Available June 19-July 2, 2020
Directed by Peter Medak, Cyprus, 2018, 93 mins.
Contact:
Charles Coleman
Film Program Director
charles@facets.org
773.281.9075
Friday, June 19, 2020: Chicago – The Facets Virtual Cinema will screen the film The Ghost of Peter Sellers (2018), from June 19 to July 2. The film is presented in English; was produced in Cyprus.; and has a runtime of 93 minutes. Pre-orders are available now at www.facets.org/cinematheque/. 50% of all ticket purchases go to Facets in support of the organization during the closure.
In September 1973 Peter Sellers embarked on the production of a 17th Century pirate comedy in Cyprus for Columbia Pictures (Ghost in the Noonday Sun). Sellers lost confidence with the film as soon as it began and desperately tried to sabotage it, firing the producers in the first week and then setting his sights on his friend, Peter Medak, who was the director.
At its core lies the story of an unraveling production but also the tale of a young filmmaker firmly on a path to greatness. Medak had made three successful films in a row, most notably The Ruling Class in 1972 with Peter O’Toole. This film changed his career, and after 43 years the wounds have barely healed for Medak and this is an opportunity to tell his side of the story. The Ghost of Peter Sellers is a comic-tragic feature documentary about what it takes to be a film director and survive your biggest disaster.
The Hollywood Reporter says “the emotionalism of the end feels both true and slightly self-indulgent, but the director has made a documentary that’s both a mea culpa for his role in a botched enterprise that left no one looking good and an affecting attempt to define a life’s turning point.”
