THE CENTER FOR THE LITERARY ARTS IN NEW YORK STATE
FALL 2014 CLASSIC FILM SERIES
Events are free and open to the public and located at Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, on UAlbany’s Downtown Campus,
unless otherwise noted.
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I, THE WORST OF ALL [YO, LA PEOR DE TODAS]
September 19 (Friday)
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by María Luisa Bemberg | Argentina, 1990, 105 minutes, color, in Spanish with English subtitles
Starring Assumpta Serna, Dominique Sanda, Héctor Alterio
Based on a biography by Nobel laureate Octavio Paz, this film tells the story of the embattled 17th century nun, Sor Juana, who would come to be regarded as the mother of Mexican literature. The Boston Globe described it as “engrossing, enriching, and elegant....”
Screened in conjunction with an appearance by translator Edith Grossman (see September 23 Visiting Writers Series listing)
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A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
September 26 (Friday)
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Elia Kazan | United States, 1951, 122 minutes, b/w
Starring Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter
A fading Southern belle, Blanche DuBois, moves into a crowded New Orleans apartment in this Oscar-winning film based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tennessee Williams. The American Film Institute named it one of the 100 best American films of all time.
Screened in conjunction with an appearance by John Lahr, author of a new biography of playwright Tennessee Williams (see October 1 Visiting Writers Series listing)
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SAFETY LAST!
October 10 (Friday)
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor | United States, 1923, 73 minutes, b/w, silent with live musical accompaniment by Mike Schiffer | Starring Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Bill Strother
One of the iconic comedies of the silent era, SAFETY LAST! features slapstick genius Harold Lloyd as a young go-getter from a small American town who moves to the “big city” in order to make something of himself, but winds up in all sorts of trouble instead. The Chicago Reader’s Dave Kehr praised the sequence in which Lloyd climbs a skyscraper and dangles from its clockface as “the most brilliantly sustained comic climax in film history.”
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DEVDAS
October 17 (Friday)
Film screening — 7:00 p.m., [Note early start time]
Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali | India, 2002, 185 minutes, color, in Hindi with English subtitles
Starring Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
This “Bollywood” musical extravaganza was named the best film of world cinema in 2002 by Richard Corliss of Time, and ranked eighth in that magazine’s top ten films of the new millennium in May of 2012. Based on the classic Bengali novella, DEVDAS tells the story of three star-crossed lovers: an aristocratic young man, a middle-class woman who had been his beloved playmate as a child, and a beautiful courtesan with “a heart of gold.”
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LEMON: THE MOVIE
October 24 (Friday)
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
November 1 (Saturday)
Film Screening— 9:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus
Directed by Laura Brownson and Beth Levison
This intricately crafted documentary follows poet Lemon Andersen's struggle to free his family from poverty and pain by embarking on a daunting journey to bring his life story to the stage. The movie features the music of hip-hop phenoms Kanye West, Mos Def, and Talib Kwel.
(see Visiting Writers Series listing for additional information on the series of events LOOKING AT LEMON: TRANSFORMING LIFE THROUGH LITERATURE)
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BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA
October 31 (Friday)
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola | United States, 1992, 128 minutes, color
Starring Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins
One of the great horror spectacles of its decade, BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA manages to be faithful to the original novel and, at the same time, a wildly original interpretation. Vincent Canby of the New York Times said, “With its gorgeous sets and costumes, its hallucinogenic special effects and mad montages…. this DRACULA transcends camp to become a testimonial to the glories of film making as an end in itself.”
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THE CONVERSATION, 40th Anniversary film screening and discussion with prize-winning poet and scholar of jazz music, Sean Singer
November 7 (Friday)
Film Screening and Discussion — 7:00 p.m. [note early start time],
Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
NOTE: Due to an unforeseen schedule conflict, David Shire regrets that he will be unable to attend the film screening
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola | United States, 1974, 113 minutes, color
Starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield
In this brilliant psychological thriller, a surveillance expert experiences a moral crisis when he comes to believe that the targets of his spying activities will be murdered. Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the film also received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Composer David Shire’s score is widely celebrated as a deeply probing character study of protagonist Harry Caul. Francis Ford Coppola called Shire’s score, “one of the most effective, most successful film scores that I’ve had.”
