Squirrels to the Nuts
UW Cinematheque 821 University Ave., UW Vilas Hall, Room 4070, Madison, Wisconsin
courtesy UW Cinematheque/original film released by Lionsgate
"Squirrels to the Nuts" is a director's cut of Peter Bogdanovich's final narrative film (originally released as 'She's Funny That Way").
The final fiction feature by director, writer and film historian Peter Bogdanovich, who died in January, came out as She's Funny That Way in the mid-2010s to poor reviews and public indifference (though, it's a more entertaining film than its rep). What was released was not Bogdanovich's initial concept for the film, which was originally to be titled Squirrels to the Nuts; that version of the film was thought lost until City University of New York instructor James Kenney found a tape on eBay. UW Cinematheque kicks off its summer screening calendar with only the second public screening of this version of the film, joined by Kenney to discuss the film and its discovery. The summer also includes more (mostly) neglected Bogdanovich features, a series of films starring Alain Delon, and other gems; find the full schedule at cinema.wisc.edu.
press release: James Kenney In Person!
USA | 2013/2022 | DCP | 113 min.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich; Cast: Owen Wilson, Imogen Poots, Jennifer Aniston
Bogdanovich’s last narrative feature is an ensemble romantic farce that centers around a Brooklyn sex worker and aspiring actress, Isabella (Poots), and how she unwittingly affects the interconnected relationships between a Broadway director (Wilson), his leading lady wife (Kathryn Hahn), her suave co-star (Rhys Ifans), an obsessive judge (Austin Pendleton), and a thoroughly unprofessional therapist (Aniston), among many others. Heavily recut and reshot, then finally released in 2015 as the disemboweled She’s Funny That Way, Bogdanovich’s elegant, Lubitschean, and vastly different personal cut was discovered in 2020 by James Kenney, a City University of New York English Instructor and Bogdanovich superfan. Kenney, who has described Squirrels as “an autumnal work of art, a rich and delightful summation of Bogdanovich’s style and obsessions, featuring surprising depth of characterization and expertly executed comic set pieces,” will appear in person to discuss his journey in bringing the original version back to life.
All summer screenings take place at 4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Avenue. Admission free for all screenings, seating limited. No admission 15 minutes after scheduled start times. Please visit our website for a complete listing of programs and descriptions.
On Wednesday evenings this summer we will remember one of contemporary cinema’s most talented and most mercurial auteurs, Peter Bogdanovich (1939-2022). Before he became a writer, producer, and director, Bogdanovich was a curator of repertory film programs and a journalist who specialized in interviews with pioneering Hollywood actors and filmmakers, and his movies are suffused with cinephilia, especially for 30s and 40s Hollywood melodramas and comedies. Although he was widely celebrated for a trio of early 70s box office successes (The Last Picture Show, What’s Up, Doc?, and Paper Moon), this series will focus on six Bogdanovich features made after he fell out of favor with American audiences and the Hollywood establishment. We start with his final narrative feature, Squirrels to the Nuts, a radically different director’s cut of the movie that became She’s Funny That Way, and shown here for the first time since its well-received premiere earlier in 2022 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The series also includes three other definitive director’s cuts of neglected Bogdanovich movies, as well as the theatrical release versions of two very fine movies, Saint Jack and The Thing Called Love.