Cinematheque: Vincente Minnelli

Minnelli’s stylized melodrama stars Frank Sinatra as Dave Hirsh, a cynical writer and disillusioned World War II veteran who returns to his Illinois hometown. Shooting on location, Minnelli explored new color codes to suit the dull pretensions of a small town. The film’s climactic carnival sequence demonstrates the director’s unerring command of the widescreen frame when he turns an actual Midwestern town into a CinemaScope hallucination. USA, 1958, 35mm, color, 134 min.