OUT OF THE BLUE World Cinema

USA Premiere

Following the film, AFI Festivals Programmer Malin Kan leads a conversation with restoration producers John Alan Simon and Elizabeth Karr.

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of director Dennis Hopper’s too-long unavailable OUT OF THE BLUE, this punk-rock masterpiece can now be seen digitally restored in immaculate 4K, which lends a magnificent lushness to bleak gray skies and faded blue denim. Linda Manz, whose singular raspy voice was immortalized two years prior in DAYS OF HEAVEN, stars as Elvis-obsessed, pint-sized spitfire Cebe, whose father (Hopper) has just returned after a traumatic accident landed him in prison. Already coping with her drug-addled mother, his homecoming will push the troubled teen to the brink. At once chaotic, vibrant and disturbing, OUT OF THE BLUE and its raw image of teenage rebellion surpasses cult credentials and stands as a monument to the memory of Manz, who died in 2020.
–Malin Kan