Showtimes
Thursday, March 5
7:00pm
Ticketing
$12 /General Admission
FACETS Members save 15%
Not a Member? Sign up today!
★ ★ ★ ★ – A New Leaf is, in fact, one of the funniest movies of our unfunny age.” – Roger Ebert
In this debut feature from 1971 written and directed by the neglected and transgressive Elaine May, Walter Matthau plays Henry, a wealthy and inept New York playboy faced with bankruptcy. He conspires to marry into the wealth of an heiress and poison her. His target is the shy and clumsy botanist Henrietta (May), trusting and earnest in every possible way. On the way to executing his plan, we get one of cinema’s most hilariously clueless courtships before May’s lacerating script and scene-stealing performance takes us into darker territory. Following a fast rise to fame in the 1960’s with her comic partner Mike Nichols, May’s opening film strikes a bitter and awkward tone that underlines the darkly comic storyline. A founding member of Chicago’s Compass Players – the earliest incarnation of SECOND City – May’s gifts as a comic performer and writer make for a very ambitious first feature.
Elaine May, USA, 1971, 102 mins, Blu-ray
STAFF PICK
Programmer Lee Kepraios: “I chose this film because I think director Elaine May is one of the most undervalued talents in American film history. The more I learn about her uncompromising efforts as a trailblazing female filmmaker, the more insight I have into her savage cinematic views of love and friendship as vessels for pain and betrayal in films that are funny and horrifying in equal measure – Matthau here as the first in her gallery of pathetic, dysfunctional male subjects. May is delightful on screen too; in a quirky character part that’s never a caricature. This film exemplifies the improvisational style of acting that Chicago became famous for, using gameplay and storytelling techniques out of which the rich characters and situations arise naturally. May was really ahead of her time in more ways than one. I can’t wait for our audiences to discover or revisit her work.”
Lee is freelance programmer, critic, and actor who spent 13 years as a stand-up comic and now sees movie credits at the end of his dreams. He has an Arts degree from The Evergreen State College, and upon moving back home from Los Angeles, has acted in a few independent features shot in Chicago. He’s a jabbering autodidact who loves movies to an unreasonable degree and is thrilled and honored to be with FACETS.
