The Man Who Was King
Sponsored by Central Coast Magazine
The 2008 San Luis Obispo International Film Festival is proud to present a retrospective honoring the career of legendary filmmaker, King Vidor. “The Man Who Was King,” will celebrate Vidor’s 67-year career in films by showcasing three of his many classic films — Stella Dallas, Street Scene and Duel in the Sun — on March 9, 11 and 12.
If one were to ask him to describe himself, Vidor would say that, first and foremost, he was an American, an idealist, who “…used the motion-picture screen as an expression of hope and faith, to make films presenting positive ideas and ideals…” From the time he started working as an early Hollywood director in 1913, through his films he told countless stories of ordinary men and women who are made extraordinary through their fight against the destructiveness of nature, unified by the desire for selfhood in a mass society.
One of his earliest silent-era films, The Crowd (1928), which tells the story of an anonymous office clerk’s drudge-filled life, is an excellent example of Vidor’s sophisticated social conscience, as well as his innovative directorial technique. The following year, Vidor moved with ease into the sound era, largely because he was one of the few directors of his time who did not let the new medium intimidate him. Although somewhat saddened by the new medium because he believed that much magic would disappear from the screen, he was excited as well, and used the opportunity to invent and develop new techniques. A trailblazer of his time, he took on projects and introduced ideas other directors would not. Hallelujah (1929), Vidor’s first sound film, was a groundbreaking musical with an all African-American cast. He wrote, directed and proudly promoted the film himself. In spite of the fact that the filming of Hallelujah turned into a nightmare for Vidor due to numerous equipment problems, chaotic production crew conditions, and the daily anxiety of transitioning from silent to sound film, in the end, all of his trouble was worth the effort — the movie was a critical success and won Vidor an Oscar nomination for Best Director.
A later film, Our Daily Bread (1934) would be the second of a series of films Vidor made depicting episodes in the lives of the average American man and woman. A story of a young farm couple trying to cope with the effects of the Great Depression, it won a League of Nations award for its contribution to humanity and the film is widely celebrated today for its stylistic eloquence. [The film would also cause Mr. Vidor to find himself quoted on the front page of the French New York Herald Tribune. As he amusingly talks about in his autobiography, A Tree is a Tree, while in France promoting the film, Vidor had argued that there was something more important than sex in the world, that being food. That same evening, as if some world-shaking statement had been made, the paper’s front-page headline read: “VIDOR SAYS FOOD MORE IMPORTANT THAN SEX.”] In his later films, The Citadel (1938), Northwest Passage (1940), Duel In the Sun (1946), and The Fountainhead (1949), Vidor focuses on various forms of industry that operate as a vehicle of Man’s battle to subdue Nature. The films’ stories follow a pattern in which victory comes with great personal sacrifice, and that Man will always remain subordinate in the struggle against its forces.
King Vidor’s films numbered over 60 in his long career between 1913 and 1980, and he is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most prolific film director ever. They range across all genres, from social dramas and women’s issues to Westerns and adventures — unified by the concern over man’s search for meaning and drive for accomplishment. He believed that “every one of us knows that his major job on earth is to make some contribution no matter how small, to this inexorable movement of human progress.” In his own lifetime, King Vidor left no question about his contributions to the human progress. And this is the man’s lasting legacy.
The films chosen for this year’s retrospective of King Vidor’s distinguished career exemplify his reputation as being a socially conscious filmmaker who was an artistic and innovative pioneer of his art.
Phone 805-546-FILM (3456) or send email
© 2007 San Luis Obispo International Film Festival. View Privacy Policy
Web Hosting by Clever Concepts. Web Design by Stuart Mason Helmintoller.