Believe it or not, the Film Board is no insular, ritualistic cabal; we’re more like the brainy policy geeks at a well-intentioned liberal think tank, knowledgeable in our field but receptive to progress and new minds. And we want you, the cultured undergraduates of Wesleyan University, to join us. Applications to help plan next year’s Film Series are now available, and open to all. You don’t have to be a Film Studies major, or employed by the Film Series, although it helps if we’ve seen you frequenting our screenings. Don’t be shy; be optimistic! This is AMERICA: with enough hard work and sexual charisma you can achieve anything in our egalitarian meritocracy! You can pick up your application at the main office in the Center for Film Studies, or request one by e-mail (filmseries@gmail.com). It must be completed and returned to the main office by noon on Feb. 27. If you need an incentive, check out the schedule for this week. Each film is truly a winner:
MICHAEL CLAYTON
USA. Dir: Tony Gilroy. 2007.
FRIDAY, Feb. 22, 7:30 p.m. $4
George Clooney’s character in this movie is guilty of every charge ever leveled against lawyers: he’s a seedy hypocrite, whose casuistry allows reckless corporations and their greedy C.E.O.’s to get away with everything up to and including murder. Like “Zodiac,” another underappreciated masterwork from last year, “Michael Clayton” charts conflicts between professionalism, personal passion, and ethical imperatives.
JULIET OF THE SPIRITS
Italy. Dir: Federico Fellini. 1965.
SATURDAY, Feb. 23, 7:30 p.m. Free!
Season of the witch! A discontented housewife conducts a séance, then considers whether to undermine her uncaring husband. This is Fellini’s first color film, and an indisputable classic of foreign cinema (it’s also more brazenly feminist than most landmarks of surrealism).
INTO THE WILD
USA. Dir: Sean Penn. 2007.
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 27, 7:30 p.m. $4
Have you ever been so frustrated with Wesleyan that you vowed to strike out on your own after graduation, to snub your friends and relations and decamp for, say, Alaska, as a penniless supertramp? Well this movie will convince you not to do that.
AVANT GARDE FESTIVAL
THURSDAY, Feb. 28, 7:30 p.m. Free!
When I joined the Film Board, each member was promised one incontestable “pick” for the whole year: a beloved movie which, whether or not it was likely to bring a huge turnout, would definitely end up on the calendar. The “Avant Garde Festival” was not my selection; in fact, the “one pick” policy proved to be wishful thinking. But I couldn’t be more excited about next Thursday, and hereby endorse our program of esoteric psychedaelia as my favorite event in the entire series. The men and women who directed these movies were strange birds: Joseph Cornell was a reclusive Christian scientist who spoke with the dead; the boozy and neurotic Maya Deren tracked down and choreographed Marcel Duchamp; Kenneth Anger, brilliant wizard and world-class gay, obsessed over Allister Crowley and other figureheads of the occult. These films will stimulate, confuse, and amuse you, and you may never have another chance to see many of them on the big screen.
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