Classic Film Series

FALL 2011
Friday evenings, 7:30 p.m. (Unless otherwise noted)
Page Hall, 135 Western Ave., UAlbany’s Downtown Campus

	RAISING RENEE October 12 (Wednesday) Film Screening and Discussion — 7:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center RAISING RENEE (U.S., 2011, 81 minutes, color, directed by Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan) is the story of acclaimed artist Beverly McIver and her promise to take care of her mentally disabled sister Renee when their mother dies. The film, which won the Audience Award at Boston’s Independent Film Festival, explores deep themes of family, race, class, disability, and art. Oscar-nominated filmmakers Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan, who have been making documentary and fiction films for more than 20 years, will discuss the film and answer questions immediately following the screening. NOTE: On Thursday, October 13, from 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. in the Standish Room, Science Library, Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan will take a closer look at the making of RAISING RENEE and the social themes of the film. For more information on the filmmakers go to: www.westcityfilms.com. Both events are presented by UAlbany’s Documentary Studies Program in partnership with the Art Department, School of Social Welfare, History Department, Women’s Studies Department, Journalism Program, University Auxiliary Services and the NYS Writers Institute
	Film Screening Double Feature GTB x GTB October 14 (Friday) Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus Directed by Luis Felipe Torrente Sánchez-Guisande and Daniel Suberviola Garrigosa (Spain, 2009, 36 minutes, color and b/w, in Spanish with English subtitles) Starring Gonzalo Torrente Ballester Made in celebration of the late Gonzalo Torrente Ballester’s centennial year, and co-directed by his son, this short documentary traces the biography of the great Spanish author, and presents his reflections on life, death, myth, power, history, women, and his native Galicia. EL REY PASMADO [THE DUMBFOUNDED KING] Directed by Imanol Uribe (Spain, France, Portugal, 1991, 106 minutes, color, in Spanish) Starring María Barranco, Joaquim de Almeida, Laura del Sol, Gabino Diego Note: This film will be screened in Spanish only. Set in 1620 and based on Gonzalo Torrente Ballester’s 1989 novel, Crónica del rey pasmado, the film tells the story of a young king whose marriage is left unconsummated because he has been kept ignorant of matters of sex by the real rulers of the state, the Supreme Council of the Inquisition. The kingdom is rocked by scandal when he demands to see his own queen naked. The film received eight Spanish national film (Goya) awards, including Best Screenplay.
	PERSONA October 21 (Friday) Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus Directed by Ingmar Bergman (Sweden, 1966, 85 minutes, b/w, in Swedish with English subtitles) Starring Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook A touchstone of 1960s experimental cinema, PERSONA tells the story of two women: a troubled actress who falls mute in mid-sentence during a performance of “Electra,” and the young nurse who takes care of her. Bergman continually disrupts the narrative, and shatters the medium of film in an effort to explore and deconstruct the very foundations of human identity.
	THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME October 28 (Friday) Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus Directed by Wallace Worsley (United States, 1923, 100 minutes, b/w, silent with live musical accompaniment by Mike Schiffer) Starring Lon Chaney, Patsy Ruth Miller, Norman Kerry At the time of its release, critics and audiences marveled at this spectacular—and spectacularly expensive—silent adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel about a deformed bell-ringer who falls in love with a Gypsy princess. The sets, make-up, costumes, and epic scale of the film set a new standard for studio filmmaking, and Lon Chaney’s sympathetic portrayal of “the monster” established him as a major star.
	BELLE DE JOUR November 4 (Friday) Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus Directed by Luis Buñuel (France, 1967, 101 minutes, color, in French with English subtitles) Starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli Deneuve stars in this story of a respectable doctor’s wife who keeps a secret job in a brothel two days a week. Never graphic in its depictions of sex, the film is universally acknowledged as an erotic masterpiece. In a 1999 reappraisal, Roger Ebert said, “[BELLE DE JOUR] understands eroticism from the inside-out—understands how it exists not in sweat and skin, but in the imagination.”
	LE CERCLE ROUGE [THE RED CIRCLE] November 11 (Friday) Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville (France, 1970, 140 minutes, color, in French with English subtitles) Starring Alain Delon, André Bourvil, Gian Maria Volonté, Yves Montand A meticulously constructed film about a jewel heist gone wrong, LE CERCLE ROUGE features master thieves, brilliant twists, and a cat-loving police inspector who refuses to be outwitted. In recent reappraisals, A. O. Scott of the New York Times called it, “The kind of experience that makes you glad that movies exist.”
	8½ November 18 (Friday) Film Screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus Directed by Federico Fellini (Italy, 1963, 138 minutes, b/w, in Italian with English subtitles) Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimée Fellini offers a tour of his subconscious in this tale of a narcissistic film director trying to get past a creative dry spell while the people around him demand another masterpiece. The work received a Best Foreign Film Oscar.
	CONTACT INFORMATION Science Library, SL 320 \| University at Albany, NY 12222 \| Phone 518-442-5620 \| Fax 518-442-5621 email [email protected]