 NEW GUEST FOR FILM DISCUSSION!
THE CONVERSATION, 40th Anniversary film screening and discussion with prize-winning poet and scholar of jazz music, Sean Singer
NOTE: Due to an unforeseen schedule conflict, David Shire regrets that he will be unable to attend the film screening
Sean Singer will discuss the film and its music immediately following the screening. A prize-winning poet, Singer immerses himself in music in order to generate poetic language and imagery. His first collection of poems, Discography, received the 2001 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, selected by W.S. Merwin, and the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. He has also published two chapbooks, Passport and Keep Right On Playing Through the Mirror Over the Water. He is the recipient of a 2005 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and recently completed a Ph.D. in American Studies from Rutgers-Newark. He is also the author of “The Conversation: A Tape, A Plastic Wall, A Bug, A Saxophone,” a 2010 article in the scholarly journal, Rethinking History, which discusses the narrative function of the film’s jazz score.
Sponsored in conjunction with UAlbany’s School of Criminal Justice’s Civility, Surveillance, and Public Spaces Film Series
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GREAT EXPECTATIONS
November 14 (Friday)
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by David Lean | United Kingdom, 1946, 118 minutes, b/w
Starring John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Tony Wager
Widely regarded as one of the best translations of literature to the screen, David Lean’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s 1861 novel was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, and won for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction. The Village Voice called it, “one of those rare cases of genius adapting genius.”
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| BLOW-UP
November 21 (Friday)
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni | UK/Italy, 1966, 111 minutes, color | Starring Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, David Hemmings
Based on a story by Argentine fiction writer Julio Cortázar (1914-1984), one of the most admired and innovative writers of the 20th century, BLOW-UP won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and received Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay. A “mod” fashion photographer believes he has unwittingly captured a murder on film during a photo shoot in a London park.
Cosponsored by UAlbany’s Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
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1971: THE FILM
December 5 (Friday)
Film screening and discussion with film editor Gabriel Rhodes and author Betty Medsger — 7:00 p.m. [note early start time], Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Johanna Hamilton | United States, 2014, 79 minutes, color | Based on the nonfiction book, The Burglary (2014) by Betty Medsger
On March 8, 1971, eight ordinary citizens broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, and obtained files that revealed the existence of COINTELPRO, a secret and illegal program of spying on American citizens. Those responsible have never revealed their identities—until now. 1971: THE FILM was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.
 Betty Medsger was a young reporter at the Washington Post in 1971 when she received from anonymous sources copies of stolen FBI files that revealed the existence of COINTELPRO. She recounts the story, revealing the burglars and their motives, in her new book, The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI (2014). The New York Times Book Review called it, “Impeccably researched, elegantly presented, engaging....”
 Gabriel Rhodes is both an editor and a filmmaker. His work has premiered at Sundance and Cannes and has been broadcast on Sundance Channel, A&E, Animal Planet, CNN, PBS, and on the NPR radio show “This American Life.” His theatrical documentary credits include 1971: THE FILM (2014), Without Shepherds (2012), The Tillman Story (2009), and Control Room (2004). Three of his edited films, The Tillman Story, Quest for Honor (2008), and MY BLIND BROTHER (2003) were shortlisted for the Academy Awards. His commercial clients include Conde Nast, Google, Virgin America, YouTube, Harper Collins and Revlon. He received his Master’s Degree in Documentary Film from Stanford University in 2000.
Seminar: Gabriel Rhodes and Betty Medsger will hold an informal seminar on Friday, December 5 at 4:15 p.m. in Science Library Room 340, on the UAlbany Uptown Campus.
Sponsored in conjunction with UAlbany’s School of Criminal Justice’s Civility, Surveillance, and Public Spaces Film Series
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CONTACT INFORMATION:
Science Library, SL 320, University
at Albany, NY 12222 | Phone 518-442-5620, Fax 518-442-5621, email [email protected]
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