Grand Guignol Silent Shorts

In this 1953 musical comedy adapted from Anita Loos’s searingly funny 1925 novella—which also spawned a now-lost silent film in 1928 and a smash Broadway production in 1949—showgirl Lorelei (Marilyn Monroe) is resplendent in beautiful gowns, most notably in the pink satin dress designed by Travilla during the now-classic number “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” Lorelei is seen throughout the picture in jewel tones and literal jewels, carefully selected to play up the lush Technicolor cinematography lensed by Harry J. Wild. Both effervescent and timeless, this witty gem showcases Monroe’s brilliant comic timing as well as her vocal chops. Premiering in the middle of the actress’s career and released the same year as Niagara and How to Marry a Millionaire, Howard Hawks’s film helped to plant Monroe in the hearts of the American public, making her one of the most famous people in the US.  

The pink satin gown worn in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is on view in Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon, located on Level 3 in the Rolex Gallery, beginning May 31, 2026.  

Programmed and note by K.J. Relth-Miller.

In person: writer/director Andrew Ahn and actor Joe Seo

Restoration world premiere

In person: filmmaker Michael Schultz; actors Bill Duke, Antonio Fargas, Henry Kingi, Melanie Mayron, Garrett Morris, Pepe Serna. Moderated by Jacqueline Stewart.

Ring in the solstice with the smoldering passion of David Lean’s 1955 sumptuous Technicolor romance. Shot on location in Venice, Italy during the sunniest months of the year, Summertime features Katharine Hepburn as a romantic lead. Hepburn is utterly relatable and captivating in her Oscar-nominated turn as Jane Hudson, an unmarried secretary on a long-awaited solo vacation away from her humdrum life in Akron, Ohio.

Featuring leisurely footage of the crowded Piazza San Marco and soothing gondola rides along the Fondamenta San Felice, Lean’s film, for which he received a Directing nomination at the 28th Academy Awards, manifests his understanding of nuanced female interiority through his closeups on Hepburn’s engrossing, dynamic face. Don’t miss this opportunity to see a gorgeous 35mm print from the Academy Film Archive; it was struck in 2004 and has screened no more than three times.

Summertime was restored in 2003 by the Academy Film Archive and the British Film Institute with the support of the David Lean Foundation.

Steven Spielberg’s second feature as a director set the standard for edge-of-your-seat suspense and quickly became a cultural phenomenon. When the seaside community of Amity Island falls prey to a great white shark, the chief of police (Roy Scheider), a young marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss), and a grizzled shark hunter (Robert Shaw) embark on a desperate quest to destroy the beast before it strikes again. A box office record-breaker as well as a Best Picture nominee, Jaws earned Oscars for film editing, sound, and John Williams’s thrilling score.

On the occasion of Jaws: The Exhibition—the largest mounted exhibition ever organized around Spielberg’s film, experience the movie before diving into the collection. The museum’s first of this scale focused exclusively on a single film, the exhibition features scene breakdowns, interactive experiences, behind-the-scenes stories, and more than 200 original objects, many never before seen on public display, and follows the structure of the film, taking visitors from the opening credits to its gripping conclusion.

Jaws: The Exhibition is curated by Jenny He, senior exhibitions curator, and Emily Rauber Rodriguez, assistant curator, with Alexandra James Salichs, curatorial assistant, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.