Let's Make Love & Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

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See your year off, with a double bill of glitzy campy fun featuring Marilyn in one of her most iconic roles as well as her last musical film. 

As a day, New Year's Eve can too easily feel like a pressure to many. A weighted occasion that demands too much of us, where reflection on the events of one year become muddied with the possibilities and expectations of the next. I think that's part of why it feels like the perfect time to revel in the world of classic cinema which allows us, for a short window, to escape all together into another time and another world.

For this year's double bill we wanted that escape to feel really special so we decided to centre our programme around one of the most magnetic screen presences of all time, Marilyn Monroe.

Let's Make Love (1960)

One of the wealthiest men in the world, Jean-Marc Clement (Yves Montand) is rich in money, but lacking in love. While seeking someone who adores him for his personality rather than his fortune, Clement learns that he is the subject of a satirical theatre production. Unrecognized as he visits the play's set, Clement is offered the part as himself by the show's unwitting producers, and he takes the gig to be close to the gorgeous yet down-to-earth actress Amanda Dell (Marilyn Monroe).

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe) is a beautiful showgirl engaged to be married to the wealthy Gus Esmond (Tommy Noonan), much to the disapproval of Gus' rich father, Esmond Sr., who thinks that Lorelei is just after his money. When Lorelei goes on a cruise accompanied only by her best friend, Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell), Esmond Sr. hires Ernie Malone (Elliott Reid), a private detective, to follow her and report any questionable behavior that would disqualify her from the marriage.

There will be a 20 minute break between films.