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LES Heritage Film Series: The '80s, Part 1 — DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN with DIRECTOR SUSAN SEIDELMAN

I'm sorry to shout. But we're showing Desperately Seeking Susan and DIRECTOR SUSAN SEIDELMAN WILL BE HERE. So if ever you were going to attend a Lower East Side Heritage '80s film, this is the one. Ms. Seidelman will be speaking about her work, and there will be a Q and A after the show. Moving on...

I was amazed at what I remembered and what I forgot about Desperately Seeking Susan, or remembered differently. I forgot all the cameos. Richard Hell is the jewel thief that ends up dead in Atlantic City. Rockets Redglare of The Way it Is and Permanent Vacation fame is the cabdriver. The guy that's not John Lurie from Stranger than Paradise. Richard Wright as a dentist. John Turturro as the emcee at the Magic Club. 

I forgot the amazing screwball schtick of the amnesia and mistaken identity. I forgot all the funny, subtle, throwaway lines. And I misremember what was, to me, the most iconic image of the film. When Madonna dries her armpits on an upturned hand dryer in the Port Authority bathroom I remember it as a holding shot. in 1985, at 16, I thought it was just so cute and weird and badass. And it still is. But it turns out it's onscreen for literally two seconds. Enough time to brand it on my brain, apparently. 

Here's what I remembered correctly: the clothes. The vintage store with the totally Eighties grandpa overcoats. The round skeleton suitcase. The amazing clothing/accessory/hair combos that were Madonna being art directed AS Madonna. That freaking jacket with the pyramid on the back. No one ever looked better in Ray Bans and red lipstick than her. Ever. And Madonna playing Madonna playing Susan? She kills it. Rakish and radiant and totally natural. You can't take your eyes off her.

Please brings your eyes and your questions next Tuesday night, November 20th at 6:30 p.m. for Desperately Seeking Susan with the film's director Susan Seideleman in attendance.

In our community room, lower level. Admission is FREE.

Seward Park Library
192 East Broadway
NY, NY 10002
212-477-6770