No events found. Please change your filter settings.

The cinema schedule times are without guarantee. For information on accessibility, wheelchair spaces, reservation options and the language versions shown, please refer to the websites of the cinemas.

Retrospective

The Best Man

FromFranklin J. Schaffner

WithHenry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Edie Adams, Lee Tracy, Margaret Leighton, Mahalia Jackson

Year1964

Duration102min.

An election campaign for the presidential nomination: a principled intellectual (Henry Fonda) with flaws in his past life competes against a ruthless opportunist (Cliff Robertson) who stages himself as a ‘man of the people’. A prime example of Hollywood's early-1960s interest in politics, which had now become a media event in its own right - and thus also an attractive cinema subject, whether as a farce or a thriller. Or as an investigative drama like The Best Man. Gore Vidal's look behind the scenes reveals what goes on between the honourable speeches of a party convention: machinations, sheer striving for power, slander. Franklin J. Schaffner, previously the designated in-house director of the assassinated President JFK, draws on his own experience with ‘political’ image staging and commissioned reportage: The Best Man is in every respect a film from the beginning of the new era of media politics - personality instead of content. (Christoph Huber/Harry Tomicek)

Photo: Österreichisches Filmmuseum