Gimme Shelter, Harold and Maude kick off VIFF Centre's Ragged Glory: Summer in the 70s series
Summerlong curated series of nearly 70 films pays tribute to the birth of revolutionary “New Hollywood”
Mick Jagger before all hell breaks loose in Gimme Shelter.
VIFF Centre presents Ragged Glory: Summer in the 70s until September 4.
IN THE WORLD OF FILM, the 1970s were “an unprecedented—and unique—period of artistic freedom”, as VIFF Centre year-round programmer Tom Charity puts it in his notes for the new Ragged Glory: Summer in the 70s series kicking off tomorrow (July 15).
With that in mind, VIFF is launching a massive summerlong ode to the incredible era that gave birth to “New Hollywood”, showing era-defining films by the likes of Francis Coppola, Martin Scorsese, William Friedkin, and Robert Altman—on the big screen, where they were meant to be seen.
Running right through to September 4 and featuring some inspired double bills, the series features just shy of seventy 1970s films, opening with half-century-old pricing of $2.50 tickets (available only on July 15).
The event kicks off Friday night with a bang. At 6 pm in the Studio Theatre, check out the classic documentary Gimme Shelter, about the Rolling Stones’ disastrous free concert at Altamont Speedway. It’s followed at 8 pm in the same theatre with Dennis Hopper’s 1971 metafictional The Last Movie, in which he stars as a horse wrangler making a western in Peru.
Over in the Vancity Theatre at 6:40 pm is the indelible, oddball Harold and Maude, in which a funeral-obsessed 20-year-old man-child befriends a 79-year-old woman who has a zest for life. And at 8 pm in the main theatre, find Robert Altman’s blackly comic Korean-war film M*A*S*H, starring Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould.
That's just the start to this ode to a revolutionary era in filmmaking. Highlights to come: Klute, Five Easy Pieces, The French Connection, Dark Star, Mean Streets, Shaft, and more. Don't forget to wear your bellbottoms, mood rings, elevator shoes, and "Have a Nice Day" button. You might even want to bring your pet rock along for the show.
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