Photos by Iris Schneider
The trendy United Artists Theater at the Ace Hotel downtown was the home today for the third of four events presented by Cinefamily honoring Robert Downey, Sr. for his body of film work. His most famous late '60's anti-Madison Avenue, anti-racism, and anti-capitalism satire, "Putney Swope," was screened for a sellout crowd as a fundraiser for the little Indie arthouse on Fairfax, based at the old Silent Movie Theater. Downey Sr. and the film were introduced by his son, Robert Jr, Alan Arkin and Louis C.K., who said he was astounded when he first stumbled upon "Putney Swope" in New York after bringing home a random bunch of VCR's from the $1 bin at his local video store. After lamenting our society's loss of books, video stores and the ability to just stumble upon great stuff like this film, Louis extolled its virtues this way: "Watching this movie I just kept saying 'Oh my God, Oh my God. Somebody actually made this movie...they didn't just sit there and think this would be crazy.'"
When Louis C.K. asked Downey how he came up with the idea, the reply was, "A little marijuana and some stuff that really happened."
On Monday night, the festival concludes with a free event (online reservations recommended) at Cinefamily with Alan Arkin and Downey Sr. on hand introducing "No More Excuses" and "Rittenhouse Square."
Robert Downey, Sr.
Edited post