Last Summer (Perry, 1969): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 8.40pm
This 35mm presentation, shown in association with Lost Reels, an independent organisation dedicated to showing lost, unavailable and out-of-circulation films, is part of the Film on Film festival at BFI Southbank. Full details here.
BFI introduction:
Following the screening of the Perrys’ The Swimmer at the 2023 festival,
we’re showing their unsettling film about the dawning sexual and
class-based tensions between four teenagers over a summer on Fire
Island. What begins as typical adolescent exploration between entitled
Dan, sensitive Peter and precocious Sandy, turns in a darker direction
when they meet bright but awkward Rhoda (an impressive, Oscar-nominated
performance by Burns). Unavailable on home video and for many years
accessible only from a solitary 16mm print held in Australia, this 35mm
print from the BFI National Archive does show very considerable wear,
and has faded with a blue cast, but it offers a vanishingly rare
opportunity to see one of the essential, yet missing, American films of
its era.
Time Out review:
One of those winsome, nostalgic beach movies (this one has a wounded
seagull). Four gawky teenagers spend the summer on Long Island, learning
the usual, bittersweet rites-of-passage lessons about life, love and
loyalty. Director Frank Perry was renowned for the way he probed human
relationships. He's helped here by an insightful script adapted by his
wife Eleanor Perry from a novel by Evan Hunter. The acting is also a cut above the average: Cathy Burns, who's since disappeared without trace, was Oscar-nominated for her depiction of a troubled adolescent.
Geoffrey Macnab
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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