festival goers will certainly have a lot to talk about considering the relevance of many of the films in today’s political climate. As Mandel pointed out, viewers might see parallels between the original “The Manchurian Candidate” — a thriller about an American soldier brainwashed by Communists to assassinate the president — and the possible influence of Russia on the recent presidential election. Likewise, he said, many will probably notice similarities between President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign and the angry rants of Howard Beale, the news anchor at the heart of “Network,” who develops a following among a discontented public.
According to Mandel, it is actually a coincidence that those two movies are being screened this year — they had been on the society’s list of requested films long before the election. But he said their reflection of today’s society shows how potent film can be in predicting events and helping people process the world around them.
“Works of art stimulate the mind,” Mandel said. “You can’t figure everything out by yourself.”
As always, film experts will be on hand to help audiences interpret the movies they have seen during discussion sessions at the Classic Film Festival. This year’s crop includes New York Times culture reporter Dave Itzkoff, who will lead the “Network” talk on Jan. 22, and noted comic book writer Paul Castiglia, who will oversee the Feb. 5 conversation on “Hold That Ghost.”
“The Alfred Hitchcock Encyclopedia” author Stephen Whitty kicked off the festival Jan. 15, with a discussion of the director’s “The Lady Vanishes.” The film critic will return March 5 to talk about the classic Western “High Noon,” which he praised to the Chronicle for its “fine, contained performance” by Gary Cooper and its “affirmation of the importance of having a code of ethics.”
This is not the first Classic Film Festival for Whitty, who estimated that he has participated in at least five. Every year, he said, he is impressed by the large turnout the screenings attract for movies that are, in many cases, more than 50 years old. He said he also enjoys the “lively” conversations the films generate, which can cover everything from casting to a movie’s meaning.
The fact that these films generate so much talk demonstrates why they are classics, Whitty said. That is because the measure of a movie is not how much it takes in box offices sales, he said, but how much people take away from it upon repeated viewings.
“What makes a film a classic is that it continues to reward your watching of it — it doesn’t give up all its pleasures on that first screening,” Whitty said in a Jan. 12 phone interview. “If it’s a great work of art, it constantly reveals new pleasures and you find new things in it. You find new ways of approaching it.
“Not only are you finding new things in a work of art every time you see it, but you’re bringing new stuff to it,” he continued. “I’m not the same person I was when I first saw ‘Vertigo’ or when I first saw ‘Apocalypse Now.’ When I see those movies again, I see them in a different way. So what I think makes a movie a classic is if it has all these different layers that reveal themselves.”
But the Classic Film Festival is not just dedicated to older films. On Feb. 19, the event will once again serve as a stop on the Black Maria Film Festival tour, which features some of that festival’s prize-winning independent short films. This will be the 13th year that the Black Maria festival has come to West Orange — the birthplace of its namesake, Thomas Edison’s Black Maria film studio — and Executive Director Jane Steuerwald has planned accordingly. Steuerwald said she always schedules an eclectic mix of films for the township’s leg of the tour because the festival always attracts a sophisticated audience here.
That mix will include “The Last Projectionist,” a documentary about a family-owned drive-in theater faced with the challenges of a modern technological world, as well as “A,” which is a tongue-in-cheek comedy on why “A” is the only letter that matters. It will also feature the animated film “Rabbit Blood,” a dark comedy centered on the residents of an old Turkish house who have an extraordinary way of brewing tea.
“How Do You Raise a Black Child?” is a fourth film that “dramatically impressed” Steuerwald. The four-minute short, which was directed by South Orange-based filmmaker Seyi Peter-Thomas, uses images to convey the struggles faced by young black people in today’s world. It is a movie Steuerwald said will resonate with anyone who sees it.
“It touches a nerve; it tells the truth and it does it in a way that’s really empathetic,” Steuerwald told the Chronicle in a Jan. 12 phone interview. “It’s definitely political, but it’s also poetic and touching and filmic. It really uses the art of film in the best possible way.”
Those unfamiliar with independent film might be tempted to skip the Black Maria Film Festival, but Steuerwald hopes they will reconsider. For one, she said, it is rare opportunity to see short films in a theater. In addition, she pointed out that independent movies are not so different from classics in the sense that both hold quality to the highest standard.
“The independent filmmaker doesn’t have to answer to anyone but herself,” Steuerwald said. “The independent filmmaker is telling a story that she or he wants to make without censorship because of the passion for telling the story.”
Mandel also sees a connection between the classic films of his festival and the independent shorts of the Black Maria festival, calling the latter the “classic films of tomorrow.” He too hopes that movie enthusiasts will choose to see every film screened in the coming weeks.
After all, Mandel said, now is the perfect time for residents to catch up on the classics.
“Now that the New York Giants are out of the playoffs, what better way is there to spend a Sunday afternoon than at the West Orange Classic Film Festival in the town where the movies were born?” Mandel said.
For a complete list of films, visit http://www.woarts.org/film-society. Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.fandango.com/amcdineintheatresessexgreen9_aafmu/theaterpage or at the theater.
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