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Wed, Jul 6 at 8:00pm

BOUND

  • Dirs. The Wachowskis
  • USA
  • 1996
  • 109 min.
  • R
  • DCP
  • Assistive Listening
  • Hearing Loop
BOUND

Part of Queer Qlassics.

Wed, Jul 6 at 8:00pm: Pre-recorded introduction from author, speaker, poet and comedian Alok Vaid-Menon and pre-recorded discussion with film historian and archivist Elizabeth Purchell and public historian Tiffany Minton | BUY TICKETS

A lingering, lascivious glance exchanged between two neighbors in the elevator of a Chicago high rise apartment building quickly snowballs into a secret love affair and an elaborate scheme to make off with $2 million dollars cash. Corky (Gina Gershon) is a soft faced, hard-ass, newly released ex-con who is doing a work exchange for a place to crash in the same building where cunning and beautiful Violet (Jennifer Tilly) lives with her skeezy, mafia boyfriend. As the sexual tension intensifies between Corky and Violet, so does the peripheral drama that’s now closing in. The two women must decide if their passion for each other is worth risking their lives. BOUND is what happens when fairytale romance meets the blood and violence of film noir. This movie is sexy and scary and everything in between. BOUND dangles happily ever after in front of your faces — and asks with a conniving smile, “What are you willing to do for it?”

“A subversion of…noir archetypes. BOUND doesn’t queer the genre just by making them both women — it queers the genre by deepening both characters.” —Drew Gregory, Autostraddle

"BOUND is one of those movies that works you up, wrings you out and leaves you gasping. It's pure cinema, spread over several genres. It's a caper movie, a gangster movie, a sex movie and a slapstick comedy.” —Roger Ebert (1996)

“From the opening moments, ripe with sexual tension, to the closing shot, BOUND offers an edge-of-the-seat experience.” —James Berardinelli, ReelViews

Speaker and discussion:
Pre-recorded intro and discussion by film historian and archivist Elizabeth Purchell and public historian Tiffany Minton. 

About the speaker: 
Elizabeth Purchell is an archivist, historian, filmmaker, film programmer, and podcaster. Her feature-length film ASK ANY BUDDY, explores how adult gay films of the late 1960s to mid-1980s are more than their erotic content, and are important primary sources about the development of post-Stonewall era gay subcultural history. Buddy is also a narrative podcast and digital social media archive. 

Related press on Elizabeth Purchell:
A Queer-Film Historian Discusses Movies That Provoke” (New York Times, Jun 6, 2022)
All the Good Boys” (Letterboxd, Aug 19, 2021)