The Wesleyan campus kicked off the year with two free screenings of the classic musical “Singin’ In The Rain” on Monday. The film played in the new state-of-the-art Center for Film Studies (CFS), the first new academic building on campus in more than thirty years.
The inaugural year of the new building, however, has only just begun. Tonight in the CFS, the film studies department will host a talk by acclaimed filmmaker Martin Scorsese, in a rare public appearance. The rest of the weekend will comprise a tribute to Scorsese, with showings of “Goodfellas,” “After Hours,” “Raging Bull,” “Three by Scorsese,”(a collection of his student films) and “Taxi Driver,” all in the CFS.
“There are a lot of reasons to have Marty Scorsese be the first director that we inaugurate our building with,” said Professor Jeanine Basinger, chair of film studies. “The main one of course: he’s a filmmaking genius and he’s probably the single most important filmmaker of the era of our students and the era in which our students came to maturity.”
His filmography covers a vast range. In addition to the above titles, Scorsese’s oeuvre includes “Mean Streets,” “The Last Waltz,” “The Color of Money,” “The Last Temptation of Christ,” “The Age of Innocence,” “Casino,” “Kundun,” “Bringing Out The Dead,” and, most recently, “Gangs of New York.” He has also made two cinema documentaries on classic , “A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies,” and “My Voyage to Italy,” both of which could be included in syllabi for film classes.
“[He’s] the real deal,” Basinger said. “He’s an actual film historian; a real scholar dedicated to film preservation. He has a passion for movies. A passion for making them, a passion for seeing them, looking at them, preserving them, loving them: he’s the ideal person for us. He represents everything we care about. Not just the filmmaking itself. He weds the two things we wed in our major—history and theory with production. And that’s the definition of our liberal arts tradition in the major.”
In keeping with this tradition, tonight the director will be presenting a master class of sorts. At 6 p.m.. the CFS will screen a film of Scorsese’s choosing, Elia Kazan’s “America, America.” Then Scorsese will lecture about the film and engage in a Q-and-A session. As an added bonus, the CFS will be using Kazan’s own print of the film.
The event is free, but admission to all other films in the Scorsese tribute this weekend is $4. All those who come to “America, America” will receive a free copy of the new book “Working With Scorsese,” which has been put together especially for this tribute by alumnus Jeremy Arnold, ’91. After tonight, the book will be available for $10.
Basinger explained that there is an added connection between Scorsese and Kazan.
“When the old cinema, which this cinema will be replacing, was opened [in 1972], the tribute was to Elia Kazan,” she said. “And Marty and Kazan became friends and they developed a sort of father and son relationship. So the fact that we did Kazan, who’s now gone, and we’re doing Marty, who’s still here: it’s a torch passing between two great directors who were friends and who cared about the things we care about.”
The Center for Film Studies does not, however, exist solely for the film department. As a separate entity, apart from the Center for the Arts, the new complex is a place where the greater Wesleyan community can explore and study film.
To emphasize this, the Center for Film Studies will host “Celebrating The Liberal Arts Tradition Through Film,” a four-semester series of seminars, screenings, lectures and discussions which has been made possible by support from the Edward W. Snowdon Fund. The series is a collaboration between the film studies department and nineteen other departments and programs, a first in the University’s history.
The first of the series’ upcoming events this semester is “Identity and Cinema: The Philosophy of The Matrix,” which includes a screening of “The Matrix” Thursday night at 7:30, followed by a roundtable discussion with film and philosophy professors. The following evening at 7:30 is a lecture entitled “Why The Matrix Still Has Us” by William Irwin, associate professor of philosophy at King’s College, in Wilkes-Barre, Penn.
Other upcoming events in the interdisciplinary series include Israeli short films with author and screenwriter Etgar Keret; a two-evening event on HBO’s Sunday night programs, including “The Sopranos, ”Six Feet Under,“ ”Oz,“ and ”Sex In The City“, as well as its original movies, documentaries, and mini-series; a screening of the documentary ”Stone Reader,“ sponsored by The Friends of the Library; and a two-evening event entitled ”The Impact of New Technology on Experimental Film.“
Aside from the Snowdon screenings, a myriad of events will be taking place in the CFS, from 70mm screenings of classic films to special screenings of new films. The state-of-the-art sound and picture quality are likely to make the CFS the hottest destination on campus for lovers of film.
Head projectionist Audrey Golden ’06 participated in Monday’s screening of ”Singin’ In The Rain.“
”The color looked really awesome and the print looked more clear than it ever could have been in the Cinema,“ Golden said. ”And the surround sound was amazing.“
Professor Basinger echoed this enthusiasm.
”Are we excited?“ she said. ”Yes, we are excited! Are we happy? Yes, we are happy. When you come in and see our new screening facility, if you’re wearing a toupee, pin it down because we’re going to blow your hair off.“
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