Panic! Swoon (in 35mm)

Tom Kalin’s Swoon (1992) is a bold reimagining of the infamous 1924 Leopold and Loeb murder case, in which two wealthy, highly intelligent young men from Chicago plotted and carried out the murder of a fourteen-year-old boy in an attempt to commit the “perfect crime.” Unlike traditional crime narratives, the film focuses less on the procedural details and instead explores the intense, manipulative relationship between Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, framing their actions through the lens of queer desire, social class, and societal repression.

Shot in stark black-and-white, Swoon blends historical reconstruction with unconventional stylization and challenges traditional depictions of the case, exposing the ways in which Leopold and Loeb’s homosexuality was sensationalized and vilified in the media and courtroom. As part of the New Queer Cinema movement, the film critiques the historical tendency to conflate queerness with deviance, suggesting how moral anxieties around sexuality shaped public perception and legal discourse in the wake of one of America’s most notorious crimes.

The Carsey-Wolf Center is proud to present Swoon in 35mm film projection. After the screening, writer/director Tom Kalin will join moderator Bhaskar Sarkar (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a discussion of Swoon and its legacy.