Pauline went to some meeting of the minds today that culminated in a private screening of a new digitally restored print of “Bonnie & Clyde.” She actually asked me if I wanted to go, that silly, like I would have something better to do than that!

The screening was at the Academy, which is near my office, so she picked me up, we grabbed some dinner, then headed into the theater. As we filed in with the other people, someone from Warner Bros. was handing out little raffle tickets. “This one’s a winner,” the ticket hander-outer said to me. We sat down and listened to some guy from Warner Bros. yammer about the print we were about to see. He announced that they had some DVDs to give away of the new Bonnie & Clyde transfer, and prepared to call out raffle ticket numbers. “They better be the Blu-Rays,” I told Pauline, only maybe 10% joking. The first couple tickets got called and people started moving to claim their rewards.

“I hope you win,” Pauline said, “Since you’re not even supposed to be here!”

“Oh yeah?” I said, taking the challenge. When the next ticket was called, I jumped up. “Me! I got it!” I cried, and started running down the aisle to the Warner Bros man.

I got halfway down the Academy’s red carpet walkway when some woman stood up. “Wait! That’s MY number! NOT HIS!” she yelled, in a completely “STOP! THIEF!” sort of way. I stopped in my tracks and turned to see a very angry woman. I turned to the audience and shrugged, exaggeratedly. A few people laughed.

“Oh, let him have it!” the super sweet Warner Bros man called out. “Give him one,” he motioned to his assistant. I turned and smiled at Pauline.

By this time, the actual winner of the DVD had made it down to the front and was given her DVD…AS WELL AS MY ILLICIT DVD TO BRING TO ME!

As she handed it to me, I looked her in the eyes and clucked. “Jeez, not even a Blu-Ray!” I said, only maybe 8% joking. She glowered at me and took her seat. Jeez! I’m not against her! Damn!

[Obligatory film comment: I used to think “Bonnie & Clyde” was NBD, even after it comes up the first few times in Film School. But the last couple times I’ve seen it, I’ve been blown away by it. I laugh at every comic nuance of Beatty/Hackman/Pollard and the not so nuanced comedy of Wilder. Dunaway is a jaw-dropper! And all the weird love story/tragic heroes/fatalism stuff really builds up so devastatingly that when Hackman gets his forehead dented in I just felt like someone threw a medicine ball into my gut!]