Part of Music City Mondays
Now in its 40th anniversary year, Prince directs and stars in this offbeat love story of two young people who fight to stay together. Scheming to get rich quick, Christopher (Prince) and his friend Tricky (Jerome J. Benton) travel to the French Riviera. But Christopher’s plans go awry when he falls madly in love with a beautiful, spoiled heiress (Kristen Scott Thomas) whose parents plot to keep them apart. It took the unexpected death of Prince in 2016 — 10 years ago — to trigger a major critical reassessment of his directorial debut, a fizzy picaresque story in luminous black and white detailing the comeuppance that love, the universe, and racist patriarchy hold for the gigolo/pianoman. The film also introduced Kristin Scott Thomas to the world. Music by Prince and The Revolution.
“Even though I consider it to be the better film, I know that UNDER THE CHERRY MOON will never threaten PURPLE RAIN’s placement in the pop culture firmament. And yet, if PURPLE RAIN is the CITIZEN KANE of Prince movies — the instant classic that will always be celebrated — then UNDER THE CHERRY MOON is the TOUCH OF EVIL — a far more disreputable film that is so delightfully deranged that you stare at it in amazement that such a thing could have possibly emerged from a Hollywood studio.” —Peter Sobczynski, rogerebert.com “An inspired, delightful piece of cinema—pure cloudcuckooland escapism, a luxuriant, swishy appropriation of Golden Age dreaminess with a dollop of wide-eyed ‘80s consumerist wonderment and mystical messianic streak, and very much of a piece with Prince’s genius.” —Mark Asch, BKMag
