Robert Wise in Person, February 27 and 28It is with particular pleasure that we celebrate the distinguished career of Robert Wise, a Hollywood director, producer, and former editor who has provided us with decades of wonderful films, many of which are perennial PFA favorites. Film noir, horror, Western, science fiction, social drama, musical: Robert Wise is a man for all genres.Wise started out as a messenger in the RKO editing department and before long was an editor himself, and nominated for an Academy Award for Citizen Kane. As a director of stylish B-horror films for producer Val Lewton, Wise already showed an affinity for eerie subtleties and expressive settings; in order to gain the actor's perspective, he also studied acting. A craftsman who knew his way around a low-budget picture, he applied that acumen to the many major motion pictures in his diverse career: you can get bigger and bigger budgets, but it's hard to top a film noir like The Set-Up, which won the Cannes Critics Prize in 1948. The Day the Earth Stood Still remains the most profoundly anti-nuclear of science fiction films, while I Want to Live, probably the most outspoken indictment of capital punishment on film, already had the kind of savage realism for which Wise would become known in Odds Against Tomorrow. Our tribute to Robert Wise provides an opportunity to revisit these excellent films as well as some rediscoveries.Wise is no stranger to Oscar-West Side Story and The Sound of Music are among his Academy Award-winning titles, and he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Academy in 1966. An artist who gives back to the community that has so honored him, he has served as president of both the Directors Guild of America and the Motion Picture Academy, and is a renowned philanthropist and mentor. Wise is a recipient of the Presidential National Medal of the Arts. Special thanks to Zoe Elton and the Mill Valley Film Festival for kind assistance.Friday February 13, 1998
