Screen/Society--"Charade" (Stanley Donen, 1963)

CHARADE
(Stanley Donen, 1963, 113 min, USA, English, 35mm)

Special 35mm Screening!

After her estranged husband's murder, jet-setter Regina (Audrey Hepburn) is pursued by three crooks who want the money her husband stole from them. With her life in jeopardy, she turns to charming stranger Peter (Cary Grant) for help, but soon discovers he isn't who he claims to be, and that his own agenda is far from clear. A Hitchcockian confection from producer-director Stanley Donen, CHARADE (1963) stands apart in an era of spy films resplendent with macho-driven eroticism (the James Bond series), cynicism (Michael Caine's Harry Palmer series), and farcical irreverence (Casino Royale; the Flint movies, with CHARADE costar James Coburn), by placing a woman at its center.

"Shot by Charles Lang, one of the greatest American cinematographers to ever live, CHARADE is some sort of miraculous entertainment, self-aware and self-parodying yet never distancing or detached. Hepburn is the audience's funny and flighty proxy, allowing us the great pleasure of being seduced by Grant's unpredictable charmer." - Chris Cabin, Slant

"CHARADE presents us with a temporary entry into that brighter place, into the possibility of adventure, the vicarious possession of beauty. Acted by two Europeans in a mythic, dangerous, beguiling Paris, it remains a quintessential Hollywood film." - Michael Newton, The Guardian