Desperately Seeking Susan
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| Desperately Seeking Susan | |
|---|---|
 Poster for the film, featuring a photograph by Herb Ritts |
|
| Directed by | Susan Seidelman |
| Produced by | Sarah Pillsbury Midge Sanford |
| Written by | Leora Barish |
| Starring | Rosanna Arquette Madonna Aidan Quinn |
| Music by | Thomas Newman |
| Cinematography | Edward Lachman |
| Editing by | Andrew Mondshein |
| Distributed by | Orion Pictures |
| Release date(s) | March 29, 1985 U.S. release |
| Running time | 104 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $4,500,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
Desperately Seeking Susan is a 1985 film directed by Susan Seidelman and starring Rosanna Arquette and Madonna.
Arquette plays Roberta, a bored suburban housewife living in Fort Lee, New Jersey who is fascinated with a woman she only knows about by reading messages to and from her in the personals section of a New York City tabloid. This fascination reaches a peak when one such ad with the headline "Desperately Seeking Susan" proposes a rendezvous in Battery Park with the man who seeks her. Roberta goes to Battery Park too, and gets a glimpse of the woman, played by Madonna, whose life so fascinates her. In a series of events involving mistaken identity, amnesia, and other farcical elements Roberta goes from voyeur to participant in an Alice in Wonderland-style plot, ostensibly motivated by the search for a pair of stolen earrings.
The film captures the feel of a certain underground Bohemian/New Wave scene of mid-1980s New York City, a scene that in real life helped Madonna get her big break in the music business.
Madonna's role in the film remains one of her most acclaimed, which reinforces the popular notion among critics that Madonna is only skilled at playing a character whose personality is similar to her own.
[edit] Awards
Arquette won a BAFTA Award for her portrayal of Roberta; the fact that the award was for a "supporting role" reflected the surge in popularity that Madonna was experiencing at the time, since in terms of billing, number of scenes, lines of dialog, and plot, Arquette was actually the film's star.
The film also received a nomination for a César Award for Best Foreign Film.
[edit] Trivia
- The poster for the film features a photograph by Herb Ritts.
- The DVD commentary track for the film (recorded in 1996) noted that after Madonna's first screen test, the producers asked her to take four weeks of acting lessons and get screen-tested again. Although the second screen test wasn't much of an improvement, the director still wanted her for the role, as much for her presence and sense of style as for anything else.
- Some of the scenes were filmed in Danceteria, a club that Madonna frequented and which gave her her start.
- The film was inspired in part by the 1974 film Céline et Julie vont en bateau (Céline and Julie Go Boating).
- The film also has an alternative ending, where the two Susan and Roberta are invited to Egypt after helping to return the earrings. They are depicted next to the pyramids on camels. The director cut this scene from the end saying that it was unnecessary and audiences at the test screenings thought the film should have already ended much earlier.
- The 1964 sci-fi movie The Time Travelers is playing in scenes 6 and 23 (melts at the end of the movie).
[edit] Cast
| Actor/Actress | Role |
|---|---|
| Rosanna Arquette | Roberta Glass |
| Madonna | Susan |
| Aidan Quinn | Dez |
| Mark Blum | Gary Glass, Roberta's husband |
| Robert Joy | Jim (the man who placed the "Desperately Seeking Susan" ad) |
| Laurie Metcalf | Leslie Glass, Roberta's sister-in-law |
| Anna Levine | Crystal |
| Will Patton | Wayne Nolan |
| Peter Maloney | Ian the magician |
| Steven Wright | Larry Stillman D.D.S. |
| John Turturro | Ray, the master of ceremonies at the Magic Club |
| Anne Carlisle | Victoria |
| José Angel Santana | Boutique Owner |
| Giancarlo Esposito | Street Vendor |
| Richard Hell | Bruce Meeker |
| Ann Magnuson | Cigarette Girl |
| Michael Bramon | Band Member |
