Hello Wes pals! Don’t recognize the names at the top of this page? Curious as to who has the moxie to take over from the Great and Powerful Jonah and Joseph? Well, well, well, I guess an introduction is in order. Some shiny new Film Board members have entered the building and, like Violet Beauregarde post-blueberry inflation, we are bursting (with excitement) to get started telling you about ourselves and about what the Wesleyan Film Series has in store for you this week. We want to preface our introductions with a short disclaimer: it is Sunday, we are tired, we are apprehensive about the week ahead (deadlines a-plenty!), we are intimidated about inheriting a legacy and anxious to make a good impression. Go easy on us, please. Now, hold onto your hats: it’s about to be a bumpy ride!
My name is Beatrix. Maybe you’ve noticed I share a name with the Uma Thurman’s on-screen badass incarnation of The Bride, from “Kill Bill”? (I kind of hope you haven’t because we should avoid conversations about Tarantino movies at all costs). Wow, I already hate this. The first film reference I’ve given in my introduction is a Tarantino one. Please wait, don’t stop reading, shrug it off, I promise I have more to offer. I’m a sophomore and an international student from Dublin, Ireland. My main goal as a member of the Wesleyan Film Series Board is to queer up the calendar. Let’s get some Araki and Almodóvar in there! Some Sciamma too – there’s plenty of room. In a totally different vein: I am also really hoping to get “Armageddon” on the schedule sometime in the future. I also really want to try to push for more animated films. I think animation is such an exciting medium and is too often considered a genre in itself and a genre of primary interest to young children. Let’s bust that myth!
Hi, this is Genyu writing. I’m a freshman and you probably haven’t seen me before. But it doesn’t really matter how much we know each other right now. What matters is the relationship Beatrix and I hope to establish with every loyal reader. Starting from this week, we will bring you every week’s Film Series schedule and inside scoops about the Film Board. And you are very welcome to drop your opinions, constructive or destructive, furious complaints or heartwarming ideas, right here in the comments section of our column. A little more info about myself: my interest in film started in high school, where I took a film class and watched foreign films from Europe, Russia, and Japan. Usually I’m a calm cinephile who is willing to go deep into any creative films and their artistic traits. But sometimes I’m just an irredeemable DC Comics fanboy, getting overhyped for some banality like superhero movie trailers.
Want to know some things we have in common? What shared interests/experiences qualify us to write this weekly column together? We will take your silence as a yes! We are both international students and really care about globalizing the Wesleyan Film Series and broadening the cultural scope of the Series even further. Our different cultural identities have informed the kind of films we gravitate towards and the kind of filmmaking that excites us. We both appreciate some good slow-moving long takes – perhaps one of the reasons why we both love Agnes Varda! Genyu wrote a paper last semester on “Cleo from 5 to 7” and described the long take of Cleo singing in her room as a transcendent experience. Maybe that’s the shared goal we have as moviegoers (and now Cinefile writers) – glimpsing transcendence through the lens of another person. Who doesn’t go to the cinema for transcendent experiences? We are both confident that all the films on this season’s calendar will offer you a transcendent experience or two.
THE SALESMAN
Friday, April 7. 8 p.m. $5.
This Cannes-approved mature family drama written and directed by Asghar Farhadi is about intimacy and marriage. It’s a film that grapples with responses to violation, of multiple kinds, and whether silence and suppression or committed revenge succeeds in healing wounds. Farhadi takes inspiration from his background in theater and brings out top-notch performances from his leads – how fitting given their characters’ professions.
RANCHO NOTORIOUS
Saturday, April 8. 8 p.m. Free.
A classic Western that tells the story of a man seeking revenge for his fiancée who was killed in a robbery, “Rancho Notorious” marks expressionist director Fritz Lang’s attempt at approaching Technicolor late in his Hollywood career. Many critics believe it is an ordinary genre film, but whether there is something special depends on your own judgement.
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