SMITHEREENS - BLU-CRITERION COLLECTION

Details

• Release Year: 1982
• Genre: Drama, Music
• Plot: Susan Seidelman established her distinctive vision of New York City with this debut feature, the lo-fi original for her vibrant portraits of women reinventing themselves. After escaping New Jersey, the quintessentially punk Wren (Susan Berman)—a spark plug in fishnets—moves to the city with the mission of becoming famous. When not pasting up self-promotional flyers or hanging at the Peppermint Lounge, she’s getting involved with Paul (Brad Rinn), the nicest guy to ever live in a van next to the highway, and Eric (Richard Hell), an aloof rocker. Shot on 16 mm film that captures the grit and glam of downtown in the 1980s, with an alternately moody and frenetic soundtrack by the Feelies and others, Smithereens—the first American independent film to compete for the Palme d’Or—is an unfaded snapshot of a bygone era.
• Cast: Susan Berman, Brad Rijn, Richard Hell, Nada Despotovich, Roger Jett, Kitty Summerall, Joni Ruth White, D.J. O'Neill, Joel Rooks, Pamela Speed, Tom Cherwin, Edie Schecter, Katherine Riley, Amos Poe, Ada McSpade, Cookie Mueller, Ed French, Alan Woolf, The Nitecaps, X-Sessive, Paul Dunlap, Sara Sassin, Chel Chenier, Geretta Geretta, Phyllis Kay, Celia Maurice, Roma Maffia, Chris Noth, John Doe, Susan Seidelman, Ron Nyswaner, Peter Askin
• Director: Susan Seidelman
• Runtime: 1:33
• Company: The Criterion Collection, Janus Films, Shout! Factory
• Media Format: Movie