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Writing
STAGE TO SCREEN: American Film Theatre
By Eric Grode
Playbill, August 2, 2002
Many readers have written in with nostalgic memories of Ely
Landau's American Film Theatre. This was the mid-seventies program
in which subscribers would go to a local movie theatre once a
month and see high quality adaptations of contemporary drama
(Genet, Ionesco, O'Neill and Pinter, among others). The theatre
managers dressed up, and "Cinebills" with fake leatherette
covers were handed out. The series lasted two years and generated
a total of 14 movies, very few of which have been seen since
(and one of which, "Philadelphia, Here I Come!," never
got screened in theatres at all).
New Yorkers recently had a chance
to catch six of the 14 AFT offerings, thanks to the Lincoln Center
Festival, and it looks like the rest of the country will get
its chance soon. Ely Landau has passed away, but his widow, Edie,
and son-in-law, Michael Kantor, are on a crusade to get the 14
films on DVD and at a film festival near you.
Back in the days before public
television existed, Edie and Ely Landau owned New York's Channel
13, where they had had some success in the early 1960's producing
what they called "Play of the Week." These were regular
film adaptations of everything from "Medea" to "The
Iceman Cometh." When O'Neill's widow saw the latter production,
she asked for other O'Neill films, which ultimately led to an
acclaimed big-screen "Long Day's Journey Into Night"
starring Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson and a young Jason
Robards Jr.
The rest of the AFT puzzle came
together in 1970, after the Landaus had completed a four-hour
documentary about Martin Luther King. The Landaus implored more
than 500 movie theaters nationwide to donate a screen for one
night, and all proceeds went to the Martin Luther King Foundation.
The Landaus realized it was possible to couple this distribution
strategy with the "Play of the Week" format. Thus was
born the American Film Theatre, which ran from 1973 to 1975.
Not even two people as dynamic
as the Landaus could keep AFT running indefinitely. "There
were just too many mountains to climb," Ely Landau says,
"and we simply wore out." She had hoped to include
the AFT film of Simon Gray's "Butley" in the Lincoln
Center retrospective - "Alan Bates was wonderful in that"
- but the print would benefit from some refurbishment. "I'm
also a real sentimentalist," she says, "and I happen
to love 'Lost in the Stars,'" one of two musicals that AFT
filmed. (The other is "Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and
Living in Paris.")
Kantor, himself a documentarian
- he's developing a six-hour series on the history of Broadway
for Channel 13 - is working to get the 14 movies seen. The rights
- which had been languishing in the Warner Bros. vaults, thanks
to a complicated series of mergers - have finally made their
way back to the Landau family, and Kantor says a distribution
deal is nearly in place for the entire package. He says the Lincoln
Center Festival offered great press as well as an imprimatur:
"Once Lincoln Center does it, it's like a beacon to all
the independent theatres and film festivals in the country."
Sure enough, festival showings have already been lined up in
Philadelphia, Florida and Portland, Oregon, among other places.
Kantor would also love to find an Irish film festival for what
would be the domestic premiere of Brian Friel's "Philadelphia,
Here I Come!" with Donal McCann and Siobhan McKenna.
Copyright © 2002 Playbill, Inc. All
Rights Reserved.
(the first series is highlighted in red,
the second in blue)
The Ice Man Cometh (1973):
'is a success indeed. It is not merely a worthy production
of a great play; it also possesses moments of it's own greatness.
Altogether, it is a film of such extraordinary beauty and power'
TIME MAGAZINE
Starring: Lee Marvin, Frederic March, Robert Ryan, Jeff Bridges
Directed by: John Frankenheimer
The Homecoming (1973):
'Ely Landau's production of The Homecoming is nothing less
than superb.' VARIETY
Starring: Ian Holm, Paul Rogers, Vivien Merchant, Cyril Cusack
Directed by: Peter Hall
A Delicate Balance (1973):
'is a rare treatPaul Scofield and Katharine Hepburn are stupendous
as the dysfunctional couple who have the misfortune of having
permanent houseguests.' TIME OUT NEW YORK
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Paul Scofield, Lee Remick, Kate
Reid
Directed by: Tony Richardson
Butley (1973): 'Alan
Bates' stage triumph in Simon Gray's Butley has been superbly
recreated on the screen with the added excellence of Harold Pinter's
topnotch film directorial debut.' VARIETY
Starring: Alan Bates, Jessica Tandy, Michael Byrne, Georgina
Hale
Directed by: Harold Pinter
Three Sisters (1970):
' This Three Sisters succeeds because it recreates a lot of
the excitement of a special theatrical performance.' NEW
YORK TIMES
Starring: Joan Plowright, Jeanne Watts, Louise Purnell, Lawrence
Olivier, Alan Bates
Directed by: Laurence Olivier
The Maids (1974): 'The
filmis a fine vivid recording of what seems to have been a smashing
theatre production of the play in London with the same cast.'
