The Dark Crystal, tomorrow/tonight @ Film Hall

Rose Agger '10 sends in some info about the latest of Film Hall's movie screenings:

Film Hall presents... A magical story of really weird-looking Skeksis, urRu, and Gelflings in a fight to restore harmony in a world with three suns. Ground-breaking animatronics and some awkward Gelfling cleavage. The Dark Crystal (Jim Henson and Frank Oz 1982).

Interested in living in Film Hall next year? We will have a prospective Film Hallers listserv sign-up at the screening.

When: Friday 1/30 @ 8pm
Where: Film Hall (Nic 6 basement)
Doors propped until 8:30, enter through the glass Nic 6-Nic 7 breezeway if you don't have Nics access

Film Series Changes: Additional Big Lebowski Shows

Due to emergency maintenance in the Goldsmith Family Cinema, the remaining shows of the Film Series will be moved to ROOM 190 in the Center for Film Studies -- same building, same quality presentation, same comfy seats, just a little further down the hall. Since the new venue seats fewer people, additional shows of THE BIG LEBOWSKI have been added on both Friday and Saturday at 11PM. The new weekend schedule is as follows:

Friday, December 12
8PM - The Big Lebowski, $5
11PM - The Big Lebowski, $5

Saturday, December 13
8PM - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, FREE
11PM - The Big Lebowski, $5

Even though there are more opportunities to see the film, seats will fill up fast -- so be sure to arrive early.

Darling Lili on Film Series

DARLING LILI
1970. USA. Dir: Blake Edwards. With Julie Andrews, Rock Hudson. 107 min.
Imagine a musical that is also a slapstick World War I espionage romance with a German spy as the protagonist. Think epic sex comedy; think dogfights with the Red Baron; think Mary Poppins stripping. Now stop thinking and come watch.


Date: Thursday, December 4
Time: 8PM
Location: Goldsmith Family Cinema
Free

Tonight on the Wesleyan Film Series

TROPIC THUNDER
2008. USA. Dir: Ben Stiller. With Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. 107 min.
Taking cues from APOCALYPSE NOW and PLATOON, a team of self-obsessed actors are abandoned in the jungles of Vietnam and forced to become real-life soldiers. A stacked cast deliver a top-notch spoof of action films and the entertainment industry.

Date: Friday, November 21
Time: 8PM
Location: Goldsmith Family Cinema
$5

Tonight on the Wesleyan Film Series

PSYCHO
1960. USA. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. With Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins. 109 min.

Mr. Hitchcock's Lessons for Ladies:
1) Just because a man flirts with you doesn't mean it's OK to take his money;
2) No matter how nice a fella seems, insist on meeting his mother before you commit to living arrangements;
3) Most of all, never shower alone.

Date: Wednesday, October 29
Time: 8PM
Location: Goldsmith Family Cinema
$5

Tonight on the Wesleyan Film Series

THE WAR ROOM
1993. USA. Dir: Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker. With James Carville, George Stephanopoulus. 95 min.
It's that time again: a presidential election is upon us! This documentary about the masterminds of the 1992 Clinton campaign is an illuminating and honest look at how a good spin machine can change the mind of a nation.

Date: Thursday, October 9
Time: 8PM
Location: Goldsmith Family Cinema
Free

Tonight on the Wesleyan Film Series

THE COUNTERFEITERS
2007. Austria/Germany. Dir: Stefan Ruzowitzky. With Karl Markovics, August Diehl. 98 min.
In a German concentration camp, a masterful, cunning banknote forger stays alive by agreeing to lead a group of his fellow prisoners in an elaborate Nazi counterfeit operation. The most recent Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film, and a stylish and provocative tale of remarkable moral depth.

Date: Wednesday, Oct. 1
Time: 8:00 PM
Place: Goldsmith Family Cinema
Cost: $5

The Film Series Begins!

THE MALTESE FALCON
1941. Dir: John Huston. With Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor. 101 min.

