09 · 28 · 10

Arthur Penn dies

Clara Sánchez translated by Cindy Hawes

During a conference at the 5th Morelia International Film Festival, FICM director Daniela Michel presented Penn as “the great master of American cinema.” The filmmaker, in turn, discussed with those attending the conference how Japanese director Akira Kurosawa had influenced his work.

“Kurosawa had his own idea of time -- he made time become more subjective than objective,” he said. “This made me realize that he saw the cinema as an extension of himself.”

The U.S. director’s revolutionary manner in which he treated sex in the iconic Bonnie and Clyde (1967) drew the attention of cinefiles. The film became a box office success and won two Oscars -- one for Best Photography and the other for Best Supporting Actress for Estelle Parsons. The film also received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Director.

Penn was nominated on two other occasions for Best Director for The Miracle Worker (1962) and Alice’s Restaurant (1969).

Who was Mr. Penn?
By Doris Morales

Born in Philadelphia in 1922, Arthur Penn was a director of film, theater and television. He started his career in theater at a young age, and became a member of an army theater troupe during World War II.

He made his debut as a television director in 1953 and his cinematic debut in 1958 with The Left-Handed Gun, a film about a youth gang. In 1962, he directed The Miracle Worker, which received two Oscars and his first nomination for Best Director.

Other films that he directed during that time include Mickey One (1965), with actor and producer

Warren Beatty, and The Chase (1960), with Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda and Robert Redford and screenplay by Lillian Hellmann. In 1967, he directed the emblematic film Bonnie and Clyde, followed by Alice’s Restaurant (1969); Little Big Man (1970) with Dustin Hoffman and Faye Dunaway; Night Moves (1975) and The Missouri Breaks (1976). His last epoch as a film director was in the 1980s with Georgia (1981), Target (1985), starring Gene Hackman and Sean Penn, and Dead of Winter (1987).

At the end of the 1980s, he turned to television. Among his works are The Portrait (1993) with Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall, and the series Law and Order.

If you would like to see the article written by Robert Muller for the FICM 2007 catalog click here.