📆 Saturday, September 29th
🎟 Tickets start at $20.50
📍 SIFF Cinema Egyptian: 805 E Pine St, Seattle
“Iconic” gets thrown around too often for my taste. This shirt is iconic. This boba tea is iconic. This one car of the Link light rail is iconic. We all have different perspectives, I suppose, but the SIFF Cinema Egyptian is about to be home to an undeniable all-caps ICON, Ann-Margret, as she’s scheduled to present the 1963 film adaptation of Bye Bye Birdie. The screening is just one event being held in her honor—on September 28th, she’ll also be awarded the Swedish-American Lifetime Achievement Award in Cinema and Culture at the Swedish Club.
Now a young 83 who still has a lot o’ livin’ to do, the Swedish-born, America-raised superstar blew into the 1960s as a full triple threat. Her multi-genre recording career is still going strong to this day. As a fiercely determined actress, she honed characters who hold their own, going toe-to-toe with Jack Nicholson in Carnal Knowledge or director Ken Russell’s entire deal for Tommy. And holy heck can she throw herself into a dance sequence.
Bye Bye Birdie itself, about an Ohio town thrown into a tizzy when a rock star swings by before joining the army, is a bright, peppy series of very strong moments perfect for the big Egyptian screen, anchored by strong work from Dick Van Dyke, Paul Lynde, and Ann-Margret’s breakout performance. Director George Sidney, always good at getting out of the way and letting the talent do the talking—Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Hutton, and Howard Keel can attest—clearly enjoyed working with SIFF’s guest of honor and would help solidify her, yes, iconography the following year with Viva Las Vegas. And truly, she was one of the few of Elvis’ costars to really blow him off the screen in terms of sheer, cool charisma.
Honor the icon.
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