If you have lately found yourself overwhelmed by the utter spectacularity, the mindblowing fantabulosity of The Film Series, please consider these feelings a sign of your health and vitality as a functioning human being living under extreme circumstances. With the recent climate of 35mm Malick films, dope jams from the U.S. renaissance of the 70s, and Tarantino and Kurosawa going film noir on your ass, the libidinous cinephilia coursing through your veins is simply symptomatic of the latest epidemic of movie madness making the campus hyperventilate with glee. As you may have noticed at Wednesday’s screening of the breathtaking “Days of Heaven,” the madness may simply be innate to your Wesleyan DNA: even Wesleyan alumni are driving hours from their respective outposts of adulthood to check out the gems sparkling across the CFS screen. Don’t fight the cine-madness, just ride it towards cine-nirvana.
Pulp Fiction (U.S., D: Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
Friday, Oct. 6, 8 p.m. $4
Says A. Rabinovitch esq., Film Series aficionado and Argus film scribe:
“A popular favorite among the pseudo-intellectual contingency of a liberal arts college campus, there is no doubt most of us have probably seen this film more times than there are fingers. Yet being no older than ten years old when this was released, we never got a chance to see it on a big screen with a large audience to enjoy it with. So, even if you know the lines by heart, we invite you to come out and see this film like you’ve never seen it before–projected on film in one of the most state-of-the art movie theatres in the country!
Quentin Tarantino celebrates the underbelly of low art and pop culture in this anthology of intertwining stories that offers an inside glance into a community of criminals. Though Tarantino is often better known for behaving like an obnoxious egomaniac in real life, it is undeniable how skillful he is at infusing humor into a film exploding with horrific violence, explicit drug use, unexpected rape, and 271 loving repetitions of the word ‘fuck’. Relentless in its pace, ‘Pulp Fiction’ is shocking and exhausting, yet ultimately exhilarating and deserves at least a tenth viewing.”
Stray Dog (Japan, D.: Akira Kurosawa, 1949)
Saturday, Oct. 7, 8 p.m. FREE!
Akira Kurosawa is best known for magnificent samurai swordplay extravaganzas, but “Stray Dog” is prime evidence of his equally potent capacity to forge incisive portraits of modern life and infuse traditional genres with dynamic visuals and thematic subtlety. “Stray Dog” merits your consideration as possibly the best detective movie ever to grace celluloid, blending nail-biting suspense and psychodrama with a gritty realism that studio-bound Hollywood noirs were never fully able to achieve. A rookie cop’s gun is stolen and used in a murder. Fearing for his job, he stalks the thief through the heat-baked backstreets of Tokyo, his hunt rendered in powerful black and white images shot on location in the toughest neighborhoods of 1940’s Tokyo. A rare opportunity to see an underappreciated masterwork by one of the all-time great directors.
Tristram Shandy (UK, D: Michael Winterbottom, 2006)
Wednesday, Oct. 11, 8 p.m. $4
In addition to having a fantastic and hilarious last name, director Michael Winterbottom is the creative force behind one of the most absurdly varied yet consistently dynamic filmographies in contemporary movies: an Academy Award-nominated portrait of war journalism (“Welcome to Sarajevo”); a stunning, semi-documentary look into the human-smuggling trade (“In This World)”; highly literary adaptations of Thomas Hardy novels (“Jude,” “The Claim”); a madcap look at the Manchester music scene in the early 80s (“24-Hour Party People”); a bizarre science fiction film (“Code 46”); and, most recently, an incendiary docudrama (“Road to Guantanamo”). With “Tristram Shandy,” Winterbottom brings his typically unpredictable A-game to an adaptation of Laurence Sterne’s insanely digressive 18th-century novel of the same name. The film’s wonderfully inventive narrative alternates between actor Steve Coogan, playing himself on the set of a misdirected attempt to film “Tristram Shandy,” and the character of Tristram, making an equally ineffectual attempt to recount the story of his own life and times. A bawdy, frazzled odyssey through the boundaries of stories, storytelling, movies and movie- making, “Tristram Shandy” is yet another feather in the cap of one of the most inventive directors working today.
All The President’s Men (U.S., D: Alan Pakula, 1976)
Thursday, Oct. 12, 8p.m. FREE!
The evidence:
Watergate. Redford as Woodward. Hoffman as Bernstein. Deep Throat all sketchy and knowledgeable in shadowy parking lots. F.B.I. wiretaps festering in the woodwork everywhere you turn. The Republicans violating the country’s right to privacy (Do you smell “topical?”). Suspense, suspense, suspense. The late great Jason Robards gracing the human race with one of the most delicious supporting performances ever put on film. One of the best movies ever made about the intersection of journalism and politics. One of the greatest films from what may be the greatest era in the history of American movies.
The verdict:
Get your ass in the theatre and have your mind blown before you split town for fall break. It’s FREE!
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