Atlantic City
With Burt Lancaster, Susan Sarandon, Michel Piccoli.
US/France/Canada, 1981, 35mm, color, 103 min.
As if his 1940’s noir hoodlum had lived to see the 1980’s, Lancaster’s Lou Pasco catches only faint echoes of those glory days between his small numbers running and petty errand running for an aging widow of a notorious gangster. As Atlantic City disintegrates before him, Lou maintains – like the Leopard – his dignity and a tender awareness of the station to which age and cultural change have taken him. When a drug deal brings the crime underworld on his heels, money in his pocket and a charming young woman at his side, he accepts this second youth with a giddy astonishment and chivalrous self-possession tempered by the wisdom of age. Rather than fall into tried-and-true mannerisms, Lancaster embraces Louis Malle’s sweet rendering with the restraint of an actor humbly consenting to yet another reincarnation.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Sweet Smell of Success
Brute Force
The Rose Tattoo
The Crimson Pirate
Ulzana's Raid
Conversation Piece
From Here to Eternity
Twilight’s Last Gleaming
I Walk Alone
The Leopard
The Killers
Atlantic City
Criss Cross
Kiss the Blood Off My Hands
The Train
Vera Cruz
The Swimmer
Run Silent Run Deep
A Child Is Waiting
Judgment at Nuremberg
