Monday, February 16, 2009

AFI Dallas announces Robert Towne as Star Award recipient

The prolific screenwriter and occasional director is the first Star Awardee announced for the 2009 festival.

By John P. Meyer

One of my personal favorite films is Chinatown, which - thanks to a sly Nicholson performance, masterful Polanski direction and a melancholy, romantic score courtesy of Jerry Goldsmith - will forever retain its legendary place among atmospheric Hollywood noir thrillers. It represents the top of the form.

From AFI Dallas film fest HQ comes word that the screenwriter who brought the shadowy world of Chinatown to life - Robert Towne - will be honored at this year's festival with a coveted Star Award. Towne won the Oscar for his memorable and psychologically-nuanced script, which has Faye Dunaway's character proclaiming - during a climactic exchange with Jake Gittes (Nicholson) - "She's my sister... she's my daughter... she's my sister AND my daughter!" Talk about your unforgettable movie scenes.

Here's the really cool bit: in honor of the 35th anniversary of the release of Chinatown, AFI Dallas will show the movie on the big screen and follow up that screening with a Q&A hosted by none other than Mr. Towne himself.

Towne's career as a screenwriter extends all the way back to the early '60s, when he got his start fleshing out a Roger Corman picture called Last Woman on Earth. In the '70s he scripted The Last Detail, Chinatown, The Yakuza (an oft-neglected masterpiece of a crime thriller), Shampoo and The Missouri Breaks (an offbeat Brando/Nicholson western) - in addition to contributing to a bunch of scripts for which he remains uncredited.

"My sister, or my daughter? Which 'a deeze?"

In the '80s Towne wrote and directed both Personal Best, starring Mariel Hemingway as a polyamorous olympic-level athlete, and Tequila Sunrise, a crime thiller starring Mel Gibson, Kurt Russell and Michelle Pfeiffer. He also wrote the story treatment for Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.

Towne's most recent screenwriting work of note has been on the first two Mission: Impossible films and the Steve Prefontaine biopic, Without Limits. According to IMDB, he's currently engaged in some level of production (the latest note states it's "sort of on the back burner") on a remake of the Hitchcock classic, The 39 Steps.

In addition to announcing Towne's selection for a Star Award, the AFI folks have also dropped the names of ten films chosen to appear at the festival. They are as follows:

Americana (USA), director: Topaz Adizes

Documentary follows the experiences of two young men from a small town in Arizona as they complete their last semester of high school and enlist in the Army to join the fight in Iraq.

The American Trap (Canada), director: Charles Binamé; cast: Rémy Girard, Gérard Darmon, Colm Feore, Joe Cobden, Janet Lane

Thriller set in a world of global intrigue and corruption, as a man attempts to uncover the truths behind the JFK assassination.

Evangelion 1.0 You Are Not Alone (Japan), director: Hideaki Anno, Masayuki, Kazuya Tsurumaki

Film is the first in a four-part series adapted and re-imagined from the legendary NEON GENESIS EVANGELION anime series.

The Garden (USA), director: Scott Hamilton Kennedy

Documentary traces the events that led to the creation of a 14-acre community garden in South Central Los Angeles and the struggle between the urban farmers, the City of Los Angeles and a powerful developer who sought to evict them and build warehouses on the property.

Kassim The Dream (Uganda/USA), director: Kief Davidson

Documentary profiles Kassim ‘The Dream’ Ouma, who survived being a child soldier in Uganda to becoming a champion boxer.

Like Dandelion Dust (USA), director: Jon Gunn; cast: Mira Sorvino, Barry Pepper, Cole Hauser

Drama pits a couple versus a parolee father who seeks to take custody of their six-year-old adopted son.

Lymelife (USA), director: Derick Martini; cast: Alec Baldwin, Kieran Culkin, Rory Culkin, Jill Hennessy, Timothy Hutton, Cynthia Nixon, Emma Roberts

Drama set in Long Island during the late 1970s, follows the intertwining lives of two families focusing on the teenaged children and their attempts to cope with the times.

Rudo y Cursi (Mexico), director: Carlos Cuarón; cast: Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal

Drama about the turmoil between two brothers who compete against each other in the world of professional soccer.

Tyson (USA), director: James Toback

Documentary takes an unvarnished view of the controversial former heavyweight champion boxer.

Upstream Battle (USA), director: Ben Kempas

Documentary chronicles the battle between Native Americans and an energy corporation as they seek to protect the salmon they depend on for their survival.

source: AFI Dallas

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Comments

alexander troup Verified

One of the great Classics, and still holding it own, while Two Jakes was not a great follow up, this is an Award Winner...A/T, ...Film Historian.

8 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )