Eva Marie Saint Q&A at the Music Box

Emmy- and Academy Award winning actress Eva Marie Saint will be at the Music Box tonight, Tuesday March 30, for a question and answer session preceding a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s famous film, North by Northwest. Saint grew up in Newark, New Jersey and started her television career in NBC’s famous page program and then went on to do several Broadway plays. She got her first big film break in 1954 for the film On the Waterfront where she acted with Marlon Brando and eventually won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

It is said that Hitchcock shocked everyone in his decision to cast Eva Marie Saint as Eve Kendall in the film because she had never performed in a non-dramatic role. Hitchcock persuaded Saint to cut her famous long hair to give her a more exotic and glamorous look. Hitchcock wanted her to dress like a kept woman-smart, simple, subtle, and quiet and even worked with her to make her voice lower and huskier. Saint continues to act on the big and small screen and has accumulated numerous awards, several stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and remains a well-known and loved actress among her fans.

North by Northwest ranks number forty on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time. The film is a thriller about mistaken identity and follows a Madison Avenue advertising executive as he is followed across the United States by agents of a mysterious organization who plan to stop his interference with their plans to smuggle microfilm containing top-secret government information. North by Northwest is said to be one of Hitchcock’s best films and has won several awards.

Eva Marie Saint can be seen tonight, Tuesday March 30, at the Music Box, 3733 North Southport Avenue, preceding the screening of North by Northwest at 7:30 p.m. The screening is part of Turner Classic Movie’s Classic Film Festival which is taking its love of great movies to five different cities

Nicholas Kristof Making a Rare Chicago Appearance March 15

Nicholas Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist and the subject of the new documentary produced by Ben Affleck and directed by Eric Daniel Metzgar called The Reporter. The film focuses not only on Kristof, but delves in to the massive transformation journalism is going through by stressing the importance of real news gathering in enabling democratic nations to function and illuminating a world in chaos.

Metzgar tracked Kristof as he and two young Americans traveled during the summer of 2007 through the Congo to report on the conflict and desperate poverty plaguing the African republic in an attempt to put the problem on an international agenda. The Congo is a country rife with humanitarian crises and in the last decade 5.4 million people have been killed due to a brutal war that has been raging since 1998.

Kristof wanted to grab his readers’ interest and compassion and went in search of individuals with stories that capture the essence of the country’s crisis by visiting ravaged villages and displacement camps. Kristof even visits Congo’s reigning rebel warlord, General Nkunda, at his jungle hideout. The film aims to immerse the viewer in a discussion of the ways this kind of journalism reaches the public, creates change, and elicits a humanitarian response.

Nicholas Kristof will be making a rare Chicago appearance at the Facing History and Ourselves program, “Community Conversations” on Monday, March 15, at 5:30 pm. The discussion will take place at the Thorne Auditorium of Northwestern University, 375 East Chicago Avenue. Facing History and Ourselves is the educational partner for The Reporter and scenes from the film will be shown during the discussion. Tickets are free, but must be reserved by calling 312-345-3203 or visiting www.facinghistory.org/allstate.

The DVD will be available to purchase on March 21. Check out The Reporter website to learn more about the documentary and Nicholas Kristof: http://www.reporterfilm.com/main.html