NETWORK: Robert Duvall Tribute at FOMO Cinema Tbilisi
Wednesday 10. June at 18:30 - 20:30
FOMO Secret Cinema, Tbilisi
This week I'm celebrating actors, directors, editors and artists who are no longer with us, but whose work continues to shape the films we watch and love. Some became icons. Others worked quietly behind the camera. Together, they helped make cinema what it is today.
I'm showing NETWORK in honour of Robert Duvall, one of the great actors of American cinema who sadly passed in February this year. Across a career spanning more than six decades, Duvall brought intelligence, restraint, and authority to almost every role he touched. NETWORK captures him at the height of New Hollywood, helping create a film that remains as sharp, funny, and unsettling today as it was in 1976.
Sidney Lumet | 1976 | USA | 2h1m | Presented in the original English audio
Every year NETWORK becomes less of a satire and more of a documentary. When it was released in 1976, audiences saw it as a darkly comic exaggeration of television news and corporate media. Nearly fifty years later, it often feels like Sidney Lumet somehow got there first.
The film follows veteran news anchor Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch, who suffers an on-air breakdown after learning he's about to lose his job. Instead of firing him, the network discovers that viewers love it. What begins as a personal crisis quickly becomes a media spectacle, drawing executives, journalists, and audiences into a system that rewards emotion over reality. At the time, that meant television. Today it feels closer to the world of social media feeds, outrage bubbles, algorithmic incentives, and entire online ecosystems built to keep us angry, scrolling, and convinced we're seeing the truth.
What I love about NETWORK is that it never settles for easy targets. The film isn't simply attacking television. It's examining the machinery behind modern life. Executives, politicians, journalists, advertisers, and audiences are all part of the same ecosystem. Nobody escapes criticism.
The cast is extraordinary. Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Robert Duvall, and Ned Beatty all deliver performances that would define most actors' careers. Somehow they're all in the same film. Duvall, in particular, plays corporate ambition with a chilling normality that feels remarkably contemporary.
If you've never seen NETWORK before, I envy you. If you have seen it before, there's a good chance it will feel even more relevant now than it did the last time.
FOOD AND DRINK POLICY: FOMO Cinema Lounge Bar opens 1 hour before the first screening of the day and closes at 02:00,.serving a wide selection of beer, wine, cocktails, and non-alcoholic refreshments including coffee and tea, as well as fresh hot popcorn! Outside food is allowed in the bar but not in the cinema. No alcohol from outside allowed. All guests are invited to arrive early and stay late!
LOCATION: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro.
HOW TO FIND FOMO: Enter Bazari Orbeliani via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left to Level 1. Signage on the door. You can also check our Instagram story highlights for a video showing exactly how to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17933106294029235/
FOMO Secret Cinema • Bazari Orbeliani, 0105 Tbilisi, Georgia
