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VARIETY LIGHTS [LUCI DEL VARIETÀ]
February 11 (Friday)
Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Co-directed by Federico Fellini and Alberto Lattuada
(Italy, 1950, 93 minutes, b/w, in Italian with English subtitles)
Starring Peppino De Filippo, Carla Del Poggio, Giulietta Masina
Fellini’s first film as director (based on his own script and short story) is loosely based on his experiences as a travelling actor in the 1930s. The aging director of a third-rate vaudeville troupe falls in love with its beautiful star, causing jealousy and turmoil as they wander through the sad ruins of post-war Italy.
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THE CITY AND THE DOGS [LA CIUDAD Y LOS PERROS]
February 18 (Friday)
Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Francisco J. Lombardi
(Peru, 1985, 135 minutes, color, in Spanish with English subtitles)
Starring Pablo Serra, Gustavo Bueno, Luis Álvarez
Based on the first novel by Mario Vargas Llosa, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature, THE CITY AND THE DOGS follows the struggles of four young cadets as they attempt to “beat the system” and survive in a brutal Peruvian military academy. The film earned Lombardi a “Best Director” award at the San Sebastián Film Festival, the Spanish-speaking world’s most prestigious competition.
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THE CLAY BIRD [MATIR MOINA]
March 11 (Friday)
Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Tareque Masud
(Bangladesh, 2002, 98 minutes, color, in Bengali with English subtitles)
Starring Nurul Islam Bablu, Russell Farazi, Jayanto Chattopadhyay
Set in East Pakistan in the 1960s during the turbulent years that precede the Bangladeshi war of
liberation, THE CLAY BIRD tells the story of a family torn apart by conflicts over extreme interpretations of Islam. “One of the finest movies of this year or any other,” said Elvis Mitchell writing in the New York Times.
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THE HIDDEN FORTRESS [KAKUSHI-TORIDE NO SAN-AKUNIN]
March 18 (Friday)
Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
(Japan, 1958, 139 minutes, b/w, in Japanese with English subtitles)
Starring Toshirô Mifune, Minoru Chiaki, Kamatari Fujiwara
Two bumbling misfits join a battered warlord (Toshirô Mifune) and a mute young girl on a quest for treasure in this comic samurai epic by master director Akira Kurosawa. George Lucas has acknowledged the film as a primary influence in the creation of STAR WARS.
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DOUBT
March 25 (Friday)
Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Written and directed by John Patrick Shanley, and based on his play [See April 6 Visiting Writer Series listing]
(United States, 2008, 104 minutes, color)
Starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Viola Davis
Is Father Brendan Flynn a pedophile? Or not? A mind-bending riddle, DOUBT requires us not only to wrestle with the evidence, but also to question our ability to impose judgment. Writing in the Toronto Star, Peter Howell said, “Every element of DOUBT is in perfect balance. Shanley’s dialogue is economical but sharp, his direction completely assured, the production impeccably mounted.”
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GENIUS WITHIN: THE INNER LIFE OF GLENN GOULD
April 8 (Friday)
Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Michèle Hozer and Peter Raymont
(Canada, 2009, 109 minutes, color and b/w)
Starring Glenn Gould
Replete with clips of musical performances throughout Gould’s career, this award-winning documentary presents a rich biography of the gifted instrumentalist and cultural maverick who became one of the most celebrated pianists of the twentieth century. Writing in the New York Times, A. O. Scott said, “a tour de force of archival research and dogged interviewing… the portrait it presents is remarkably complete.”
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JEALOUSY [VARIETÉ]
April 29 (Friday)
Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Ewald André Dupont
(Germany, 1925, 72 minutes, b/w, silent with live piano accompaniment by Mike Schiffer)
Starring Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft, Lya De Putti
A dazzling work of German Expressionist cinema, this silent film features a trio of acrobats enmeshed in a love triangle. Jealousies lead, inevitably, to murder. The story is told as a series of recollections by the killer himself (Emil Jannings) as he explains the events that led to his crime.
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CONTACT INFORMATION
Science Library, SL 320 | University at Albany,
NY 12222 | Phone 518-442-5620 | Fax 518-442-5621
email writers @uamail.albany.edu |
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