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November 23, 2011

"Some Like It Hot" at ULM Dec. 3

The University of Louisiana at Monroe College of Arts and Sciences and the Campus Activities Board will continue the ULM Film Series Saturday, Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m. with classic American director Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot" (1959) in Stubbs Hall, Room 100.

The event is free and open to the public.

A comedy with a cross-dressing twist, "Some Like It Hot" features Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis at the peaks of their careers.

Jerry (Lemmon) and Joe (Curtis) play two struggling musicians who witness a massacre by Chicago gangsters during the Great Depression of 1929.

Running from the mob, they disguise themselves as women to join an all-girl musical band bound for Florida and headed by the singing, dancing, wriggling, ukulele-playing "Sugar Kane" (Monroe).

In Florida, Joe swaps disguises to pose as a millionaire to court Kane, while an actual millionaire, Osgood Fielding III becomes enamoured of Daphne (Jerry, that is, Jack Lemmon, in his female disguise). Meanwhile the mob is on their heels...

Wilder pushed the boundaries of film in 1959 with this gender-bending comedy full of sexual innuendo and spoofs of sexual stereotypes, including bisexuality, transvestism, androgyny, homosexuality, transsexuality, lesbianism, and impotence.

At the same time, other serious themes, including abuse, alcoholism, unemployment, and murder play a darker undertone.

The film has been acclaimed worldwide as "one of the greatest films ever made."

In 2000, the American Film Institute listed "Some Like It Hot" as the greatest American comedy of all time. The film won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy, Best Actress (Monroe), and Best Actor (Lemmon), as well as an Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

About the ULM Film Series

The ULM Film Series typically features one film per month, offering selections from the classic cinema, art cinema, independent, foreign, and documentary repertoire.

The series is the brainchild of Assistant Professor of English Jana Giles and Instructor of English Amy Johnson.

The series is designed to be intellectually stimulating and may contain ideas that are challenging or unpopular for some viewers. Films shown do not necessarily represent the views of the university or any of its staff.

Concessions will not be offered, and audience members are asked to not bring food or drink.

For more information, email Giles at giles@ulm.edu or Johnson at amjohnson@ulm.edu or call the English department at 318-342-1485 or check out the ULM Film Series on Facebook.

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