And just when you thought drive-ins were a thing of the past – particularly in the dead of winter – Easton’s Academy Art Museum launches a monthly Drive-In Film Series in conjunction with its current “Bugatti: Reaching for Perfection” exhibition running through April 13.Cars play significant roles in each of the movies in the four-part series starting with the 1924 French silent picture “L’Ihumaine,” directed by Marcel L’Herbier, which predate even a few of the classic Grand Prix race cars and sleek roadsters parked for showroom viewing in the museum’s two main galleries. The 1922 Rolland-Pilain Two-Litre Grand Prix racer acts as a motorized French Formalist prop in the film that kicks off the series on Tuesday, Jan. 21.
French Formalism was the dominant response to Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art until the 1960s. The Formalist movement focused on the structure and visual aspects of a work rather than its content, including in this case, performance, too. The subtitle of the original release of “L’Inhumaine” was histoire feerique, which translates as “story of enchantment.” In its time, the film was a controversial avant-garde collaboration of leading practitioners in experimental decorative arts, architecture, engineering and music. Opening night in Paris reportedly drew an audience of such icons as Pablo Picasso, Erik Satie, May Ray, James Joyce, Ezra Pound and the Prince of Monaco. Some adored it. Many more hated it. But the film received better receptions when re-released in 1968 and shown again in 1975 at the 50th anniversary of the Exposition des Arts Decoratifs in Paris and in 1987 at the Cannes Film Festival. Finally, a 2015 restoration featured a new musical accompaniment score by Aidje Tafial. The original score by Darius Milhaud was lost over time.
The Roaring ’20s Grand Prix racers on display at the museum during the run of this film series were designed by Italian mechanical artists Ettore Bugatti and his son Jean. Like the French Rolland-Pilain race-car, they are also hand-cranked from the front, dating them as authentic automobile antiques.
The cinematic journey of the series traces the evolution of the automobile from early Grand Prix classic cars to the harrowing high-speed chases of “The French Connection.” Other films in the series include the first film-noir movie directed by a woman, “The Hitch-Hiker,” released in 1953. Ida Lupino, herself a star in several film-noir narratives featuring her either as villain or victim, directed this true-story tale based on a 1950 killing spree by Billy Cook who held two friends hostage during his murderous driving trip to Mexico. Co-starring Edmond O’Brien, William Talman and Frank Lovejoy, it was selected in 1998 for preservation by the U.S. National Film Registry as “culturally, historically and aesthetically significant.”
“The French Connection,” the highest profile feature in the series, won the 1971 Oscar for Best Picture and the Best Actor prize for Gene Hackman, it tells the semi-fictional tale of New York Police Department detectives led by Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Hackman) in hot pursuit of French heroin smuggler Alain Charnier. It conspicuously intensifies high-speed chases framed beneath tight above-ground commuter train tracks. No margin for steering error.
The final film in the series introduces another four-wheel co-star known as the “Bluesmobile,” a battered former police car. Blues singer and petty crook Joliet (John Belushi) is released from prison and picked up by his brother Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) who demonstrates his driving skills by running the light on a raised drawbridge and leaping the gap. Their supposedly altruistic mission is to save a Catholic orphanage from being shut down by paying their $5,000 property tax bill. Aretha Franklin, it should be noted, soars even higher than the airborne Bluesmobile.
Film passes for the “Drive-In and Unraveling Narratives” series are available for $25 for museum members and $35 for non-members. A pass includes access to all four films with free popcorn at beer or non-alcoholic beverages for members and $5 for non-members.
Drive-In Monthly Film Series
Jan. 21: “L’Inhumaine” (1924)
Feb. 18: “The Hitch-Hiker” (1953)
March 18: “The French Connection” (1971)
April 8: “The Blues Brothers” (1980)
Admission to the series: $25 for museum members or $5 for individual films, $35 non-members, $10 per film. The movies, all on Tuesday nights, start at 7 in the Academy of Art auditorium, 106 South St., Easton; academyartmuseum.org
Steve Parks is a retired New York arts writer and editor now living in Easton.
Now and for the next few months, Easton’s Academy Art Museum’s main galleries are transformed into automobile showrooms – except these vehicles are historically artistic expressions of engineering on wheels that you could never afford even if any of the few such cars left in existence were for sale.