NEW YORK TIMES
Starring: Glenda Jackson, Susannah York, Vivien Merchant
Directed by: Christopher Miles
Galileo (1974): 'Landau and the AFT are to be congratulated
on a film of the highest quality, confirming that there is a
well deserved niche for them in the film industry.' HOLLYWOOD
REPORTER
Starring: Topol, John Gielgud, Edward Fox, Tom Conti, Michael
Gough, Michel Lonsdale
Directed by: Joseph Losey
In Celebration (1974):
'Anderson and a superb cast have made a harrowing and satisfying
suspense drama.' NEW YORK MAGAZINE
Starring: Alan Bates, James Bolam, Brian Cox, Bill Owen, Constance
Chapman
Directed by: Lindsay Anderson
Rhinoceros (1974):
'Mostel, comparatively subdued, is extremely funny.' THE
NEW YORK TIMES
Starring: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Karen Black
Directed by: Tom O'Horgan
Luther (1973): 'Movies
of the quality of Luther are so rare that the opportunity to
see this one should not be missed. It is compelling drama.'
ST LOUIS GLOBE
Starring: Stacy Keach, Julian Glover, Robert Stephens, Judi Dench
Directed by: Guy Green
The Man In The Glass Booth
(1975): 'A brilliantly literate screenplay by Edward Anhalt
and a powerhouse performance by Maximilian Schell give this intelligent
Ely Landau production the stature of high theatrical achievement
that the American Film Theatre was created to record.' HOLLYWOOD
REPORTER
Starring: Maximilian Schell, Luther Adler, Lois Nettleton, Lawrence
Pressman
Directed by: Arthur Hiller
Philadelphia, Here I Come (1975): 'The eternal Irish
dilemma - to leave or to stay, beautifully written with flashes
of warm humour, well performed by a quality Irish cast.' TV
TIMES
Starring: Siobhan McKenna, Donal McCann, Des Cave
Directed by: John Quested
Lost In The Stars (1974): 'Stars is a cast expertly
assembled by producer Ely Landau.' VARIETY
Starring: Brock Peters, Melba Moore, Raymond St. Jacques, Clifton
Davies
Directed by: Daniel Mann
Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris (1975):
'The screenplay by Eric Blau is taut and imaginative in the
way it links one Brel tune to the next.' LOS ANGELES TIMES
Starring: Mort Shuman, Elly Stone, Jacques Brel, Joe Masiell,
Shawn Elliott, Judy Lander
Directed by: Denis Héroux
Kino on Video is pleased to announce the release on
VHS and DVD of the AMERICAN FILM THEATRE SERIES, the finest
collection of plays brought to the screen in the history of American
cinema. Aside from a limited VHS release in 1978, these 14 critically-acclaimed
feature films have been completely unavailable both on video
and in theatres. Now, 28 years after the series finished its
theatrical run, Kino on Video is proud to reintroduce these landmark
feature films to a wider audience.
With a street date of April 1st, 2003, the American Film Theatre
Collection #1 [highlighted above] is comprised of: THE ICEMAN
COMETH, directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Lee Marvin,
Robert Ryan, Frederick March and Jeff Bridges, RHINOCEROUS starring
Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel, BUTLEY starring Alan Bates and Jessica
Tandy, LUTHER starring Stacy Keach and THE MAIDS, adapted from
a play by Jean Genet and starring Glenda Jackson and Susannah
York. All these titles will prebook on March 4th, 2003, with
a SRP for the Box Set (on DVD and VHS) for $119.95. Individual
DVDs will sell for $29.95 and VHS tapes for $24.95
All 14 feature films produced under the AFT Label are to be released in three separate box sets throughout 2003. On DVD, these titles will also bring a number of unseen extras which will be of interest to theatre and film enthusiasts alike. These special features include an interview with Edie Landau, the chief executive of the American Film Theatre, 12 theatrical trailers, essays by Michael Feingold, the chief theatre critic for the Village Voice, a photo gallery/scrapbook including original posters and reviews, plus a rare original promotional film of Ely Landau introducing the "second season" of the series. |||
