Event

DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN

According to director Susan Seidelman, when shooting began on Madonnas debut feature, bystanders of the films downtown NYC locations whispered to one another, "Thats Cyndi Lauper, shes making a screwball comedy." By shootings end, after Like a Virgin was released, security was required full-time, and Madonna hysteria had commenced, introducing America to a fashion icon and inspiring teenage mall rats across the country to don lacy cut-off gloves, frosted highlights, and oversized crucifixes. The film also has a surprisingly avant-garde pedigree, with guest stars including performance legends Ann Magnuson, Richard Hell, John Lurie, and Arto Lindsay.

Susan Seidelmans through-the-looking-glass pop take on Jacques Rivettes CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING is a euphoric blast of 80s fun. Timid, repressed upper-middle-class New Jersey housewife Roberta (Rosanna Arquette) fuels her romantic fantasies by following the personal-ad correspondence of the free-spirited Susan (Madonna) and her punk-rocker boyfriend Jim (Robert Joy). Following a series of screwball coincidences, Roberta gets amnesia after being conked on the head and comes to believe that she is Susan a misapprehension that is shared by a violent crook on the real Susan's trail, and by Roberta's at-first reluctant protector (and Jim's buddy) Dez (Aidan Quinn), a bohemian movie projectionist who finds himself falling in love with what he thinks is his best friend's gal. NYC-based indie auteur Seidelman followed up her savagely brilliant debut SMITHEREENS with this highly enjoyable fusion of mainstream comedy and skuzzy, downtown New York hipsterdom, giving the Material Girl an ideal cinematic showcase.