Date: Monday, September 1
Time: 8 PM
Location: Goldsmith Family Cinema

Ingrid Bergman summer film series starts this week!

Wesleyan and Middletown are preparing for their second year of an interesting partnership: a film series designed to stimulate eating out for dinner in Middletown.

This year, the film series' theme is “Ingrid Bergman and her Hollywood Leading Men.” Each film is totes free to watch.Dave Pesci's newsletter/press release writes:

As part of this project, Wesleyan is partnering with the City of Middletown, Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Business District to present the CineFare Middletown program. The idea is to encourage film-goers to visit local Middletown restaurants prior to the films. Restaurants participating will have CineFare posters in their windows. The Middletown Transit Authority (MTA) has also been contracted to provide shuttle services from the downtown area to Wesleyan on the evenings of the film series.

The first film is this Wednesday.

What: Screening of Hitchcock's Notorious with Ingrid Bergman & Cary Grant, with intro and a q&a by a faculty member and guest presenter. Eat out beforehand (like you need an excuse... cooking sans meal plan -> annie's mac&cheese? no)
When: Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 8 pm
Where: CFS Goldsmith Family Cinema
$$$: free
bonus: gala reception is planned at the end of the film

(next week, on July 16, is Casablanca!!)

Tonight on the Wesleyan Film Series

THE WIZARD OF OZ
1939. USA. Dir: Victor Fleming. With Judy Garland, Terry the dog. 101 min.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Join Dorothy, Toto, and friends as they search for the wizard and discover there's no place like home. It's even more magical, frightening, and colorful tahn you remember from childhood. Parents: bring your kids!

Date: Friday, May 2
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: Goldsmith Family Cinema
$4 admission

Special Event Tonight on the Wesleyan Film Series

Don't miss a special screening of Samuel Fuller's House of Bamboo with an introduction by Film Studies Professor Lisa Dombrowski. A reception, book signing, and raffle (for Criterion Collection Eclipse Series 3 DVD set: The First Films of Samuel Fuller and copies of Lisa Dombrowski's book The Films of Samuel Fuller) will follow the film.

HOUSE OF BAMBOO
1955. USA. Dir: Samuel Fuller. With Robert Stack, Robert Ryan. 102 min.
One of the most iconoclastic and innovative directors of his generation, Samuel Fuller wrote every film he directed and produced most of them, instilling each with a daring sense of style and a sensationalistic approach to truth. He wanted to produce an emotional response in the viewer, a shock of recognition, and he was willing to break every rule in the book to do it. House of Bamboo is Fuller's most elegant film, the story of a government agent who infiltrates a criminal gang in Tokyo comprised of former GIs. Produced in Technicolor and CinemaScope and shot on location, House of Bamboo features exquisite cinematography, hard-boiled dialogue, jitterbugging geishas, and a climactic chase through a rooftop carnival! This rare 35mm print is presented courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Date: Thursday, April 24th
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: Goldsmith Family Cinema
Free admission

The Film Series is back, soon

The Wesleyan Film Series will start showing films again this week!

Wednesday: Sunshine (IMDB)
Thursday: If... (IMDB)
Friday: Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip (IMDB)
Saturday: A Face in the Crowd (IMDB)

Those IMDB links might not be correct; with no poster in my mailbox, I can't tell exactly what's going to be shown, past the title.

Film Series at the CFA

Jeremy Fisher '09 writes to tell us of some rare showings in this weeks film series!

Tonight 7:30 $4:
Lawrence of Arabia in 70mm, a rare opportunity to see the classic adventure film in a format that's much higher quality and much bigger than normal film. This just may be a once-in-a-lifetime type showing.

Thursday 7:30 free:
The Holy Mountain is a counterculture, surrealist masterpiece. Rarely shown due to copyright issues, it has circulated through word of mouth and crappy VHS copies until just last year when a new print was developed. Be the first one on your block to take yourself on this horrifying and beautiful spiritual journey!

