Don’t Miss! NOTHING LASTS FOREVER with Writer/Director Tom Schiller in Person

Tom Schiller is a comedy legend many times over for his work as one of the original writers of Saturday Night Live and as the filmmaker behind the SNL-featured shorts called Schiller’s Reels. In 1984, he made a comedy film unlike any other. Titled NOTHING LASTS FOREVER, it tells the story of a young man (Zach Galligan) who seeks to become an artist in a dystopian alternate-universe Manhattan – a black and white Manhattan that seems to be cobbled together from late night movie memories. It’s a bold, unusual and very funny film, featuring star turns from the likes of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and legends like Imogene Coca, Sam Jaffe and Eddie Fisher (as himself.)

Then, for reasons that are still obscure, Metro Goldwyn Mayer withdrew the film from its release plans, and it has never been subsequently released except for a screening on TCM in 2015.

It would be a tough break for any film, and filmmaker, but it especially stung because, as Richard Brody of the New Yorker has noted, the film is a “Lost Comedic Masterpiece.” Everyone who sees it seems to love it, and the peals of laughter from the lucky audiences who have seen it tell us that it has not dated at all.

The studio-held 35mm print of NOTHING LASTS FOREVER has been shown around several times, but for the last few years a rights issue has prevented it from being shown. Which makes the upcoming AFS screening on Saturday, December 23 all the more special. Schiller, a funny and eloquent storyteller, will appear in person with the inside scoop on the making of the film and the personalities involved. Additionally, we will screen some of Schiller’s short films.

There are tickets remaining for this screening. We hope to see you there.