THE CENTER FOR THE LITERARY ARTS IN NEW YORK STATE
FALL 2016 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.
| September 16 (Friday): CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Orson Welles (France/Spain 1965, 115 minutes, b/w)
Starring Orson Welles, Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford, John Gielgud
CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT is comprised of material from five Shakespeare plays to tell the story of the Bard’s recurring character Sir John Falstaff. Welles, who had a lifelong fascination with the comic figure, plays Falstaff in “the greatest role of his career, in which he gives his greatest performance” (Vincent Canby). With the improved picture quality and sound of this newly restored digital version, critics are hailing CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT as one of Welles’s greatest masterpieces.
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September 23 (Friday): L’INHUMAINE (THE INHUMAN WOMAN)
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Marcel L’Herbier (France, 1924, 135 minutes, b/w, silent with
live piano accompaniment by Mike Schiffer)
Starring Jaque Catelain, Georgette Leblanc, Fred Kellerman, Léonid Walter de Malte
A beautiful opera singer is adored by men of all ages who dream of being her lover. Her life changes when a young admirer, whom she has rejected, kills himself. This visually stunning art deco science fiction drama was recently restored with the original tints as envisioned by director L’Herbier
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| September 30 (Friday): ZOOT SUIT RIOTS
Film screening and discussion with writer and director Joseph Tovares — 7:00 p.m. [Note early start time], Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Written and directed by Joseph Tovares (United States, 2002, 60 minutes, b/w and color)
ZOOT SUIT RIOTS, an episode in PBS’s American Experience series, explores the complicated racial tensions that led to the explosion of race riots between whites and Mexican Americans in Los Angeles during the summer of 1943.
 Joseph Tovares, Emmy-winning filmmaker, is a Latino pioneer in American television. Appointed the Chief Content Officer for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in February 2016, he formerly served as Senior Vice President for Diversity and Innovation. He also was Series Editor for American Experience, “TV’s Most-Watched History Series,” for nearly a decade.
Sponsored in conjunction with UAlbany’s School of Criminal Justice’s Justice & Multiculturalism in the 21st Century: Crime, Justice, and Public Memory Film Series
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October 7 (Friday): BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Sidney Lumet (United States, 2007, 117 minutes, color)
Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei
This “superb crime melodrama” (Roger Ebert), which won the AFI award for Movie of the Year, was the final film of legendary director Sidney Lumet. Two brothers plan a robbery of their parents’ jewelry store. What was supposed to be a “victimless crime” spins out of control leading to disastrous consequences. The screenplay was written by Kelly Masterson, who will be appearing at the Writers Institute on Friday, October 21 with his film SNOWPIERCER.
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October 14 (Friday): WHO KILLED VINCENT CHIN?
Film screening with commentary by director Christine Choy — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Christine Choy (United States, 1987, 87 minutes, color)
A Chinese automotive engineer is mistaken as Japanese and murdered by two autoworkers who blame him for the competition from the Japanese auto industry. The film, which was nominated for a Best Feature Documentary Oscar, recounts the repercussions for the families and the failures of the American justice system.
 Christine Choy is a director and producer whose films include A SHOT HEARD ’ROUND THE WORLD (1998), which won best documentary at the Bangkok International Film Festival, and RODNEY KING: KOREATOWN REACTS (2016).
Sponsored in conjunction with UAlbany’s School of Criminal Justice’s Justice & Multiculturalism in the 21st Century: Crime, Justice, and Public Memory Film Series
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October 21 (Friday): SNOWPIERCER
Film screening with commentary by screenwriter Kelly Masterson — 7:00 p.m. [Note early start time],
Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Bong Joon-ho (South Korea/Czech Republic/United States/France, 2013, 126 minutes,
color and b/w)
Starring Chris Evans, Ed Harris, John Hurt, Song Kang-ho, Tilda Swinton
Based on the French graphic novel, Le Transperceneige, SNOWPIERCER is widely hailed as a classic of the new climate fiction genre (“cli-fi”). Survivors of a future Ice Age live out their lives on a train as it travels in a continuous loop around the globe. USA Today called it, “a rare hybrid that perfectly blends the dazzle of a futuristic action thriller with the intellectual substance of an art film.” Nominated for 94 film awards, it received a total of 19.