Flash Swing Dance

This Saturday, the film series is showing Swing Time, a 1936 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical. In honor of the event, there is a FLASH SWING DANCE immediately before the event.

Date: Saturday, February 3rd
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: CFS lobby

Dress up if you'd like. Wear your dancing shoes. Come with a partner and show your skills, or just go to freestyle boogie to some sweet swinging music.

Iraq in Fragments... without prescription

In attempting to learn more about Wes Alum James Longley's film Iraq in Fragments that was played last Thursday in the film series, I encountered a search result with a bizarre description:


Surprisingly, the link goes to IraqInFragments.com ... the film's actual site. Either Longley is planning to start peddling some serious penis-pills or Google is acting weird again...

Film Series This Week

Wednesday 8pm $4
January 31
TRAINSPOTTING
1996. United Kingdom. Dir: Danny Boyle. With Ewan McGregor. 94min.
Find REQUIEM FOR A DREAM preachy and pretentious? Without exalting or condemning them, Boyle wallows in the joy, fear, and depravity of a pack of Scottish heroin addicts. With Ewan MacGregor before he began prancing around space.

Thursday 8pm free
February 1
OLD JOY
2005. USA. Dir: Kelly Reichard. With Will Oldham. 73 min.
Two estranged friends reunite for a camping trip in the Cascade mountains of Oregon, providing an incisive examination of liberalism in contemporary conservative America. A stunningly wistful road movie about both forgiveness and alienation, with cult phenomenon Bonnie "Prince" Billy.

Friday 8pm $4
Fbruary 2
BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN
2006. USA. Dir: Larry Charles. With Sacha Baron Cohen. 84 min.
High five!

Saturday 8pm free
FEBRUARY 3
SWING TIME
1936. USA. Dir George Stevens. With Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers. 103 min.
Astaire's charming gambler and rogers' dance instructor kindle "A Fine Romance" amidst snowy landscapes and sparkling art-deco sets. Legend says that the pair rehearsed the show-stopping "Never Gonna Dance" until Ginger's feet bled, and the results are worth every drop.

Iraq in Fragments

The Wesleyan Film Series is screening Iraq In Fragments this week. The director and Wes-alum James Longley ’92 has been nominated for an Oscar for best documentary. There’s an article about the nomination here.

This is actually Longley’s 2nd nomination, as he won a Student Academy Award for his 1993 film, Portrait of Boy with Dog. The film is outstanding and getting a chance to pick at Longley’s brain at the Q&A afterwards should be fascinating. The event is free with a nice reception to follow.

Date: Thursday, January 25th
Time: 7pm
Venue: CFS

Film Series This Week

Wednesday 8pm $4
January 24
THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP
2006. France/Italy. Dir: Michel Gondry. With Gael Garcia Bernal. 105 min.
A surrealist heartbreaker from the director of Eternal Sunshine, filled with childlike special effects and mind-blowing performances. Beautiful and unreal.

Thursday 8pm free
January 25
IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS
2005. USA. Dir: James Longley. Documentary. 94 min.
Wes-grad Longley spent two years documenting the trials and tribulations of daily life in war-torn Iraq. Moving past the politics, Longley follows three different subjects to provide "a reminder of the human stories in Iraq that are often overlooked" (Longley). Show starts at 7pm. Screening will be followed by a Q&A.

Friday 8pm $4
January 26
STARSHIP TROOPERS
1997. USA. Dir: Paul Verhoeven. With Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards. 129 min.
Based on the novel, Paul Verhoeven's triumphant statement is a truly prophetic musing on military response after a homeland attack. What is really compelling is the use of...who cares? Lots of stuff blows up and everybody gets naked.

Saturday 8pm free
January 27
THE BLUE ANGEL
1930. Germany. Dir: Josef von Sternberg. With Marlene Dietrich. 107 min.
Here's the film that made Marlene Dietrich an international sensation! She plays Lola, a leggy singer at a local cabaret. Emil Jannings plays a rigid teacher who succumbs to her charm, with dire consequences for both of them.