The Cinematheque

The final film directed by Bob Fosse (Cabaret, All That Jazz) is the rare American-produced Hollywood North movie that actually tells a Vancouver story (a highly troubling one). Local beauty Dorothy Stratten was working in an East Vancouver Dairy Queen when she was discovered by Paul Snider, a small-time hustler who became her Svengali. The pair relocated to L.A., where Stratten became a Playboy centrefold, was cast in a Peter Bogdanovich comedy, and began distancing herself from Snider, with tragic consequences. Mariel Hemmingway underwent surgical augmentation to play Dorothy. Eric Roberts is memorably intense as Snider. Cliff Robertson plays Hugh Hefner. Some names (including Bogdanovich’s) were changed for the film. Adapted from a Pulitzer Prize-winning article by Teresa Carpenter, Fosse’s cautionary tale of fame, misogyny, and show-biz sleaze displays his trademark visual razzle-dazzle and was shot by Bergman regular Sven Nykvist.

Introduced by Harry Killas (March 5 only)