Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties: a FREE screening of ON THE WATERFRONT followed by a conversation with Professor / Author FOSTER HIRSCH

• Film screening of ON THE WATERFRONT starts at 2:00pm (2 hours)
• Book Talk with Foster Hirsch – approximately 4:00pm

Please join us for a screening of the Academy-award winning film On The Waterfront, followed by a conversation with author and film professor Foster Hirsch who will discuss the film and his critically acclaimed new book, Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties: The Collapse of the Studio System, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher. The conversation will be moderated by Regina Gil, Founder and Executive Director of the Gold Coast Arts Center.

About the film:
On the Waterfront is a 1954 American crime drama film, directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg, starring Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning and Eva Marie Saint in her film debut. The musical score was composed by Leonard Bernstein. The black-and-white film was inspired by “Crime on the Waterfront” by Malcolm Johnson, a series of articles published in November–December 1948 in the New York Sun which won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, but the screenplay by Budd Schulberg is directly based on his own original story. The film focuses on union violence and corruption among longshoremen, while detailing widespread corruption, extortion, and racketeering on the waterfronts of Hoboken, New Jersey.

On the Waterfront was a critical and commercial success and is considered one of the greatest films ever made. It received twelve Academy Award nominations and won eight, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Brando, Best Supporting Actress for Saint, and Best Director for Kazan. In 1997, it was ranked by the American Film Institute as the eighth-greatest American movie of all time. In 1989, On the Waterfront was one of the first 25 films to be deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

About Foster Hirsch:
Foster Hirsch is a professor of film at Brooklyn College and the author of sixteen books on film and theater, including Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King, The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir, and A Method to Their Madness: The History of the Actors Studio. He lives in New York City. His newest book, Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties, is a fascinating look at Hollywood’s most turbulent decade and the demise of the studio system is set against the boom of the post–World War II years, the Cold War, and the atomic age—and the movies that reflected the seismic shifts.

Praise for Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties:

“The definitive book on 1950s Hollywood.” — Booklist

“An important, riveting look at our nation at its peak as a world power and at the political, cultural, sexual upheavals it endured, reflected and explored in the quintessential American art form.”

“A gripping yet informative report on a time in show business where threats to the industry seemingly lurked around every corner of society…[that] promises to entertain and educate movie lovers wanting to know more about the evolution of the film industry.”

This event is FREE to attend but you must RSVP. You may purchase an autographed copy of the book for $40. Click HERE to purchase the book.

*Books purchased in advance will be brought to the event. If you wish to pick up your book before the event, please call 516-829-2570 and ask for Caroline or email caroline@goldcoastarts.org

Photo credit of Foster Hirsch: Vera Jaffe

Event Details:
Join us for this FREE film screening of On the Waterfront, scheduled to coincide with the Author Event with Foster Hirsch. Book Talk with Foster Hirsch will follow immediately after the screening.