A Tribute to Bob Rosen
Sat 3/22/2025 • 7:30PM PDT
Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum
Remarks by The Film Foundation Executive Director Margaret Bodde, editor David Egen, Geoffrey Gilmore, UCLA Distinguished Professor Deborah Nadoolman Landis, with video messages by Mandalay Entertainment Chairman Peter Guber and filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Screening of "Kiss Me Deadly" introduced by filmmaker Alexander Payne.
Robert “Bob” Rosen, founding director of the UCLA Film & Television Archive and former dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, passed away in late 2024. A titan of the film community, Bob was an archivist, scholar, educator and critic. Bob elevated the field of archiving by championing, training and advocating for the preservation of moving image media in all forms, from classic Hollywood to independent productions. Among his many leadership roles, he served on the National Film Preservation Board for over two decades and played a crucial role in the formation of The Film Foundation.
In his 2012 oral history with the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), Bob shared:
“The UCLA Film & Television Archive’s success in building one of the world’s largest collections and in establishing top-notch programs in preservation, programming and access was the result first and foremost of an extraordinarily dedicated staff. If I take any personal credit at all for our growth, it was in nurturing a sense of mission, determination and common purpose. Nothing, I thought, was impossible.”
Kiss Me Deadly (U.S., 1955)
Director Robert Aldrich and screenwriter A.I. Bezzerides were deeply suspicious of the fascist impulses driving Mickey Spillane’s two-fisted detective, Mike Hammer. In their Kiss Me Deadly, Hammer smashes his way across Los Angeles battling a mysterious “They” in pursuit of “the great whatsit” barely cognizant of the apocalyptic forces he threatens to unleash. An atomic age noir, Kiss Me Deadly still plays like a red-light warning for perilous times.