NEW ULM–The New Ulm Film Society will screen the 1994 bio-pic “Ed Wood” to kick off their Collaboration Film Series.

The screening starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14 at the New Ulm Public Library.

The Collaboration Film Series highlights multi-film partnerships between directors and actors and “Ed Wood” is the perfect film the begin the series.

“Ed Wood” is a biographical film about infamous exploitation movie director Ed Wood Jr and his struggles to make the famously terrible films “Glen or Glenda,” “Bride of the Monster,” and “Plan 9 From Outer Space.” Wood’s films are remembered today for being terrible. Audiences typically watch these films to laugh at the bad dialogue, terrible special effects and horrible editing. These films, bad as they were, were Wood’s greatest success as he was able to collaborate with horror movie icon Bela Lugosi.

Not only is “Ed Wood” a story about a director/actor collaboration it was made by director Tim Burton and actor Johnny Depp. As of 2017, the duo has worked on eight films together and their director/actor collaboration is one of the most successful in Hollywood history.

“Ed Wood” is the second film made by Burton and Depp and is viewed by critics as their best film for its sympathetic treatment of the real life Ed Wood.

Burton and Depp portray Wood as a human being with passion and ambition. The film does not shy away from Wood’s many failures, but it also presents his mistakes in a fair way. Wood was not a man who set out to make bad movies, but a lack of resources and talent resulted in some of the most baffling films of the 1950s.

In one scene of the film Wood and his film crew, who are all Hollywood outcasts, break into a film studio to steal a remote control octopus for their film. Things do not go as planned. Even after stealing the prop they realize too late they forgot to steal the motor to make the octopus’s legs move. As a result frail Bela Lugosi, played by Martin Landau, is forced to thrash around in cold water to make it look like the legs are moving. The result is comedy gold and a surprising amount of pathos.

The film’s writers, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, have called “Ed Wood” an anti-great man film. Biographical films about great figures like Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln let the audience off the hook because history has already decided they were right. Ed Wood’s story is harder to tell because history has decided he was mostly wrong. At its core “Ed Wood” is a plea for sympathy for a man who is best known for failing, but still reached an audience.

On its initial release “Ed Wood” failed to bring in a large audience compared to Burton and Depp’s previous collaboration “Edward Scissorhands” or their next film together “Sleepy Hollow.” In 1994, the real life Ed Wood was still a cult figure with little mainstream appeal.

Wood also had an unusual private life. He enjoyed wearing women’s clothing; specifically angora sweaters. The film addresses his cross-dressing lifestyle in a compassionate manner, but in the early ’90s this was still a taboo. “Ed Wood” was also shot in black and white rather than color to pay homage to the 1950’s horror films it references. All of these elements combined to scare general audiences away, but the critics loved it and the Academy Awards recognized it.

Landau would ultimately receive an Oscar for his role as Lugosi. He became the first actor to win an award for playing a real-life actor.

In the 22 years since its release, “Ed Wood” has become a cult classic. The success of Burton and Depp’s other films have brought more attention to this underrated classic and has even helped revive interest in the real Ed Wood.

“Ed Wood” is a good film about a man who made bad films. It asks its audience to re-examine notions of success and failure. Wood never achieved the success he wanted as a director, but he did inspire countless people. Script writers Alexander and Karaszewski were inspired enough to write a film about his life. Both Burton and Depp had a great deal of affection for his films as well. Anyone who could inspire that level of devotion must have done something right.

The New Ulm Film Society hosts films screenings at 6 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month in the Public Library. Before and after the screening members of the Film Society will facilitate discussion about the movie.