“Rudy Durand’s Pinball Extravaganza TiLT (1979) in 35mm!”
March 14, 2018
Tilt
9:45 pm
Directed by Rudy Durand
Cinematography by Richard H. Kline
Containing Brooke Shields, Charles Durning, Lorenzo Lamas
MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS presents
“The tough and tender saga of the pinball princess who was hard to beat — and easy to love.”
TiLT (1979) follows a 13 year old pinball wizard, played by Brooke Shields, who runs away from her crummy Texan home to compete in a pinball tournament in Santa Cruz. This extremely obscure 1970s coming of age film taps into similar territory to RiCH KiDS (1979), LiTTLE DARLiNGS (1980) and FOXES (1980).
Hot off her debut in Louis Malle’s PRETTY BABY, writer/director Rudy Durand concocted quite a few uncomfortably raw situations for the real life 13 year old Brooke Shields to overcome, along with a remarkable amount of late-70s pinball madness. Add to that a scene stealing Charles Durning performance as a pinball champion named “The Whale”, an addictively memorable country/western soundtrack and piball-tastic cinematography by Richard H. Kline (who shot STAR TREK the same year), this extremely rare 35mm screening is truly a one-of-a-kind screening, having never been issued on DVD or Bluray.
Hosted by Jesse Hawthorne Ficks