Juliet Goodfriend: Why I Love GUYS AND DOLLS

We all have our favorite movies. Sometimes they inspire us, or remind us of sharing a popcorn bucket with someone special, or make us laugh even though we can deliver the lines ourselves in our sleep. One of the wonderful things about working at BMFI is that we get to share some of our favorite films with you; we hope they might become some of your favorites, too. BMFI's President, Juliet Goodfriend, contributes the first in a series of posts written by BMFI staff and volunteers about the movies they love that are showing this summer at BMFI.

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Why I Love Guys and Dolls
Juliet Goodfriend, BMFI President

My memory of Guys and Dolls precedes the movie. I think my parents went to the try-outs for [the stage production of] Guys and Dolls in Philadelphia in 1950. As they did with every musical they saw, they brought home sheet music from the performance and my brother, sister, father, mother, and I sang the songs as Mom played them on the piano. So the music became imbedded in my memory, in my very being.

Well, when the movie came out I saw it first (and subsequently two more times) at the Erlen Theater on Ogontz Avenue in Philadelphia in 1955. That theater had a midnight blue ceiling with gold stars and around the edges of the auditorium was the silhouette of a Spanish--or was it a Moorish?--city. It was very exotic and romantic. 

Hearing Frank Sinatra's golden tones blended in my imagination with Marlon Brando's gorgeous "bad boy" looks and kept me rapt through all three viewings.  I imagined someone was singing those love songs to me.  Not "someone"--no, Marlon himself! Even if his voice did not compare with Sinatra's, his earnest, apologetic, and strangely innocent singing and dialogue won my heart. The story? The plot? Oh, not nearly so important as the songs.... they still work magic for me.

Join Juliet at Bryn Mawr Film Institute's sing-along screening of Guys and Dolls on Wednesday, June 29 at 7:00pm. Free popcorn if you wear a costume!

COMPANY Back by Popular Demand!

By Zoe Portman, BMFI Intern 

Lines were out the door last Sunday as crowds of people turned out to see Stephen Sondheim’s musical Company.  If the sold-out theater was any indication, the screening was a big success!  So BMFI is pleased to announce that this one-night only special event is being shown again on Sunday, July 10 at 1pm.  Buy your tickets early, because you don’t want to miss this! Tickets are on sale now at BrynMawrFilm.org!

The New York Philharmonic's production of Stephen Sondheim's musical Company features an all-star cast, including Neil Patrick Harris (left) and Christina Hendricks (second to right).

A series of vignettes surrounding a bachelor’s 35th birthday about his relationships with his various married friends, Company has been revived numerous times since its original 1970 Broadway production, which won a record-setting six Tony Awards. The version presented by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra was updated in the early '90s for a modern crowd, and has an all-star cast including Neil Patrick Harris, Patti LuPone, Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer, Christina Hendricks,  and Martha Plimpton

BMFI Wins Fifth Readers' Choice Award!

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Coordinator

We are thrilled to announce that Bryn Mawr Film Institute has been voted the "Best Movie Theater" by Main Line Times and Main Line Suburban Life's readers! This is the fourth year running that BMFI has won this Readers' Choice award, our fifth year in total.

Thank you to Main Line Media News and the dear readers who voted for us. We appreciate your continuing support!

The winners were announced on Thursday in a special supplement in both newspapers. Pick up an issue by Wednesday to see which of your (other) favorite local haunts were winners.