
ACMI Presents
Bernice Bobs Her Hair + Autumn Matinees Launch
When
Fri 28 Feb - Sat 1 Mar 2025
See below for additional related events
Shelley Duvall stars as the dowdy girl in town who causes a stir when she announces she is going to bob her hair.
Visiting her sophisticated cousin in the big city over summer, Bernice is new to the social scene and she’s a total bore. Tempted to pack up and go home, Bernice instead decides to let her cousin coach her on her social game. Soon, Bernice is transformed into a coquettish flirt. And when she announces rightly or wrongly that she’s going to bob her hair – a thoroughly immoral hairstyle – the apprentice becomes the master.
Curator’s Note
Vale Shelley Duvall.
Adapted from an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story by Joan Micklin Silver (Crossing Delancey), Bernice Bobs Her Hair was originally produced and broadcast as part of the PBS anthology series The American Short Story.
It stars Veronica Cartwright (Alien) as Cousin Marjorie and Bud Cort (Harold and Maude) as one of Bernice’s many admirers. But it’s Shelley Duvall (Nashville, The Shining) who steals every scene as Bernice – no mean feat when you’re tasked with playing an alluring curmudgeon.
Duvall passed away in 2024, leaving behind a remarkable body of work that spanned over 50 years. Bernice Bobs Her Hair is a rarely seen gem from the ACMI Collection that encapsulates her unique on-screen presence and unwavering command over audiences.
– Reece Goodwin, Curator (Film & TV)

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