PS21 presents its Make ’Em Laugh Film Festival beginning August 5. Enjoy nine consecutive nights of classic comedy that will make you laugh out loud. All films are free of charge, open to the public, begin at 8:30 pm and shown under the tent at 2980 Route 66 in Chatham.
This season’s Make ’Em Laugh Film Festival will show some of comedy’s most iconic films. Five are from the U.S. – Sleeper, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Jerk, The Producers, and This Is Spinal Tap. Three are from the U.K – Mr. Bean: The Movie, Kind Hearts and Coronets and A Shot In The Dark. One film, Mon Oncle, is from France.
Sleeper – Monday, August 5, at 8:30 pm (USA, 1973, 89 min. Rated PG-13). In this classic futuristic comedy Keystone Cops meet Flash Gordon in the wild imagination of Woody Allen. Allen is a Greenwich Village musician/health food store owner who is kept frozen for 200 years and comes back to life in a totalitarian state governed by inane conformity and an unseen Leader. Allen disguises himself as a robot (who looks a lot like silent comic Harold Lloyd) meets Luna (Diane Keaton) and the fun takes off with abundant visual gags and Allen’s hilarious one-liners.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes – Tuesday, August 6, at 8:30 pm (USA , 1953, 91 min.). Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell star in this musical comedy directed by Howard Hawks. Monroe’s performance of “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” is unforgettable. The music is by two songwriting teams – Hoagy Carmichael and Harold Adamson and Jule Styne and Leo Robin. Charles Coburn is Sir Francis “Piggy”
Beekman and Marcel Dalio is the Magistrate.
Mr. Bean: The Movie – Wednesday, August 7, at 8:30 pm (UK, 1997, Rated PG-13). Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) is a well meaning but hopelessly clumsy and destructive guard at the Royal National Gallery in London. “Atkinson’s reactive brand of bug-eyed and near silent comedy has always been more akin to Jacques Tati – plus a lecherous pinch of Jerry Lewis,” – Bob Nelson, The Boston Phoenix.
The Jerk – Thursday, August 8, at 8:30 pm (USA,1979, 104 min. Rated R). Steve Martin made his film-starring debut in this wacky comedy hit. He is Navin Johnson, adopted son of a poor black sharecropper family, whose crazy inventions lead him from rags to riches and right back to rags. Along the way, he’s smitten with a lady motorcycle racer (Bernadette Peters), survives a series of screwball attacks by a deranged killer, becomes a millionaire by inventing the “Opti-grab” handle for glasses – and shows why he is one of the world’s great comic performers.
Kind Hearts & Coronets – Friday, August 9, at 8:30 pm (UK, 1949, 106 min.). In this darkly funny Ealing comedy, Dennis Price plays Louis D’Ascoyne whose mother was rejected by her noble family for marrying an Italian tenor for love. Louis decides to avenge his mother by murdering the relatives ahead of him in line for the dukedom, all of whom are played with incredible virtuosity by the brilliant Alec Guinness. They range from a youthful D’Ascoyne to a slew of uncles and one Aunt Agatha.
A Shot in the Dark – Saturday, August 10, at 8:30 pm (UK, 1964, 102 min. Rated PG). This, the second of the Peter Sellers hilarious Pink Panther movies directed by Blake Edwards, is often cited as the greatest of the series. The score is by Henry Mancini.
Mon Oncle – Sunday, August 11, at 8:30 pm (France,1958, 117 min.). M. Hulot (Jacques Tati) is the dreamy, impractical and adored uncle of young Gérard (nine years old), who lives with his materialistic parents in an ultra-modern geometric house and garden in a new suburb of Paris. Slapstick prevails when Jacques Tati’s eccentric hero is let loose in his brother-in-law’s home and in an antiseptic factory that manufactures plastic hose.
The Producers – Monday, August 12, at 8:30 pm (USA,1968, 88 min.). The Producers is written and directed by the legendary comic genius Mel Brooks (Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs). Low-rent Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) and his high strung accountant, Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder), discover that, with the help of a few gullible investors, they can make more money on a flop than on a hit. Armed with the worst show ever written, “Springtime for Hitler,” and an equally horrific cast, this double dealing duo is banking on disaster. But then their sure to offend musical becomes a surprise smash hit.
This is Spinal Tap – Tuesday, August 13, at 8:30 pm (USA, 1984, 82 min. Rated R). Rob Reiner’s directorial debut has developed into a cult phenomenon. The film that invented the “rockumentary” has now outlasted most of the bands it mocked.
For more information about the film festival or any other PS 21 event please call 518-392-6121, email ps21@fairpoint.net or visit our website at http://ps21chatham.org/.