The Melbourne Cinémathèque & ACMI present
Christmas in July
When
Tues 8 March
7pm
Update
Cinémathèque’s Preston Sturges season will take place at The Capitol with ACMI Cinemas currently closed due to urgent building works. There is no box office at The Capitol, so new memberships must be purchased online or at the ACMI Tickets and Information Desk, which will remain open until 7:30pm on screening nights. We apologise for any inconvenience and look forward to welcoming Cinematheque members back to the ACMI Cinemas soon.
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Preston Sturges’ sophomore directorial effort is a wonderful satire of American life and success in the shadow of the Depression. An office worker (Dick Powell) enters a slogan contest and is subsequently the subject of a cruel joke by his colleagues who fabricate a telegram announcing he has won the competition.
Sturges’ fast-paced and supremely economical style steer the characters through a minefield of competing values, eccentricities and delusions. Based on an unproduced 1931 Sturges play, A Cup of Coffee, it features a characteristic rogues’ gallery of supporting players including William Demarest and Franklin Pangborn.
Screens with
Program
"This Cockeyed Caravan": the Comic Universe of Preston Sturges
Sullivan's Travels (1941) – Wed 2 Mar at 7pm
The Great McGinty (1940) – Wed 2 Mar at 8.45pm
Christmas In July (1940) – Tues 8 Mar at 7pm
Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) – Tues 8 Mar at 8.20pm
The Palm Beach Story (1942) – Wed 16 Mar at 7pm
Unfaithfully Yours (1948) – Wed 16 Mar at 8.40pm
About the program
Preston Sturges (1898-1959) was the great shooting star of 1940s Hollywood cinema. Brought up by an itinerant mother who travelled to Europe to follow the likes of Isadora Duncan and Aleister Crowley, Sturges came to prominence in a burst of creativity and success on Broadway in the late 1920s before a ten-year stint as a jobbing and well-paid screenwriter for various studios including Paramount...
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About Melbourne Cinémathèque
Australia's longest-running film society screens significant works of international cinema in the medium they were created, the way they would have originally screened.
Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered, volunteer-run, not-for-profit and membership-driven.
