BECKETT, KEATON, IONESCO, GENET, AND ROSSET. What do Henry Miller, Samuel Beckett, Jack Kerouac, Jean Genet, and D.H. Lawrence have in common? Barney Rosset, for one thing. Rosset championed each of those authors as publisher of Grove Press, making their work more available to readers in the United States and elsewhere.

In the 1960s, Grove Press commissioned film scripts from Beckett as well as Eugene Ionesco, Harold Pinter, and Marguerite Duras. Only Beckett's made it to the screen--as Film (1965), a short featuring silent movie great Buster Keaton.

On Friday night, MOMA offers a special program in which Rosset presents Film with rare alternate scenes. But that's not all! There will also be the world premiere of The Hard Boiled Egg, made from Ionesco's screenplay by James Fotopoulos. Rounding out the program: Un chant d'amour (1950), the Jean Genet film distributed by Grove Press.

MOMA has a "pay what you wish" policy on Friday nights. The program repeats on Saturday, perhaps not with the appearances from Rosset and Fotopoulos.

Here are scenes from Rosset's 80th birthday party in 2002.