Actor · 1923–2012

Charles Durning

4: briefs
13:00: average
52 min: in total

On film.briefs4

Sisters

Brian De Palma · 1972

Brian De Palma’s 1972 Sisters is a psychological horror film about a reporter who witnesses a murder committed by a woman with a hidden, violent twin. Shot on location in Staten Island and scored by Bernard Herrmann, it uses split screens, long takes and clinical framing to explore perception, media saturation and the erasure of women’s testimony. Margot Kidder plays dual roles with unsettling restraint; Jennifer Salt anchors the film as the increasingly isolated witness. Though low-budget, it is tightly constructed and thematically precise.

13:00

Tootsie

Sydney Pollack · 1982

A struggling New York actor disguises himself as a woman to land a soap opera role, then finds his assumptions about gender, work, and relationships upended by the sheer effort of sustaining the performance. Directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, and Teri Garr, it balances sharp social observation with grounded comic timing and emotional honesty.

13:00

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Joel Coen, Ethan Coen · 2000

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) transplants the Odyssey’s structure to Depression-era Mississippi, following three escaped convicts on a rambling quest. Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, it features George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson, with cinematography by Roger Deakins and music curated by T Bone Burnett. Its sepia-toned digital look was pioneering; its soundtrack, rooted in period folk and gospel, won a Grammy. Though loosely plotted and deliberately arch, the film sustains a unified tone — dry, musical, mythic — that rewards attentive viewing.

13:00

Dog Day Afternoon

Sidney Lumet · 1975

In August 1972, an amateur robbery of a Brooklyn bank branch turns into a fourteen-hour hostage standoff broadcast live to a crowd outside. Sidney Lumet's film, built from Frank Pierson's Oscar-winning script and Al Pacino's live-wire performance as Sonny Wortzik, treats the robbery as already lost from its first minute, following what happens to a small, desperate plan once it becomes public spectacle.