New York Urban Explorers: Art, Food, Museums, Walks, etc.

Pollock Screening: Ed Harris As Jackson Pollock - Art History Livestream - Hosted by Robert Kelleman

Let's honor and remember one of America's greatest modern artists, Jackson Pollock, on the 70th anniversary of his death (August 11, 1956).
We'll be screening the 2000 film "Pollock", which features an all-star cast including Ed Harris in the title role.

The first portion of our program, approximately 15-20 minutes, will be a brief overview of the film, including its historical context, plot summary, things to look for, accuracy, etc.
The second portion of our program will be a full screening of the film.

During and after the screening we invite you to participate in a discussion of the film with your fellow art lovers via Zoom.

Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, he was widely noticed for his "drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a horizontal surface, enabling him to view and paint his canvases from all angles. It was called all-over painting and action painting, because Pollock covered the entire canvas and used the force of his whole body to paint, often in a frenetic dancing style. This extreme form of abstraction divided critics: some praised the immediacy of the creation, while others derided the random effects.
A reclusive and volatile personality, Pollock struggled with alcoholism for most of his life. In 1945, he married artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy. Pollock died in August 1956 at age 44 in an alcohol-related single-car collision when he was driving. Four months after his death, Pollock was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. A larger, more comprehensive exhibition of his work was held there in 1967. In 1998 and 1999, Pollock's work was honored with large-scale retrospective exhibitions at MoMA and the Tate Gallery in London.

Pollock is a 2000 American independent biographical drama film centered on the life of American painter Jackson Pollock, his struggles with alcoholism, as well as his troubled marriage to his wife Lee Krasner. The film stars Ed Harris, Marcia Gay Harden, Jennifer Connelly, Val Kilmer, Robert Knott, Bud Cort, Molly Regan, and Sada Thompson, and was directed by Harris.
Marcia Gay Harden won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for portraying Lee Krasner. Ed Harris received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of Pollock. The film was a long-term personal project for Harris based on his reading of the 1989 biography Jackson Pollock: An American Saga, written by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith.

Let’s learn about Chinese history and culture through two classic films: “The Good Earth” and “The Last Emperor.”

Each film history program will have two parts.
Part one, approximately 15-20 minutes, will be a brief introduction to the film, including its historical context, plot summary, things to look for, accuracy, etc.
Part two will be a full screening of the film.

During and after the screening you are welcome to join your fellow participants in a live online discussion of the film via Zoom.

The Good Earth - Chinese Film History Livestream
Saturday, August 22 –
7:00 am - Los Angeles, CA / San Francisco, CA
9:00 am - Dallas, TX / Austin, TX / Chicago, IL
10:00 am - Washington, DC / New York, NY
3:00 pm - London, England (following day)

The Last Emperor - Chinese Film History Livestream
Saturday, August 22 -
12:00 pm - Los Angeles, CA / San Francisco, CA
2:00 pm - Dallas, TX / Austin, TX / Chicago, IL
3:00 pm - Washington, DC / New York, NY
8:00 pm - London, England

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The Good Earth is a 1937 American drama film about Chinese farmers who struggle to survive. It was adapted by Talbot Jennings, Tess Slesinger, and Claudine West from the 1932 play by Owen Davis and Donald Davis, which was in itself based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck. The film was directed by Sidney Franklin, with uncredited contributions by Victor Fleming and Gustav Machaty.
The film stars Paul Muni as Wang Lung. For her role as his wife O-Lan, Luise Rainer won an Academy Award for Best Actress. The film also won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Karl Freund. It was nominated for Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Picture. Its world premiere was at the elegant Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles.

