Harriet Andersson, Bibi Andersson, Gunnel Lindblom in The Girls
Michael Patrick Kelly's documentary Operation Lysistrata, Melvin James' A Miami Tail, and Mai Zetterling's The Girls will be screened at the Getty Villa's Auditorium on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 14-15. Admission is free, but a separate ticket is required for each film.
Having staged Aristophanes' Peace earlier this season, Los Angeles' Getty Villa continues its celebration of "the father of comedy" with this three-film series based on the Athenian playwright's best-known work, the anti-war satire Lysistrata, in which the women of Athens and neighboring cities go on a sex strike so as to force their male partners to reconsider their warring habits.
Of the three, Mai Zetterling's The Girls (1968) is the one that I'm most eager to catch because it features three Ingmar Bergman stars — Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson, and Gunnel Lindblom — as three actresses whose real-life identities end up intertwined with their stage roles in a production of Lysistrata in late 1960s Sweden. The synopsis makes The Girls sound like an intriguing variation of Bergman's own Persona, released three years earlier.
Operation Lysistrata (above, 2006) documents a staging of Aristophanes' play right before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 — a small enterprise that was turned into an international anti-war event — while Melvin James' A Miami Tail (2003) transposes the action of the play from Classical Athens to Hip-Hopping Miami.
Now, in case you truly believe that women are more enlightened than men, a 30-second look at any cable news (circus) show will then prove either that modern women haven't been refraining from having sex with their male partners in the name of peace, or that their warring significant others have been rolling in the hay with their own comrades-in-arms. Hey, anything to keep the killing going.
Please note: The previously announced screening of Lysistrate, originally scheduled for Saturday, November 14, at 3:00 p.m., has been replaced by Operation Lysistrata due to technical problems with the Lysistrate print.
Admission: Free; a separate ticket is required for each film. Call (310) 440-7300 or visit the Getty website.
Photos: Courtesy of The Getty Center
Film schedule and synopses from the website:
Operation Lysistrata
(USA, 2006, 85 min., some English subtitles)
Saturday, November 14, 3:00 p.m.
Sunday, November 15, 3:00 p.m.
In January 2003, Kathryn Blume and Sharron Bower, two actresses from New York City, thought to organize readings of Lysistrata as a protest of the imminent invasion of Iraq. Originally conceived as a local, citywide event, word of the Lysistrata Project spread rapidly across the Internet, gaining increasing momentum in the space of just a few weeks' time and eventually morphing into a worldwide "happening for peace." To the astonishment of all concerned, on March 3, 2003, nearly 1,100 simultaneous productions of Lysistrata were performed in 59 countries around the globe.
In Operation Lysistrata, documentary filmmaker Michael Patrick Kelly etches a moving portrait of Bower and Blume, illustrating how grassroots activism and art can intersect to form the basis of effective social protest. The film is the story of how two women transformed their individual aspirations for peace into a movement that allowed a global community to share in their vision.
Most movingly, the film incorporates many of the documentary recordings that eventually poured in from across the U.S. as well as England, Iceland, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Italy, Montreal, Nova Scotia, Greece, and Cuba.
A Miami Tail
(USA, 2003, 84 min.)
Saturday, November 14, 7:00 p.m.
The poster for this hip, witty, and very sexy recent transposition of the play from ancient Athens to contemporary Miami declared: In this battle of the sexes, these girls won't lay down! Directed by Melvin James, the film stars a roster of well-known black and Latino comedians and rap and hip-hop artists, including Trina (in her film debut), Sommore, Mr. Cheeks, Neferteri Shepherd, and Benji Brown.
Set and filmed in a Miami neighborhood known as a center of gang violence—with many local residents in supporting roles—a basketball court becomes the urban battleground, and barbershops and hair salons the opposing male and female encampments.
The film is a true sex comedy in the spirit of Aristophanes, and adheres surprisingly closely to the plot and imagery of the playwright's work. More than once, audience members will find themselves thinking: "Oh, no, she didn't!"
The Girls (Flickorna)
(Sweden, 1968, 100 min.)
Sunday, November 15, 12:00 p.m.
A classic of late-1960s Vietnam-era feminist cinema, this film by actress-turned-director Mai Zetterling follows the lives of three stage actresses as they prepare to leave their homes and men to set out on a theatrical tour of Lysistrata across Sweden. As the film progresses, on- and off-stage realities begin to blur, and portrayals of the mundane backstage and domestic lives of the traveling actors spin off into extreme enactments of their sexual and political fantasies.
Featuring three of the most celebrated beauties of this period—Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson, and Gunnel Lindblom—this small, independent film is a true labor of love. An act of cinematic social protest, Zetterling's serious comedy of social manners is infused with wry humor, subtle artistry, and a burgeoning feminist vision.