Artists Space

Mrs. Miniver

Postponed: Film Screening
March 11, 2020, 7pm

Due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19, Artists Space and Light Industry will be rescheduling all programs related to A Film Club for Adrienne Kennedy.

"A-Tisket A-Tasket," performed by Ella Fitzgerald, from Ride 'em Cowboy (Arthur Lubin, 1942, 2 mins)
Mrs. Miniver (William Wyler, 1942, 134 mins)

Ella Fitzgerald's rendition of the old nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" first appeared on screen in the Abbott & Costello comedy western Ride 'em Cowboy, and Kennedy considers it a singular moment in her picture-going life. Fitzgerald, she recalled from her childhood, was one of the few "people in the movies who were not white." The number is here paired with William Wyler's Mrs. Miniver, a drama about the struggles of a middle-class British family during the outset of World War II. " The movie," Kennedy writes, "which I saw at age eleven, with Greer Garson as Mrs. Miniver, showed me that I had a desire for drama! My best friend Barbara Ann and I had a fight over who would play Mrs. Miniver in our version of the movie that would take place in Barbara's backyard with all the kids on our street. We finally decided that she would play Mrs. Miniver in the first half and I would play her in the second half."

Mrs. Miniver is screened at Artists Space as part of A Film Club for Adrienne Kennedy, presented in partnership with Light Industry.

A black and white image of a man and woman looking out beyond the camera with expressions of fear and concern. They each cradle a child in their arms. A young boy gazes up at the woman
Still from Mrs. Miniver, 1942. [A black and white image of a man and woman looking out beyond the camera with expressions of fear and concern. They each cradle a child in their arms. A young boy gazes up at the woman's face, clutching onto her arm with one hand. The man holds a girl close, his hand protectively bringing her head against his chest.]