SHAMPOO kicks off Hal Ashby tribute at BAM in style
SHAMPOO (Hal Ashby, 1975)
BAMcinématek
BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Friday, May 6, 2:00, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15
Series runs May 6-19
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
To use George Roundy’s favorite adjective, Shampoo, which kicks off BAMcinématek’s Movies by Hal Ashby series, is “great.” Warren Beatty, who cowrote the screenplay with Robert Towne, stars as George, a Beverly Hills hairdresser who gives his wealthy clients more than just a cut-and-blow-dry. The film takes place primarily on November 4, 1968, as Nixon is battling Humphrey for the presidency, and George can’t keep it in his pants, running back and forth between Felicia (Lee Grant), Jackie (Julie Christie), and Lorna (Carrie Fisher) while trying to open his own shop, with help from business tycoon Lester (Jack Warden) — Felicia’s husband, Jackie’s lover, and Lorna’s father. The clothing is magnificent, as, of course, are the hairstyles. Ashby’s biting comedy perfectly captures the sexual awakening of the 1970s in all its glory — and in all its vapidity. Horror fans should keep an eye out for Lester’s friend Sid Roth, who is played by gimmickmeister William Castle. Ashby, who died in 1988 at the age of fifty-nine, made only eleven narrative films and two concert documentaries in his too-brief life and career, which is being honored at BAMcinématek with the retrospective that includes most of his directorial efforts in additional to several films he edited: Tony Richardson’s The Loved One (1965) and Norman Jewison’s The Cincinnati Kid (1965) and In the Heat of the Night (1967). The 6:50 screening of the underrated The Landlord on May 12 will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. and star Lee Grant.