Longest-running film.


From "The Village Voice" May7-13 2003, J.Hoberman review of "King of Hearts"


This cutie-pie be-in opened in the U.S. during the full flowering of hippiedom in the very Summer of Love ("The arena of the spectacle might just as well be Central Park," Andrew Sarris wrote in the Voice) and achieved bona fide cult status in the early '70s, evidently running for five years at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge, among other college towns. (In New York, King of Hearts succeeded the wildly successful Pink Flamingos as the Elgin's midnight attraction in January 1974, lasting a mediocre 14 weeks before being yanked for the redoubtable Freaks.)


For the record, the film opened at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge MA on Feb 10, 1971 and it ran there until Apr 13, 1976. And that is everyday for 5 years and 2 months, I believe that to be the longest run of a film in the USA. It is kind of unusual, "King of Hearts" was first shown in New York in June 1967, but the ad for the film in the Cambridge Chronicle in Feb 1971 announces its "New England premiere".

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It showed at the Biograph Theater in Georgetown, DC the whole time I was in college, 1976-1980.

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I first saw this film at the Central Square Cinema as an undergradaute the Winter/Spring 1971. I saw it a least once more at Central Square in the 1970s, and several times at other locations. After completing gradaute and post-doctoral work, I took a job just off Central Square in March 1980. I drove by the Cinema every day from March 1980 until June 1981. King of Hearts was playing at the cinema during that time period- at least it posted on the marque each day. While the daily showings may have ended in 1976, it did indeed play at Central Square Cinema as late as 1980 or 1981. Alas, the Cinema closed in the mid-1980s only to become a high-tech firm. I left Boston in 1995, and have not been in Central Square since then.

This movie is inspired. The insanity and absurdity of war placed in contrast to the fanciful lives of the "insane." I wil continue to watch this film every time I note its presence anywhere. It is a masterpiece. But avoid the English-dubbed version. The French version is far superior.

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That's an odd bit of trivia for a film relatively unknown today, but the VHS box confirms it. Some films hit big and then are forgotten, but this maintained a steady audience for more than five years.

"Longest running," of course, doesn't mean "most popular," but clearly this film struck a chord with the people who saw it, and the chord developed legs, to mangle a metaphor.

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Saw it at the Central. The theatre itself was one reason for its longevity. It was a tiny, super-intimate place with a screen not much larger than a modern television. It gave the audience a sense of connectedness that big theaters lack, kind of like sitting in a living room full of friends. At that ending the laughter was so infectious it was like getting nitrous oxide.

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