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Sean Connery laughing in a relaxed mood, Whoopi Goldberg enjoying life in her New York home, a portrait of John Travolta at the height of his ¡°Saturday Night Fever¡± fame, Barbra Streisand in her prime, Ronald Reagan in a cosy office atmosphere, Liv Ullmann on location in the Negev Desert before the Persian Gulf War, Tennessee Williams sitting on his type-writer, Geraldine Chaplin hoisting up her heavy skirt to cool down, Laurence Olivier battling with a crippling disease while filming ¡°Marathon Man¡± with Dustin Hoffman.
About 100 images of film personalities and celebrities, including Federico Fellini, Jane Fonda, Henry Fonda, Anthony Hopkins, John Huston, Gene Kelly, George Lucas, Liza Minnelli, Raquel Welch, John Cage, Simone Signoret, Yves Montand, Peter Finch, Oliver Stone, Tom Stoppard, Steve Martin, Jacqueline Bisset, Billy Wilder and Andy Warhol, are now on display at the ¡°Imaging and Imagining ¡ª The Film World of Pat York¡± exhibition at the Hong Kong Film Archive.
The unique photographs were all shot by the highly regarded fine art photographer Pat York over the past four decades. The exhibition, organised by the Hong Kong Film Archive of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and supported by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, will be held from now to March 3, 2008. Admission is free.
Pat York¡¯s works have been widely exhibited at museums and galleries in London, New York, Belgium, Washington, Moscow, Cologne and Zurich. Playful, compelling, witty and insightful are the words that best describe her photographs.
Married to film actor Michael York, Pat York had the opportunity to create images of film stars with an immediacy and intimacy that is rarely seen in official photographs.
She started her career as a journalist in the fashion department of ¡°Vogue¡±, then as a photographer and travel editor with ¡°Glamour¡±, which took her all over the world. She is often engaged as a photographer on film sets. Over the years, her photographic work has appeared in such publications as ¡°Time¡±, ¡°Newsweek¡±, ¡°Life¡±, ¡°Elle¡±, ¡°Bazaar¡± and ¡°Town and Country¡±.
The exhibition also features Michael York in various films, displaying his talent in different roles. He was a stage actor at an early age, playing Shakespeare in London and Europe. He made his film debut in 1967 in Franco Zeffirelli¡¯s ¡°The Taming of the Shrew¡± with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
Since then, Michael York has amassed more than 60 screen credits and appeared in more than 80 television works. He has also made audio books, narrated films and given lectures internationally on Shakespeare and the art of acting. For his contribution to the profession, he was awarded an OBE by the British government and was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
While the exhibition features images taken in the past 40 years, all the exhibits, whether vintage or recent colour and black-and-white images, are produced with the latest state-of-the-art digital printing technology.
The Hong Kong Film Archive is located at 50 Lei King Road, Sai Wan Ho, Hong Kong, and opens daily from 10am to 8pm or 15 minutes after the end of the last screening. It closes on Thursday and at 5pm on Christmas Eve and Chinese New Year¡¯s Eve.
Detail programme information can be obtained in the ¡¸Profolio 39¡¹distributed at all performing venues of the LCSD. For enquiries, please call 2739 2139 or 2734 2900 or browse the website: www.filmarchive.gov.hk.
Ends/Friday, December 14, 2007
Issued at HKT 18:04
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