Karina Longworth, film historian, and creator and host of You Must Remember This podcast, and Vidiots Foundation, the iconic L.A. video store-turned-film non-profit, are teaming up for a VIRTUAL FILM SCREENING SERIES, running Tuesday, May 26 through Tuesday, July 28, 2020. Follow @karinalongworth and @vidiots on Instagram for more information.
The virtual screening series will follow the new season of You Must Remember This -- Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman. YMRT listeners, Vidiots fans, and classic movie buffs are invited to watch a movie every week, handpicked by Karina and Maggie, that relate to the week's podcast episode. Every Tuesday during the series they’ll be on Instagram Live at 6:30 PST/9:30 EST to discuss the movie and that week's episode with fans, and special guests.
Films include:
May 26: One-Eyed Jacks
When Polly Platt was a kid, she sought escape from her troubled home life by going to see Westerns. At age 20, in the midst of paralyzing grief, she saw One-Eyed Jacks — directed by and starring Marlon Brando — and the experience made her take action to follow her dream of working in movies.
June 9: Targets
Polly Platt got her first story and production design credits on her then-husband Peter Bogdanovich’s feature directorial debut, a bone-dry, bare-bones thriller about the real horror -- ie: mass shootings. Platt found the locations and designed the total look of the film around an aesthetic that, as she put it, "I thought would make a murderer out of me."
June 16: The Last Picture Show
While he and Polly were making this now-classic, Oscar-winning film, Peter Bogdanovich began an open affair with actress Cybill Shepherd. Humiliated though she was, Polly felt so much ownership over this movie that she refused to leave the production.
June 23: What's Up Doc
Though their marriage was over, Polly Platt agreed to production design her now ex-husband’s next two movies, What’s Up Doc (1972) and Paper Moon (1973). What’s Up Doc would be an anomaly in Polly’s filmography as a production designer: a trailblazer in American realism, here Platt went all in on designing a live-action cartoon.
June 30: A Star is Born (1976)
In production designing the Barbra Streisand-starring remake of one of Hollywood’s oldest myths, Polly got an up-close-and-personal glimpse into what it really looked like to be a powerful woman in Hollywood. She also got a chance to subtly work some of her own story into the design of the film.
July 7: Pretty Baby
Platt began a major career transition with this controversial film, which she wrote and produced. Though set in a brothel in early 20th century New Orleans, Pretty Baby is infused with much of Polly’s own autobiography, and shows how deeply she was grappling with her feelings of abandonment—and worries that she was abandoning her own children.
July 14: Terms of Endearment
A decade after her creative partnership with Bogdanovich ended, Platt began a new collaboration with an incredibly talented writer/director: James L. Brooks. This was the perfect job for Polly; many of those close to her believed that the novel that the movie was based on had been at least partially inspired by her.
July 21: The Witches of Eastwick
Polly Platt’s last film as a production designer — a job she took after she had established herself as a writer/producer and announced her intention to direct –– also features the most production design of her career, as she matched her instinct for visual storytelling to the format of the 80s special effects blockbuster.
July 28: Say Anything...
During one of the last phases of her career, Polly became a mentor to a number of first-time directors, including Cameron Crowe, whose now-classic rom-com features Polly on-screen in a memorable cameo.
August 4: Bottle Rocket
Polly shepherded Wes Anderson’s first feature through a long development process, believing strongly that he and the Wilson brothers were telling an independent, American story that would fall in the lineage of The Last Picture Show.
More about Karina and YMRT: Karina Longworth is a film critic, author, and journalist based in LA. Longworth writes, hosts and produces the podcast You Must Remember This, about the secret and/or forgotten histories of Hollywood’s first century. Since launching as a passion project in April 2014, YMRT has become a critically acclaimed top podcast. "Ms. Longworth has hit on a peculiar sweet spot, where Hipsterdom meets Turner Classic Movies!" —The New York Times; "This podcast will change the way you think about movies" —Esquire Magazine; "Deep research, delicious tidbits & eyebrow arched narration!" —Flavorwire. The newest YMRT series stars Polly Platt -- producer, writer and Oscar-nominated production designer -- who lived an epic Hollywood life. If you know Platt’s name today, it’s probably because in 1970 her husband and creative collaborator Peter Bogdanovich had an affair with Cybill Shepherd while shooting the film that launched their careers, The Last Picture Show. But Platt was much more than a jilted wife: she was the secret, often invisible-to-the-public weapon behind some of the best films of the 1970s, '80s and '90s. Drawing on Platt’s unpublished memoir, as well as ample interviews and archival research, The Invisible Woman will tell Polly Platt’s incredible story from her perspective, for the first time. Learn more about the podcast at youmustrememberthispodcast.com.
About Vidiots: Vidiots, the iconic Los Angeles video store-turned-film non-profit, is relaunching as an expanded entertainment, social, and community space at the historic Eagle Theatre in Northeast L.A. Vidiots' new home will include a 250-seat state-of-the-art cinema for a full calendar of screenings, special events, and educational programs; beer, wine and food; a 40-seat flexible screening space, and Vidiots' over-50,000-title film and media collection. To learn more and support Vidiots' relaunch with a donation of any size, please visit vidiotsfoundation.org
