We’re hosting a joint birthday party for Arkadin co-owner Sarah Baraba (born June 6, 1987) and pop music icon Prince (born June 7, 1958)! The night begins with a Happy Hour devoted to the Purple One, then Sarah will introduce Prince’s brilliant directorial debut Under the Cherry Moon, and we’ll wrap things up with karaoke in the theater!

What better way to follow up the runaway box office success of Purple Rain — the film that cemented Prince’s status as a pop icon and helped sell a bajillion soundtrack albums — than with a frothy screwball tribute to pre-Code rom-coms set against the backdrop of the French Riviera? Oh and did I mention, there are hardly any musical numbers? And it’s all in black-and-white? UNDER THE CHERRY MOON was, understandably, a tough sell to audiences expecting Purple Rain 2, but the critical lambasting the film endured — it was dismissed as a misguided vanity project by a narcissistic wannabe and “awarded” five Razzies, including Worst Picture — was completely unwarranted and smacks of out-of-touch fuddy-duddyism.

But the critics and the public had it all completely wrong, as Arkadin co-owner Sarah Baraba will argue in her introduction! This free-wheeling goofball lark is, in fact, an underseen treasure, a true auteurist work by one of pop music’s greatest geniuses that evokes the ribaldry of the pre-Code era with a devilishly subversive streak. Directed by and starring the Purple One himself, UNDER THE CHERRY MOON co-stars Kristin Scott Thomas (in her screen debut) and Jerome Benton of The Time. Featuring gorgeous black-and-white cinematography by the legendary Michael Ballhaus, a script written by pioneering No Wave filmmaker Becky Johnston, and a soundtrack collaboration between Prince and composer Clare Fishcer, UNDER THE CHERRY MOON is a cult classic waiting to be rediscovered.

“Under the Cherry Moon is an inspired, delightful piece of cinema—pure cloudcuckooland escapism, a luxuriant, swishy appropriation of Golden Age dreaminess with a dollop of wide-eyed 80s consumerist wonderment and mystical messianic streak, and very much of a piece with Prince’s genius.” – BKMAG

Arkadin does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. However, we encourage researching titles to determine if a screening may contain content that could be upsetting to you. Please feel free to contact us for guidance on specific films. Information about content can also be found on Common Sense Media, IMDB and DoesTheDogDie.com, as well as through general internet searches.