Michael Roemer's PILGRIM, FAREWELL (1982) - West Coast premiere of new 4K restoration
The first of two new restorations, Roemer's emotionally explosive melodrama features performances so searingly volatile that it approaches something like an American Ingmar Bergman film.
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Feb 18, 2025, 8:00 PM
Brain Dead Studios, 611 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036, USA
Pilgrim, Farewell
directed by Michael Roemer
1982, U.S., 100m, DCP
West Coast premiere of a new 4K restoration courtesy of The Film Desk
doors/bar: 7:30
film: 8:00
In recent years, Michael Roemer’s five features “have endured the curse—which is also something of a blessing—of not being fully appreciated until decades after they were made” (Melissa Anderson, 4Columns). Roemer’s 1982 feature, which premiered at Venice and was originally broadcast on PBS’ American Playhouse, is an emotionally explosive melodrama, featuring performances so searingly volatile that it approaches something like an American Ingmar Bergman film. As summer ebbs near a Vermont lake, a widow (Elizabeth Huddle) and her lover (Christopher Lloyd in one of his first onscreen roles) try to come to terms with her terminal cancer — complicated by a pregnant sister and an estranged daughter (Laurie Prange). A cinematic poison pen letter with the range and depth of Cassavetes, PILGRIM, FAREWELL should cast no doubt on Roemer’s growing reputation as among the great regional American filmmakers.
“I can think of few films as emotionally chaotic.” -Melissa Anderson, 4Columns
“A little mega-watt masterwork.” – Financial Times
“Huddle and Prange generate an intensity that verges on being frightening.”
– The New York Times
Special thanks to Jake Perlin (The Film Desk).
Please note: thie screening is taking place at Brain Dead Studios.