Looking for Mr. Goodbar

A dark American drama made at the end of the 1970s. By day Theresa teaches deaf children. She is good at it, patient, and the children love her. In the evenings she lives another life: she goes home with men she meets in bars, does not give her name, and leaves it all behind the next morning. What the film is interested in is why the two lives are kept apart. Theresa grew up in a rigid family; her father is domineering, her sister ran away, and she spent a long stretch of her childhood ill. The narrative supplies this in flashback. The source is Judith Rossner's novel, which was itself drawn from a real murder. Diane Keaton plays Theresa; she appeared in a completely different role the same year, and the comparison of the two performances was among the most discussed subjects of the period. Tuesday Weld was Oscar-nominated as her sister. Richard Gere and Tom Berenger are in the cast. Richard Brooks directed. Because of music rights the film was out of circulation for a long time and became hard to see. A strong example for anyone who likes the hard American cinema of the 1970s. Before you watch, know this: the film goes to a heavy place and how it looks at its character is considered contested today.