Prix de beauté
Smile
Beauty pageants have often provided a suitable narrative device for films to celebrate the inner grace of the ugly duckling. These two selections provide a much darker, more incisive critique of these bizarre human spectacles. In Prix de beauté, Louise Brooks (in her final leading role) portrays a typist who leaves her desk job to become a contestant in the “Miss Europe” contest, much to the dismay of her insanely jealous lover. California’s Young American Miss Pageant (an actual contest staged in Santa Rosa) provides the backdrop for Michael Ritchie’s Altman-esque satire of the American Dream. The film features many future stars, including a teenage Melanie Griffith and Annette O’Toole.
Please note: 35mm print of Prix de beauté will screen with no English subtitles. There will be an English subtitled DVD screening simultaneously in Carpenter Center Room B-04.
PROGRAM
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Prix de beauté
Directed by Augusto Genina.
With Louise Brooks, Georges Charlia, Augusto Bandini.
France, 1930, 35mm, black & white, 95 min.
In French.
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Smile
Directed by Michael Ritchie.
With Bruce Dern, Barbara Feldon, Michael Kidd.
US, 1975, 35mm, color, 113 min.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
The Single Standard / Carnival in Flanders
Dumbo / He Who Gets Slapped
The Marriage Circle / The Merry Widow
The Cat and the Canary / And Then There Were None
