Quality Control: Selected Works from Zaentz Films

May 30, 2009 - June 17, 2009

Amadeus, May 30

In 1971, West Berkeley saw the rise of an impressive seven-story building, the headquarters of Fantasy Studios. The edifice was originally home to the venerable jazz and rock label Fantasy Records, but by 1973 the company, under the guidance of Saul Zaentz, had expanded into filmmaking as well. The first of these films, Payday, which cast Rip Torn as a decrepit country singer, arose from its producer’s roots in the music business, but Zaentz quickly realized that his metier lay in the literary adaptation, producing a formidable body of work based on the writings of Ken Kesey, J. R. R. Tolkien, Milan Kundera, Peter Shaffer, Michael Ondaatje, and others. Beginning with Milos Forman’s frenetic take on Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Zaentz released a string of award-winning films, three of them garnering Oscars for best picture. What is immediately apparent about these films, including Amadeus, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and The English Patient, is their meticulous construction. Virtuosic sound design, graceful editing, and elegant cinematography characterize these works, which accumulated another four Oscars (and many more nominations) for technical excellence. To acknowledge the recent deposit to the PFA Collection of almost a dozen prints from this remarkable Berkeley bastion, we have selected four films, each to be introduced by a member of the creative team that produced it. Join us for a celebration of Zaentz Films, homegrown, like it should be.

Steve Seid
Video Curator

Saturday, May 30, 2009
7:00 p.m. Amadeus
Milos Forman (U.S., 1984). Mark Berger in person.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009
7:00 p.m. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Philip Kaufman (U.S., 1988). Vivien Hillgrove in person.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
7:00 p.m. At Play in the Fields of the Lord
Hector Babenco (U.S., 1991). David Bergad in person.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009
7:00 p.m. The English Patient
Anthony Minghella (U.S., 1996). Pat Jackson in person.