The Junior Fellows and LEAP Center have held a film festival every fall since 2009. This year, we squeezed in an extra film presentation in the spring. In honor of having both Dr. Carl Rollyson and Nancy Bocskor in town, we showed Sabrina, starring Humphrey Bogart, William Holden, and Audrey Hepburn.
William Holden is Nancy Bocskor’s favorite actor (more on Holden here). In fact, he is her “most handsome and reliable boyfriend, albeit dead.” Other than being dead, he is reliably on TCM every week or so, showing up at 3am in the morning when Bocskor cannot sleep.
Bocskor is an international political consultant and a movie buff, and Sabrina not only stars William Holden, but also has a social class subtext. Dr. Rollyson is an expert on the Golden Age of Hollywood, so Sabrina seemed to be a good match for the two and fun entertainment for all.
The entertainment took place at the beautiful Wynne Home, where two of the LEAP Center students and many of the Junior Fellows have interned.
Guests included Mayor Mac Woodward and his wonderful wife, Leanne, as well as Ralph and Linda Pease. We were also happy to have Margaret Gulledge, Charles Forbus, and Karl Mahaffey on hand for the viewing.
Bocskor and Rollyson introduced the film, offering different takes on the film (Bocskor focused more on Holden…)
The film was wonderful, combining top-notch talent with humor and romance.
The general consensus among us students was that it was better than “Some Like it Hot,” which we screened with Rollyson last year.
The company was also wonderful, with a reception followed by dinner. It was a fun night, capping a wonderful week with Bocskor and Rollyson as guests in Huntsville, TX.
We’ll be doing a Walter Brennan film festival in the fall, in honor of Rollyson’s new biography of the character-actor legend.