Humanities Film Series

 

 

The Humanities Film Series at York College of Pennsylvania is an interdisciplinary program sponsored by the English & Humanities Department that is designed to promote the humanities on campus and in the surrounding community by encouraging a serious and ongoing examination of and discussion about cinema.    All too often, in our media-saturated and leisure-driven culture, we approach film as a form of disposable entertainment; movies are passively “consumed” and soon forgotten, leaving no lasting impression and prompting little in the way of critical dialogue.  The Humanities Film Series aims to transform such viewing habits by presenting films in an academic context, one in which students and members of the community will learn about the various aesthetic, industrial, social, and historical dimensions of cinema, while at the same time having the opportunity to enter into meaningful debates about the nature of the medium and its effects.  In this way, the Humanities Film Series helps to foster on campus and in the community a renewed understanding of and appreciation for this major art form, one that—along with television—is perhaps the predominant way in which the contemporary Western world represents itself.

The Humanities Film Series will consist of between four and six advertised film screenings per academic year that are free and open to the entire college and to the surrounding community.  At each of the film screenings, a guest scholar or filmmaker will, after a short introductory lecture, present a film and lead discussion about it afterward.  The films screened will vary widely to include classic as well as contemporary American and foreign movies.  The present and past schedules for the series can be found below.

 

2008-09 Humanities Film Series

2007-08 Humanities Film Series

2006-07 Humanities Film Series

2005-06 Humanities Film Series

 

2008-09 Humanities Film Series

 

FALL 2008

 

Thursday, September 25

Home (2008)

York, Pennsylvania has long been the quintessential, salt-of-the-earth American town, touting a proud cultural, architectural and industrial history.  But after a steady migration to the suburbs that began in the 1950s, poverty, crime and blight have become the city’s current hallmarks, straining its finances, tarnishing its image and demoralizing its citizenry.  In the midst of these challenges, some have sought a revolution in York--an economic revolution.  When municipal, county and area business leaders unveiled a plan to level part of a low-income, residential neighborhood and build a minor league stadium, promising it to be the catalyst behind millions in urban redevelopment, who could argue?  But what happened to those who lived in this neighborhood and made way for the stadium?  Houses are built with wood and nails, brick and mortar.  Homes, however, are built over time with family and memories; they are deeply associated with our sense of self and security.  How are these intangible values assessed when one is compelled to move?  In order to find out, Brian Plow, an Assistant Professor of Electronic Media and Film at Towson University, produced and directed Home (2008), a documentary that examines the story of baseball, urban redevelopment and the human cost of bringing them to York.  The Humanities Film Series is proud to present the York premiere of Home, with a special introduction by Mr. Plow.  A question-and-answer session will follow the screening.  Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, September 25 in Humanities Center 218.

 

 

Wednesday, October 22

Halloween Magic-Lantern Show and "Cinema Before Film" Lecture

In conjunction with the Division of Art at York College, the Humanities Film Series is pleased to present a performance by the American Magic-Lantern Theater.  Travel back in time with the boisterous fun of America’s only Victorian magic-lantern show.  An authentic 1890s visual extravaganza projected on a full-sized screen--the kind of show that led to the movies!  Spooktacular Halloween stories like Poe’s The Raven, bizarre animated comedy and outrageous songs--all dramatized on screen by a live showman and singer/pianist.  The audience participates in the fun, creating sound effects and joining in chants and hilarious sing-alongs like The Worm Crawls In.  Plus, following the show, there will be an illustrated lecture about the history and cinematic techniques of the Magic Lantern.  For 16 years, the American Magic-Lantern Theater has delighted audiences from Lincoln Center to Singapore.  “What a hoot!” says NEED“You’ll be enthralled,” says The Family Adventure Guide to Connecticut.  But National Public Radio says it best: “It’s an incredible experience . . . Don’t miss them.  They’re a living national treasure!”  For adults and children ages 6 and up.  Program begins at 7:00pm on Wednesday, October 22 in the Collegiate Performing Arts Center.

 

 

Thursday, November 20

Movie Poster Image for Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me if You Can (2002)

Music is a key ingredient of cinema; all too often, however, we overlook its importance when we watch movies.  Consider the case of Steven Spielberg's chase thriller, Catch Me if You Can (2002).  Based on a true story, Spielberg's film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Abagnale, Jr., the youngest con artist on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List during the 1960s.  Starting at the tender age of 16, Abagnale began a five-year string of impersonations and forgeries.  He went by countless aliases, but the FBI agent trailing him (played in the film by Tom Hanks) knew him as the Skywayman.  Abagnale managed to use his skills to cash in on millions of dollars. He took on such identities as an airline pilot, a doctor, a professor, and even an assistant attorney general. The success of the film owes much to the musical score composed by longtime Spielberg collaborator John Williams.  Williams, in a departure from his usual symphonic style of movie composition, offers an unusual jazz-inspired score featuring a saxophone soloist in many of the music cues.  Indeed, not since Henry Mancini's Pink Panther theme has the saxophone played such a major role in a film score.  Here, it effectively evokes the 1960s, while helping the movie to walk a delicate line between drama and comedy.  Susan Loy, a professor of music at York College, will introduce Catch Me if You Can, discussing in more detail how the film uses music to help create tone and define settings, characters, and themes.  A question-and-answer session will follow the screening.  Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, November 20 in Humanities Center 218.

