Quiz Show / Marty
35mm double-bill
The Cinema Museum, 1 September 2019
One of the most acclaimed releases of 1994, nominated for 4 Oscars including Best Picture, Robert Redford’s Quiz Show has slipped out of public view in recent years but the themes it explores are as potent and resonant as ever 25 years after its release. Adapted by Paul Attanasio from former Kennedy aide Richard Goodwin’s memoir, Quiz Show uses the scandal surrounding the rigged 1950s NBC game show Twenty One to examine the corruption that lies beneath the seductive glamour of the American dream, and posing questions of class and privilege through the contrasting fortunes of the compromised contestants Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes) and Herb Stempel (John Turturro). Redford posited his film as a parable about “the eternal struggle between ethics and capitalism,” but it’s primarily a vastly entertaining and morally ambiguous human drama, and we are thrilled to be presenting this rare 35mm presentation.
One of the key moments in Quiz Show hinges on 1955’s Marty, another much-celebrated film in its day that now seems to have been forgotten by many. The story of a kind-hearted but insecure bachelor (Ernest Borgnine) who falls for a sensitive schoolteacher (Betsy Blair), Marty is a winning, romantic marvel with a melancholy soul. At a shade over ninety minutes, it remains the shortest film to ever win the Oscar for Best Picture, as well as being one of only two films to win that award in addition to the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Delbert Mann – making his directorial debut – was named Best Director by the Academy, with Paddy Chayefsky winning the first of his three Oscars for his tough and tender screenplay, while Ernest Borgnine beat James Cagney, James Dean, Frank Sinatra and Spencer Tracy to the Best Actor award.
Tickets are £8 for each film or £12 for the double-bill and are available now: