This article is from the archives of the UB Reporter.

Thrillers, dramas mark film series

  • The General, 1927

  • The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1945

    The Shining, 1980

By CHARLOTTE HSU
Published: December 16, 2009

The Buffalo Film Seminars, a semester-long series of movie screenings, will mark its 20th season this spring with a line-up heavy on thrillers and dramas.

The selections, many of them dark, include “The Testament of Dr. Mabuse,” a 1930s film that centers on a chain of crimes bearing the signature of a criminal mastermind who has been imprisoned for a decade in an asylum. “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” from 1945 and based on Oscar Wilde’s novel of the same name, tells the twisted tale of handsome Dorian Gray and a painted portrait of the ageless young man that grows increasingly ugly and monstrous as Gray indulges in a life of debauchery and sin.

Diane Christian, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, and Bruce Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor, both in the Department of English, host the screenings as part of a class they teach on cinema. The spring 2010 series begins on Jan. 12. Christian and Jackson introduce and screen each film and lead a discussion on it afterward.

Each session begins at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays at the Market Arcade Film and Arts Centre, 639 Main St. in downtown Buffalo. Anyone can participate by purchasing a ticket at regular Market Arcade prices. “Goldenrod Handouts”—notes the two faculty members prepare for each screening—will be available in the theater lobby on the evening of each showing and online the previous day.

Free parking will be available in the lighted and fenced M&T lot opposite the theater’s Washington Street entrance. The theater is a few paces from the Metro Rail’s Theater station.

The complete seminar schedule, with film descriptions culled from information and reviews on Amazon, IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Wikipedia:

• Jan. 12: “The General,” 1927, directed by Buster Keaton. A silent comedy that crashed at the box office, this movie is now considered a great film. It tells the story of Johnnie, a train engineer in the Confederacy who must save his two loves—his train and a woman named Annabelle Lee—from Unionists who have stolen both.

• Jan. 19: “The Testament of Dr. Mabuse,” 1933, directed by Fritz Lang. A series of crimes bearing the signature of a criminal mastermind who has been imprisoned for a decade in an asylum sparks a mystery that unravels in this thriller.

• Jan. 26: “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” 1945, directed by Albert Lewin. In this film based on Oscar Wilde's novel of the same name, a painted portrait of the young and handsome Dorian Gray grows increasingly ugly and monstrous as the ageless Gray lives a life of debauchery and sin.

• Feb. 2: “Night and the City,” 1950, directed by Jules Dassin. Set and shot on location in London, this film noir tells the story of a hustler who believes he has been given the chance of a lifetime. But as he tries to con everyone around him, he only loses himself.

• Feb. 9: “Night of the Hunter,” 1955, directed by Charles Laughton. This movie, with a script by Laughton and James Agee, incorporates elements of expressionism, fantasy and religious hysteria to tell the grim tale of a murderous, self-appointed preacher who torments a family, including two children, with the goal of uncovering a stash of money their father stole.

• Feb. 16: “The Burmese Harp,” 1956, directed by Kon Ichikawa. In this movie nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and set at the end of World War II, a lone Japanese soldier, driven by obsession and haunted by the images of corpses that surround him, refuses to return home, staying, instead, to bury the war dead in Burma.

• Feb. 23: “Ride the High Country,” 1962, directed by Sam Peckinpah. Selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, this film features actors Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea portraying two men guarding a shipment of gold in dangerous territory. Their friendship becomes complicated when one discovers the other's plan for stealing the cargo, but events beyond their control bring them together again.

• March 2: “Z,” 1969, directed by Costa-Gavras. The winner of the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Film Editing, this film provides a fictionalized account of events surrounding the cover-up and investigation of the assassination of a left-wing Greek politician.

• March 16: “The Friends of Eddie Coyle,” 1973, directed by Peter Yates. A low-level crook attempts to avoid going to prison by becoming a police informant, unleashing a chain of events he will regret. Robert Mitchum, in one of the best performances of his career, plays the small-time criminal, Eddie Coyle.

• March 23: “A Woman Under the Influence,” 1974, directed by John Cassavetes. This dark film centers on domestic turmoil and dysfunction, focusing on a woman whose erratic, mad behavior leads her husband, who is deeply in love with her, to commit her for psychiatric treatment.

• March 30: “The Shining,” 1980, directed by Stanley Kubrick. This horror flick, often named as one of the best of all time, is a re-imagining of a best-selling Stephen King novel with the same name. In Kubrick's version, with surreal settings forming the backbone of bizarre, iconic scenes, a man serving as caretaker of a hotel that gets snowed in during winter slips into insanity, embarking on a terrifying mission to kill his wife and son.

• April 6: “Das Boot,” 1981, directed by Wolfgang Peterson. This historical film tells the story of a German U-boat and its crew with extraordinary realism.

• April 13: “Ginger and Fred,” 1985, directed by Federico Fellini. In this comedy and drama that acts as a satirical attack against television vulgarity, Italian Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers impersonators Pippo and Amelia reunite after decades of retirement to perform on a variety show.

• April 20: “Collateral,” 2004, directed by Michael Mann. In this thriller set in Los Angeles, actor Tom Cruise, in a rare role as a villain, plays a contract killer who forces a cab driver to ferry him to a string of destinations where he murders various targets. The driver, played by Jamie Foxx, risks his own life to put a stop to the killings.

For more information, go to the Buffalo Film Seminars Web site.