The Brother From Another Planet / Baby It's You

The UCLA Film & Television Archive presents classic film and contemporary cinema in the Hammer's Billy Wilder Theater.

Part of the series John Sayles: Independent. Sayles will attend each screening for conversations and to sign copies of his new novel, Yellow Earth, which will be on sale at each venue.

For his fourth feature, John Sayles gave the well-worn alien sci-fi trope a revitalized yet lo-fi punch with African American actor Joe Morton starring as a mute, telepathic visitor from beyond the stars. After ditching his malfunctioning spaceship at Ellis Island, Morton's newcomer, known only as "The Brother," navigates the customs of Manhattan's residents while searching for a place to call home. From his initial refuge in a Harlem bar, he encounters a cross section of earthlings who read him—and the world—through a puzzling prism of race, class, and ethnicity, a scenario Sayles taps for both brilliant comedy and social commentary. (1984, dir. John Sayles, 35mm, color, 110 min.)

Preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Preserved in collaboration with Anarchists' Convention from the original 35mm color negative, a 35mm color reversal intermediate, and the original 35mm sound track negative.

John Sayles’s first and only feature film made under a studio contract, and his first adaptation of someone else’s words, Baby It’s You is set in mid-1960s America and features an anachronistic soundtrack fueled by Springsteen (who else for a tale that takes place in Jersey?) with some period-specific tunes by The Supremes and the Righteous Brothers sprinkled throughout. The story follows Sarah Lawrence-bound high school senior Jill (Rosanna Arquette) who finds her upper-middle class sensibility jostled when she’s swept into a romance with blue-collar Sinatra wannabe Albert (Vincent Spano), who boasts the innuendo-suggesting nickname Sheik (an early prophylactic brand). (1983, dir. John Sayles, 16mm, color, 105 min.)