Desperately Seeking Susan (40th Anniversary 4K Restoration)

Take a trip back to the ‘80s with Susan Seidelman’s delightful New Wave screwball Desperately Seeking Susan. Starring Madonna on the cusp of superstardom, who oozes effortless cool in every scene, and who is matched by Rosanna Arquette’s easy-going comedy timing, it’s a joy to watch and an irresistible love letter to New York summers. 

Despite rom-coms often being led by the biggest female stars of the day, it can be tricky to find many directed by women. Seidelman cheekily turns the genre on its head (it’s not hard to read this as a queer story) while also delivering a very sweet, funny and entertaining romance. 

A bored New Jersey suburban housewife's (Arquette) fascination with a kooky character called Susan (Madonna) she's read about in the personal columns leads to her being mistaken for the woman herself. Madonna hadn’t yet broken through when shooting started; by the time the film was released, she was a star, and in her performance here she embodies everything that would propel her through the stratosphere. 

Seidelman was 33 when she made Susan, and there’s a youthful fizzy energy that courses through the film. It’s at once an endlessly fascinating portrait of time and place (that deserves to be recognised among the great New York films) and a film that still feels like a breath of fresh summer air 40 years later.