Wyrd War invites you to celebrate pioneering American director Kathryn Bigelow’s birthday with a rare big screen presentation of her debut feature film THE LOVELESS (1981).
Co-written and co-directed with Monty Montgomery (familiar to many as The Cowboy in MULHOLLAND DRIVE), THE LOVELESS is at once an homage and deconstruction of the popular juvenile delinquent films of the 50s and outlaw biker films of the late 60s and early 70s. Starring a leather clad William Dafoe in his first credited screen role and the late musician Robert Gordon, who also provides much of the music for the perfectly curated rockabilly soundtrack, THE LOVELESS unfolds as a gang of young greasers straight out of Kenneth Anger’s SCORPIO RISING is delayed in a small southern town when one of their motorcycles breaks down. This seething and beautifully filmed meditation on male violence and aggressive sexuality set the precedent for Bigelow’s mastery of genre cinema, which eventually earned her six Academy Awards in 2010, including Best Director, for her war film THE HURT LOCKER (2008).
The first woman to ever win the Academy Award for Best Director, and still one of only three female directors to be recognized as such, her 72nd birthday shall be celebrated this year in grand Wyrd War style on Monday November 27. There will probably be cake. And motorcycles.