Lemon Sky

Director: Jan Egelson
Screenwriters: Lanford Wilson

Institute History

  • 1988 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Lemon Sky, starring Kevin Bacon in an unforgettable performance, and written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lanford Wilson, is a memory play set in Southern California in the 1950’s. The narrative, which moves in and out of the present as the characters remember their pasts, traces a young man’s life as he rediscovers his father (Tom Atkins) who abandoned him 10 years earlier. In an attempt to re-establish family ties, the son meets his father’s new wife (Lindsay Crouse) and family, and struggles to find a place in this unfamiliar setting.

Despite all the California sun outside, something inside is dark and hidden from view. the character’s memories serve like sunglasses shielding the sun’s burning rays. Told in a dreamlike fashion, with characters betraying real feelings by occasionally making asides to the camera, the revelations build to an emotional and profoundly moving confrontation.
Based on the play Lemon Sky

— Lawrence Smith

Screening Details

Sundance Film Festival Awards

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