The Celluloid Sorceress’ retrospective of the films of Joel Schumacher continues with a digital presentation of one of the director’s most personal films, Flawless (1999).
Robert De Niro stars as Walter Koontz, a ‘local hero’ cop living in a downtown New York apartment block. Across the courtyard lives Rusty (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a pre-op transwoman performing as a drag artist to raise the money for surgery.
While responding to the sound of gunshots in the apartment block, Walt suffers a sudden stroke. Waking up paralysed down his right side and unable to speak, he falls into depression. Hearing Rusty’s noisy rehearsals inspires Walt to regain his speech by learning to sing, and they form an uneasy alliance.
His most overt work on an LGBT theme and based on the experiences of a close friend, Flawless (1999) stands as a more hopeful counterpart to Schumacher’s other film released that year, the dark thriller 8mm. Philip Seymour Hoffman earned a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for his performance as Rusty, with Roger Ebert praising his ability “to take a flamboyant role and find the quiet details in it”.
Introduced by Rebecca Nicole Williams with a vintage support programme by DEEP ‘90s!
More titles in The Celluloid Sorceress’ retrospective of the films of Joel Schumacher:
- Sun 19 Aug @ 15.00 – A Time to Kill (1996) 35mm presentation
- Sun 30 Sep @ 15.00 – Tigerland (2000) and Phone Booth (2002) 35mm presentations
- Sun 28 Oct @ 15.00 – Sparkle (1976) 16mm presentation
- Wed 14 Nov @ 19.30 – Bad Company (2002)
The film will be screened in the downstairs cinema.
Doors open at 19.00, for a 19.30 start.
TICKETS & PRICING
Tickets £6.
Advance tickets may be purchased from Billetto, or direct from the Museum by calling 020 7840 2200 in office hours.
Season tickets £40 (£32.50 concessions) for all the Celluloid Sorceress Joel Schumacher films available from Billetto, or direct from the Museum.
