Sunset Boulevard (Wilder, 1950) & To Catch A Thief (Hitchcock, 1955):
Rio Cinema, 1.30 & 3.40pm
This promises to be a great season at the Rio Cinema as Cripple Creek Playhouse present a Film Moire season dedicated to the golden age of the Hollywood costumiers. Here's a rundown of all the films they are showing, which include Gilda and a rare screening of The Women, on their Facebook page. The season is curated by Hayley Willis.
Here's an introduction to the season: During Hollywood's 'Golden Age', no film studio
was complete without a fully-fledged, innovative, often bold yet
discerning wardrobe department usually featuring a celebrated costumier
at the helm.
From the 1930s to the mid-sixties, from the end
of the silent era to the birth of the sexual revolution, what an actor
wore on screen was as important as the pictures themselves and with this
new found emphasis on costume, so too came the ascension of the
actor/actress from humble black and white player to Technicolor movie star.
This season of one Sunday double bill and four
Saturday matinees focuses specifically on Edith Head, Adrian and Jean
Louis – all three were at the peak of their careers during this
so-called 'Golden Age' and whose work offers numerous examples of
persistent innovation in design, expertly reflecting the changing roles,
possibilities and achievements of costumiers during this period.
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Chicago Reader review of Sunset Boulevard:
'Billy Wilder's searing, funny, morbid look at the real
tinsel beneath the phony tinsel (1950). Aging silent-movie vamp Gloria
Swanson takes up with William Holden, a two-bit screenwriter on the
make, and virtually holds him captive in her Hollywood gothic mansion.
Erich von Stroheim, once her director, now her butler, is the other
figure in this menage-a-weird. A tour de force for Swanson and one of
Wilder's better efforts.'
Dan Druker
Here is the trailer: 'The most unusual picture in many years'
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Chicago Reader review of To Catch A Thief:
'Cary Grant is a retired cat burglar on the Riviera and Grace Kelly is
the spoiled American rich girl who seems to have the perpetual hots for
him, in Alfred Hitchcock's fluffy 1955 exercise in light comedy, minimal
mystery, and good-natured eroticism (the fireworks scene is a classic).
Jessie Royce Landis (North by Northwest) is delightful as
Kelly's clearheaded mother (she and Grant were born the same year, by
the way), and John Williams gives expert support as usual.'
Dan Druker
Here is the trailer.
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