FILM SERIES
The Method on Film
In conjunction with the publication of Isaac Butler’s critically acclaimed The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act, Butler and film curator Livia Bloom Ingram curate a century-spanning program tracing the development of Method acting in cinema. From Konstantin Stanislavski and the ambitious Moscow Art Theater troupe to Stella Adler and the community-born traditions of Yiddish theater—and from John Garfield’s sheepish grin to Jack Nicholson’s menacing snarl—the films in this program show the evolution of the naturalistic and internalized approach to performance that actors define themselves in relation to today.
Developed by the Group Theatre in the 1930s and brought to generations of actors by the Actors Studio beginning in the late 1940s, the Method has radically transformed Hollywood since the mid-twentieth century. This series offers an invaluable primer on this much misunderstood and quintessentially American form of acting.
Programmed by Isaac Butler and Livia Bloom Ingram
A Streetcar Named Desire is paired with the Maysles’ rare candid glimpse of Brando as himself.
Montgomery Clift plays the ambitious and doomed George Eastman in this influential, Oscar-winning triumph.
American Negro Theatre’s Broadway hit on film, starring Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis, Jr.
An electric performance from Montgomery Clift anchors this timeless study of American individualism.
Sidney Poitier and an all-star ensemble reach new dramatic depths in Lorraine Hansberry's seminal masterpiece.
Silent Russian actors foreshadow the Method's physicality and vivid emotionality.
Nicknamed "the Yiddish Fred Astaire," actor Leo Fuchs stars in this rarely shown musical-comedy.
Warren Beatty’s tribute to the utopian dreams of the early 20th-century—including those that helped birth the Method itself.
In this pairing of TV programs, The Method shows its range with powerhouse performances by Kim Stanley and Joanne Woodward.
John Garfield stars as a poor musician discovered by a wealthy arts patron.
Jack Nicholson gives one of his most emotionally complex performances in the story of a working-class cad with a surprising past.
Actors Studio member Barbara Loden directs and stars in this raw, neo-realist milestone.
William Greaves' meta-cinematic mind-bender is informed by the Method's core preoccupations.
Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman star in this generation-defining document of 1960s youth culture.
Lee Strasberg’s Method is elicited in Rod Steiger’s Oscar-nominated performance as a Holocaust survivor.