July 27 - August 18, 2024 Donald Sutherland Remembered Series | DON’T LOOK NOW, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE, ORDINARY PEOPLE, MASH, KELLY’S HEROES, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, A DRY WHITE SEASON, KLUTE, JFK, PRIDE & PREJUDICE
ABOUT THE SERIES: It is with a heavy heart that the American Cinematheque pays tribute to the late, great Canadian actor Donald Sutherland, whose presence on screen will forever stay etched in the memories of moviegoers across 7 decades. Sutherland’s career saw him enjoy memorable collaborations with many of the great filmmakers of his time, including Robert Altman, Alan J. Pakula, Nicolas Roeg, Robert Redford, Oliver Stone, John Landis, and others. Our tribute retroactively began with Ron Howard’s BACKDRAFT during ‘Ultra Cinematheque 70 Fest 2024,’ and continues over the next month as we screen and celebrate some of Sutherland’s most iconic roles. One of the defining characteristics of Sutherland’s acting career has to be his ability to seamlessly adapt his often serious demeanor to the characterization of roles within a myriad of genres; a testament to his unparalleled versatility. He grabbed hold of our emotions in dramas like ORDINARY PEOPLE and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. He channeled our innermost fears and left an eternal mark on the horror genre with performances in DON’T LOOK NOW and INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. With roles in political mysteries and thrillers such as A DRY WHITE SEASON, KLUTE, and JFK, he played a part in capturing an entire generation’s political angst and the struggles they faced. In MASH and KELLY’S HEROES, he depicted the atrocities of war, of which his generation had lived the consequences of. He acted in all these films, yet he also understood the value of laughter and with comedies like ALEX IN WONDERLAND and NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE, he provided audiences with an escape from our fears and anxieties about the world. In the last decades and into the twilight years of the legendary actor’s career, he even starred in every film of THE HUNGER GAMES franchise, allowing an entirely new generation to familiarize themselves with one of cinema’s most recognizable faces, and unquestionably, one of its greatest talents. Simply put, there is a Donald Sutherland movie for everyone.