USA
, 60 min
Shown in 1984
CREDITS
- dir
-
Jonathan Demme
- prod
-
Jonathan Demme
- scr
-
Morton Neal Miller
- cam
-
Paul VomBrack
- editor
-
Marc Leif
- mus
-
John Cale
- cast
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Christopher Walken, Susan Sarandon
-
COMMENTS
Jonathan Demme in person.
As a special treat for ticket-holders to Stop Making Sense, the Festival presents a rare theatrical screening of Jonathan Demme's made-for-TV hit. Set in a small Midwestern town in the early ’60s, Who Am I This Time? is the story of two people who resort to unusual means to express their feelings. Harry is an easily frustrated introvert whose only outlets for passion are the leads he plays in local theater productions. Helene is a shy, demure young woman whose job keeps her on the move and perpetuates her loneliness, until she is "discovered" by the drama club's director. With his usual wonderful eye for Americana, be it props or sentiment, Jonathan Demme infuses this otherwise predictable courtship with affection and humor. Christopher Walken and Susan Sarandon give terrific performances as the maladroit Romeo and Juliet. Originally made for the American Playhouse series, Who Am I This Time? is based on a Kurt Vonnegut short story.
—Laura Thielen
FACTOID #176
Hordes of screaming teenagers were fascinated with the Rolling Stones, but so were influential imagemakers Jean-Luc Godard and Robert Frank. The SFIFF has screened three different films with the Rolling Stones as the main subject: Godard’s Sympathy for the Devil (SFIFF 1972), Frank’s Cocksucker Blues (SFIFF 1998) and the IMAX documentary At the Max (SFIFF 1991).
