290 Harvard St.
Brookline, Massachusetts

A screening of Jonathan Demme's breakthrough film, followed by a 2pm panel discussion featuring Demme and special guests from the cast and crew of MELVIN AND HOWARD

Jonathan Demme would later become one of America's premiere directors, with an Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs and numerous nominations to his credit, but it was this sublime 1980 comedy that put him on the Hollywood map. Esteemed critic Pauline Kael called it "an almost flawless act of sympathetic imagination," referring to the movie's semifictional treatment of the true story of Melvin Dummar (played to perfection by Paul LeMat), an average guy whose life was turned upside down when he was made beneficiary of a $156 million will allegedly signed by millionaire Howard Hughes.

Official Website: http://coolidge.org/node/2585

Added by Coolidge Corner Theatre on February 12, 2010