alr

The Moon and Sixpence

Screening on Film
Directed by Albert Lewin.
With George Sanders, Herbert Marshall.
US, 1942, 35mm, color and b&w, 89 min.

A spirited adaptation of Somerset Maugham’s famous novel (itself loosely based on the life of Gauguin), Lewin’s debut feature clearly announces the signature pre-occupation that will carry across all of his films: the incompatibility of the artistic impulse and bourgeois mores. Charles Strickland is a respectable London stockbroker until he rejects his safe, comfortable life to become a painter and relocates to Tahiti. It is easy to see Strickland’s change of life as a parallel to Lewin's career shift from studio executive to director of a string of boldly eccentric films. Sanders plays the painter as a heartless louse but a brilliant artist, a contradiction that is the leitmotif of the actor’s other roles for Lewin.

Part of film series

Read more

Beyond Good & Evil: The Films of Albert Lewin

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Harvard Undergraduate Cinematheque

Read more

Museum Hours: Mati Diop’s Dahomey

Read more

Albert Serra, or Cinematic Time Regained

Read more

Wang Bing’s Youth Trilogy

Read more

The Shochiku Centennial Collection

Read more

Planet at 50

Read more

The Yugoslav Junction Continues!

Read more

Theo Anthony, Subject to Review

Read more

The Ideal Cinematheque of the Outskirts of the World