Last Night’s Star-Studded Movie Premiere for The Party Was Indeed a Party

“Laughter is the best medicine in these not very laughable times!” said director Sally Potter as she introduced her film The Party at last night’s New York premiere. Moviegoers including Alan Cumming and Blondie’s Debbie Harry were transfixed in the Metrograph theater’s ruby-red seats. A dark comedy mired with fun and snarky banter, the film begins as a seemingly innocent dinner party. A hostess’s fears of red wine–spillage and burnt hors d’oeuvres quickly subside as secrets unfurl into a maddening abyss where the line between reason and lunacy blurs. Coming out of the film, costar Emily Mortimer, dressed in a sunset-orange Maticevski dress, gushed, “There’s a moment when hostess Janet, [played by Kristin Scott Thomas] sort of bites her own arm. It’s one awful reveal after another and yet you never for once have to suspend your disbelief for too long.”