Buffalo Film Series/Fall 2000 Screening Schedule

Aug. 30 THE GRAND ILLUSION, 1937, dir., Jean Renoir

Critic Roger Ebert calls this film, starring Jean Gabin and Eric von Stroheim, "a meditation on the collapse of the old order of European civilization." Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels called it "Cinematic Public Enemy Number One" and ordered the negative seized. The Russians got the negative from the Germans after the fall of Berlin and it eventually made its way to a film archive in Toulouse, France. The negative was discovered only a few years ago, which is why viewers will be able to see a brilliant print of Renoir's brilliant film.

Sept. 6 NINOTCHKA, 1939, dir., Ernst Lubitsch

Greta Garbo's last great film, a sophisticated romantic comedy copied in at least four subsequent films-none of them nearly as good-and in one terrific Broadway musical, "Silk Stockings," with Cyd Charisse in Garbo's role.

Sept. 13 LAURA, 1944, dir., Otto Preminger

A detective falls in love with the portrait of a murder victim one summer in pre-air-conditioned Manhattan. Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price and Dana Andrews star in what critic Tim Dirks describes as "one of the most stylish, elegant, moody classic film noirs ever made."

Sept. 20 NOTORIOUS, 1946, dir., Alfred Hitchcock

"Alfred Hitchcock's 'Notorious,'" wrote Roger Ebert, "is the most elegant expression of the master's styleŠIt contains some of the most effective camera shots in his-or anyone's-work, and they all lead to the great and final passages in which two men learn how very wrong they both were. This film, along with 'Casablanca,' assured Ingrid Bergman's immortality."

Sept. 27 ALL ABOUT EVE, 1950, dir., Joseph Mankiewicz

This witty and superbly acted film won six Oscars. Roger Ebert calls Bette Davis' performance in this film "her greatest role." It also provided her most memorable screen line, "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night." The story got a second life decades later as the Broadway musical "Applause."

Oct. 4 PATHS OF GLORY, 1957, dir., Stanley Kubrick

One of the great anti-war movies and one of Kubrick's best films. Viewers will see one of Kirk Douglas' best performances. Banned in France for 20 years because the French government didn't like the way it depicted the ruling elite.

Oct. 11 LA DOLCE VITA, 1960, dir., Federico Fellini

Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg and Anouk Aimée star in Fellini's brilliant social epic about people on the make, people on the way down and the perfect inaccessibility of love.

Oct. 18 WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? 1966, dir., Mike Nichols

Burton and Taylor at their best in the film version of Edward Albee's play, a war story, love story and tragedy all at once. The screenplay, happily, is almost a direct transfer of the play, including lines like this one, said by the husband, George (played by Burton): "All I said was that our son, the apple of our three eyes, Martha being a cyclops, is a beanbag and you get testy."

Oct. 25 MIDNIGHT COWBOY, 1969, dir., John Schlesinger

Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight in the only X-rated picture to win a Best Picture Oscar (subsequently downtuned to "R"). "Midnight Cowboy" was nominated for six Academy Awards and won three of them-best picture, director and screenplay. Hoffman and Voight both were nominated for best actor and probably split the vote.

Nov. 1 ALL THAT JAZZ, 1979, dir., Bob Fosse

A semi-autobiographical drama/musical about death, ego and art, with Roy Scheider as Fosse's alter ego, Joe Gideon, and Jessica Lange as Death, an astonishing lady whose smile is so inviting that you'd follow her anywhere.

Nov. 8 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ROSIE THE RIVETER, 1980, dir., Connie Field

In the '30s, women were told it was unfeminine to work; they should stay home and take care of the family and let men do the real work. Then World War II came along and the men went off to fight it, so the U.S. government mounted a campaign that assured us that good, feminine women would find ways to handle tough factory jobs. When the war ended and the men came back, the propaganda field reversed itself. "Good" women were those who stayed home with the kids and made supper for him-who-worked. This time, the propaganda didn't accomplish its goal so well. Connie Field's documentary explores this key sequence in American feminist consciousness.

Nov. 15 THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE & HER LOVER, 1989, dir., Peter Greenaway

Helen Mirren serves her husband one of the most gorgeously photographed, superbly prepared and horrific meals in film.

Nov. 29 BURNT BY THE SUN, 1994, dir., Nikita Mikhalkov

The first half of this Academy Award-winning film is set in the Russian countryside during the languorous summer of 1936, where the family of a hero of the Soviet Republic is enjoying the good life. Gradually, the reality of the Stalinist purges intrudes. All action takes place in the course of a single day, but depicts a political lifetime.

Dec. 6 XIU XIU, THE SENT-DOWN GIRL, 1998, dir., Joan Chen

A brutal film set in China during the Cultural Revolution, about a young girl who learns about betrayal and evil