About

The Met Film Programs
Presented in conjunction with 'American Impressionism and Realism: A Landmark Exhibition from the Met', The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The Australian Cinémathèque will present a two-part film program reflecting life on the American East Coast at the turn of the twentieth century.

Hollywood on the Hudson features classic films from the 1920s and 1930s that encapsulate a rich, vibrant and culturally aware New York City at a time of great economic and social change. The program points to the beginnings of New York's film studios, which blossomed into havens for rebellious and unconventional filmmakers who rejected the homogenised Hollywood movie system. Making use of extraordinary New York locations, these films highlight the importance of the east coast studio productions in American cinema history. Unlike many of their Californian counterparts, filmmakers on the east coast drew specific inspiration from the broader cultural roots of the city, while also experimenting with new technologies and pushing the boundaries of censorship. The depth of their contribution remained largely unacknowledged by cinema historians until the recent landmark publication of Hollywood on the Hudson: Film and Television in New York from Griffith to Sarnoff by pre-eminent film historian Richard Koszarski. Meticulously researched, this definitive history of New York filmmaking in the first half of the twentieth century has provided the inspiration for the film program at the Australian Cinémathèque, which is presented with the generous assistance of Richard Koszarski, The Library of Congress, The Museum of Modern Art, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto and the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

List of Works

• While New York Sleeps 1920 | Director: Charles Brabin
• Manhandled 1924 | Director: Allan Dwan
• Love 'em and Leave 'em 1926 | Director: Frank Tuttle
• Speedy 1928 | Director: Ted Wilde
• The Cameraman 1928 | Director: Edward Sedgwick
• Enchantment 1921 | Director: Robert Vignola
• Zaza 1923 | Director: Allan Dwan
• The Emperor Jones 1933 | Director: Dudley Murphy
• Crime Without Passion 1934 | Directors: Ben Hecht, Charles Macarthur
• Humoresque 1920 | Director: Frank Borzage
• His Nibs 1920—21 | Director: Gregory La Cava
• Applause 1929 | Director: Rouben Mamoulian
• Glorifying the American Girl 1929 | Directors: Millard Webb, John W Harkrider
• The Smiling Lieutenant 1931 | Director: Ernst Lubitsch