September 15, 1995
September 15, 1995
Charlottesville, VA-The Virginia Festival of American Film is pleased to announce that legendary film star Fay Wray will be a featured guest of the 1995 Festival. The Opening Night Gala Event on Thursday, October 26 will honor Ms. Wray by inviting her to introduce and discuss two of her classic films, King Kong and The Wedding March.
Born in Alberta, Canada and raised in Los Angeles, Fay Wray started her acting career in 1923. She became an overnight success when she landed the lead female role in Erich von Stroheim's The Wedding March in 1928. Many starring roles followed in such classics as Doctor X, The Most Dangerous Game, and Mystery of the Wax Museum, but the one that will never be forgotten is her indelible performance as the beauty who enchanted the beast in King Kong. Ms. Wray is also the author of several plays and stories, and an autobiography, with the inspired title On the Other Hand.
King Kong and The Wedding March are both central
to this year's theme, U.S. and Them: The Cross-Cultural Politics
of American Film. King Kong may be the ultimate U.S. and
Them film. It powerfully evokes our primal fear of the outsider,
in this instance a creature whose savage appearance disguises
a gentle and loving nature, yet who is hunted, captured and provoked into aggressive, violent behavior that confirms our fearful stereotype.
These issues will be discussed in depth at a panel discussion on Friday, October 28 following the screenings of King Kong and its director's earlier film Chang.
The Wedding March stars Wray as a love-sick beauty entrapped by her devotion to a Viennese officer who is compelled to marry for money. Director Erich von Stroheim, son of a German-Jewish immigrant, constructed an image of himself as a European aristocrat in this and other films by changing his name and casting himself in high-profile roles. His films, notable for their lavish spectacle and formal structure, made a lasting impression on American narrative cinema.