Ishtar

Directed by Elaine May | 107 minutes | M | Retrospective Screening |

10:15pm Friday, 15 May | Brunswick Picture House | Buy Tickets | Buy Passes

Starring Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty, this Razzie-awarded actual masterpiece is one of Hollywood's most troubled productions - and easily Elaine May's most outrageous film

Despite writing their own music (and lyrics!), delusional double act Chuck (Hoffman) and Lyle (Beatty) continually bomb in the Big Apple. A chance at a steady gig as hotel lounge singers take them to Marrakech. There, they’re swept up in an international spy operation involving an undercover revolutionary (Isabelle Adjani), the CIA (Charles Grodin) and the fictional government of Ishtar.

A big budget flop that landed Elaine May in ‘movie jail’ on release, the rarely screened and unfairly maligned Ishtar has since won praise as a prescient satire of US foreign policy, and a hilarious buddy comedy. Come for the farcical international intrigue, stay for the deliberately awful, totally endearing songs.

SIMILAR: Golden Eighties, The Producers, The Lonely Island, Argo

"Was shook to discover a literal comedy classic. Genuinely laugh out loud funny, crazily ahead of it’s time in terms of tone... with sharply observed and properly transgressive satire." - Zachary Ruane, Letterboxd

"May is one of the best American directors ever to wield a camera, and the conflict that she has endured with the industry reveals the inherent difference between a genius and a system. " - Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Country: United States
Year: 1987
Language: English