Join us for a very special screening of the award-winning film The Way It Was: Paris Restaurants in the 1970s, which was shot, produced, and directed by esteemed art historian and collector Dr. Stephen K. Scher (’56; Ph.D. ’66). There will be a entertaining talkback with Dr. Scher following the screening. Light refreshments will be served.

Read more about the event below and register here.

Dr. Scher shot the film 50 years ago but the original footage was not edited into a finished film until now. The film stands as “a brief, but comprehensive visual presentation of the extraordinary world of French cuisine, which was considered the pinnacle of gastronomy, a model against which other cuisines were measured and one of the most important elements of French culture. The film has now become a retrospective, historical document, a reminiscence of another time with regrets, perhaps, for what has been lost.” Featuring a range of bygone locations and interviews, The Way It Was was awarded the Grand Prize for Cinematography at the 2023 Rhode Island International Film Festival, August 7-13, 2023. We look forward to seeing you on this special evening.

Stephen K. Scher is an American art historian and the former chairman of the art department, Brown University. Scher has lectured and published extensively on medieval and Renaissance art, and he is a leading collector of portrait medals, the bulk of which was donated to The Frick in 2017. He currently serves as a member of visiting committees at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Frick Collection and associate trustee of the Yale Library. Dr. Scher received the Yale Medal (2015) and the British Art Medal Society’s President’s Medal (2018).