Marx Brothers, ‘Moonstruck’ among highlights of film series

The Marx Brothers’ classic “A Night at the Opera” and the romantic comedy “Moonstruck” are among the films being screened in the fall 2016 edition of the Buffalo Film Seminars.

The popular, semester-long series of film screenings and discussions is hosted by UB faculty members Diane Christian and Bruce Jackson. Each session begins at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays, beginning Aug. 30 and running through Dec. 6, in the Amherst Theatre, 3500 Main St. in the University Plaza, directly across the street from the South Campus.

Christian, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of English, and Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor and James Agee Professor of American Culture in the Department of English, will introduce each film. Following a short break at the end of each film, they will lead a discussion of the film. The screenings are part of “Film Directors” (Eng 381), an undergraduate course being taught by the pair. Students enrolled in the course are admitted free; others may attend at the theater’s regular admission prices of $9.50 for adults, $8 for students and $7.25 for seniors. Season tickets are available any time at a 15 percent reduction for the cost of the remaining films.

“Goldenrod handouts” — featuring production details, anecdotes and critical comments about each week’s film — are available in the theater lobby 45 minutes before each session. The handouts also are posted online one day before the screening.

The series opens on Aug. 30 with the 1932 film “Trouble in Paradise,” directed by Ernst Lubitsch. The film tells the story of a gentleman thief and a lady pickpocket who join forces to con a beautiful perfume company owner. “Romantic entanglements and jealousies confuse the scheme,” according to the IMDb online movie database.

The remainder of the schedule, with descriptions culled from IMDb and other sources:

• Sept. 6: “A Night at the Opera,” 1935, directed by Sam Wood. The Marx Brothers take on high society in this tale of a sly business manager and the two wacky friends of two opera singers who help the singers achieve success while humiliating their snobbish enemies.

• Sept. 13: “Beauty and the Beast,” 1945, directed by Jean Cocteau. The pure love of a beautiful girl melts the heart of an angry beast.
• Sept. 20: “Out of the Past,” 1947, directed by Jacques Tourneur. Robert Mitchum plays a private eye who escapes his past to run a small-town gas station. But his past catches up with him and he must return to the big city world of danger, corruption, double crosses and duplicitous dames.
• Sept. 27: “Late Spring,” 1949, directed by Yasujiro Ozu. Friends and family try to convince a woman to marry and leave her widowed father.

• Oct. 4: “All About Eve,” 1950, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. A young woman insinuates herself into the company of her “idol,” an established, but aging stage actress, with plans to take her parts and her fiance. The film, which stars Bette Davis and Anne Baxter, won six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.
• Oct. 11: “La Dolce Vita,” 1960, directed by Federico Fellini.” A series of stories follows a week in the life of a philandering paparazzo living in Rome.
• Oct. 18: “Chimes at Midnight,” 1965, directed by Orson Welles. Welles weaves parts of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV” and other plays to tell the story of Sir John Falstaff and his time as Prince Hal’s drinking companion.
• Oct. 25: “Drums of Winter,” 1977, directed by Sarah Elder and Leonard Kamerling. This documentary about Alaska’s Yup’ik Eskimos co-directed by Elder, UB professor of media study, focuses on the rich tradition of the Yup’iks’ music, dance and spiritual world, and attempts by missionaries to suppress them.

• Nov. 1: “Being There,” 1979, directed by Hal Ashby. A simple, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted adviser to a powerful businessman and an insider in Washington politics. Stars Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine.
• Nov. 8: “The Untouchables,” 1987, directed by Brian De Palma. Federal agent Eliot Ness assembles a team of mob fighters to bring Chicago crime boss Al Capone to justice during the mob wars of the 1920s. Stars Kevin Kostner, Sean Connery and Robert De Niro.
• Nov. 15: “Moonstruck,” 1987, directed by Norman Jewison. A Brooklyn bookkeeper finds herself in a difficult situation when she falls for the brother of the man she has agreed to marry. Cher and Olympia Dukakis won Oscars for their roles.

• Nov. 22: “The Sacrifice,” 1986, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. At the dawn of World War III, a man searches for a way to restore peace to the world and finds he must give something in return.
• Nov. 29: “Like Water for Chocolate,” 1993, directed by Alfonso Arau. Tita and Pedro want to get married, but Tita has to take care of her mother and is not allowed to marry. Pedro ends up marrying Tita’s sister, but only so he can be closer to her. As she’s making Pedro’s wedding cake, Tita cries in silence; when the guests eat the cake, they become nostalgic about their past lives. Eventually, Tita discovers she can do magic with her cooking.

• Dec. 6: “The Tourist,” 2010, directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. Elise sits next to an American tourist, Frank, on a train to Venice. She has chosen him as a decoy, acting as if he is her lover, who is wanted by the police. They not only have to evade the police, but also the mobster whose money her lover stole.

For more information about the series, visit the BFS website.