About this Event
She wrote scripts for Mary Pickford, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Greta Garbo, Marion Davies, Rudolf Valentino and Marie Dressler. George Cukor, John Ford and King Vidor directed stories she had written. In 1925, she was making $3,000 a week. She worked with two other powerful women in early Hollywood, actor Mary Pickford and director Lois Weber.
Her name was Frances Marion. She was also beautiful (she had performed in front of the camera), multilingual, a concert-level pianist, a painter and sculptor.
She's the subject of Back Lane Studio's next Extraordinary Women event on Sunday, April 26, 12:30 pm at the Revue. We're screening the documentary Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Power of Women in Hollywood.
Early cinema expert Charlie Keil once again joins us for our post-film discussion.
Scripting such classics as The Champ, Poor Little Rich Girl, Anna Christie, Min and Bill, The Big House,Camille, and The Scarlet Letter, Marion became the first screenwriter to win two Oscars®.
A woman of wit, she observed after studying one of the Oscars she had just received: "I saw it as a perfect symbol of the picture business: a powerful athletic body clutching a gleaming sword, but with half of his head, the part which held his brains, completely sliced off."
Watch the
Tickets:
By donation ($16 suggested) on Eventbrite or at the door. When you purchase tickets by donation, you can buy only one ticket at a time.
About our Guest:
Charlie Keil is a professor at the University of Toronto and principal at Innis College. he is an expert on early American cinema, and has published several books analyzing the early silent films in terms of their storytelling and style. He has also published on documentary, cinema and theatre, authorship, stardom, and contemporary cinema. In collaboration with Marta Braun of Ryerson University, he has been engaged in a longstanding research project to create an online database of films shot in Ontario during the silent era.
Charlie is an award-winning teacher and popular lecturer: 100% of his students say they would take his course again!. Charlie has joined us for earlier Extraordinary Women events about Alice Guy Blache, Mary Pickford and Lois Weber.
We’re thrilled to have him again as our guest speaker!
About the Film:
Released in 2000, the documentary is narrated by Uma Thurman. Kathy Bates is the voice of Frances Marion. It is based in part on the book Without Lying Down, by Cari Beauchamp, who also co-wrote and co-produced the film. Hugh Hefner in association with UCLA Film & Television Archive was executive producer.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Revue Cinema, 400 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto, Canada
CAD 0.00
