Elaine May: Age of Irony
Elaine May: Age of Irony
September 9–30, 2022
Highly regarded as a comedian, screenwriter, playwright, and actress, Elaine May had a more tempestuous ride as a film director—often at odds with the Hollywood studio executives. Her films are championed by many for their ironic humor, sense of spontaneity, authenticity, and experimentation with form.
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The Heartbreak Kid
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Mikey and Nicky
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A New Leaf
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Ishtar
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Heaven Can Wait
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Films - Past
Films - Past
Events
Past Films
Mikey and Nicky
Elaine May
United States, 1976Digital Restoration
Friday, September 9 7 PMView DetailsExcellent performances by Peter Falk and John Cassavetes, who play petty gangsters in a lonely night’s landscape, on the run from death, mark this distinctive work, written and directed by May.
A New Leaf
Elaine May
United States, 1971Sunday, September 11 5 PMView DetailsStarring Walter Matthau as a playboy who has squandered his wealth and must marry a rich woman or forfeit all his passions, and May as a nerdy heiress, A New Leaf “illustrates how fluidly May fuses verbal and physical comedy” (Manohla Dargis, New York Times).
Heaven Can Wait
Warren Beatty, Buck Henry
United States, 1978Friday, September 16 7 PMView DetailsThis fantasy-comedy about a young man (Beatty) who is mistakenly taken to heaven by his guardian angel earned May her first Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Mikey and Nicky
Elaine May
United States, 1976Digital Restoration
Saturday, September 17 7 PMView DetailsExcellent performances by Peter Falk and John Cassavetes, who play petty gangsters in a lonely night’s landscape, on the run from death, mark this distinctive work, written and directed by May.
The Heartbreak Kid
Elaine May
United States, 1972Sunday, September 25 7 PMView DetailsThe Heartbreak Kid is a bitter satire that plays like a whimsical romantic comedy. “[A] movie that manages the marvelous and very peculiar trick of blending the mechanisms and the cruelties of Neil Simon’s comedy with the sense and sensibility of F. Scott Fitzgerald” (Vincent Canby, New York Times).
Ishtar
Elaine May
United States, 1987Digital Restoration
BAMPFA Student Committee PickFriday, September 30 7 PMView DetailsBroke, untalented nightclub performers (Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman) accept a gig at a Moroccan hotel before becoming CIA pawns in May’s highly underrated romp. “May’s screenwriting has a sardonic, aphoristic brilliance. . . . [as director] she pushes Beatty and Hoffman out of their familiar personae, into strange psychodramatic performances that emerge with a precision of gesture and inflection” (Richard Brody, New Yorker).