‘The Last Picture Show’ film screening

Part of the Imagine! Belfast Festival
Classic American drama ‘The Last Picture Show‘ is a 1971 American film directed and co-written by Peter Bogdanovich, adapted from the semi-autobiographical 1966 novel by Larry McMurtry. As with all Bogdanovich’s best work, his wife Polly Platt was his close artistic collaborator and production designer on the film.

Showing as part of Dougal McKenzie’s exhibition ‘More Bad News‘, this moving, melancholy film is an elegy for small-town America. Set in north Texas between November 1951 and October 1952, it is about the coming of age of Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms) and his friend Duane Jackson (Jeff Bridges). The cast also includes Cybill Shepherd in her film debut, Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson, and Cloris Leachman, and features Eileen Brennan, Clu Gulager, and Randy Quaid. For aesthetic reasons, it was shot in black and white, which was unusual for the time. The film features many songs of Hank Williams Sr. and other recording artists.

Critic Pauline Kael described the film as being ‘Concerned with adolescent experience seen in terms of flatlands anomie—loneliness, ignorance about sex, confusion about one’s aims in life—the movie has a basic decency of feeling, with people relating to one another, sometimes on very simple levels, and becoming miserable when they can’t relate.’

The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Ben Johnson and Jeff Bridges for Best Supporting Actor, and Ellen Burstyn and Cloris Leachman for Best Supporting Actress, with Johnson and Leachman winning.

This screening event at the Golden Thread Gallery is free of charge, and will be introduced by artist Dougal McKenzie.

Supported by Arts Council Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council.

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Golden Thread Gallery
Unit 13 Weavers Court
Linfield Road
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BT12 5GH


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