Screening & Live Event | John Frankenheimer’s Seconds: Starting Over in America

• Film
• Legal, Politics & Economics

With economist Darrick Hamilton and critic Michael Atkinson in person

Seconds. Dir. John Frankenheimer. 1966, 107 mins. DCP from Park Circus. With Rock Hudson, John Randolph, Frances Reid, Murray Hamilton, Salome Jens. A middle-aged, married banker in New York is offered a chance at a second life. Arthur Hamilton (played by John Randolph, then on the Hollywood blacklist) undergoes complete reconstructive surgery to become Tony Wilson (Rock Hudson)–a younger, single artist living in Malibu. The idea of starting over and the American Dream will be considered after the film with critic Michael Atkinson and stratification economist Darrick Hamilton, whose work focuses on the way that race, identity, and social class influence life outcomes. Masterful cinematographer James Wong Howe, nominated for an Academy Award for Seconds, shot in black-and-white and used misshapen lenses to create a surreal atmosphere as Arthur Hamilton’s dream of a new life turns into a waking nightmare. Seconds is the last in what is known as Frankenheimer’s paranoia trilogy, preceded by The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Seven Days in May (1964).