FALL 2009 SCHEDULE

September 4: Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)

Set in Chicago during the Prohibition era, Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon), inadvertently witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. In order to escape the wrath of gangland chief Spats Colombo (George Raft), the boys, in drag, join an all-woman band headed for Florida. They vie for the attention of the lead singer, Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe). The script is flawless; the slapstick, sublime. Directed by Billy Wilder, who had previously directed several other notable films, including Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity and The Apartment. (121 min.)

September 11: The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)

Mike Nichols’s 1967 classic about a recent college graduate who worries about a future that resembles his parents’ is largely credited with being one of the films that changed Hollywood. Released the same year as Bonnie and Clyde, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night, and Cool Hand Luke, The Graduate was nominated for 7 Academy Awards and won Best Director--Mike Nichols' only Oscar. It made Dustin Hoffman a star and is widely recognized as one of the 10 best American films ever made. (106 min.)

September 18: James Broughton Films

James Broughton’s long and varied career in film, theater, and poetry stretches across the countercultural moments of the Beats, the hippies, and the feminist and sexual liberation movements of the 1970s, taking all as touchstones while developing a distinct approach grounded in a sense of joy and wonder. Tonight we will screen a selection of Broughton’s films, including Nuptiae (1969), Adventures of Jimmy (1950), and his most acclaimed film, Mother’s Day (1948).

September 25: Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, 1962)

François Truffaut’s most overt challenge of monogamy, Jules et Jim explores a love triangle between two friends (Oskar Werner and Henri Serre) and their mutual attraction Catherine (Jeanne Moreau). Beginning at the turn of the century through WWI, the film features the relationship between the three that evolves into something inexplicable. The story unfolds through beautiful, bounding images of characters that exude a love for life that is seldom captured on celluloid. Above all, it is a unique look into a complicated yet clandestine friendship that spans a lifetime. (104 min.)

October 2: Gunvor Nelson Films

In addition to a pair of shorts, tonight’s screening will feature Nelson’s feature-length experimental documentary Five Artists: BillBobBillBillBob (1971, 70 min.), which she made with her frequent filmmaking partner, Dorothy Wiley. The film is a playful and intimate portrait of five California-based filmmakers, painters, and sculptors, all close friends of Nelson’s. Bill Wiley, Bob Nelson, Bill Allan, Bill Geis, and Bob Hudson are the title figures, all of whom get loving treatment in this often-overlooked gem.

October 9: Topkapi (Jules Dassin. 1964)

Dassin’s “criminally” overlooked gem of a heist film follows the story of three professional thieves and a “schmo” (Peter Ustinov) as they attempt to steal the priceless emerald encrusted dagger of Sultan Mahmud I from the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul. Featuring an outstanding performance from Peter Ustinov, whose work would earn him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Topkapi features one of the most suspenseful heist scenes in 1960’s cinema, Dassin’s film invites viewers to celebrate and re-examine the conventions of the heist film genre.
(120 min.)

October 16: Robert Todd Films

Emerson College professor Robert Todd has been making short poetic films since 1989. While he has no characteristic style, his work is always diffuse, elliptical, and suggestive, its effects based on implication rather than explanation. Tonight’s screening will draw from a broad range of his films.

October 23: Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

Following his large-scale, color films of the 1950s, the “master of suspense” Alfred Hitchcock returned to black and white with Psycho, arguably this best and most influential film. Shot on an $800,000 budget and with a crew from his TV show, Psycho forever changed the horror genre, moving terror from exotic, faraway places to the American heartland and turning “Mother” into a word with chilling connotations. The infamous shower scene, decried by critics during the film’s initial release, has become one of the most studied montage sequences in all of cinema and the stylistic centerpiece of Hitchcock’s storied career. Anthony Perkins delivers one of the screen’s great performances as the seemingly reserved Norman Bates, who hides a terrible secret behind the façade of his roadside motel. (109 min.)

October 30: Visions of Suffering (Andrey Iskanov, 2006)

Something like a Russian version of A Nightmare on Elm Street, this film depicts a man whose dreams are stalked by demons. As he tries to elude these dream monsters, his world drifts more and more toward that of his nightmares, until finally the two cross into each other. Featuring extraordinary visual effects and a hauntingly oblique storyline, Visions of Suffering is a great way to start a pre-Halloween night.

November 6: White Lies, Black Sheep (2007)

James Spooner’s narrative feature debut follows on the heels of his acclaimed documentary Afro-Punk, telling the story of Ajamu Talib, a young African-American man who eschews conventional black culture in favor of New York’s rock and roll underground. He begins to find that his chosen community, the white rock world, only seems to run smoothly for white rockers. A series of events force him to recognize that his friends both exotify him and are in denial of his blackness. Black, but not "really" black. What's a young black rocker to do? (84 min.)

November 13: The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)

In this off-putting thriller, two children are pursued by a psychotic “preacher” seeking to locate their dead father’s hidden fortune. Robert Mitchum’s role as the hunter opened the actor’s career to new possibilities, and is commonly cited as one of the most terrifying screen portrayals of all time. The battle of wills between Lillian Gish, as the children’s protector, and the preacher is also deservedly famous. While not well-received upon its debut, actor Charles Laughton’s only directorial effort has since gained stature as one of the most visually stunning Hollywood films ever made. Stanley Cortez’s cinematography is notable for its painterly, expressive qualities, and the underwater sequence is particularly admired. (94 min.)

November 20: Cuadecuc Vampir (1970)

Shot on the set of Spanish director Jess Franco’s low-budget El Conde Dracula, Pere Portabella’s film is a pseudo-documentary in high-contrast black & white that recalls the look of classic vampire films like Nosferatu and Carl-Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr. A subtle and witty critique of the Franco regime and the reliance of dictators on the media, the film remained underground in Spain for the first several years of its life, and it has never received proper distribution in the United States. (70 min.)

December 4: City Lights/Underground double feature

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen, 1954)
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a delightful movie musical is a true rarity. The film is set in the 1850s in rural Orgeon and stars Howard Keel and Jane Powell. One of the few Hollywood musicals not adapted from the stage, Seven Brides used the widescreen beauty of CinemaScope to project a stunning integration of music, visuals, and story. Michael Kidd's impeccable choreography is perhaps the most notable aspect, however the hilarious performances by every player and smart direction by Stanley Donen (Singin' in the Rain) have made this film a true classic. (102 min.)

Beauty Becomes the Beast (1979)
Vivienne Dick was among the most explicitly political filmmakers of that short-lived No Wave film movement in late-70s New York. Like many of Dick’s early films, Beauty Becomes the Beast channels the desperation and nihilism of the No Wave scene through overtly feminist politics to produce a dense and aggressive take on womanhood, family, and the media. Starring New York chanteuse Lydia Lunch. (41 min.)