December 13, 2023
Provided image/Library of Congress
Madonna's first title role was in 'Desperately Seeking Susan,' Susan Seidelman's second movie.
Each year, the Library of Congress selects a new batch of culturally significant movies for preservation in the National Film Registry — and 2023's class includes a pick from a Montgomery County director.
"Desperately Seeking Susan" was one of 25 films added to the registry on Wednesday. The 1985 comedy hinges on a case of mistaken identity, as restless New Jersey housewife Roberta (Rosanna Arquette) accidentally gets swept up into the life of New York bohemian grifter Susan (Madonna). It was directed by Susan Seidelman, an Abington native who attended Drexel University before moving to New York City.
Other films chosen for preservation include "Lady and the Tramp," "Home Alone," "Bamboozled" and "Terminator 2: Judgement Day." Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden called the selections "cinematic stories of our nation's heritage" that "we always remember" in a video accompanying the announcement. A few of the films will air Thursday on Turner Classic Movies during an 8 p.m. special featuring Hayden and TCM host and film historian Jacqueline Stewart.
"Desperately Seeking Susan" was Seidelman's second film following her 1982 debut "Smithereens," a fictionalized exploration of the New York punk scene. "Desperately Seeking Susan" was shot in downtown Manhattan in late 1984 and is now remembered as a portrait of a bygone city.
"New York was still coming out of the 1970s bankruptcy crisis," Seidelman told The New York Times in 2010. "Nothing was getting renovated or repaired. There was no money. So it still had that grit."
Many of the locations in the film — including the thrift shop Love Saves the Day, where Arquette's character buys a jacket just pawned by Madonna's character that supposedly belonged to Jimi Hendrix — no longer exist, but the movie's soundtrack has endured. "Desperately Seeking Susan" marked the debut of the Madonna single "Into the Groove," which was included in the 1985 reissue of the singer's smash album "Like a Virgin."
Seidelman also is known for the Meryl Streep and Roseanne Barr comedy "She-Devil" and for directing the pilot episode of "Sex and the City." Although her work is strongly linked to New York, she directed a 1992 documentary set in Huntington Valley, "Confessions of a Suburban Girl." She also has a home in Stockton, New Jersey, where she lives part of the year.
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