This is my first year on the film series board, and I have to be honest: I felt a tiny twinge of disappointment when the new calendar finally arrived. There are always alterations, retractions, and miscalculations in the schedule: you’ll argue for twenty minutes that a film should be included, and succeed in convincing the rest of the board, only to find out the print’s not available. A choice may seem to meet our demands in May, but then appears tired or even embarrassing come September. Still, I somehow managed to drag myself to “Holy Mountain” last Thursday (who am I kidding? I’d been looking forward to that screening all summer), and I was totally blown away. The print was vibrant. The movie was even more stirringly bizarre than I remembered. The Wesleyan audience really brought out the humor in every feathered toad and ritualistic sex scene. While I can’t say I always love the mood on this campus, it was pretty thrilling to sit in an audience who, if nothing else, shares a taste for the psychotropic and the absurd. My faith in the series is restored: I will proselytize this calendar vigorously and uncritically!
An item of business before getting to this week’s schedule: remember the film series trailer contest from last year? Remember how most of the entries revolved around Cold War kitsch? Think you can do better? Then you should make one this year! We’re leaving this year’s contest super freestyle, so you can basically do whatever you want. You don’t have to include all of that information about eating, drinking, smoking, etc.; just try to “embody the spirit of the film series,” and welcome everyone to the show. So let’s have some real diversity! I want to see cultish thrasher (pseudo?) snuff films battling indulgent, Brakhage-inspired concept art. And someone should definitely parody those multiplex intros featuring film reel roller coasters and anthropomorphized condiments; that shit is ripe for satire. The minimal restrictions: your trailer must be under 40 seconds, and contain only original content (piracy funds terrorism!). Deliver your entry on a DVD (which you’ve wisely tested on multiple machines) with your name and e-mail address to the contest box in the Film Studies office. The deadline is noon on October 17.
This week in the film series:
KNOCKED UP
USA. Judd Apatow. 2007.
Friday, Sept. 14, 7:30 P.M. $4
Comforting dudebro humor for your Friday night. Dude figures out a way to demonstrate his sexual fecundity without giving up his bachelor lifestyle or winning cheekiness! Starring Seth Rogan, who played the chubby funny guy on “Freaks and Geeks” (“does wanting to do it to a hermaphroditic tuba player make me gay?”). Totes fun; if you don’t love this movie, you must hate America.
EARINGS OF MADAME DE…
France. Dir: Max Ophuls. 1953.
Saturday, Sept. 15, 7:30 P.M. FREE
“Fin de siecle” costume drama at its finest. The mysterious title character sells her prized jewels to pay a debt, then claims they were stolen, leading to a scandalously fruitless chase for the thief. Like Jean Renoir’s “Rules of the Game,” this movie is at once an incredibly entertaining narrative of seduction and intrigue, and a carefully executed commentary on the relation between the aristocracy and other social classes; Ophul even gives Renoir a run for his money when it comes to astoundingly innovative camera work. Come watch this stimulating romance, then see if you can control yourself at the Sex Party.
THE LIVES OF OTHERS
Germany. Dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. 2006.
Wednesday, Sept. 19, 7:30 P.M. $4
Ok, so we’re a little heavy on the Eurotrash melodrama this week. But haven’t you been meaning to see this movie? It’s the one about a member of the East German secret police who seeks to discredit a renowned playwright in order to steal his girlfriend. The Brooklyn Riot Grrl who cut my hair liked it! She also liked T. Rex and Gwen Stefani’s “Tragic Kingdom”-era wardrobe! And she was ambivalent about mumblecore! I guess she had decent taste!
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
USA, Dir. Elia Kazan. 1951.
Thursday, Sept. 20, 7:30 P.M. FREE
Divisive but essential Hollywood classic, based on the play by Tennessee Williams, “Streetcar”’s salacious depictions of rape, homosexuality, and violence famously challenged the standards of the Production Code. The film features awesome performances by Marlon Brando (in his first major movie role) and Vivien Lee (who, 12 years earlier, had played Scarlett in “Gone with the Wind”). Heavy-handed, but powerful: “They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields.”
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