CTRESS Julia Stiles showcased Cool Hand Luke at a Grand Classics screening sponsored by The Week at Soho House in Manhattan. The 1967 drama, starring Paul Newman and Dennis Hopper, is the film that most inspired her career. "Newman's Luke is someone who refuses to bow down to authority even though it was beating him on the head repeatedly," she said. "He wins in the end. He shows his vulnerability and his humanity while playing a rebel as poignant as any of the portrayals by James Dean or Marlon Brando during that era."
Costar George Kennedy won an Oscar for his supporting role.
This is the second time Cool Hand Luke has been selected for a Grand Classics presentation (Kevin Costner chose it for a London event in September 2003). There are only two prints available in the world, which illustrates the seriousness of the AFI and BFI quest to save these movies from extinction.
Among those at the party were Princess Olga of Greece, Ty Burrell who's starring with Nicole Kidman in the upcoming film An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, Alex DuFresne, Bobby Zarem, Dabney Mercer, Mark Langrish, Vanessa von Bismarck, Peter Davis, Bonnie Morrison, Charlie Ruger and Anne-Cecille Engell, Alex Chantecaille, Nicole Hanley, Vogue's Jillian Demling, Helena Khazanova, New York's Deborah Shoeneman, Ann Jones, The Week's Justin Smith and Caroline Kremins, Secrets of Charm fashion designers Estee and Sharon Elkayam, celebrity stylist David Evangelista, and the always stylish Gillian Miniter, Michèle Gerber Klein and Mona Wyatt.
Katrina Pavlos and Vanessa Wingate of Indyssey Entertainment launched the Grand Classics film series after 9/11 to bring creative minds into lower Manhattan and celebrate the power of motion pictures. They now showcase films in New York, London, Los Angeles, Aspen and Miami.
