“There’s no place like home.” – Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz

The idea of what makes a house a home, and explorations of how and where Americans live, have powerfully informed many significant films over the years, in ways both subtly thought-provoking and farcically over-the-top. The National Building Museum is proud to partner with the American Film Institute (AFI) Silver Theatre and Cultural Center to present a film series associated with the Museum’s exhibition House & Home. "Reel Estate: The American Home on Film" presents a wide-ranging series of films focusing on the American home, from nostalgic classics like Gone With the Wind, to post-WWII suburban melodramas like No Down Payment, and to subversive comedies like Hal Ashby’s The Landlord.

REAL LIFE* (revised)
April 7, Sunday, 7:20 pm

Introduction by Laura B. Schiavo, PhD, Assistant Professor of Museum Studies, George Washington University, on Albert Brooks’ satire of proto-reality television.

“The most hilarious comedy, the most gripping drama, the most suspenseful disasters – they don’t happen on the movie screen, they happen in my backyard and yours!” Although Albert Brooks’ directorial debut REAL LIFE takes the groundbreaking 1973 PBS documentary series AN AMERICAN FAMILY for inspiration, the film rapidly becomes something much darker, and more hilarious, as Brooks (playing a profoundly narcissistic version of himself) moves in across the street from Phoenix area family the Yeagers--chosen by Brooks to be followed around the clock by his documentary crew. Yeager patriarch Charles Grodin struggles between ingratiating himself to the cameras and keeping his family together, in a film that presciently satirizes what is now called “reality television.” REAL LIFE is a whip-smart black comedy in which the suburbs provide an ideal foil for the shallow glamor of Hollywood, as represented by Brooks' self-aggrandizing search for universal truth in the lives of others. DIR/SCR Albert Brooks; SCR Monica Mcgowan Johnson, Harry Shearer; PROD Penelope Spheeris. US, 1979, color, 99 min. RATED PG

*Additional screening times available at AFI.com/Silver.

Ticket Information:
BUY TICKETS THROUGH AFI.com/Silver. $8.50 AFI and NBM members | $11.50 General Admission | $9 Seniors (65+), Students (with valid ID), and Military | $7 Children (12 and under).  Tickets may also be purchased at the box office (opens 30 minutes before the first show of the day).  Please note that tickets are not available for purchase through the National Building Museum.

The AFI Silver Theatre is located at 8633 Colesville Road in Silver Spring, Maryland, Silver Spring Metro, Red Line.