Encore screening: Sunday, September 9th @ 4:30 p.m.
(Luis Buñuel, France/Italy 1967, 101 min., French with subtitles)
Séverine, coolly played by Catherine Deneuve, is an idle housewife who spends her days working as a prostitute in a high-class Parisian brothel, unbeknownst to her bore of a husband. She soon becomes the obsessive object of Henri Husson (Michel Piccoli) in Buñuel’s scandalously funny dreamlike satire.
Special Ticket Pricing for Belle de Jour and Belle Toujours: $8 for both films; $7 students; $6 for members. Regular ticket pricing applies for individual screenings.
Encore screening: Sunday, September 9th @ 7 p.m.
(Manoel de Oliveira, France/Portugal 2006, 72 min., French with subtitles, 35mm)
Almost 40 years after the release of Belle de Jour, Portuguese filmmaker and Buñuel disciple de Oliveira conceived this clever sequel that focuses on the obsessions of Henri Husson, masterfully played again by Michel Piccoli. At a concert one evening, Husson believes he spots his former flame Séverine (Bulle Ogier stepping in for Catherine Deneuve), whom he begins to methodically stalk while plotting a unique revenge. De Oliveira, who was 97 when he directed Belle Toujours, embraces Buñuel’s surrealism while offering his own observations on love and memory.
Special Ticket Pricing for Belle de Jour and Belle Toujours: $8 for both films; $7 students; $6 for members. Regular ticket pricing applies for individual screenings.
Please note, two screenings:
July 29, 2:00 p.m.
July 29, 7:00 p.m.
(NUOVO CINEMA PARADISO, Giuseppe Tornatore, Italy 1988, 170 min., Italian with subtitles, 35mm)
An adult filmmaker (played by Winged Migration director Jacques Perrin) recalls his provincial Italian childhood and his friendship with a gruff-but-lovable projectionist (the late, great Philippe Noiret). One of the most beloved of Italian movies, this sentimental and endearing classic is being presented in its original Italian release version. Ennio Morricone’s score received an Academy Award® nomination, and Cinema Paradiso took home the Oscar® for Best Foreign Language Film.
(Martin Ritt, US 1957, 105 min., 35mm)
Before the pitfalls of suburban marriages were examined by novels like John Updike’s Rabbit, Run and Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road, Hollywood offered this trenchant and observant study of four different couples: the blue-collar Boones (Joanne Woodward and Cameron Mitchell); clean-cut newcomers, the Martins (Jeffrey Hunter and Patricia Owens); the sophisticated but alcoholic Flaggs (Tony Randall and Sheree North); and the stable Kreitzers (Pat Hingle and Barbara Rush). Far from a soap opera, director Ritt (Hud, Norma Rae) and blacklisted screenwriter Ben Maddow uncover true disenchantment in a prefabricated housing development.
A true cinematic anomaly, there’s never been anything quite like Bugsy Malone, before or after it was released in 1976. Maybe it’s not the first Prohibition-era gangster musical comedy, but it’s the first one to feature an entire cast of under-14-year-olds playing the wiseguys and their molls. The violence inherent in the gangster genre is tempered somewhat by the fact that the characters aren’t dispatched with bullets, but rather “splurge guns” that spew whipped cream all over their targets. Is there any wonder why this highly entertaining gem has a cult following among adults who saw it as children?
Bugsy (a pre-Chachi Scott Baio) is an ambitious hood caught in the middle of a war between gangleaders Fat Sam and Dandy Dan. Meanwhile, Bugsy’s love life finds him shuttling between the virtuous Blousey (Florrie Dugger) and hard-bitten nightclub singer Tallulah (Jodie Foster, who appeared in Taxi Driver the same year). But while the movie’s story isn’t so surprising, the spectacle of dozens of tough-talking and tap-dancing pre-teens on the lushly designed art-deco sets of Geoffrey Kirkland (who recently brought the visionary future world of Children of Men to life) is delightfully surreal, to say the least. Adding to the oddness: the catchy, Oscar®-nominated song score by ’70s musical legend Paul Williams (The Muppet Movie) is frequently voiced by adult performers while the young cast lip-synchs the lyrics, a stylistic touch that pre-dates the work of Dennis Potter (Pennies from Heaven, The Singing Detective).
The film was the brainchild of English writer-director Alan Parker, who got his start coming up with similar high-concept ideas in the world of British television commercials. Parker was one of a number of UK filmmakers who rose to the ranks of feature directing after working in advertising. His compatriots included some of the most influential cinematic forces of the last three decades: Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction), Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire), and the Scott brothers, Ridley (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator) and Tony (The Hunger, True Romance). Bugsy Malone was Parker’s big screen debut, and while he’s flirted with the musical in later efforts like Fame and The Commitments and even engaged in further dairy product hijinks in The Road to Wellville, he’s never made anything as idiosyncratic as his first film, preferring more prestigious projects like Midnight Express, Mississippi Burning, and Angela’s Ashes.
Part satire, part fantasy, part affectionate homage, this ain’t no Little Rascals short, but Bugsy Malone is not just a cultural curiosity either. It’s the perfect entertainment for viewers of all ages. In Great Britain, where the movie was filmed, Bugsy Malone recently inspired a London stage musical, renewing interest in the original movie. New 35mm prints were struck and one will be imported for three screenings in the Dryden Theatre.
~Jim Healy, Assistant Curator, Exhibitions, Motion Picture Department
Interview with Alan Parker at Film Street