 Kelly Masterson, screenwriter of SNOWPIERCER, also wrote the screenplays for BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD (2007, see October 7 listing), GOOD PEOPLE (2014), starring James Franco, and KILLING KENNEDY (2013), starring Rob Lowe.
Sponsored in conjunction with the UAlbany Art Museum’s exhibition Future Perfect: Picturing the Anthropocene (on display through December 10, 2016)
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Photo:Michael Casey
Courtesy of 50 Eggs
Photo:Richard Schultz
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The New Americans: Recent Immigrant Experiences in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Film
The two films SPARE PARTS (October 27) and UNDERWATER DREAMS (November 4) are part of this series that examines the experiences of recent immigrant groups in the United States, the challenges they face, and their contributions and achievements.
Funding support for the series is provided by University Auxiliary Services, and UAlbany’s College of Arts & Sciences and School of Public Health
October 27 (Thursday): SPARE PARTS
Film screening — 7:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center [Note UAlbany Uptown location]
Directed by Sean McNamara (United States, 2015, 114 minutes, color)
Starring George Lopez, Jamie Lee Curtis, Carlos PenaVega, José Julián
SPARE PARTS is based on the true story of four undocumented Hispanic high school students who enter a national robotics competition and take on teams from some of the country’s most prestigious universities. UNDERWATER DREAMS (2014), a documentary that recounts the same story, will be screened on Friday, November 4 (see listing).
November 4 (Friday): UNDERWATER DREAMS
Film screening and commentary by director Mary Mazzio, and Lorenzo Santillan — 7:00 p.m.
[Note early start time], Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Written and directed by Mary Mazzio (United States, 2014, 86 minutes, color)
UNDERWATER DREAMS is a David and Goliath story about a group of high school students, sons of undocumented Mexican immigrants, who enter a sophisticated underwater robotics competition and take on engineering students from MIT. Gary Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times called the documentary “Moving and insightful…a telling snapshot of our nation’s class and cultural divide.”
Mary Mazzio is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her films include CONTRARIAN (2013), THE APPLE PUSHERS (2011), LEMONADE STORIES (2004), APPLE PIE (2002), and A HERO FOR DAISY (1999).
Lorenzo Santillan was part of the team of high school students who participated in the robotics competition that is the subject of UNDERWATER DREAMS.
Cosponsored by UAlbany’s College of Arts & Sciences
(For additional events in “The New Americans” series see Visiting Writers Series listing)
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November 11 (Friday): SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by George Roy Hill (United States, 1972, 104 minutes, color)
Starring Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, Eugene Roche
Based on Kurt Vonnegut’s powerful antiwar novel, the film tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, played by Michael Sacks, who survives the horrific 1945 firebombing of Dresden. He becomes “unstuck in time,” moving from his past as an American POW, to the future as an alien abductee, and to the present as a middle–aged optometrist in Ilium, NY. The film won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
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November 18 (Friday): THE KID
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Charles Chaplin (United States, 1921, 68 minutes, b/w, silent with new musical score composed by Chaplin in 1971)
Starring Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Jackie Coogan
Charlie the Tramp finds a new-born baby boy, who has been abandoned by his unmarried, destitute mother, and raises him as his own. Five years later the mother, now a wealthy opera star, sets out to find her son. THE KID was Chaplin’s first feature length film as a director. Jackie Coogan, who plays the “Kid” went on to star as “Uncle Fester” in the 1960s sitcom The Addams Family.
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| December 2 (Friday): DESK SET
Film screening — 7:30 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Walter Lang (United States, 1957, 103 minutes, color)
Starring Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Gig Young
When an efficiency expert (Spencer Tracy) is hired to prepare a TV research department for a computer system, he meets resistance from the head of the department (Katharine Hepburn). The prospect of automation leads to a battle of wits and eventually sparks fly – romantic ones – in this fast and fun romantic comedy.
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| December 9 (Friday): IRONWEED 30th Anniversary Screening
Film screening — 7:00 p.m., Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus
Directed by Hector Babenco (United States, 1987, 143 minutes, color)
Starring Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Carroll Baker, Michael O’Keefe
Adapted for the screen by William Kennedy from his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, IRONWEED tells the tale of Francis Phelan, a drifter who returns to his home city of Albany to make peace with a past that haunts him. Filmed at several Albany locations, it brought international attention to the Capital Region and earned Oscar nominations for both Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.
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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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