A director exploring frames of reference

WHEN Oscar-winning writer-director Curtis Hanson approaches filmmakers and actors to participate in his series “The Movie That Inspired Me,” he gives them specific instructions -- they shouldn’t pick what they consider the best movie ever made or even their favorite flick but a film that made an indelible impact on them sometime during their life.

Over the past six years, Hanson (“L.A. Confidential,” “8 Mile”) has been surprised by some of the choices. Diane Keaton selected the 1939 John Ford western “Stagecoach.” Veteran editor Dede Allen picked the 1962 British film “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.” And “Spider-Man” director Sam Raimi chose John Huston’s 1948 epic tale of greed and avarice, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”

“The Movie That Inspired Me,” presented by the UCLA Film and Television Archive at the James Bridges Theater, returns with a trio of screenings beginning Jan. 19, when special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen is to present 1933’s “King Kong.” The series continues with “Sideways” director Alexander Payne’s pick, the 1950 drama “The Breaking Point” (with John Garfield and Patricia Neal and directed by Michael Curtiz) on Jan. 22 and Lily Tomlin’s selection, an obscure 1954 film noir, “Wicked Woman,” on Jan. 28. Shorts chosen by the guests also will be shown.

Hanson, also the archive’s chairman, says inspiration does drive the program. “Most artists who work in the medium of film were influenced by a picture or pictures that they saw at a formative stage in their life,” he explains. “What I have discovered is that they are happy to show [the picture]. Most of the time, they really only have occasion to talk about their own work, which so often -- combined with doing publicity and working a movie -- becomes work in itself. Whereas to talk to people about someone else’s work and to share their enthusiasm for it is actually fun.”

Wanting to know why

Because the program is presented by the archive, says Hanson, UCLA strives to get the best prints. “When Sean Penn picked [John Cassavetes’] ‘Minnie and Moskowitz,’ our programmers at the archive discovered that the only 35-millimeter print that existed was in England at that time. So they flew it over for the screening.”

It can be startling, even moving, for guests to see their selections. Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski’s choice was the 1959 Russian romance “Ballad of a Soldier,” and “he had seen that as a kid on television in Poland and had never seen it on the big screen.”

Hanson puts together the evenings during his own windows of opportunity, contacting people whose work he admires and whom he would “be excited to hear talk about a movie that they love and why they love it. The ‘why’ is often the most interesting part.”

Hanson doesn’t have to ask Harryhausen why he chose “King Kong,” because the reason is so obvious. “But at the same time, to watch ‘King Kong’ on the big screen with the man who saw it as a young man and who was inspired and then went on to literally change how visual effects are done in our business -- the why isn’t so interesting, but the ramifications are.”

The post-screening discussion with the guest, says Hanson, is more emotional than scholarly. “It’s not about the making of the movie,” he says. “It is how it affected this person who saw the picture. Then, of course, it gets into the reaction to it that night, because very often the person hasn’t seen it in years and decades, and from that we kind of progress to talking about their own work following the track of the influence.”

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‘The Movie That Inspired Me’

Where: James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall, UCLA

When: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 19, 22 and 28

Price: $7 general; $5 for students, seniors and UCLA Alumni Assn. members

Contact: (310) 206-FILM or go to www.cinema.ucla.edu

Schedule

Jan. 19: “King Kong”

Jan. 22: “The Breaking Point”

Jan. 28: “Wicked Woman”