VOLUME 33, NUMBER 1 |
THURSDAY, August 30, 2001 |
Buffalo Film Seminars
set fall lineup
Offerings range
from gangster film "Little Caesar" to Italian classic "Il
Conformista"
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
"Little Caesar," the first great gangster film, and "Il Conformista/The
Conformist," considered by many to be Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci's
best film, head the lineup for the fall 2001 edition of "Buffalo Film
Seminars: Conversations about Great Films with Bruce Jackson & Diane
Christian," the 14-week series of screenings and discussions sponsored
by UB and the Market Arcade Film and Arts Center.
The screenings will take place at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays in the Market
Arcade theater, 639 Main St. in downtown Buffalo.
Each film will be introduced by Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor
and Samuel P. Capen Professor of American Culture in the UB Department
of English, and Christian, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, also
in the English department.
Following a short break at the end of each film, Jackson and Christian
will lead a discussion of the film with members of the audience.
The screenings are part of "Contemporary Cinema" (Eng 441), an undergraduate
course being taught by the pair. The class was selected as "Best Film
Series" in Artvoice's Best of Buffalo awards. The screenings also are
open to the general public.
Admission to each film will be $6.50 for the general public and $4.50
for students and senior citizens.
The films are free for those enrolled in the three-credit "Contemporary
Cinema" course. Those wishing to earn credit in relation to the series
should register for the course.
Free monitored parking will be available in the M&T lot opposite the
theater's Washington Street entrance.
At UB, the film seminars are sponsored by the Capen Chair in American
Culture, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of English
and WBFO 88.7 FM, UB's National Public Radio affiliate.
The series began on Tuesday with a screening of the Buster Keaton
classic "The General" (1927), considered by many to be one of the all-time
great film comedies.
The rest of the semester's lineup, with film descriptions culled from
the seminars' Web site, www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~bjackson/schedfall2001links.html:
-
Sept. 4: "Die Büchse der Pandora/Pandora's
Box," 1929, directed by Georg Pabst. Few films come close to Pandora's
Box for psychological and erotic depth. Louise Brooks is magnificent
as Lulu in this film based on two plays by Franz Wedekind. Her look
led to a comic strip"Dixie Dugan"and a social crazeflappers.
Philip Carli will provide piano accompaniment.
-
Sept. 11: "Little Caesar," 1930, directed by Mervyn
LeRoy. Edward G. Robinson is superb as Rico Bandello, a fictionalized
blend of Chicago's Al Capone and Brooklyn's Buggsy Goldstein, in the
first great gangster film. This film also has been selected for the
National Film Registry.
-
Sept. 25: "Trouble in Paradise," 1932, directed
by Ernst Lubitsch. Considered by many critics to be the great Lubitsch's
best film, "It is about people who are almost impossibly adult," wrote
critic Roger Ebert. "So suave, cynical, sophisticated, smooth and
sure that a lifetime is hardly long enough to achieve such polish.
They glide." Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins aren't just suave;
they're also crooks who fall in love. And Kay Francis is a rich widow
who would like to buy a piece of the action and, failing at that,
is content to rent it for a night or two. Selected for the National
Film Registry.
-
Oct. 2: "Sullivan's Travels," 1942, directed by
Preston Sturges. This is a movie about a Hollywood director who goes
out into the world to find meaning when he finds himself blocked on
his new movie, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" "Sullivan's Travels,"
write critic Tim Dirks, "is generally considered one of writer/director
Preston Sturges' greatest dramatic comediesand a satirical statement
of his own director's creed. Selected for the National Film Registry.
-
Oct. 9: "Sunset Boulevard," 1950, directed by Billy
Wilder. "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up," says
Gloria Swanson as faded film star Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard's
unforgettable final scene. The film received 11 Oscar nominations
and three Academy Awards, and was selected for the National Film Registry.
-
Oct. 16: "Le Salaire de la Peur/Wages of Fear,"
1953, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. William Friedkin remade this
in 1977 as "Sorcerer," with hugely expensive special effects and Roy
Scheider for his star, but he didn't come close to the astonishing
tension created by Clouzot's direction and editing, Armand Thirard's
electrifying cinematography and Yves Montand's brilliant first film
performance. Seminar participants will see the restored version, 20
percent longer than the film Americans were permitted to see when
it was released here nearly 50 years ago.
-
Oct. 23: "The Night of the Hunter," 1955, directed
by Charles Laughton. Roger Ebert calls this "one of the greatest of
all American films." Leonard Maltin describes it as an "atmospheric
allegory of innocence, evil and hypocrisy." The film credits writer
James Agee with the script, but it really was written by Laughton
days before shooting began. It is his only film behind the camera.
Selected for the National Film Registry.
-
Oct. 30: "Sweet Smell of Success," 1957, directed
by Alexander Mackendrick. "'Sweet Smell of Success' is one of those
rare films," wrote Roger Ebert, "where you remember the names of characters
because you remember themas people, as types, as benchmarks."
Selected for the National Film Registry.
-
Nov. 6: "Il Gattopardo/The Leopard," 1963, directed
by Luchino Visconti. The version of this film released in the United
States 40 years ago was badly cut and mangled. This restored print
of Visconti's magnificent epic, shows why the film has long been so
highly regarded by European critics. Burt Lancaster is superb as the
prince coming to terms with Garbaldi's unification of Italy.
-
Nov. 13: "Il Conformista/The Conformist," 1970,
directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. This film is considered by many to
be Bertolucci's best effort. Jean-Louis Trintignant is superb as Marcello
Clerici, the central character of Alberto Moravia's novel about a
man who so wants to belong he manages to betray everything and everyone
except the fascists, for whom he is merely an instrument.
-
Nov. 20: "Don't Look Now," 1973, directed by Nicolas
Roeg. Roeg, cinematographer for François Truffaut's "Fahrenheit
451" and David Lean's "Dr. Zhivago," directed 20 films, three of them
memorable: "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (1976), "Walkabout" (1971)
and "Don't Look Now." This horrific and erotic film, almost perfectly
misunderstood by critics when it was released, is now regarded as
a masterpiece.
-
Nov. 27: "Days of Heaven," 1978, directed by Terrence
Malick. Malick has directed only two other feature films: "Badlands"
1973 and "Thin Red Line" 1998. All three are haunting, resonant and
beautiful. Roger Ebert describes "Days of Heaven" as "one of the most
beautiful films ever made."
-
Dec. 4: "The Adventure of Baron Munchausen," 1988,
directed by Terry Gilliam. Gilliam, the American member of Monty Python's
Flying Circus, has woven a delightful rambling narrative about the
fantastic baron, and he has populated it with grand characters played
by, among others, John Neville, Eric Idle, Uma Thurman, Sting and
Robin Williams. This is a grand and hilarious movie, a rollicking
and imaginative end to the fourth in this series of terrific movies.
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