Marilyn Monroe calls on Piedmont
Anything can be famous. If you don’t think so, picture the most famous subway grate in New York City—actually the most famous subway grate in the world. How can a subway grate become famous? By being the one that sends up busy gusts of air just as Marilyn Monroe stands over it in the movie, The Seven Year Itch. Monroe’s provocatively blowing skirt became emblematic of the film, and of her, but if your visual memory fails you, you can refresh it at Piedmont’s monthly Flix Fest next week, because The Seven Year Itch is on the bill.
One of the rewarding pleasures of movies is seeing one with friends and then chatting about it when the lights come up. That’s just what the Piedmont Flix Fest, which meets on the second Thursday of each month, offers: a great movie in a comfortable setting, and then a lively discussion of it afterward.
The hit 1954 Cinemascope comedy, directed by Billy Wilder, begins as middle aged publishing executive, Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) sends his wife and son off to Maine, to spend the summer away from New York’s summer heat. Without his family to anchor him, his thoughts start to drift—he’s afflicted with, to put it politely, a waning interest in staying monogamous, known to psychologists, and to the rest of us, as “the seven year itch.”
Dream fulfillment shows up in the form of a curvaceous blonde model (Marilyn Monroe) who has moved into the apartment upstairs. Pondering infidelity, Richard hones in on his scrumptious new neighbor—but will his technicolor fantasies about her become a reality?
Comedy ensues — Thursday, June 12 at 4:15 p.m.
Flix Fest films usually screen at 1:00 PM, but because of a scheduling conflict, The Seven Year Itch will be shown this month at a changed time of day, from 4:15 till 6:30, on June 12. Sponsored by the Rec Department, the event takes place in the Center for the Arts at 801 Magnolia Avenue on the second Thursday of each month. Doors for this showing will open at 4:00. The event is free and available to anyone over 18 years of age. Participants are invited on a drop-in basis, though registration with the PRD is encouraged and can be done at bit.ly/3PJyxkP. Everyone is welcome to bring snacks.
The next movie in the Piedmont series is the 2004 martial arts action comedy film, Kung Fu Hustle, to be screened on July 10.