Capital Celluloid 2017 - Day 214: Fri Aug 4

The Swimmer (Perry, 1968): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 6.30pm


This film, screening in the Big Screen Classics season at BFI Southbank, is also being shown on August 12th, 18th and 25th. Full details here.

Chicago Reader review:
The only John Cheever story ever adapted to the big screen, this drama follows the eccentric journey of a suburban New York man who appears at the house of some old friends and resolves to take a dip in each of the backyard swimming pools that lead across the county back to his stately home. It's an unlikely movie property, but this 1968 feature imposes a dramatic shape on the story while preserving Cheever's characteristic sense of suburban rot. Burt Lancaster plays the title character, whose encounters with his upper-class neighbors (among them Kim Hunter and Joan Rivers) grow increasingly weird and disturbing as he approaches a cruel homecoming. A resounding commercial flop, this has since been recognized as a signature 60s film, prescient in its view of American self-deception. Frank Perry directed a screenplay by his wife, Eleanor, though the studio brought in Sydney Pollack for extensive reshoots.
JR Jones

Here (and above) is the original trailer.

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