Conversations in Film: The Last Picture Show w/ Polly Platt & Tom Schatz

Father's Day is just days away, but it's not too late to show the favorite man in your life just how much you appreciate his love for cinema - by reserving him tickets to an intimate, one-night-only Austin Film Festival Conversations in Film Event!

Seating is limited for the discussion. Tickets can be reserved online here.



Sunday, July 13, 2008
3:00PM-5:00PM Discussion w/ Polly Platt & Tom Schatz To Be Announced Location Downtown Austin
6:00PM Screening of The Last Picture Show at the Paramount Theatre
$12 - AFF Members,
$17- Non-AFF Members
(Price Includes Discussion & Ticket to The Last Picture Show screening!)
Tickets available here!



INFO:
It has been called "the most impressive work by an American director since Citizen Kane". It was nominated for eight Academy Awards (winning two), was ranked as one of the 100 greatest American films of all time by AFI, and was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. But how did this low budget art film about a small town in Texas take America by storm, let alone get made?

Join producer, production designer and screenwriter Polly Platt for the next segment of the Austin Film Festival's "Conversations in Film" series where she'll talk about making the film "THE LAST PICTURE SHOW", along with celebrated film historian Tom Schatz who will place the film in historical context. We'll hear about the film's beginnings (Sal Mineo passed on Larry McMurty's dime store novel to Polly) all the way to it's place as a seminal work of the new maverick cinema of the 1970s.

This intimate event will include a ticket to the screening of the film at the historic Paramount Theatre immediately following the talk. AFF's "Conversations in Film" series is sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences®.

There will be a short break for dinner on your own before the film. The seminar location will be downtown near the Paramount and will be announced shortly.

More about Polly Platt:
Platt is an acclaimed production designer best known for her work on films directed by former husband Peter Bogdanovich: "Targets" (1968), "The Last Picture Show" (1971). "What's Up, Doc?" (1972) and "Paper Moon" (1973). She went on to work on such diverse projects as the remake of "A Star is Born" (1976), "Young Doctors in Love" (1982) and "The Witches of Eastwick" (1987). Platt wrote the screenplay for Louis Malle's "Pretty Baby" (1978) but was unhappy with casting decisions and has distanced herself from the final film. She earned her first executive producer credit on James Brooks' "Broadcast News" (1987), which she also designed, and went on to produce "Say Anything" (1989), "I'll Do Anything" (1994), and "Bottle Rocket" (1996) which launched the careers of Wes Anderson, Owen and Luke Wilson.

More about Tom Schatz:
Tom Schatz is the Mary Gibbs Jones Centennial Chair (and former Chair) of the Department of Radio-Television-Film at The University of Texas at Austin, where he has been on the faculty since 1976, and is currently the Executive Director of the UT Film Institute. He has written four books about Hollywood films and filmmaking. These include Hollywood Genres, widely considered the standard academic text on that subject; The Genius of the System, a highly acclaimed book about the "studio system" during Hollywood's classical era; and most recently Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s, which is volume six of Scribner's ten-volume History of American Film series. His writing on film has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and academic journals, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Premiere, The Nation, Film Comment, and Cineaste.

Austin Film Festival members are invited to buy their tickets over the phone for the discounted price of $12 by calling 512.478.4795, M-F during business hours.