Capital Celluloid 2013 - Day 6: Sun Jan 6

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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