Chelsea Classics

September 2023 

The Chelsea Theater is pleased to announce Chelsea Classics, a new repertory series of essential arthouse films. The initial 28-film selection includes vital American independents, underseen Hollywood classics, international favorites, and even a couple of brand-new restorations that will remain unavailable on home video or streaming. Only at the Chelsea Theater, all summer long!

Programmed by Jason Sudak, with assistance from Meghan Bowman/Balcony Booking

ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS: THE FILMS OF DOUGLAS SIRK

All I Desire

(Douglas Sirk, 1953, 79 min)
Saturday, September 2, 4:00 p.m.
Tuesday, September 5, 7:00 p.m.

A failed actress and mother of three (Barbara Stanwyck) returns to the husband (Richard Carlson) and family she deserted years before in this superior 1953 drama by Douglas Sirk, a very personal reworking of a standard soap-opera plot.

All That Heaven Allows

(Douglas Sirk, 1955, 89 min)
Sunday, September 3, 4:00 p.m.
Wednesday, September 6, 7:00 p.m.

The story (which Rainer Werner Fassbinder remade as Ali: Fear Eats the Soul) concerns a romance between a middle-aged, middle-class widow (Jane Wyman) and a brawny young gardener (Rock Hudson)—the stuff of a standard weepie, you might think, until Sirk’s camera begins to draw a deeply disturbing, deeply compassionate portrait of a woman trapped by stifling moral and social codes.

There’s Always Tomorrow

(Douglas Sirk, 1955, 85 min)
Saturday, September 9, 4:00 p.m.
Tuesday, September 12, 7:00 p.m.

There’s Always Tomorrow  is a virtuoso study in tones, ranging from the blinding sunlight of a desert resort to the expressionist shadows of the suburban home where Fred MacMurray lives in unhappy union with Joan Bennett. Barbara Stanwyck is the old flame who turns up by accident, rekindling for MacMurray the dangerous illusion that happiness is still possible.

Written on the Wind

(Douglas Sirk, 1956, 99 min)
Sunday, September 10 4:00 p.m.
Wednesday, September 13 7:00 p.m.

One of the most remarkable and unaccountable films ever made in Hollywood, Douglas Sirk’s 1957 masterpiece turns a lurid, melodramatic script into a screaming Brechtian essay on the shared impotence of American family and business life. With Dorothy Malone (in the performance of her career), Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, and Rock Hudson.

The Tarnished Angels

(Douglas Sirk, 1958, 91 min)
Saturday, September 16 4:00 p.m.
Tuesday, September 19 7:00 p.m.

Rock Hudson turns in an astonishingly good performance as a journalist fascinated by the sordid lives of a trio of professional stunt fliers (Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, and Jack Carson).

Imitation of Life

 (Douglas Sirk, 1959, 125 min)

Sunday, September 17 4:00 p.m.
Wednesday, September 20 7:00 p.m.

 Lana Turner stars as a young widow and mother who will do anything to realize her dreams of Broadway stardom; her story is intertwined with that of Susan Kohner, the light-skinned daughter of Turner’s black maid, who is tempted to pass for white.