West Side Story
Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins | Music by Leonard Bernstein | Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
USA ⎮ 1961 ⎮ Fiction ⎮ 153 mins
Winner of 10 Academy awards including Best Picture
Host Venue: Main Street Landing
This event is part of Global Roots Film Festival: Why Sing, Why Dance?
Festival Passes are available HERE. It is highly recommended to purchase a Pass although individual tickets are also available. If you purchase a Pass you need not book individual screenings – just bring your pass to the door. Seating is on a first-come first-served basis.
Passes :
General Admission – $40
VTIFF Patron Members – $32
Students – $20
VTIFF All Access Members – FREE.
The tale of a turf war between rival teenage gangs in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen and the two lovers who cross battle lines, loosely adapted from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
“The opening finger-snapping sequence is one of the best uses of dance in movie history. It came about because Robbins, reading the screenplay, asked, “What are they dancing about?”The writer Laurents agreed: “You couldn’t have a story about murder, violence, prejudice, attempted rape, and do it in a traditional musical style.” So he outlined the prologue, without dialogue, allowing Robbins to establish the street gangs, show their pecking order, celebrate their swagger in the street, demonstrate their physical grace, and establish their hostility — all in a ballet scored by Bernstein with music, finger-snapping and anger.” ~ Roger Ebert, 2004
