Our birthday month is over, but festivities at The Frida continue with some exciting March programming! Our Morricone March series picks up next week with For a Few Dollars More, the second installment of Sergio Leone’s beloved Dollars Trilogy. Also opening next week is Love Lies Bleeding, a new thriller directed by Rose Glass and starring Kristen Stewart. Then on March 22nd, our friends at OC Pride return with a one night-only screening of 2009 cult classic Jennifer’s Body. A very different but no less scary horror film is playing this weekend, however: David Cronenberg’s The Fly.
When scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) completes his teleportation device, he decides to test its abilities on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a housefly slips in during the process, leading to a merger of man and insect. Initially, Brundle appears to have undergone a successful teleportation, but the fly’s cells begin to take over his body. As he becomes increasingly fly-like, Brundle’s girlfriend (Geena Davis) is horrified as the person she once loved deteriorates into a monster. A remake of the 1958 film of the same name, Cronenberg’s take has been hailed not only for upping the body horror inherent to the story but also for expanding on the tragedy underlying it. A critical and commercial success, the film received an Academy Award for Best Makeup, with some at the time even speculating that Goldblum would receive a nomination for what is regarded as one of his finest performances.
This movie is screening thanks to Kay Jensen, one of our two March Volunteers of the Month. Helping out behind the counter as well as on the writing team, we’re very fortunate that she picked such a great movie for her VOTM pick. See what she had to say about it in our interview below and grab tickets for The Fly while you can!
How did you find out about The Frida Cinema?
I found out about The Frida when I was studying at Chapman University! Chapman has a club called The Players Society (aka TPS) and they put on a production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show every year and they’re very big on going to the KAOS production at The Frida, so going to one of those shows was my introduction to The Frida.
What made you want to volunteer here?
I started volunteering at The Frida a year ago because I love film and I love the message of the theater: to bring arthouse cinema to Orange County!
Tell us a little bit about The Fly.
The Fly is one of my favorite movies of all time, I love Cronenberg’s work and Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis’s performances are amazing! I’m a devotee of body horror, so the way the movie deals with Seth’s transformation into Brundlefly is beautiful to me from a production standpoint, I think the practical effects are stunning, and the fact that Cronenberg elevates the story by making it a love story makes it so moving.
What were your other choices for Volunteer Pick of the Month?
My other picks were Cats (2019) and Mr Vampire, I love Cats the musical and the movie is so terrible but its such a good time, and Mr. Vampire is a movie I grew up watching that cemented my love of Hong Kong action movies and the Jiangshi genre.
What is your favorite Frida memory?
If you could program any movie here, what would you pick?
The Fly screens starting Friday, March 8th.
Friday, Mar 8 – 8:15pm
Monday, Mar 11 – 8:30pm
Tuesday, Mar 12 – 8:30pm
Tickets