The Wild Party
Making lists is an activity moviegoers are fond of. Every year, the same ritual: compilation of the ten best films, with comparative analyses, debates, heated discussions. But what about the ultimate list of the most outstanding films in the history of cinema? That is to say, those films that must be seen, those that have forever transformed the art of cinema, but also our way of seeing a culture, of understanding the world as well as our own lives? This program aims to tackle this challenge with nearly eighty films, produced between 1916 and 1960, while waiting for your lists!
35mm preservation print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive
The unruly girls at a middle school pay more attention to partying than to their classes. But when one of them, Stella Ames, goes too far at a bar and gets into serious trouble, her teacher must rescue her. The gossip between the two escalates until Stella proves she is respectable by protecting an innocent girl and earning the teacher's respect.
Dorothy Arzner
Dorothy Arzner was an American film director, editor, screenwriter, producer, and pedagogue. Born into a wealthy family (her parents owned a chain a restaurant) she began her career at Paramount Pictures in 1919, as an editor and screenwriter, before directing her first film there in 1927. She directed Clara Bow in her first talkie, The Wild Party (1929), and introduced Katharine Hepburn wearing trousers for the first time in Christopher Strong (1933). In 1932, she left Paramount and directed several independant films, including her cult classic Dance, Girl, Dance (1940). The first woman to join the Screen Directors Guild (Directors Guild of America) when it was created, she was the only female director working in Hollywood during the 1930s and the first woman to direct a sound film. She is the inventor of the boom microphone.
