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Sidney Lumet Centennial

When Sidney Lumet died in 2011, Roger Ebert, the veteran film critic, wrote this beautiful sentence: "To say he lacked a noticeable visual style is a compliment. He reduced every scene to its necessary elements, and filmed them, he liked to say, 'invisibly.'" Though this paragraph perfectly defines Lumet's approach - a cinematic realism almost lacking mannerism - it still doesn't explain the essence of his 50-year career that includes some of the principal titles of American cinema in the second half of the 20th century.
Lumet was born in Philadelphia in August 1924 to Polish parents, actors at the Heidi Theater, and already from a young age he was involved in theater life, first on stage and later as a director. In the 1950s, the decade in which television broke through - he specialized as a television director and directed hundreds of programs and episodes. It was only in 1957 that Lumet directs his first film, "12 Angry Men." Already in his debut work, the tension between the two stylistic forces that shaped his career, theatricality and realism, is present, alongside constant confrontation with questions of morality and justice.
Lumet's career is rich in adaptations of plays - "The Fugitive Kind" (Tennessee Williams), "Long Day's Journey into the Night" (Eugene O'Neill), "A View from the Bridge" (Arthur Miller) "The Sea Gull" (Anton Chekhov), "Equus" (Peter Schieffer), along with intense dramas such as "The Pawnbroker," "Fail Safe," "The Hill," "Serpico," "Dog Day Afternoon," "Network," and more. He directed dramas, thrillers, courtroom dramas, an adaptation of Agatha Christie, and even a version with an all-African-American cast of "The Wizard of Oz" (which failed).
This month's program highlights some of this selection and focuses on his more daring works, which manage, even today, to be just as effective. Movies in which Lumet depicts men on the brink of crisis, trying to do the right thing in the face of a world in which forces greater than themselves are at work. A significant part of his influence was his ability to shift between the points of view of his heroes, to create a certain distance through which the hero's consciousness and his struggle may appear as weakness or psychosis. One of the foundations of his success was his ability to perfectly cast and direct his actors, and under his baton, worked some of the finest actors: Henry Fonda, Marlon Brando, Sean Connery, Al Pacino, James Mason, Rod Steiger, Richard Burton, William Holden, Paul Newman, Ethan Hawke, to name a few.
Lumet was part of the generation that shaped the cinematic mainstream after WWII. He successfully navigated through the period when Hollywood's taste changed with the rise of the daring generation of directors of the early 1970s. He remains communicative and relevant, and even his last film, the 2007 "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," was effective, fascinating, and most importantly fresh. This month's program is an opportunity to revisit or encounter for the first time some of his greatest and most influential films. 

12 Angry Men

Dir.: Sidney Lumet
| 95 minutes

A man tries to convince 11 other jurors that their hasty conviction of a boy on trial for murder is mistaken. One of the most dynamic and profound films of the 1950s, 12 Angry Men is a masterpiece exploring the weaknesses of humankind and the strength of the common man.

The Fugitive Kind

Dir.: Sidney Lumet
| 119 minutes

Anna Magnani is a small-town shop owner caring for her dying husband. Marlon Brando, dressed in leather, enters her shop and starts working there. Though age and social status separate them, their relationship heats up. Sixty years on, The Fugitive Kind is still an intense and remarkable work not to be missed.

Fail Safe

Dir.: Sidney Lumet
| 112 minutes

When a malfunction disrupts the US Air Force's warning system, an automatic response plan is activated in which planes armed with nuclear bombs are sent deep into the USSR. Now, the American president has to try to prevent WWIII. Lumet adopts a precise and realistic film style and focuses the work on the human factor.

The Hill

Dir.: Sidney Lumet
| 122 minutes

This masterful film takes place in a harsh military prison in the North African desert during WWII, where a tough British officer is sent after refusing to follow an unreasonable order. There, he finds commanders who range from apathy to sadism. The death of a prisoner leads to a rebellion. Fair print

Serpico

Dir.: Sidney Lumet
| 129 minutes

Farnk Serpico is an honest straight undercover cop whose non-conformist atitude and exposure of police coruption isolate him from the force. With passion and by diluting all the macho characteristics that until then were intended for police characters, Al Pacino gives a perfect performance.

Dog Day Afternoon

Dir.: Sidney Lumet
| 130 minutes

On a blisteringly warm day, a duo of bank robbers gets stuck with hostages without knowing what to do with them, as the bank is surrounded by the police force, bloodthirsty mobs, and the media. Dog Day Afternoon is considered one of the best films of the 1970s.

Wacky Film Club
Alon Gur Arye (in Heb.) on the battle for the ratings - films that crossed the line

Network

Dir.: Sidney Lumet
| 121 minutes

Outrageous satire on television in which a TV network's fading star decides that in the final episode of his show he will commit suicide in front of the audience and the viewing public.

Network

Dir.: Sidney Lumet
| 121 minutes

Outrageous satire on television in which a TV network's fading star decides that in the final episode of his show he will commit suicide in front of the audience and the viewing public.

Equus

Dir.: Sidney Lumet
| 137 minutes

17-year-old Alan Strang is sent to physiatrist Martin Dysart's clinic after harming six horses. The foray into the depths of the boy's troubled mind forces the doctor to confront his trepidations. Lumet presents a singular and astonishing drama with Richard Burton as the tortured hero.

The Verdict

Dir.: Sidney Lumet
| 125 minutes

Newman, in what is considered by many his best performance, is Frank Galvin, once a top junior lawyer, and a cloudy headed boozer, who goes on a crusade in a malpractice lawsuit against a hospital and the Catholic Church which owns it.

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

Dir.: Sidney Lumet
| 116 minutes

Two New York brothers think they have found a sure way to solve their financial problems with a simple robbery, but face an emotional abyss after the fact. Sydney Lumet presents a brave film with his characteristic flexible cinematic style and psychological depth.