The King of Marvin Gardens (Rafaelson, 1972): BFI Southbank, 2.30, 6.30 & 8.45pm
One of the best American films of the 70s returns for an extended run at BFI Southbank. Details here.
Time Out review:
An irresistible movie, not least for its haunting vision of Atlantic
City as Xanadu, a stately pleasure dome of genteelly decaying palaces,
run-down funfairs, and empty boardwalks presided over by white elephants
abandoned to their brooding fate. It's like some unimaginable country
of the mind, and so in a sense it is as two brothers embark on a sort of
game (Atlantic City provided the original place names for the Monopoly
board) in which they exchange their lives, their loves and their dreams.
One has retreated, like Prospero, from the pain outside into the island
of his mind; the other pursues an endless mirage of get-rich-quick
schemes which will let him escape to an island paradise. Their fusion is
a stunningly complex evocation of childish complicity and Pinterish
obsessions, inevitably leading to tragedy as the obsessions founder on
reality. One of the most underrated films of the decade.
Tom Milne
Watch these extracts.
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