Preston Sturges’ “Sullivan’s Travels” Screening As Part Of “Here Comes The Cinema”

Sag Harbor Cinema’s Here Comes the Cinema series continues on Saturday, January 4 with Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels. The film, which is considered by many to be Sturges’ masterpiece, will screen at Pierson High School in Sag Harbor at 6 p.m. The evening will include a special conversation with Laurie Anderson.

Sullivan’s Travels follows successful movie director John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea), who believes he won’t be able to accomplish his ambitious pièce de résistance until he has truly suffered. This leads to Sullivan impersonating a hobo and embarking on a quest to “know trouble” first-hand. However, when he encounters a stunning blonde companion (Veronica Lake) on a train back to Hollywood, he abandons his efforts. But, that gets him into way more trouble than he bargained for.

“After I saw a couple of pictures put out by some of my fellow comedy-directors, which seemed to have abandoned the fun in favor of the message, I wrote Sullivan’s Travels to satisfy an urge to tell them that they were getting a little too deep-dish; to leave the preaching to the preachers,” the director wrote in his memoirs.

“Delicious Hollywood satire, brilliant screwball, a somber portrait of the Great Depression and an ode to the mighty power of comedy itself, Sullivan’s Travel’s is virtually a perfect film,” SHC’s Artistic Director Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan noted.

Anderson, who is best known for her extraordinary multimedia presentations and pioneering use of technology that span art, theatre and experimental music, will take part in a conversation with D’Agnolo Vallan following the screening. In 1981, Anderson’s recording career launched with O Superman, which made it all the way to number two on the British pop charts and was featured on Big Science, the first of her seven albums on the Warner Brothers label. Anderson’s works have been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally. She has published six books and her music has been highlighted in films by Wim Wenders and Jonathan Demme, dance pieces by Bill T. Jones, Trisha Brown, and Molissa Fenley, and Robert LePage’s theater production, Far Side of the Moon. She has also created pieces for National Public Radio and The BBC.

Her film, Heart of a Dog (2015), was an official selection at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals. More recently, she has been exploring virtual reality realizing through three acclaimed collaborations with Taiwanese artist and filmmaker Hsin- Chien Huang – Alof, Chalkroom and To the Moon.

Admission to Sullivan’s Travels is $15 for adults and free for children under 14-years-old.

Additionally, Sag Harbor Cinema is currently holding a holiday challenge grant courtesy of Barbara J. Slifka with the hopes of matching Slifka’s $25,000 donation.

Pierson High School is located at 200 Jermain Avenue in Sag Harbor. For more information, visit www.sagharborcinema.org.