Feels good to be back, huh? To look out at the field from the very top of Foss Hill, feeling soft grass between your toes. To catch a ray of light flaring off glass windows on College Row, momentarily distracting you from the gaggle of freshmen wandering past Olin’s grand façade. To once again think, “Dude, I’m so glad I brought a third brewski!” But Wesleyan’s charms don’t begin and end with beer, and I’m personally more intoxicated with the sight of a new Film Series calendar than I am with the year’s first Oktoberfest seasonals (highly recommended: Sierra Nevada’s Tumbler). It’s been a dismal summer for movies, but this fall you’ll be able to relive the few shining exceptions along with our usual mix of classics and oddities up on the Goldsmith Family Cinema’s (located in the Center for Film Studies) beautiful big screen. Whether this is your last year with the Film Series or your first, we’re aiming to make it your best ever, so come often, bring friends, and enjoy the show.
CASABLANCA
1942. Dir: Michael Curtiz. With Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman. 102 minutes. TOMORROW, September 8TH, 8 PM, $5.
Considered by many the greatest film of all time, “Casablanca” is one of those movies you simply have to see. In fact, I’m not even sure where to start if you need convincing. There’s the iconic performances of Bogart, Bergman, and Claude Rains; the unobtrusive but moody cinematography of Arthur Edeson, which exquisitely captures the streets, nightclubs, and foggy airstrips of 1940’s Casablanca; and the witty, heartbreaking, exciting, and sensitive script, penned by Howard Koch and the Epstein brothers. So if you haven’t seen it, go. If you haven’t heard of it, run! And if you haven’t seen it on the big screen, tomorrow night will still be worth every penny of those five measly bucks.
PATHS OF GLORY **Pick of the week!**
1957. Dir: Stanley Kubrick. With Kirk Douglas, Adolphe Menjou. 87 minutes. THURSDAY, September 9TH, 8PM, FREE.
This World War I combat movie-cum-political drama presents us with an interesting early glimpse of Stanley Kubrick’s work. Though Kubrick is generally known as a mindbender with a flair for the visceral on the merit of works such as “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), “A Clockwork Orange” (1971), and “The Shining” (1980), Thursday’s film shows the director in a more conventional mode. And while some of his trademarks—a blend of genres, beautiful mobile compositions, waltz music, and general musings on what it means to be a human being—were already present by 1957, seeing their expression in the structure of a Hollywood war movie will prove rewarding for Kubrick’s fans. Government Documents Librarian Erhard Konerding and Visiting Instructor of Film Studies Marc Longenecker will briefly discuss trench warfare, the historical background for the novel by Humphrey Cobb, and its adaptation to the screen as part of our Reflections on War series.
IRON MAN 2
2010. Dir: Jon Favreau. With Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle. 124 minutes.
FRIDAY, September 10TH, 8PM, $5.
Two Iron Man suits—the original and War Machine. Two bad guys—Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke. Two sexy but self-sufficient (well, kind of) girls—Scarlett Johansson and Gwenyth Paltrow. Basically, “2” has twice as much of everything that matters and a whole lot more explosions and Samuel L. Jackson. Plus we get to see Tony Stark partying himself into a blackout while wearing the suit, which apparently doubles as a urinal (I want one). Oh, and apparently he’s like slowly poisoning his body by being a badass too often or something. Anyway, a good time for all and a great way to kick off Film Series Fridays.
THE RED SHOES
1948. Dir: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger. With Moira Shearer, Anton Walbrook. 133 minutes.
SATURDAY, September 11TH, 8PM, FREE.
Walbrook: “Why do you want to dance?” Shearer: “Why do you want to live?”
This sumptuous Technicolor morsel is widely regarded as one of the most fruitful collaborations between the British duo of Powell and Pressburger, also known as The Archers. Though the film’s backdrop is the theoretically innocent and fun-loving world of ballet, P and P inject an undercurrent of darkness and desperation from the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale on which the film is loosely based. At the time of its release, “The Red Shoes” was one of the highest grossing British films of all time and remains highly regarded and even more influential.