The Films of Peter Bogdanovich, a Retrospective Tribute at the Sag Harbor Cinema

Following the successful screenings of Targets and The Last Picture Show held in its pre-opening phase, Sag Harbor Cinema is devoting a retrospective series to the work of Peter Bogdanovich, who died earlier this year at age 82. Saint Jack and a rare 35 mm screening of They All Laughed will kick off the program on February 26th. Both films star former Sag Harbor resident Ben Gazzarra.

A child of the movies like his “New Hollywood” peers Martin Scorsese; Francis Ford Coppola; and Steven Spielberg, Bogdanovich brought a penchant for film history and curation to his own brand of cinephilia. His passion for, and knowledge of, American classic cinema can be found in the retrospectives he programmed for MoMA, as a young curator, and in the insightful collections of essays and interviews devoted to his favorite stars (Bogart, Cary Grant, Jerry Lewis, …) and directors, to name just a few: John Ford, Howard Hawks, Ernest Lubitsch, Orson Welles, Leo McCarey and Alfred Hitchcock.

That same passion and knowledge colors his own features, among which Saint Jack and They All Laughed stand out as two of the director’s most personal titles. They are also two of his lesser known films, as screenings are difficult to come by. In a 2006 interview with The New York Times, Bogdanovich said, “Saint Jack and They All Laughed were two of my best films but never received the kind of distribution they should have.”

“I am thrilled to be able to share these two films with our audience. They both had quite a tormented distribution history and have not been very accessible to the greater public, which makes them a bit more “secret” than — let’s say — The Last Picture Show, or Paper Moon. But they are peaks of Bogdanovich’s career — his sensibility, his mastery, his love of characters, comic touch and slight melancholy are all in them. I never tire of watching They All Laughed and its last scene breaks my heart every time I do,” says Sag Harbor Cinema’s Artistic Director Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan. 

Filmed in Singapore and produced by Roger Corman, who had taught Bogdanovich the ropes of cheap and efficient independent filmmaking, Saint Jack was adapted from Paul Theroux’s book with the same name. Ben Gazzarra plays Bogdanovich’s version of the American hero in a distant land, a la Bogart — alone, taciturn, still, apparently unflappable; a veil of mystery around his past. He stars alongside Denholm Elliott, who plays an auditor with whom ‘Jack’ makes friends. Roger Ebert gave Saint Jack a four star review, specifically citing Gazzara’s impressive performance.

Wes Anderson called They All Laughed “Bogdanovich’s most pure vision of what he was drawn to.” Admired by directors as different as Anderson, Noah Baumbach and Quentin Tarantino, based on an original screenplay by Bogdanovich and Blaine Novak, They All Laughed is Bogdanovich at his most Lubitsch. The romantic comedy with farce is a love letter to love (even when mismatched or impossible) and to New York, beautifully photographed by Robbie Mueller. It stars Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzarra (Bogdanovich’s Bogart), John Ritter (his Cary Grant), Colleen Camp and playmate Dorothy Stratten. When Stratten was tragically murdered shortly after the end of production and 20th Century Fox pulled the release of the film, Bogdanovich bought its rights and distributed it on his own with no great success. They All Laughed will play at Sag Harbor Cinema in rare 35mm format.

Forthcoming titles in the series Pieces of Time: The Films of Peter Bogdanovich will be announced in the next few weeks.

Tickets will be available at sagharborcinema.org.