The Annihilation of Fish
Charles Burnett / US, 1999 / 108 min.
Tender romantic comedy about love blossoming between two elderly eccentrics. For many years, Charles Burnett’s deeply human film was hardly screened – before being rediscovered as a lost jewel of American independent cinema.
Jamaican widower Fish (James Earl Jones) suffers from delusions and has spent his whole life in a psychiatric institution. When his extreme behaviour leads to him being expelled, he rents a room from a landlady in Los Angeles and meets Poinsettia (Lynne Redgrave). He immediately recognises her as his ‘other half’. Although Poinsettia is head over heels in love with long-deceased composer Giacomo Puccini, she nevertheless enters into a relationship with Fish, her counterpart in eccentricity.
4K-restored version by UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation with Milestone Films
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Details
Director
Charles Burnett
Production year
1999
Country
US
Original title
The Annihilation of Fish
Length
108 min.
Language
English
Subtitles
NONE
Format
DCP
Part of
Everyday Blues
Rarely shown, now finally back on the big screen: the films of legendary American filmmaker Charles Burnett, a pioneer of the Black independent cinema movement of the ’70s and ’80s known as L.A. Rebellion. Three of his films have now been digitally restored, including his debut Killer of Sheep.
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