The Good Earth is a historical fiction novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 that dramatizes family life in an early 20th-century Chinese village in Anhwei. It is the first book in her House of Earth trilogy, continued in Sons (1932) and A House Divided (1935). It was the best-selling novel in the United States in both 1931 and 1932, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1932, and was influential in Buck's winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. Buck, who grew up in China as the daughter of American missionaries, wrote the book while living in China and drew on her first-hand observation of Chinese village life. The realistic and sympathetic depiction of the farmer Wang Lung and his wife O-Lan helped prepare Americans of the 1930s to consider Chinese as allies in the coming war with Japan.
The novel was included in Life magazine's list of the 100 outstanding books of 1924–1944. In 2004, the book returned to the bestseller list when chosen by the television host Oprah Winfrey for Oprah's Book Club.
A Broadway stage adaptation was produced by the Theatre Guild in 1932, written by the father and son playwriting team of Owen and Donald Davis, but critics gave a poor reception, and it ran only 56 performances. However, the 1937 film, The Good Earth, which was based on the stage version, was more successful.

Let’s learn about Chinese history and culture through two classic films: “The Good Earth” and “The Last Emperor.”

Each film history program will have two parts.
Part one, approximately 15-20 minutes, will be a brief introduction to the film, including its historical context, plot summary, things to look for, accuracy, etc.
Part two will be a full screening of the film.

During and after the screening you are welcome to join your fellow participants in a live online discussion of the film via Zoom.

The Good Earth - Chinese Film History Livestream
Saturday, August 22 –
7:00 am - Los Angeles, CA / San Francisco, CA
9:00 am - Dallas, TX / Austin, TX / Chicago, IL
10:00 am - Washington, DC / New York, NY
3:00 pm - London, England

The Last Emperor - Chinese Film History Livestream
Saturday, August 22 -
12:00 pm - Los Angeles, CA / San Francisco, CA
2:00 pm - Dallas, TX / Austin, TX / Chicago, IL
3:00 pm - Washington, DC / New York, NY
8:00 pm - London, England

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The Last Emperor - Chinese New Year Film History Livestream

The Last Emperor (Italian: L'ultimo imperatore) is a 1987 epic biographical drama film about the life of Puyi, the last Emperor of China. It is directed by Bernardo Bertolucci from a screenplay he co-wrote with Mark Peploe, which was adapted from Puyi's 1964 autobiography, and independently produced by Jeremy Thomas.
The film depicts Puyi's life from his ascent to the throne as an infant to his imprisonment and political rehabilitation by the Chinese Communist Party. It stars John Lone in the eponymous role, with Peter O'Toole, Joan Chen, Ruocheng Ying, Victor Wong, Dennis Dun, Vivian Wu, Lisa Lu, and Ryuichi Sakamoto (who also composed the film score with David Byrne and Cong Su). It was the first Western feature film authorised by the People's Republic of China to film in the Forbidden City in Beijing.
The Last Emperor premiered at the 1987 Tokyo International Film Festival, and was released in the United States by Columbia Pictures on November 18. It earned widespread positive reviews from critics and was also a commercial success. At the 60th Academy Awards, it won all nine Oscars it was nominated for, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It also won several other accolades, including three BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, nine David di Donatello Awards, and a Grammy Award for its musical score. The film was converted into 3D and shown in the Cannes Classics section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

Puyi [c] (7 February 1906 – 17 October 1967) was the last emperor of China, reigning as the eleventh monarch of the Qing dynasty from 1908 to 1912. When the Guangxu Emperor died without an heir, Empress Dowager Cixi picked the late emperor's nephew, Puyi, aged two, to succeed him as the Xuantong Emperor. Puyi's father, Zaifeng, Prince Chun, served as regent before Puyi was forced to abdicate as a result of the Xinhai Revolution, which ended two millennia of imperial rule and established the Republic of China.

Patsy Cline Music History Livestream - Hosted by Robert Kelleman

Covering the life, career, and music of Patsy Cline, including a brief overview of the Patsy Cline Historic House in Winchester, VA and the Patsy Cline Museum in Nashville, TN. And of course we’ll also hear several of Patsy’s biggest hit songs.

During the program you'll have the opportunity to discuss the music with your fellow history lovers via Zoom.

Also, on Saturday, August 29, we'll be screening the film "Sweet Dreams" starring Jessica Lange as Patsy Cline.