Ida Lupino at 100
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Celebrate the centenary of Hollywood trailblazer Ida Lupino with newly-restored versions of three of the director’s films: Not Wanted (1949), The Hitch-Hiker (1953) and The Bigamist (1953).
Reviews More Reviews
"Lupino's movies are rite-of-passage films - passage into womanhood, into nightmare, into lack of control."
- Ronnie Scheib
"The highlight of the retrospective, though, is the film in which Lupino appeared on both sides of the camera, becoming the first woman in the post-silent era to direct herself: The Bigamist (1953). The movies Lupino directed for Filmakers included socially conscious melodramas such as Outrage (1950), an unblinking account of rape and the cruelties of the legal system, and lean noirs like The Hitch-Hiker (1953), about two buddies headed to a fishing trip in Mexico who unknowingly offer a lift to a psychopath. The Bigamist, remarkably complex and deeply sympathetic to all three of its protagonists, is a hybrid of both genres-call it a melo-noir."
- Melissa Anderson, 4Columns
"People are tired of having the wool pulled over their eyes. They pay out good money for their theatre tickets and they want something in return. They want realism. And you can't be realistic with the same glamorous muggs on the screen all the time."
- Ida Lupino
On Not Wanted: "Ida Lupino’s first film as a director (which she also produced), from 1949, is a startling blend of compassion and invention. Lupino displays a documentary avidity for the details of work and play. She conveys Sally’s unworldly, impractical passion with tender, intimate closeups and an intense, effects-driven subjectivity-a hallucinatory sequence in a hospital is a masterpiece of low-budget Expressionism."
- Richard Brody, The New Yorker
On The Bigamist: "One of Lupino's out of nowhere masterpieces."
- Chris Fujiwara
On The Hitch-Hiker: "It's a brutal story handled by Ms. Lupino, one of Hollywood's very few female directors, with the same steely determination and emotional sensitivity found in her strongest performances."
- J. Hoberman, The New York Times
"Lupino is known as a groundbreaker in Hollywood and an independent auteur, but that reputation may still short-sell her considerable artistry.Although Lupino had a knack for tightly coiled thrillers (The Hitch-Hiker, from 1953), she also dealt candidly with third-rail subject matter, such as rape and its aftermath in the 1950 feature Outrage. The haunting irresolution and complexity of her best work can be seen in The Bigamist."
- Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times
"A woman of extraordinary talents, and one of those
talents was directing. The five films she directed
between 1949 and 1953...represent a singular
achievement in American cinema."
- Martin Scorsese, New York Times Magazine
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