Screening
Tommy

Part of See It Big: Extravaganzas! (Part One) & Musical Matinees
Sunday, November 14, 2021, 5:30 p.m.
Museum of the Moving Image - Bartos Screening Room

Dir. Ken Russell. 1975, 111 mins. 4K DCP. With Roger Daltrey, Ann-Margret, Oliver Reed. Adapting The Who’s rock opera to the screen, gonzo auteur Ken Russell gooses every lyrical detail about the titular “deaf, dumb, and blind boy”-turned-pinball-playing-progeny/cult leader into an audacious, fever dream of sets and costumes. Tasmanian devilish Russell regular Oliver Reed is somehow tame when surrounded by Elton John as Pinball Wizard in five-foot platform heels and satin lederhosen; Tina Turner’s scowling, raven-haired Acid Queen, seemingly on loan from a Hammer horror film; Roger Daltrey’s improbable mushroom-cloud curls; and an Oscar-nominated Ann-Margret at her most unleashed. Moment by moment, tableau by tableau, she locks step with the director’s excess, most memorably when, dressed in mink and mesh and champagne drunk—color-matched with a white monochromatic mod bedroom—she is flooded with baked beans vomited by a television set. To the tune of “See Me, Feel Me,” naturally.

Tickets: $15 / $11 seniors & students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / Free for members (Senior & Student level and above). Order online. Please pick up tickets at the Museum's admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission. Please review safety protocols before your visit.

See It Big: Extravaganzas! is presented with support from MUBI GO.