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TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF BREAKING AWAY
PART OF 1999 LITTLE 500 FESTIVITIES
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Twenty years ago, a movie about a Hoosier teenager so smitten with international bicycle racing that he starts speaking Italian and calling the family cat Fellini was filmed in Bloomington and had its premiere here.
That movie, Breaking Away, which went on to garner five Academy Award nominations and the Oscar for best screenplay, is coming home April 23 for a re-premiere, as part of Indiana University's 1999 Little 500 events. A 20th anniversary celebration of the film's release will be at the newly restored Indiana Theatre, now the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, in downtown Bloomington. Tickets went on sale April 12.
The IU Student Foundation, the IU Foundation, the Commission for Downtown Bloomington, and the Monroe County Visitors Bureau are teaming up for the re-premier. A reception reuniting actress Robyn Douglass and David Blase, the IU student who served as the inspiration for screenwriter Steve Tesich's lead character, with the people of Bloomington will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Fountain Square Ballroom. The re-premiere of the movie will begin at 8 p.m. at the theater, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave.
Dennis Christopher, who played the lead role in the movie, tentatively has agreed to attend the re-premier if circumstances permit.
Produced over six weeks on a modest budget of $2.4 million, with a cast of then-unknown stars including Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Barbara Barrie and Paul Dooley, Breaking Away also earned the Golden Globe for best film-musical/comedy. It also was honored by the National Board of Review, the National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Association and the Writers Guild of America.
Noted film critic Roger Ebert said of Breaking Away, "This is a movie to embrace ... Movies like this are hardly ever made at all; when they're made this well, they're precious cinematic miracles." In its May 1999 issue, Bicycling magazine calls it "the greatest cycling story ever told."
Christopher played bicycling enthusiast Dave Stohler, who encouraged his high school friends -- played by Quaid, Stern and Jackie Earle Haley -- to compete in and ultimately win the Little 500 men's bike race, which will mark its 49th running this year.
In the movie, Douglass played Christopher's love interest, a sorority coed who thinks he's an Italian exchange student. Other actors from the 1979 film may attend the re-premier, but have not yet committed.
Besides the fun, IU Student Foundation Director Randy Rogers said, one of the most important goals of the event is to help IU students -- who may not yet have been born 20 years ago -- learn about the movie and appreciate its impact on Bloomington, IU and Little 500.
The re-premier also is one of the first events for the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, which will officially reopen April 17 after a three-year, $3 million renovation of the building, built in 1922. A former movie theater, it will serve as a new facility for the performing arts.
Tickets for both the Breaking Away re-premier and the reception with the film's celebrities are available to the general public for $15. Tickets to just the movie are available for $7. Both can be obtained by calling the IU Student Foundation at 812-855-9152. Proceeds from ticket sales will go toward scholarships for working IU students.
(DeAnna Hines, 812-855-0850, djhines@indiana.edu or George Vlahakis, 812-855-3911, gvlahaki@indiana.edu or Christopher Turner, 812-855-0850)