ATALE DT

SHOWTIME
Saturday, Nov 14, 4:30pm,
Sunrise Civic Center
The Sunset at Sunrise Party Follows
the Q & A with Ms. Parsons
AMERICAN
RETRO
FILM STUDIO
BONNIE AND CLYDE ESTELLE PARSONS TRIBUTE FILM
PARTY
SEE PAGE 7
INCLUDED
30’s ERA
ATTIRE
OPTIONAL
Director: Arthur Penn / USA / 1967 / 111 min / BluRay / English
**** Roger Ebert, September 25, 1967 The lives in this case belonged, briefly, to Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. They were two nobodies who got
their pictures in the paper by robbing banks and killing people. They weren't very good at the bank robbery part of it, but they were fairly good at killing
people and absolutely first-class at getting their pictures in the paper.
Bonnie was a gum-chewing waitress and Clyde was a two-bit hood out on parole. But from the beginning, they both seemed to have the knack of entertaining
people. Bonnie wrote ballads and mailed them in with pictures Clyde took with his Kodak. They seemed to consider themselves public
servants, bringing a little sparkle to the poverty and despair of the Dust Bowl during the early Depression years.
Under Arthur Penn's direction, this is a film aimed squarely and unforgivingly at the time we are living in. It is intended, horrifyingly, as entertainment. And
so it will be taken. The kids on dates will go to see this one, just like they went to see "Dirty Dozen" and "Born Losers" and "Hells Angels on Wheels."
But this time, maybe, they'll get more than they counted on. The violence in most American movies is of a curiously bloodless quality. People are shot
and they die, but they do not suffer. The murders are something to be gotten over with, so the audience will have its money's worth, the same is true
of the sex. Both are like the toy in a Crackerjack box: Worthless, but you feel cheated it it's not there.
In "Bonnie and Clyde," however, real people die. Before they die they suffer, horribly. Before they suffer they laugh, and play checkers, and make love,
or try to. These become people we know, and when they die it is not at all pleasant to be in the audience.
The performances throughout are flawless. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, in the title roles, surpass anything they have done on the screen before
and establish themselves (somewhat to my surprise) as major actors.
Michael J. Pollard, as C.W. Moss, the driver and mechanic for the gang, achieves a mixture of moronic good humor and genuine pathos that is unforgettable.
Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons play Buck and Blanche Barrow, the other members of the gang, as inarticulate, simple, even good - willed. When Buck
is reunited with his kid brother, they howl with glee and punch each other to disguise the truth that they have nothing to say.
After the gang has shot its way out of a police trap and Buck is mortally wounded, Blanche's high, mindless scream in the
getaway car provides, for me, a very adequate vision of hell.
This is pretty clearly the best American film of the year. It is also a
landmark. Years from now it is quite possible that "Bonnie and Clyde"
will be seen as the definitive film of the 1960s, showing with sadness,
humor and unforgiving detail what one society had come to.
Sponsored by
Janet Schwartz &
Irwin Levenstein
Special Guests: oscar winner, estelle Parsons and Film Historian & author, Foster Hirsch
Following the film Mr. Hirsch will interview Ms. Parsons onstage.
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