Open-air cinema at Congress Square 2019
The event was opened with Ninotchka, directed by legendary director of classic Hollywood film, Ernst Lubitsch. The film, whose witty fusion of political satire and romantic comedy and gave Greta Garbo her first comic role, along with ‘the Lubitsch Touch’, celebrated its 80th anniversary.
As an introduction to the Slovenian Cinemateque’s autumn retrospective on Jean Renoir, we presented Eléna et les hommes in which Ingrid Bergman finds herself in a whirlwind of love and political intrigue in the director’s dizzying and colourful romantic comedy.
For the 60th birthday of ‘the funniest film of all time’, Billy Wilder’s masterpiece Some Like it Hot, we gasped at the breathtaking performances of Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and the timeless Marilyn Monroe, all at the top of their game.
Our program concluded with anarchic satire on institutional religion and playful parody on Hollywood’s Biblical spectacles, Life of Brian, directed by and starring legendary British comedy troupe, Monty Python, celebrating the film’s 40th birthday.
Ninotchka Ninotchka
Ernst Lubitsch / USA / 1939 / 110 min / English
A sparkling political satire come romantic comedy, directed by the celebrated master of casual sophistication and classic Hollywood cinema, Ernst Lubitsch. Co-written by the legendary screenwriting team of Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, and starring the infallible Garbo in her first comedic role, Ninotchka is an exemplar of the great director’s famed “Lubitsch Touch”.
Elena and Her Men (Paris Does Strange Things) Eléna et les Hommes
Jean Renoir / France, Italy / 1956 / 95 min / French
In Jean Renoir’s giddy romantic comedy, set amid the splendour of fin-de-siècle Paris, a radiant Ingrid Bergman finds herself frolicking through whirlwind romances and political intrigues.
Some Like It Hot Some Like It Hot
Billy Wilder / USA / 1959 / 121 min / English
A deliriously funny and sizzling masterpiece by Billy Wilder, featuring landmark performances by Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and the irresistibly magnetising Marilyn Monroe. Unleashing an endless barrage of comical situations and witty one-liners, Some Like It Hot has been voted the funniest screen comedy of all time by the American Film Institute.
Monty Python's Life of Brian Monty Python's Life of Brian
Terry Jones / United Kingdom / 1979 / 94 min / English, Latin
The legendary British comedy troupe delivers an anarchic satire of organized religion (and a parody of Hollywood’s biblical epics) with Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Highly controversial upon its original release and banned in several countries, Python’s cheeky satire of the life of Jesus told through the story of the boy next door, stands today as one of the greatest comedy features of all time.