NEW YORK STATE WRITERS INSTITUTE

Classic Film Series

As part of its regular programming, the Institute also sponsors a Classic Film Series, weekly screenings of classic films. The Classic Film Series is supplemented with mini film festivals featuring the work of a particular director, producer or screenwriter with discussions and workshops by the artists. Past cineasts have included Hector Babenco, Charles Burnett, August Coppola, Hal Ashby, Robert Wise, Costa-Gravras, Dusan Makavejev, James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, Alan Sillitoe and Ron Shelton.

Spring 1996 Classic Film Series

FRIDAYS AT 7:30 P.M.

(Unless otherwise noted)
PAGE HALL
135 Western Avenue
University at Albany Downtown Campus
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

February 9:

BEFORE THE RAIN
(French, 1994, 113 min., color)
Directed by Milcho Manchevski
Starring Katrin Cartlidge, Rade Serbedzija, Gregoire Colin
In Macedonian with English subtitles
Macedonian first-time writer/director Manchevski builds this poetic and harrowing drama about the incomprehensibility�and timelessness�of hatred, violence, and war. Filled with contrasting images of great beauty and violence, three stories link together to form a powerful whole, which gives vivid insight into the war in the former Yugoslavia

February 16:

TUNE IN TOMORROW
(American, 1990, 102 min., color)
Directed by Jon Amiel
Starring Barbara Hershey, Keanu Reeves, Peter Falk
An impressionable young man falls in love with his sexy aunt while falling under the spell of a wildly eccentric writer for a radio soap opera. Based on Mario Vargas Llosa�s novel, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, this comic fantasy, set in 1951 New Orleans, features familiar faces appearing in cameos. Watch out for references to Albanians!

February 22, 23, and 24: NEIL JORDAN FILM FESTIVAL

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE FROM ORIGINAL SCHEDULE: Neil Jordan will give film commentary following Thursday night's film--NOT on Saturday afternoon as listed in our schedules.

Thursday, February 22: 7:30 p.m.
DANNY BOY (Original British title � ANGEL)
(Irish/British, 1982, 92 min., color)
Directed by Neil Jordan
Starring Veronica Quilligan, Alan Devlin, Stephen Rea
DANNY BOY is an ambitious melodrama about a sax player who exchanges his instrument for a machine gun after witnessing a double murder. This was Neil Jordan�s directorial debut, which he also scripted.
Film Director Neil Jordan will present film commentary and answer questions immediately following the screening of DANNY BOY.

Friday, February 23: 7:30 p.m.
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE
(American, 1994, 120 min., color)
Directed by Neil Jordan
Starring Brad Pitt, Christian Slater, Tom Cruise
As strange and mesmerizing as it is imaginatively ghastly, INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE is based on the novel by Anne Rice. A vampire hundreds of years old tells his story to a 1990s reporter. The story begins with his encounter with Lestat, the vampire who �created� him and then follows him to Paris where he meets Lestat�s creator.

Saturday, February 24: NOTE: 1:00 P.M. START TIME.
THE CRYING GAME
(British, 1992, 112 min., color)
Directed by Neil Jordan
Starring Stephen Rea, Miranda Richardson, Jaye Davidson
A unique, and seductive film, THE CRYING GAME is the story of an IRA volunteer who helps capture a British soldier only to befriend him and later become involved with his lover. What begins as a thriller unexpectedly turns into a poignant and ironic love story, with plot twists that deepen the film�s almost dreamlike power.

March 15:

ULYSSES
(American, 1967, 140 min., b/w)
Directed by Joseph Strick
Starring Barbara Jefford, Milo O�Shea, Maurice Roeves
NOTE: 7:00 P.M. START TIME
Shot on location in Ireland, director Joseph Strick puts James Joyce�s massive novel on screen. A pre-St. Patrick�s Day treat with a special reading of Irish literature by Institute members and friends.

March 22:

THE MAGICIAN
(Swedish, 1958, 102 min., b/w)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Starring Max von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Ingrid Thulin
In Swedish with English subtitles
This metaphysical gothic tale is a complex, provocative account of a 19th-century hypnotist-magician who finds himself debt-ridden and charged with blasphemy. The mysterious images of the magician and his assistant dominate the screen.

March 29:

MATADOR
(Spanish, 1986, 102 min., color)
Directed by Pedro Almodovar
Starring Assumpta Serna, Antonio Banderas, Nacho Martinez
In Spanish with English subtitles
Sex and death run rampant in this dazzling black comedy in which the characters act out their wildest fantasies. Peopled with assorted deviants and religious fanatics, MATADOR combines elements of theatre of the absurd and a whodunit murder mystery. The opening sequence is a real stunner.

April 12:

DR. STRANGELOVE
(British, 1964, 93 min., b/w)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Starring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden
Combining a satirical indictment of U.S./U.S.S.R. Cold War policies, brilliant caricatures, and an inventive visual style, DR. STRANGELOVE is one of the finest, funniest, and most intelligent black comedies ever made. Terry Southern�s screenplay and Kubrick�s direction did much to bring underground filmmaking techniques and concerns into the commercial mainstream. Sellers, who performs three different roles, was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, Kubrick for Best Direction, and the film itself for Best Picture.

April 19

BROTHER�S KEEPER
(American, 1992, 104 min., color)
Directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
This exceptional documentary won top awards from the New York Film Critic�s Circle, The National Board of Review and the Sundance Film Festival. It is the true story of four eccentric, elderly dairy-farming brothers in upstate New York, the death of one, the arrest for murder of another, and the town that rallied to the defense of the accused. BROTHER�S KEEPER is an intriguing treatise on human nature and the role of the media in controversial cases.

April 26:

THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI
(American, 1948, 87 min., b/w)
Directed by Orson Welles
Starring Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane
The camera is the star with the cast almost incidental in this bizarre murder-mystery about an Irish adventurer who joins a seductive woman and her sadistic husband on a Pacific cruise. The chemistry between Welles and the beautiful Hayworth is fascinating and the climax, in an amusement park, peaks in the famous hall of mirrors sequence.

May 1:

ZAZIE (ZAZIE DANS LE METRO)
(French, 1960, 89 min., color)
Directed by Louis Malle
Starring Catherine Demongeot, Philippe Noiret, Vittorio Caprioli
In French with English subtitles
This merry farce, based on a book by Raymond Queneau, depicts a satirical view of French society. Bright, impish, 12-year-old Zazie visits her female-impersonator uncle in Paris, and is intent on exploring Paris on her own. The film alternates between the fantastic and the slapstick to keep the audience whirling through the Parisian subway system.

Please contact us with any questions or comments:

New York State Writers Institute
University at Albany, Humanities 355
Albany, New York 12222
tel: (518)442-5620 fax: (518)442-5621

or email: [email protected]

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