The Caan Film Festival 2017

For two glittering weekends at the end of May, the world turns its attention to the movie event of the year: The Caan Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image. In celebration of the Bronx-born, Sunnyside-raised, and Meisner-instructed actor, the survey revisits twelve of James Caan’s greatest performances. For over half a century, Caan has lent his incomparable magnetism to a wide spectrum of films, playing both tough guys and punching bags, talkers and mumblers, charmers and monsters. With his broad-shouldered athleticism and a granite-cut jaw, Caan brings a frank physicality to the screen, making even mild-mannered performances seem subtly threatening. Yet he also freights a deep reserve of emotion, exemplifying a post-war American masculinity that is reinventing itself one mission, one conflict, one heartbreak at a time.