KEXP Suggests: Under the Cherry Moon at the NW Film Forum 5/19

As the world continues to mourn the passing of Prince (like with DJ Kevin Cole's incredible memorial show, streaming here), our friends at the Northwest Film Forum present their own tribute this Thursday, May 19th with a screening of the 1986 comedic caper Under the Cherry Moon.

The film marked Prince's directorial debut, starring himself (natch) as swindling gigolo Christopher Tracy. Jerome Benton of The Time co-stars as his brother and wily partner-in-crime, Tricky. Together, they try to swindle a trust fund heiress played by pre-English Patient Kristin Scott Thomas, until Tracy falls for her charms over her checkbook.

At the time of its release, the film was a bomb, garnering five Golden Raspberry awards, including Worst Picture (tied with Howard the Duck), Worst Actor and Worst Director, Worst Supporting Actor (Benton), and Worst Original Song ("Love or Money"). It was also nominated for Worst Supporting Actress and Worst New Star (for eventual Academy Award-nominated actress, Thomas), and Worst Screenplay. Since then, it's emerged as a cult classic, noted for its ahead-of-its-time gender- and race-defying humor, and adored for its '30s-inspired art deco styling. (The movie was filmed in color, and then converted to black and white to add to the retro aura.) Unlike the more-revered Purple Rain, Under the Cherry Moon shows a comedic side to Prince that we only got glimpses of throughout his career with later TV appearances on New Girl or Muppets Tonight.

To make things ever more special, Thursday's screening is part of NWFF's Puget Soundtrack series, where local musicians are invited to create a live score for as the film rolls. Performing on Thursday night will be Chris Brokaw (formerly of Come, Codeine, The New Year, and too many other projects to list), Laura Moreau, Holly Ricciardo, and John DeShazo. DJ Retina Burn will spin classic Prince tunes.

Come continue to honor the memory of this multi-talented artist. Tickets are still available online here, but (most likely) won't last long. And get ready for Brokaw's score by watching his 2012 performance on KEXP's Audioasis below: