Image courtesy of Park Circus/MGM Studios

1979/1982 / 92 min
Director & Screenwriter: Joan Micklin Silver, based on the novel by Ann Beattie
Cast:  John Heard, Mary Beth Hurt, Peter Riegert, Kenneth McMillan, Gloria Grahame
Digital

Screening followed by Q&A with director Joan Micklin Silver; producers Griffin Dunne, Mark Metcalf, and Amy Robinson; and actors Mary Beth Hurt and Peter Riegert.

One of independent cinema’s greatest comebacks, this off-beat romantic comedy-drama was originally distributed by United Artists with a different ending under the more “commercial” title Head Over Heels, and then promptly forgotten. But the acting-producing troika of Amy Robinson, Griffin Dunne, and Mark Metcalf — who had developed the film with writer-director Joan Micklin Silver from Ann Beattie’s novel — refused to give up on it. When the movie performed well in exactly one market, Boston, they parlayed that extended run into a campaign to get UA to re-release the film properly. Ira Deutchman and his colleagues at United Artists Classics took up the cause, and three years after its initial release, with its original title and its original (less upbeat) ending, the film went on to find its true audience.  

This screening is part of NY Indie Guy: Ira Deutchman and the Rise of Independent Film

On September 14-16 and September 20-23, 2018, Columbia University’s Lenfest Center for the Arts will host a retrospective exhibit honoring the career of Film Professor and Producing Concentration Supervisor Ira Deutchman. Since 1975, Deutchman has been a leader in distributing, marketing, and producing American independent films, international films, and arthouse films. He is perhaps best known for founding and running the distribution companies Cinecom, Fine Line Features, and Emerging Pictures. Deutchman has taught at Columbia since 1987.  

This retrospective will screen essential motion pictures from various points in Deutchman’s career, such as The Brother From Another Planet; Diva; Harlan County USA; sex, lies, & videotape; Swoon; and A Woman Under the Influence. Many showings will feature Q&A talkbacks with filmmakers or performers. The celebration will also include panel discussions and an extensive exhibit covering Deutchman’s impact on cinema.  

Sponsors

The Art House Convergence
Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard
Film and Media Studies, Columbia University School of the Arts
The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University
The Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Columbia University
The University of Michigan Library