Sun July 28, 2013
The Bottom of the Bottle, Henry Hathaway (U.S., 1956)
SEE EVENT DETAILS
at Pacific Film Archive (PFA) Theater
(see times)
Digital Restoration!
This 1956 adaptation of Georges Simenon’s novel was shot under the clear blue skies and hard light of Arizona. Simenon’s story of two bitterly estranged brothers is set in the peculiarly low-key world of gentlemen ranchers in Nogales, who float from one booze-laden barbecue to the next. The carefully appointed homes and flat landscapes, composed into a uniformly handsome ’Scope image by the great Lee Garmes, make just as formidable an impression as Joseph Cotten’s neurotic local big shot or Van Johnson as his brother, on the lam, barely on the wagon, and desperate to join his family across the Mexican border. Like such earlier Henry Hathaway location items as Call Northside 777, Kiss of Death, and Niagara, Bottle has a nice balance of studio-bred opulence and willful leanness, and a keen sense of appropriately Simenonian harshness.
—Kent Jones, Film Comment
• Written by Sydney Boehm, based on the novel by Georges Simenon. Photographed by Lee Garmes. With Joseph Cotten, Van Johnson, Ruth Roman, Jack Carson. (88 mins, Color, DCP, From Criterion/Twentieth Century Fox)
show less
This 1956 adaptation of Georges Simenon’s novel was shot under the clear blue skies and hard light of Arizona. Simenon’s story of two bitterly estranged brothers is set in the peculiarly low-key world of gentlemen ranchers in Nogales, who float from one booze-laden barbecue to the next. The carefully appointed homes and flat landscapes, composed into a uniformly handsome ’Scope image by the great Lee Garmes, make just as formidable an impression as Joseph Cotten’s neurotic local big shot or Van Johnson as his brother, on the lam, barely on the wagon, and desperate to join his family across the Mexican border. Like such earlier Henry Hathaway location items as Call Northside 777, Kiss of Death, and Niagara, Bottle has a nice balance of studio-bred opulence and willful leanness, and a keen sense of appropriately Simenonian harshness.
—Kent Jones, Film Comment
• Written by Sydney Boehm, based on the novel by Georges Simenon. Photographed by Lee Garmes. With Joseph Cotten, Van Johnson, Ruth Roman, Jack Carson. (88 mins, Color, DCP, From Criterion/Twentieth Century Fox)
Digital Restoration!
This 1956 adaptation of Georges Simenon’s novel was shot under the clear blue skies and hard light of Arizona. Simenon’s story of two bitterly estranged brothers is set in the peculiarly low-key world of gentlemen ranchers in Nogales, who float from one booze-laden barbecue to the next. The carefully appointed homes and flat landscapes, composed into a uniformly handsome ’Scope image by the great Lee Garmes, make just as formidable an impression as Joseph Cotten’s neurotic local big shot or Van Johnson as his brother, on the lam, barely on the wagon, and desperate to join his family across the Mexican border. Like such earlier Henry Hathaway location items as Call Northside 777, Kiss of Death, and Niagara, Bottle has a nice balance of studio-bred opulence and willful leanness, and a keen sense of appropriately Simenonian harshness.
—Kent Jones, Film Comment
• Written by Sydney Boehm, based on the novel by Georges Simenon. Photographed by Lee Garmes. With Joseph Cotten, Van Johnson, Ruth Roman, Jack Carson. (88 mins, Color, DCP, From Criterion/Twentieth Century Fox)
read more
This 1956 adaptation of Georges Simenon’s novel was shot under the clear blue skies and hard light of Arizona. Simenon’s story of two bitterly estranged brothers is set in the peculiarly low-key world of gentlemen ranchers in Nogales, who float from one booze-laden barbecue to the next. The carefully appointed homes and flat landscapes, composed into a uniformly handsome ’Scope image by the great Lee Garmes, make just as formidable an impression as Joseph Cotten’s neurotic local big shot or Van Johnson as his brother, on the lam, barely on the wagon, and desperate to join his family across the Mexican border. Like such earlier Henry Hathaway location items as Call Northside 777, Kiss of Death, and Niagara, Bottle has a nice balance of studio-bred opulence and willful leanness, and a keen sense of appropriately Simenonian harshness.
—Kent Jones, Film Comment
• Written by Sydney Boehm, based on the novel by Georges Simenon. Photographed by Lee Garmes. With Joseph Cotten, Van Johnson, Ruth Roman, Jack Carson. (88 mins, Color, DCP, From Criterion/Twentieth Century Fox)
show less
Date/Times:
Pacific Film Archive (PFA) Theater
2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94720
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