Pennies from Heaven

A glorious spectacle that was largely misunderstood in its day, MGM’s daring musical takes an unsentimental approach to Hollywood’s Golden Age and the pop-culture dream factory – as seen from the dawn of the Reagan era. Sheet-music salesman Arthur (Steve Martin) dreams of living in the optimistic world of the songs he sells – a tough gig in Chicago in 1934. After Arthur’s wife, Joan (Jessica Harper, star of Dario Argento’s Suspiria, MIFF 2023), refuses to financially support his business, he seduces doe-eyed schoolteacher Eileen (Broadway legend Bernadette Peters), who in turn takes up with dapper pimp Tom (Christopher Walken). As Arthur and Eileen chase a limelit, lip-synced future together, harsh reality waits in the wings. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were sure they had a blockbuster in this remake of Dennis Potter’s 1978 BBC miniseries of the same name, a deconstruction of the legendary studio’s own musicals of the past. A staggering budget was splashed on stunning Busby Berkeley and Fred Astaire homages, along with gorgeous sets re-enacting Edward Hopper paintings; while Martin, already a celebrated comedian taking on his first dramatic role, took tap-dancing lessons to keep up with former child hoofer Walken. Instead, it flopped at the box office, hard. The film's singular, often-cynical deconstruction of the musical may have been too much for audiences as morning famously broke in America, but its power has only grown over time. “The most emotional movie musical I’ve ever seen … There was never a second when I wasn’t fascinated by what was happening on the screen.” – Pauline Kael, The New Yorker ––– This screening will be introduced by film critic Amy Nicholson (Los Angeles Times), and a panel discussion will follow the film. Amy Nicholson is the film critic of the Los Angeles Times and the host of the podcast Unspooled. She is a current on-air voice at LAist and KCRW, and a member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Society of Film Critics. Her other credits include The New York Times, The Washington Post, Variety, Rolling Stone, MTV News and The Guardian. She has served on the juries for Berlin, Sundance and SXSW, as well as the FIPRESCI juries for Moscow, Cairo and Eurasia, among others. Amy holds a double B.A. in Film Studies and Anthropology from the University of Oklahoma as well as a Masters in Professional Writing from USC. Her first book, Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor, was published by Cahiers du Cinéma, and her second, Extra Girls, will be published by Simon & Schuster.