Writer/Director:

Ian Ayres

Tony Curtis: Driven to Stardom
France | 96 minutes Genre: Documentary Language: English

Screenings:

Harkins Camelview 5 Scottsdale | Thurs. Feb. 16th, 2012 | 7:00 PM

In every way, good, bad, but never dull, Tony Curtis is the iconic rags to riches, intolerance struggle, climb to fame, pursued by infamy, American story. To know this story is to know what defines a truly original movie star. Tony Curtis is the stuff that Hollywood biopics are made of - bigger than life, fiction posing as fact. In fact, this fascinating documentary, with its celebrity interviews, exclusive footage and film clips and the actor’s own honest and open conversation, reveals what comes with an unpredictable, truly incredible rise to fame and power. Addiction to fan adulation, and sometimes outrageous behavior can have its consequences. That is the case of this witty and intelligent man, his efforts to claim the serious acting roles, and display the talent that just needed time to mature. You see it on the screen as Sidney Falco in Sweet Smell of Success (‘57), driving ambition derailing a personality. You see it in Some Like It Hot (‘59), outrageously comic cross-dressing and dead on impersonations. But maybe the role that most distinguishes Tony Curtis is his courageous stance against the color barrier in the film whose title conveys most emphatically who and what Tony Curtis is: The Defiant Ones (‘58).

Short Film

Camelview 5, Scottsdale

HAVA NAGILA: What Is It? (USA)

Director: Roberta Grossman

Documentary – 10 minutes, English

A work in progress film for a song that has progressed to being played, sung, danced to and loved the world over. A tune, with words that can be sung in any tongue and translates as JOY! Behind any memorable work there has to be a history. Along with Harry Belafonte and others, you can share with the filmmaker in finishing the story. Meantime enJOY!

“When you find a song that says ‘Let us rejoice’ there is no better song to leave an evening with than that statement.” Harry Belafonte, December 2009

Tony Curtis: Driven to Stardom