West Orange Classic Film Festival announces 15th-anniversary schedule

WEST ORANGE, NJ — Held over eight Sundays throughout January and February in the town where Thomas Edison invented movies, the West Orange Classic Film Festival returns for its 15th season in 2020, once again giving lovers of cinema a chance to experience their favorite films as they were meant to be seen: on the big screen. At this year’s festival, each film will be followed by a discussion led by a local film scholar/critic. Three of the feature-length films to be presented won the Academy Award for Best Picture for the year of their release, and were selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”

All screenings are at the AMC Theatre in Essex Green Shopping Center on Prospect Avenue in West Orange on Sundays at 2 p.m. 

The festival premieres Jan. 5 with 1959’s “North by Northwest,” with an appearance by film critic Stephen Whitty, author of “The Alfred Hitchcock Encyclopedia.” A tale of mistaken identity, with an innocent man pursued across the United States by agents of a mysterious organization trying to prevent him from blocking their plan to smuggle out microfilm containing government secrets, the film stars Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and has been described as “the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures.”

Future films for the 2020 festival are scheduled as follows:

• Jan. 12: “Casablanca,” 1942, with Club Cinematheque founder Gerard Amsellem. Set during World War II, “Casablanca” focuses on an American expatriate who must choose between his love for a woman and helping her and her husband, a Czech leader, escape from the Vichy-controlled city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Germans. The film stars Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid; it also features Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Dooley Wilson.
• Jan. 19: “West Side Story,” 1961, with Cinema Shorthand Society curator John Chasse. The film is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was inspired by William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet.” The film stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno and George Chakaris. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and winning 10, including Best Picture, in addition to a special award for choreographer Jerome Robbins, “West Side Story” remains, nearly 50 years later, the record holder for the most wins for a musical.
• Jan. 26: “To Kill a Mockingbird,” 1962, with the guest speaker still to be decided. Based on Harper Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, the film stars Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and Mary Badham as Scout. “To Kill a Mockingbird” won three Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Peck, and was nominated for eight, including Best Picture. 
• Feb. 2: “Duck Soup,” 1933, with David Itzkoff, culture reporter for The New York Times. Starring what were then billed as the “Four Marx Brothers” — Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo, the film also features Margaret Dumont, Louis Calhern, Raquel Torres and Edgar Kennedy. The last Marx Brothers film to feature Zeppo, “Duck Soup” is widely considered among critics to be a masterpiece of comedy and the Marx Brothers’ finest film.
• Feb. 9: the Black Maria Film Festival, with Jane Steuerwald, professor of film at New Jersey City University and executive director of the Black Maria Film Festival. This festival within a festival is an international juried competition that has been celebrating and preserving the diversity, invention and vitality of the short film since 1981. The festival exhibits the works of diverse filmmakers from across the United States and around the world. These artists often represent an underserved constituency who might not otherwise have the opportunity for live public exhibition nationwide or abroad. Several filmmakers are expected to attend.
• Feb. 16: “Lawrence of Arabia,” 1962, with EDGE Media Network film critic Frank J. Avella. Based on the life of T. E. Lawrence, the film depicts Lawrence’s experiences in the Ottoman Empire’s provinces of Hejaz and Greater Syria during World War I. Its themes include Lawrence’s emotional struggles with the personal violence inherent in war, his own identity, and his divided allegiance between his native Britain and its army and his new-found comrades within the Arabian desert tribes. The film stars Peter O’Toole in the title role, as well as Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains and Arthur Kennedy.
• Feb. 23: “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” 1939, with the guest speaker still to be decided. James Stewart portrays the title role of a newly appointed U.S. senator who fights against a corrupt political system. The film also stars Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold and Thomas Mitchell. “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning for Best Original Story.

Tickets are charged, and will be available at the theater box office or through Fandango. For further information, contact wofilmsociety@aol.com, or join the Facebook page “West Orange Classic Film Festival.”

  Black Maria Film Festival, West Orange Film Festival