Cinema Kingston

Before There Will Be Blood, there was...
Giant (1956, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean)

Sunday, 30 November at 7:00 P.M.
Etherington Hall Auditorium (94 Stuart St, Queen's Campus)
Admission $8

On 30 November, Cinema Kingston will provide some Texas heat on a cold Sunday night: Giant, George Stevens' 1956 unifying epic about the Western spirit. Oversized dreams, oil, melodrama and justice in abundance!
 

"Even if it hadn't starred three of the most iconic screen figures of the 1950s, George Stevens' Giant would still be an emotionally powerful and visually striking film; adding Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean (in his final performance) to the mix was just the icing on the cake. Dean contributes the highest-caliber fireworks, though his "Method" style sometimes blends uncomfortably with the more traditional performances of the other actors, but Stevens also drew atypically strong performances from Taylor and Hudson, who delivers perhaps his best performance on screen next to Seconds (1966). Based on Edna Ferber's novel, the story is a glorified soap opera, but Stevens's epic production strengthens the narrative rather than drowning it, providing a visual metaphor for the intimidating vastness of the Texas landscape. The image of the vast Benedict mansion slowly appearing as a tiny dot on the horizon is only the most memorable of the film's many indelible images. Giant is as big and sprawling as Texas itself; it's the tininess of the larger-than-life characters in the oilfields of the Southwest that keeps them human, and makes them all the more fascinating." -- Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
 

Watch the trailer at You Tube.
 

Cinema Kingston is sponsored by the Department of Film and Media, and by Queen's University, and is part of the Toronto International Film Festival Group's Film Circuit. For over 35 years Film and Media has endeavored to bring the best and most challenging of world and Canadian cinema to Kingston.

For further information, please write to cinemak@post.queensu.ca.

See The Story of Cinema Kingston for background information and credits.