Capital Celluloid 2014 - Day 221: Sun Aug 10

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Hawks, 1953): Somerset House, 9pm


Each summer, The Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court hosts London's most beautiful open-air cinema, the Film4 Summer Screen. The series features a range of films, all showing on a state-of-the-art screen with full surround sound. Full details of the season at Somerset House can be found here.

Chicago Reader review:
Howard Hawks's grand, brassy 1953 musical about two girls from Little Rock—Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell—gone gold digging in Paris. The male sex is represented by a bespectacled nerd (Tommy Noonan), a dirty old man (Charles Coburn), and a 12-year-old voyeur (the unforgettable George "Foghorn" Winslow), all of whom deserve what they get. The opening shot—Russell and Monroe in sequins standing against a screaming red drape—is enough to knock you out of your seat, and the audacity barely lets up from there, as Russell romances the entire U.S. Olympic team to the tune of "Ain't There Anyone Here for Love?" and Hawks keeps topping perversity with perversity. A landmark encounter in the battle of the sexes.
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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