The Cine-files

We (Conor and Zoe) got a little too eager beaver last semester and forgot to introduce ourselves as the new writers of the Cine-files column. Apologies for our impertinence. Conor is a junior film major. He lives in Beta. He really, really likes the movie “Boogie Nights.” Zoe is a senior film and history major. She loves Beta, and her favorite movie is “Midnight Cowboy.” Turns out we’ve got a lot in common. Sounds like we’re gonna get along great!

Seriously though, who gives a shit about introductions when we have the first week of the Film Series to discuss? I (Zoe) am still reeling from Wednesday’s “The Godfather: Part II.” Someone once asked me if I could have amnesia and watch any movie again for the first time what would it be and I said, obviously “The Godfather II.” I thought it would never happen, but I totally forgot about how SCARY Michael Corleone is in this one. How sinister does he look when he’s hugging Fredo at his mother’s funeral and then his eyes shift up slowly as he makes eye contact with Rocco? He’s so creepy. I love it.

And I (Conor) have also been left on edge since seeing Pacino’s nefarious gaze on the big screen. Although it might just be the perpetual house music blasting in Beta, I haven’t slept since. That said, I escaped my Coppola-induced paranoia and enjoyed lighter fare last night at the screening Lubitsch’s hilarious Hitler-Romp “To Be or Not To Be.” Forget Inglourious Basterds—“To Be…” was the most entertaining offbeat Nazi movie I’ve seen in recent memory.

Still, there is so much to look forward to on the Film Series this fall. Tonight, for example, I’m looking forward to dancing in the aisles to Scorsese’s star-studded concert film “The Last Waltz” (see below). Also, to celebrate the would-be hundredth birthday of legendary (and highly controversial) Hollywood auteur Elia Kazan, we are showing ten of his films, starting tomorrow night with the steamy crime-drama “Boomerang!” With classics like “On the Waterfront” and “A Streetcar Named Desire” on the horizon, the Kazan series is poised to be a unique journey through the career of a mysterious, complex icon of cinema.

The semester is young and there are plenty of great films to be seen, so come help us cut the ribbon on the series. Once we get going, there is no stopping us.

THE LAST WALTZ

1978. USA. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Documentary. With The Band, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young. 117 min.

In perhaps the greatest concert film ever made, Scorsese pulls together an unreal laundry list of classic rock legends, including the likes of Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, and Eric Clapton—all of whom jam out to an incredibly righteous degree with supergroup ‘The Band.’ From the groovy, bassy stomp of “Don’t Do It” to the classic chorus of ‘The Weight,’ this seminal rock-doc is visually stunning and undeniably toe-tapping. Come dance your first-week blues away. Take a load off, Wesleyan, take a load for free.

BOOMERANG!

1947. USA. Dir. Elia Kazan. With Dana Andrews, Jane Wyatt. 88 min.

The Kazan Centennial Series starts off with a rather literal ‘bang’—this early Kazan crime drama/noir chronicles the dark events after a priest is gunned down on a Connecticut street and finds the director toying with cinema to thrilling effect. Introductions to this film, and the entire Kazan series, will be given by the two biggest wigs on campus: Super-President Michael Roth and godmother of the Wesleyan film department, Jeanine Basinger. In case this STILL isn’t enough reason to come, THERE WILL BE CUPCAKES.

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY

1940. USA. Dir: George Cukor. With Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart. 112 min.

Screwball heavyweights Grant, Stewart, and Hepburn team up in this hilarious high-society comedy about the pitfalls of love and marriage. In 1938, magazines labeled Hepburn “box office poison,” but she proved the press and the public wrong playing Tracy Lord, the spoiled heiress being wooed by her irresistibly charming ex-husband C. K. Dexter Haven (Grant). Come see one of the most beloved comedies of classical Hollywood in our own Goldsmith Cinema.

A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN

1945. USA. Dir: Elia Kazan. With Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell. 128 min.

Kazan’s first feature is a brilliant adaptation of Betty Smith’s 1943 autobiographical novel of the same name. A truly compassionate rendition of a classic story, the film follows Frannie—the youngest daughter of the impoverished Nolan family—through the ups and (mainly) downs of life in an Irish Brooklyn ghetto at the turn of the century. Don’t forget the Kleenex…you’re gonna be drying your eyes at the end of this timeless tearjerker.