The Chestnut Hill Film Group (CHFG) and Woodmere Art Museum welcome audiences back to Tuesday Nights at the Movies on Oct. 1 with a sparkling 1980s romantic comedy. “Moonstruck” stars Cher in an Oscar-winning turn as Loretta Castorini, a superstitious 37-year-old widow determined that the “bad luck” that cursed her first marriage won’t ruin her pending nuptials to fiancé Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello).
To be certain that fate is on her side this time, she intends to control every element, starting with her fiancé’s proposal: “A man proposes marriage to a woman, he should kneel down,” Loretta instructs Johnny. But what Loretta doesn’t anticipate is that she would fall for Johnny’s estranged brother, Ronny (Nicolas Cage), a tormented and turbulent man who blames Johnny for destroying his one chance at happiness. Both physically and emotionally damaged, Ronny has given up on life and love until Loretta visits to invite him to the wedding. And boy do the sparks fly! There is little doubt that this duo has natural chemistry, even though Cage flubbed his screen test so badly that the studio didn’t want to hire him. Thankfully, Cher threatened to quit the project unless Cage was her co-star, and the studio relented.
Despite her feelings, Loretta is determined not to let a little thing like passion derail her carefully arranged plans, and when Ronny declares his love, her memorable response – punctuated by two of the silver screen’s most iconic slaps – is “Snap out of it!” She does agree, however, to accompany him on one date to the Metropolitan Opera to see Puccini’s “La bohème,” whose sweeping strains infuse the film’s score. Ronny loves only Loretta and opera, he declares, and once he experiences them together, he promises to leave her in peace to marry his brother.
While there’s little doubt that Loretta and Ronny will find a way to be together, they’ll have to wait for their own operatic final act. Director Norman Jewison (“In the Heat of the Night” and “Fiddler on the Roof”) recalled the scene, set entirely in the Castorini kitchen where the entire cast has gathered, as the most difficult he’d ever shot.
Though moonlit magic and light-hearted lunacy reign, “Moonstruck” also explores the weightier themes of family, duty, infidelity, death, and the role of fate versus the choices we make. The path to happiness isn’t straightforward, it contends, and love is complicated and messy. While Loretta continues to fight her attraction to Ronny, clinging to her belief that “a person can … change the way they do things and they can even change their luck,” Ronny knows that love “breaks your heart, it makes things a mess,” but that’s what life is all about. “We, we aren't here to make things perfect. Snowflakes are perfect, stars are perfect. Not us! Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and, and to break our hearts and love the wrong people…”
By 1987, when the film was released, Cher was already a superstar. Beyond her music, she had proven her comedic chops in television sketch comedy and her impressive dramatic skills in “Silkwood” (for which she received an Academy Award nomination) and “Mask.” At 41, however, she wasn’t the typical ingenue (think Daryl Hannah or Demi Moore) that audiences were used to seeing as romantic leads. For his part, Cage was more interested at the time in making experimental films, and he brings a raw and edgy energy to what could have, in other hands, been a cookie-cutter leading man role.
It’s exactly this unconventional casting that makes the film so relatable. The ensemble is rounded out by the always exceptional Olympia Dukakis, who took home the Supporting Actress Oscar as Loretta’s wise mother, and Vincent Gardenia as her father. With a witty Oscar-winning script by John Patrick Shanley, Moonstruck’s assertion that it’s never too late to rediscover the capacity to love feels both endearing and authentic.
Tuesday Nights at the Movies is a partnership between The Chestnut Hill Film Group and Woodmere Art Museum. This season brings audiences classic gems from the Golden Age of Hollywood (“Dinner at Eight,” “The Searchers,” and “Meet John Doe”), creepy horror movies (“The Devil's Backbone” and “The Black Cat”), and cult classics (“A Hard Day’s Night,” “Two Lane Blacktop,” and “Chungking Express”). For the full fall season schedule, visit woodmereartmuseum.org. To join the CHFG mailing list, email lwilliams@woodmereartmuseum.org.
“Moonstruck,” (1987, 102 minutes) will be presented on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 7 pm (doors open at 6:30) at Woodmere Art Museum, 9201 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19118. Light refreshments are served. Films are free to attend, but contributions are gratefully accepted.
Lily Williams is president of The Chestnut Hill Film Group and director of development at Woodmere Art Museum.
