Rice Media Center

---

Twenty-Fifth Anniversary (1970-1995)

---

"The Rice Media Center is one of the truly great resources that moviegoers have in Houston." --Joe Leydon, Houston film critic

---

This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Rice Media Center and "Rice Cinema." An expansion of the university's fine arts department, the Center originated in 1970 through the funding and spirited guidance of benefactors John and Dominque de Menil. Designed by famed Houston architects Barnstone and Aubrey as a "twin" to the Menil's Institute of the Arts (now a Rice Continuing Studies building), the two corrugated behemoths on the edge of campus were affectionately dubbed "Art Barn" and "Son of Art Barn." With their unique interior landscapes, the structures were hailed as "the most remarkable buildings to be built at Rice in more than half-a-century," and the sites quickly developed reputations for presenting the most innovative art, photography, and film exhibitions in the city.

Houston's first repertory film program was also instituted, giving local cinephiles the chance to view a blend of arthouse pictures, documentaries, international classics, and hard-to-find films that simply never showed up in theaters outside New York or Los Angeles. John de Menil expressed the goal quite simply: "To bring to Houston the best examples of intellectual cinema." Italian director Roberto Rossellini, a fellow Media Center founder, made the distinction between "films that appeal to man's basic elements--sex, survival, dominance, fear--and those that extend our knowledge of the world and the vast unknown surrounding it. Popular cinema attracts audiences to the former. The challenge is to do the same for the latter." Special evenings on the current (Fall 1995) film schedule have been programmed as tributes to talents who have visited here in years past.

Under the tenure of the Media Center's first directors, Gerald O'Grady and James Blue, an astonishing number of visiting filmmakers began to appear. French enfant terrible Jean-Luc Godard arrived with his only print of La Chinoise. After a malfunctioning rented projector at an off-campus location atomized great chunks of the film, the director vowed never to return to Houston.

Andy Warhol, accompanied by "superstar" Viva, premiered his notorious, Texas-shot Lonesome Cowboys to the largest audience in Media Center history at the Rice Memorial Center. A vigilant Houston vice squad also attended but, unable to establish the "community standards" of the Rice audience, left without incident. Michelangelo Antonioni, Martin Scorcese, and Milos Forman screened their work; Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas announced their plans to invade Hollywood; and pantheon directors Frank Capra, George Stevens, and King Vidor reflected on a cumulative century-and- a-half in the movie business.

Avant-garde innovators Ed Emschwiller and Stan Vanderbeek projected psychedelic images on Media Center ceilings. Richard Leacock and the Maysles Brothers screened their ground-breaking documentaries, and California experimental film maker Bruce Baillie designed a film course that "would only start with film and move on to just about everything else." Critics and theorists were also invited: New York film doyenne Pauline Kael; British Film School head Colin Young; founder of the Cinematheque Francaise Henri Langlois; cultural critic for Le Monde Louis Marcorelles.

The late '70s saw the departure of Blue, but the eighties heralded new arrivals. Stories of Dennis Hopper's 1983 visit still circulate. After a free-form "lecture," Hopper invited a sell-out crowd to hop onto rented school buses and join him at the Big H Speedway in northeast Houston, where he immediately proceeded to blow himself up in a dynamite- chair stunt. A sage-like Sam Peckinpah made the last public appearance of his career. Underground icon Kenneth Anger presented Scorpio Rising--his saga about motorcycle cults--in a scarlet sweater knitted by ladies from his Indiana fan club. Laslo Benedek recalled directing the young Marlon Brando in The Wild One, and Richard Lester reminisced about the Beatles during production of A Hard Day's Night. Dusan Makavejev relished the shock effect WR: Mysteries of the Organism had on local audiences, and Stan Brakhage spoke about experimental film. Following her father's footsteps, Isabella Rossellini arrived in Houston in 1987 for an international symposium on his work.

The 1990s have witnessed continued growth and new directions. Ethiopian director Haile Gerima and Brazilian cinema novo founder Nelson Pereira Dos Santos premiered their latest films. American maverick Spike Lee responded to volatile questions after screening Do the Right Thing; Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan premiered Exotica; and Monty Python veteran Eric Idle led an enthusiastic audience through a rousing rendition of "The Philosophers Song." On the current program, Russian poet and filmmaker Yevgeny Yevtushenko will present his most recent work, Stalin's Funeral, and a major academic symposium entitled House, Home, Homeland will feature films, art and photography exhibits, and presentations by international scholars.

In the past twenty-five years, the Media Center has screened over 5,000 movies, proving that a loyal audience exists for good films, including many that would not be considered commercially successful. Regulars have consistently used one word to describe what brings them back: VARIETY. As video eats up an increasing chunk of our entertainment dollar, we sometimes forget that "going to the movies" is one of the last communal experiences we share in an increasingly isolated world.

Back to home page.