Greetings freshmen and those trying to get with freshmen. I am stepping into the role my predecessor Herr Goldblatt received such fine notices for last year and they are some mighty big galoshes to fill. Fortuitously, I got a leanly muscular Film Series to back me up. Semester’s gonna be bangin’.
We got this party started right with the runaway success of Monday’s Joss Whedon event. Whedon screened a sneak peek of his new flick Serenity (coming out Sept. 30th). All comers received a free Serenity t-shirt. Afterwards, the director fielded questions from an audience of rabid fans (well played, Alpha Delt). During the Q&A, Whedon acquitted himself well, responding with scads of wit and charm. He briefly discussed his former tenure as president of Eclectic, harkening back to a time when being a member of Eclectic required more than wearing bright colors.
Owing to the special nature of the event, the admission process was rigorous. It must be said that in the future, this will not be the case. The Film Department will not normally make you line up outside, search your bags or confiscate your camera phones. That is only the procedure for special events.
In last week’s orientation issue, I already erupted over the grandeur that is the FILM SERIES. If you need it reiterated, see me in my office. Basically, Film Series will chocolate chip honey dip you.
Of vital importance: Film series calendars are in your mailbox. Films are always in the Center for Film Studies (the new building), usually at 8 PM. Don’t bring in food/beverage or we will put Saran wrap underneath you prior to excavating your entrails.
The first official week of the Film Series continues with:
FRIDAY (9/9): KUNG FU HUSTLE 8pm
So psyched for this piece! The astoundingly prolific Stephen Chow (who starred in 49 films in sixteen years, produced, wrote, directed, starred and did his own stunts for Hustle, as he did in the modern classic Shaolin Soccer. Shaolin Soccer, if you recall (2001), combined the kinetic visual artistry of Shaolin Kung-Fu with nobody’s favorite pastime, soccer. All the players could bend it far better than Beckham.
Chow is a nonpareil physical actor whose most popular films fall under the genre of “nonsense comedy” (Mo lei tau, in Chinese) a genre dictated by Flockhart-thin plots and tangential filmmaking. His films have an epic feel and are deliriously, zanily, surreally, absurdly, captivatingly, logic be damned-ly entertaining. It’s a visual buffet and I don’t mean the scenery the actors chew.
Kung Fu Hustle is extremely user-friendly: music video-style dance numbers, Mafioso gunplay, parodies of Americana, and Chow’s trademark cartoony chopsocky weave a tapestry of delight.
SATURDAY (9/10): ON THE WATERFRONT FREE 8pm
You have not seen this film. You have been meaning to get around to it. But you have not. Sagely elders have whispered its merits in your non-receptive ears. You think On The Waterfront is like medicine, don’t you? It ain’t, and if it is maybe tasty tasty grape Dimetapp. At cocktail parties, you quote “I coulda been a contenduh…I coulda been somebody” and you don’t know what it really means but you think you’re funny. You may be; I mean, I didn’t hear the context. But you’re probably not. Don’t be On the Water-Frontin’. See Marlon Brando rock the docks as a longshoreman who stands up to corrupt union fat cats at all costs.
WEDNESDAY (9/14): THE GENERAL, WITH ALLOY ORCHESTRA LIVE 8pm
Buster Keaton’s finest. A gorgeous new 35mm print. The Alloy Orchestra (“the best in the world at accompanying silent films”- Roger Ebert) accompanies the film live. This is why we have a Film Series.
(More information is available on alloyorchestra.com).
THURSDAY (9/15): JULES AND JIM FREE 8pm
This one is also not medicine. People swear, and cuss and spit, by this film. And not all of them are pretentious. Director Francois Truffaut was one of the crucial playa playas in the French New Wave, which itself was quite badass: “Show us your Hollywood conventions and we will le flout them, stupid American.”
Jules and Jim drips with Truffaut’s fluid camera movements and its narrative, much like House of Pain, jumps around.
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