PORGY AND BESS Upcoming New York Screening
by Andre Soares
Robert Osborne in The Hollywood Reporter:
"It was a much-touted, much-seen and in some quarters much-admired motion picture in its time, with four Oscar nominations (and one win) to its credit and a cast filled with talented people who, if not yet icons, certainly became so in the years after: Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Pearl Bailey, Sammy Davis Jr. and Diahann Carroll. We’re talking Samuel Goldwyn’s mammoth 1959 musical Porgy and Bess, a film that has not — except in a few rare instances — rolled through a projector in decades but will again Sept. 26-27 at the Ziegfeld in Manhattan amid much hoopla, all in conjunction with the publication of an extensive new biography on the film’s director titled Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King, written by Foster Hirsch, published by Knopf and headed for bookstores Oct. 21."
In his article, Osborne goes on to explain how and why Porgy and Bess, the legendary Samuel Goldwyn’s last film production, has remained virtually unseen since its TV showings in the early 1970s. The George Gershwin estate currently holds the rights to the property, which was much criticized for its portrayal of blacks. But if the film is so demeaning, why did Poitier, Dandridge, et al. opt to appear in it? And should every film or book or play that offends one group or another be banned from viewing?
Osborne quotes Hirsch in his Preminger book: "Whatever their objections, the estate has a moral responsibility to ensure that viewers have the opportunity to come to their own conclusions about this still contested work."
More on Porgy and Bess here.
Otto Preminger Centennial Tribute
Sidney Poitier to Receive Marian Anderson Award
Sidney Poitier Honored in France
B Musicals at New York City’s Film Forum
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They should have Porgy and Bess on DVd.