11th AOAFF: E-tickets reservation | "Sullivan's Travels" & "The Lady Eve"

Sullivan's Travels (1941)

When: Friday, Monday 5th, 21h15
Where: Cine Ekran (Zoodochou Pigis & Agathiou Street, Neapoli) | Free Entrance

In the early 40s, seeing more and more of his colleagues delibaretly turning towards creations of serious intent, Preston Sturges responded with a tribute to the redemptive features of purebred comedy. During his course he spread his wings even more to address a love letter to the liberating impact of cinema itself on the human lives. The result was one of the most beautiful moments in the american silver screen.

"Sullivan's Travels" take place in the rough period of the financial crash, following the steps of a young director who wants to exchange the shallow, meaningless spectacles in which he has specialised with a film whose message will "reflect the human pain". In his first out of three collaborations with the director, Joel McCrea shoulders Sturges' beloved model of an ignorant hero who, from a state of complete innocence, will be aprubtly awakened in the reality of a cruel America.

Following the hero's full of twists inductive course, the film dangerously changes moods and tones and opts to take some especially dark pathways. However, it does it with a touching confidence in the life-giving power of humor, perceiving a world where funny and serious co-exist, oppose each other and finally confirm one's need for the other.

Terrific counterbalance between comedy and drama, "Sullivan's Travels" is probably the masterpiece in Sturges' career and at the same time a film which makes us constantly question our understanding of what is funny and what isn't. Loukas Katsikas

The Lady Eve (1941)

When: Friday, Monday 5th, 23h00
Where: Cine Ekran (Zoodochou Pigis & Agathiou Street, Neapoli) | Free Entrance

The primitive games of seduction and prevalance between the two sexes and the unpredictable catalyst of love inspire the colorful story of a cunning fraud who aims to steal first the heart and then the wallet of an introvert young millionaire. Soon, however, the hunting female will fall victim of her tender prey's charm. Understanding the minimum concessions for censorship tolerance of the time, Preston Sturges managed to hide one of the most sexually charged comedies of the decade under sophisticated humor, dialogues with twofold interpretations, tickling innuendos and one of the most beautiful couples of Hollywood's golden era: Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck.

More than any other film that period, "Lady Eve" talks about physical attraction in a mature and extremely liberal manner, launching the heroes' first intercourse into one of the most febrile and sensual scenes in cinema and assigning to Stanwyck the role of an empowered woman far away from the puritan and prude profile of the time. Nominated for Best Original Story. Loukas Katsikas

E-tickets reservation

In order to attend you may reserve your place in advance by a personal data statement (name, surname, contact number, e-mail) until tickets are sold-out.

80th anniversary back-to-back screening of Preston Sturges’ two masterpieces. Supported by the U.S. Embassy Athens.

Please fill the form for:

- Sullivan's Travels: https://forms.gle/UhZDoaxMzvoh4X1y6
- The Lady Eve: https://forms.gle/xvSAY5TgouJ4NEYG9

The e-mail you provide will receive a confirmation reply within 24 hours securing you one place and your name on the list at the entrance.

Download the festival's programa here.