Film Screenings / Programs / Series
AGOG: THE WORLD OF TIMOTHY CAREY
October 15 – October 25
Anthology is thrilled to present a very special tribute to a very special man: Timothy Agoglia Carey, character-actor, madman, poet laureate of flatulence, and gonzo auteur. Long since admitted to the cult-figure pantheon, Carey was more force-of-nature than thespian – by his sheer force of personality and volatile charisma, Carey, no matter how brief his appearances, invariably tore through the fabric of illusionism Hollywood moviemaking labored so mightily to maintain, opening a window into realms of instability and eccentricity the films themselves sometimes struggled to contain.
Featuring very rare screenings of Carey’s directorial debut and labor-of-love, the has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed WORLD’S GREATEST SINNER, plus an even rarer screening of the unfinished pilot for Carey’s planned TV series TWEET’S LADIES OF PASADENA (now airing in an alternate universe somewhere), this is an opportunity to penetrate further than ever before into the world of Timothy Carey.
“Imagine an actor with the wild, manic stare of a skid-row John Turturro, the gangly rebel stance of Jerry Lee Lewis and the acting presence of a secure-ward Nicholas Cage. Even then you’re still not close to the twisted screen presence of the great Tim Carey…. Right from the start, Carey’s unique approach to acting – frowning and mumbling like a dope addict plotting to overthrow the world – got him into trouble. His key scene in THE WILD ONE was his unscripted decision to shake up a can of beer and squirt it in Brando’s face. His performance in EAST OF EDEN so incensed Elia Kazan that the director physically attacked Carey on set and then re-dubbed all of Tim’s surreal mutterings. However, Brando eventually patched it up with Carey and cast him as the oddball Howard Tetley in the portly star’s directorial debut, ONE-EYED JACKS. By the end of filming, Brando was so impressed by Carey’s unique performance that he ended up stabbing him with a fountain pen.” –Andrew Male, BIZARRE
The Timothy Carey retrospective is presented as a follow-up to the exhibition Dead Flowers (which took place at Vox Populi, Philadelphia, from March 5-May 2, 2010, and at PARTICIPANT INC, NY, from May 9-June 20, 2010), and with the generous collaboration of the Timothy Carey Estate. This project has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.
Special thanks to Lia Gangitano (Participant Inc), and Romeo Carey, as well as Ruth Better (Jumer Productions Inc.), Tom Holland (Holland Releasing), Ross Klein (MGM), Marilee Womack (Warner Bros.), David May (WMG), and Jacques Boyreau (Cosmic Hex Film Archive).
