Beauty Pageant Nite at the HFA

Prix de beaute shows at the Harvard Film Archive tonight at 7:00 pm. Smile will follow at 9:00 pm.

What with all the hurrah about those pictures of Miss New Jersey horsin' around, it's time to turn a jaundiced eye to the world of the beauty pageant. The Harvard Film Archive proves that sticking it to the beauty pageant has been an honorable enterprise throughout the history of film.

The first movie, 1930's Prix de beaute, Louise Brooks decides to participate in the Miss Europe beauty pageant. To which film buffs will immediately ask, "How is she not going to win?" As her beauty carries her ever higher in social circles, Brooks' character begins to question her lot in life - which isn't all that different from the real-life Brooks, who left acting early in her career.

The movie is showing in the original French, but don't panic if you're not fluent. You can watch an English-subtitled DVD which the HFA will roll out at the same time at Carpenter Center, Room B04. Or you can just sit back and watch the legendary Louise Brooks in action.

In Smile, young women flock to scorching hot Santa Rosa, California, to participate in the Young American Miss Pageant. As the movie unfolds, the town's residents are shown to be as starry-eyed as the women about how this pageant can change their lives. Not as glaringly obvious as other jaundiced takes on the beauty pageant, Smile is often overlooked as one of the best American satires. Bruce Dern delivers a fine performance as pageant maven Big Bob Freelander, and the makers of Little Miss Sunshine and Christopher Guest probably saw Smile and took plenty of notes.