Film |
Moving Picturesby Geoff Kelly |
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THE BUFFALO FILM SEMINARS
This fall the Buffalo Film Seminars presents its 13th series of weekly screenings and discussions. Though the screenings are part of a film course taught by husband and wife UB professors, Diane Christian and Bruce Jackson, they are open to and have become immensely popular with the general public. (The class is capped at 45 students but the screenings routinely draw hundreds of people.) The concept is straightforward: Show great movies on a big screen in a great theater, then talk about them afterward. The films are not chosen thematically, but Christian and Jackson try to select films that will stimulate conversation about a broad range of filmmaking elements: directing, camera work, editing, writing, acting, genre, context, music, sound, set design. Jackson has written that their mentor in creating the series was the late James Card of the George Eastman House in Rochester. “Jim always insisted that films were meant to be seen on a big screen in the company of other people, and that the kind of concentration and focus that comes naturally in the theater is impossible to achieve in a home,” Jackson writes.
All screenings take place at the Market Arcade Film and Arts Center (639 Main Street); free parking is available in the M&T lot on Washington Street. Whenever possible, the films are shown on high-quality 35-millimeter prints. Occasionally, when these are not available, digital media are substituted. Visit www.buffalofilmseminars.org for more information. Here’s the schedule for the fall:
September 26:
The Big Sleep
Directed by Howard Hawks, 1946
With Humphrey Bogart as private eye Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as his love interest. William Faulkner wrote the screenplay based on the novel by Raymond Chandler.
October 3:
Aparajito/The Unvanquished
Directed by Satyajit Ray, 1956
Ray is widely regarded as one of India’s most important directors. This film follows the story of a young boy who leaves home to attend school in Calcutta.
October 10:
Le Samourai
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967
Alain Delon is terrific as a cold, calculating hitman who is seen after killing a nightclub owner.
October 17:
Chinatown
Directed by Roman Polanski, 1974
A neo-noir classic starring Jack Nicholson as private eye Jack Gittes, co-starring John Huston and Faye Dunaway.
October 24:
M*A*S*H
Directed by Robert Altman, 1970
A classic, comic reflection on the stupidity of war, with Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Robert Duvall and a host of other big names, and a screenplay by Ring Lardner Jr., from the book by Richard Hooker.
October 31:
The Day of the Jackal
Directed by Fred Zinnemann, 1973
Beautifully shot and suspenseful, Zinneman’s film is a far sight better than the best-selling book by Frederick Forsyth—and a nice counterpoint to Le Samourai.
November 7:
In the Year of the Pig
Directed by Emile de Antonio, 1969
This masterful documentary examines the history of Vietnam from the end of World War II to American embroilment. With a soundtrack by John Cage.
November 14:
Five Easy Pieces
Directed by Bob Rafelson, 197o
Jack Nicholson plays an oil-rig worker who, we learn gradually—piece by piece—has run away from a career as a classical pianist.
November 21:
The Man Who Fell to Earth
Directed by Nicolas Roeg, 1976
Starring David Bowie as a humanoid alien sent to earth to get water for his dying planet, but who loses his way. Roeg’s film is both bizarre and brilliant.
November 28:
Do the Right Thing
Directed by Spike Lee, 1989
In his breakthrough film, Lee tells the story of racial tensions exploding into riot on a hot summer day in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.
December 5:
Prospero’s Books
Directed by Peter Greenaway, 1991
Greenaway’s many-layered, visually stunning take on The Tempest stars Sir John Gielgud as Prospero.
HALLWALLS
Hallwalls also has a program of screenings this fall, featuring films you won’t see elsewhere in Buffalo. Screenings take place at Hallwalls at the Church, 341 Delaware Avenue (716-854-1694). Visit www.hallwalls.org for more information and updated listings. Here are a few upcoming:
September 22:
The Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela
Directed by Thomas Allen Harris
Harris will be present in person to discuss his film, which tells the story of his father, a foot soldier for the African National Congress, and 11 of his comrades. The film will air on PBS’ POV series later in the fall, but you can see it here first, on a big screen, with the director present. Winner of the 2006 Pan African Film Festival.
September 23:
Dying to Tell You
Directed by Walid Raad and Halaal Toufic
A program of short works by two leading Lebanese scholars, writers and artists.
September 25:
Movies With Roots in Hell:
The Effect of Drugs on
American Cinema
Ex-patriate writer and archivist Jack Stevenson presents a 16-millimeter film compilation of almost 60 years of drug depictions in American cinema. Based in part on his book Addicted: The Myth & Menace of Drugs in Film.
SQUEAKY WHEEL
Like Hallwalls, Squeaky Wheel is a media arts center with a national reputation for nurturing artists and showcasing films that can’t be seen anywhere else. Screenings take place at Squeaky Wheel, 712 Main Street (716-884-7172) or at Hallwalls at the Church. Visit www.squaky.org for more information and calendar updates. Here are a couple not to miss:
October 16:
Stein
Directed by Egon Guenther, 1991
Filmmaker Egon Guenther visits Squeaky Wheel to present his film, which tells the story of actor Ernst Stein, who left the stage in 1968 in protest of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Guenther himself defected to West Germany, and this film, made after the fall of the Berlin Wall, was his first chance in 10 years to work with his former colleagues in East Germany.
October 28:
Bill Brown: The Other Side
Directed by Bill Brown, 2006
Texas filmmaker Bill Brown visits Squeaky Wheel to present this documentary, which chronicles a 2,000-mile journey along the US-Mexico border. Along the way Brown considers the landscape—political, hostorical and physical—and documents the efforts of migrant activists to establish water stations along the border. At Hallwalls.
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