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3.2.08 - 4.27.08
WIRE, TAPE AND RUBBER BAND STYLE: THE EFFECTS OF L.B. ABBOTT Before another barrage of digital-laden summer blockbusters, the Archive pays tribute to one of pre-digital Hollywood's greatest effects artists, L.B. (Lenwood Ballard) Abbott, in the centennial year of his birth. Abbott's storied career spans his role as an assistant cameraman shooting storm footage for F.W. Murnau's Sunrise (1929) to consulting with Steven Spielberg on 1941 (1979). In between, Abbott headed Fox's special photographic effects department from 1957 to 1972, during which time he created some of the most spectacular images of the studio era for both the big screen and television. Abbott's craftsmanship and ingenuity can best be summed up by the title of his book, Special Effects: Wire, Tape and Rubber Band Style, published by the ASC in 1984.
This series highlights Abbott's best film work across a range of genres—sci-fi, horror, drama, historical epic—to underscore the point that while technologies may change, the artistic principles that Abbott embodied do not. Friday March 7 2008, 7:30PM ( Online Ticket Sales Ended )
New print!
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH
(1959) Directed by Henry Levin  Based on Jules Verne's classic novel, this unforgettable adventure to the planet's core was one of Abbott's first major projects as head of Fox's special photographic effects department. James Mason and an all-star cast descend underground, encountering a world teeming with enormous lizards, colorful crystal caves and giant mushrooms. THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
(1951) Directed by Robert Wise  Director Robert Wise demanded the utmost realism for telling the Cold War-influenced story of an alien who lands in Washington DC with an intergalactic message of peace—backed up by an indestructible robot. Working under veteran Fox effects man, Fred Sersen, Abbott set the bar high for the flood of Hollywood sci-fi films to follow. Saturday March 8 2008, 7:30PM ( Online Ticket Sales Ended )
FANTASTIC VOYAGE
(1966) Directed by Richard Fleischer  In a race against time, an American medical team is shrunk to the size of bacteria and injected into the body of a comatose Czech scientist, who holds the key to a vital military secret. Working with art director Jack Martin Smith, Abbott and his team crafted a spellbinding inner world with images that, for all the film's Hollywood credentials, border on the avant-garde. New Print!
THE LOST WORLD
(1960) Directed by Irwin Allen  This dazzling adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel marks the beginning of Abbott's 20-year association with legendary filmmaker Irwin Allen. Building on his experiences with Journey to the Center of the Earth, Abbott and his team use multiple techniques to bring a menagerie of outsized lizards and molten dangers to terrifying life. Wednesday March 12 2008, 7:30PM ( Online Ticket Sales Ended )
THE FLY
(1958) Directed by Kurt Neumann  The honeycomb image of dozens of Patricia Owens recoiling in Technicolor terror from a bug-headed Al Hedison is iconic of the 1950s horror cycle, but Abbott's contributions to The Fly evoke much more than fear. His effects—the glowing teleportation device, a man ensnared in a spider's web—carry us from the wonder of science to the pathos of human suffering in an indifferent universe. THE SNAKE PIT
(1948) Directed by Anatole Litvak  Director Anatole Litvak's searing melodrama about a woman's struggle with mental illness exemplifies how visual effects can punctuate key themes and emotions in any genre. Abbott's crucial contribution to the film literalizes the metaphor of its title, powerfully connecting us to the tormented subjectivity of Olivia de Havilland's suffering hospital patient. Sunday March 16 2008, 7:00PM* ( Online Ticket Sales Ended )
THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE
(1972)  While its recent digital-heavy remake sank like a stone at the box office, the original Poseidon Adventure has achieved cult status as much for the theatrics of its all-star cast as its bravura effects—which helped set a standard of realism for the modern-day blockbuster. New print!
VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
(1961) Directed by Irwin Allen  When the Van Allen radiation belt engulfs the earth in apocalyptic flames, it's up to the crew of a US nuclear submarine, naturally, to save the world. Between blood-red skies and the darkest ocean depths, they confront all manner of obstacles, courtesy of Abbott's effects, including underwater mine fields, enemy subs and, in a nod to Jules Verne, a giant octopus. * Please note the early start time. Friday March 21 2008, 7:30PM ( Online Ticket Sales Ended )
THE BOSTON STRANGLER
(1968) Directed by Richard Fleischer  Director Richard Fleischer transforms a straightforward police procedural into a kaleidoscope of fear with Abbot providing the extensive split-screen imagery that captures the radiating paranoia that gripped Boston in the early 1960s when serial killer Henry DeSalvo stalked the city. Saturday March 22 2008, 7:30PM ( Online Ticket Sales Ended )
TOWERING INFERNO
(1975) Directed by John Guillermin and Irwin Allen  A pinnacle of the 1970s disaster film cycle, Towering Inferno confronted Abbott with the unenviable task of believably inserting a 138-storey building into the skyline of San Francisco—and then burning it down. Using every trick in the book, Abbott achieved an unparalleled level of effects realism that still gives CGI a run for its money. Saturday March 29 2008, 2:00PM* ( Online Ticket Sales Ended )
Presented in 70mm!
CLEOPATRA
(1963) Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz  A spectacle both behind the camera and on-screen, the troubled production of Cleopatra is the stuff of Hollywood legend. Working closely with Emil Kosa, Jr., who won an Academy Award for special photographic effects, Abbott contributed extensively to the burning of the library at Alexandria and Battle of Actium sequences, following, as he wrote, Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck's dictum, "if you talk about something in a film, you must show it." * Please note the early start time. |