If you'd like to attend, please indicate so, but only if you're pretty certain of going. The events are unique and convivial and we always meet afterwards at Hurley's Irish pub for discussion.
BREATHLESS
(1983, U.S., 100 min., 16mm) Jim McBride
The story is basically that of the Jean-Luc Godard picture upon which it is based, but instead of a French guy pursuing an American gal in Paris, here we have an American guy pursuing a French gal in L.A.. Jesse Lujack (Richard Gere), a charming but larcenous hustler, steals a car from a casino parking lot in Vegas and high-tails it to L.A. to hook up with Monica (Valerie Kaprisky), a French exchange student he'd spent the previous weekend with. But on the way, he unintentionally kills a highway patrolman. Will Jesse make it out of Los Angeles with Monica before the law can catch up with him?
You’ll be pleasantly surprised by what director Jim McBride did in re-imagining Godard’s ‘sacred’ new wave classic. It is misleading to compare McBride's Breathless to Godard's. Even if the latter inspired this one, it stands on its own. Richard Gere is outstandingly mesmerising as a lost soul, a petty criminal with frenetic energy who avoids thinking about the future, has become obsessed with a woman, and commits a serious crime. We don't know anything about him, only that he's going at top speed all the time, with a child-like love of the flawed comic book superhero Silver Surfer and Rock n’ Roll rebel Jerry Lee Lewis. His girlfriend is conflicted; she is wary of this classic bad-boy, but she can't resist him. (The love scenes between Kaprisky and Gere created a sensation at the time for being very steamy, yet tastefully done.) Existential angst and doom pervade the film from start to finish. A gritty, very colorful Los Angeles is the film's backdrop and is almost another character. The writers and director are not telling us, or even asking, why these people do what they do, they are just presenting a few fateful days in their desperate lives.
The soundtrack features artists like The Pretenders, Robert Fripp, Brian Eno, Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Dylan, Philip Glass, X, and is one of its driving forces. For this and other reasons, over the 40 years since its release, the film has gained quite the cult following. Don’t miss your exceedingly rare chance to see this uncensored version on the big screen. See it now or see it never, baby!
Guest speaker: To be announced
Box Office opens at 6pm. All forms of payment are accepted but it's always best to bring cash. Service is faster and you aren't stuck if the payment processing system is down.
