Few creative talents have the breadth of a career equal to Lee Grant. The 98-year-old director, actor, and writer has a storied body of work, debuting on screen in 1951 in William Wyler’s Detective Story, for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination and Cannes Best Actress win, while also receiving a Supporting Actress Oscar for Shampoo. Grant, who has also appeared in Mulholland Drive, Valley of the Dolls, and In the Heat of the Night, has also set a few records: she’s the oldest living film director, while 1980’s Tell Me a Riddle was the first major American film to be entirely written, produced and directed by women, and she’s the only Academy Award-winning actor to also direct an Academy Award-winning documentary with 1986’s Down and Out in America.
Among the most revelatory repertory cinema I saw last year, the much-deserved 4K restorations of Grant’s short The Stronger and feature Tell Me a Riddle premiered at New York Film Festival and are now beginning a tour this month. Down and Out in America plays this Sunday, May 5 at LA’s American Cinematheque, followed by The Stronger and Tell Me a Riddle on May 11 and 22, and will tour to more locations in the coming months. Ahead of the roll-out from Hope Runs High Films, we’re pleased to exclusively premiere the trailer and poster for Tell Me a Riddle along with a trailer for all of the restorations.
The Stronger, starring Susan Strasberg and Dolores Dorn, adapted August Strindberg’s play of the same name, with editing by Hal Ashby. Tell Me a Riddle, starring Oscar winners Melvyn Douglas and Lila Kedrova with Brooke Adams, follows the lives of senior couple Eva and David, their shared past as revolutionaries, and their cross-country journey together when illness strikes Eva, and her husband decides to keep it a secret. The Oscar-winning Down and Out in America is a groundbreaking portrait of Reagan-Era America.
“These actors, Susan Strasberg, Dolores Dorn, Nora Heflin, are giving incredible performances,” says Lee Grant. “They weren’t often given the opportunities they should have been. That these films and their performances live on is a great F-U to all the guys in suits who couldn’t see what these women were capable of and how beautiful they were.”
The Stronger and Tell Me a Riddle were restored in 4K from the 35mm original camera negatives. Down and Out in America was restored in 4K from the 16mm A/B roll. Restoration funding was provided by the Hobson/Lucas Foundation and the films were restored by The Academy Film Archive and the Film Foundation. Cassie Blake served as Restoration Supervisor, Colorist was Gregg Garvin/Roundabout Entertainment, audio restoration was by Audio Mechanics. Taylor A. Purdee approved all the restorations, with collaboration from cinematographer Fred Murphy on Tell Me a Riddle and cinematographer Tom Hurwitz on Down and Out in America.
See the exclusive trailers and poster below.
Down and Out in America plays this Sunday, May 5 at LA’s American Cinematheque, followed by The Stronger and Tell Me a Riddle on May 11 and 22, and will tour to more locations in the coming months.
Also, watch Lee Grant, Brooke Adams, and Fred Murphy discuss the new restorations at the 61st New York Film Festival below.