Screwball Summer: Desperately Seeking Susan (35mm)

BBFC Ratingf-rated FilmScrewball Summer: Desperately Seeking Susan (35mm)

Showing: 14 July 2025

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Mon 14 Jul 2025

Certificate15
Year1985
GenreComedy
Director(s)Susan Seidelman
Writer(s)Leora Barish
LanguageEnglish
CountryUSA
Running Time1HR 43MINS
Season Screwball Summer

Get into the groove with this fusion of screwball comedy and skuzzy, downtown New York hipsterdom, from NYC-based indie auteur Susan Seidelman (Smithereens). Screening from 35mm.

Timid New Jersey housewife Roberta (Rosanna Arquette) fuels her romantic fantasies by following the personal-ad correspondence of the free-spirited Susan (Madonna, in her film debut) and her punk-rocker boyfriend Jim (Robert Joy).

Following a series of screwball coincidences, Roberta gets amnesia after being hit on the head and comes to believe that she is Susan — a misapprehension that is shared by a violent crook on the real Susan's trail, and Jim's buddy Dez (Aidan Quinn), a bohemian movie projectionist who finds himself falling in love with what he thinks is his best friend's gal.

Desperately Seeking Susan features cameos from prominent No Wave scenesters Richard Hell (of the Voidoids), Richard Edson (ex of Sonic Youth) and John Lurie, and gives the pre-superstardom Material Girl an ideal cinematic showcase.

From the gumball bottom to the cherry on top, QFT is having a Screwball Summer. We are celebrating the fast-talking farce of the screwball comedy with a season guaranteed to tickle your funny bone.



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