 

 

SPRING 2009

 

Thursday, February 19

Miss Evers' Boys (1997)

In 1932, the United States government started a medical program to treat black men for syphilis at the Tuskegee Institute, which housed the South’s only black hospital. Funding for the program was soon cut, but money was made available to continue a study of the effects of untreated syphilis in black men to determine if blacks and whites were similarly affected by the disease.  The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Adult Male Negro was poorly designed, had no real oversight, and continued despite advances in medicine, changes in research protocol, World War II, penicillin’s development, and the increasing pressure for civil rights.  The program was in place until 1972, when it was finally exposed to the public. Today the study is considered one of the worst moments in the history of American medicine.  It produced few, if any, valuable scientific insights, but it was instrumental in the birth of medical ethics and increased concern for welfare of all study participants.  In 1992, this story was dramatized by David Feldshuh in his play, Miss Evers’ Boys, which used as its inspiration the long-time participation of Nurse Eunice Rivers in the Tuskegee Study.  In 1997, Feldshuh’s play was turned into an Emmy- and Golden Globe-award-winning HBO film starring Alfre Woodard and Laurence Fishburne.  In honor of Black History Month, Dr. Rory Kraft, a professor of philosophy at York College, will introduce the film and discuss the role of the Tuskegee Study and other landmark events in the formation of medical ethics as a legitimate discipline.  A question-and-answer session will follow the screening.  Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, February 19 in Humanities Center 218.

 

 

Thursday, March 26

[ TAMING OF THE SHREW POSTER ]

The Taming of the Shrew (1967)

Shakespeare’s early farcical comedy The Taming of the Shrew (1592-4) has been popular for over 400 years.  Beyond very different stage versions over the centuries, the play has spawned a musical, Kiss Me Kate (1953), and a recent teen film, 10 Things I Hate about You (1999).  Moreover, Shakespeare’s staged battle of the sexes has been interpreted in a variety of ways: as an example of patriarchal misogyny, as an expression of companionate marriage recommended by early-modern Protestantism, as a proto-feminist play in which a smart and  independent woman gets her way, and as the triumph of mutual love over both psychological insecurities and confining social conventions.   In the turbulent 1960s, two recently married global stars--Shakespearean actor Richard Burton and Hollywood beauty Elizabeth Taylor--asked Franco Zeffirelli, Italian opera, stage, and film director, to direct their cinematic production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew (1967).  The film went on to gross twice its budget in the USA and three times worldwide; it was also nominated for two Oscars and two Golden Globes.  Interestingly, however, it featured many additions, cuts, and changes to the Bard’s comedy, all of which resulted in a surprising new interpretation of the play.  In his introduction to the film, Dr. David Kranz, Dickinson College Professor of English and Film Studies, will compare the source text and the film adaptation, outlining the dramatic and cinematic ways in which Zeffirelli represented his interpretation of Shakespeare’s comedy to twentieth-century filmgoers.  A question-and-answer session will follow the screening.  Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, March 26 in Humanities Center 218.

 

 

Thursday, April 23

The Black Maria Film Festival

The Black Maria was the world’s first motion picture studio.  It was built in West Orange, New Jersey in 1893 by Thomas Edison to facilitate the production of the earliest moving images known to the public.  Edison’s motion picture technology allowed previously unimagined expressive possibilities and freed creative individuals to interpret and represent--and audiences to experience--the world as never before.  It is this pioneering and adventuresome spirit of innovation and pursuit of fresh, insightful, passionate, and diverse independent filmmaking that originally inspired the Black Maria Film and Video Festival.  Since 1981, this annual festival, an international juried competition and award tour, has been fulfilling its mission to advocate, exhibit and reward cutting edge works from independent film and videomakers. The festival is known for its national public exhibition program, which features a variety of bold contemporary works drawn from the annual collection of 50 award winning films and videos.  The York College Humanities Film Series is proud to host a selection of short films from the 2009 Black Maria Film and Video Festival.  The program will be introduced by the Festival’s Director, who will also lead a question-and-answer session after the screenings.  Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, April 23 in Humanities Center 218.

 

 

2007-08 Humanities Film Series

 

FALL 2007

 

Thursday, September 27

The Films of Jay Rosenblatt

The 2007-08 Humanities Film Series will open with the presentation of two critically-acclaimed films made by Jay Rosenblatt, a veteran independent director described by the San Francisco Chronicle as a “major artist” whose films exhibit a “deep, unfeigned and unmistakable respect for life in its many forms.” Human Remains (1998) is a haunting documentary that illustrates the banality of evil by creating intimate portraits of five of this century’s most reviled dictators: Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Franco and Mao. Though based on historical figures, Human Remains is contemporary in its implications and ultimately invites the viewer to confront the nature of evil. King of the Jews (2000) is a film about fear and transcendence. Utilizing Hollywood movies, 1950s educational films, personal home movies and religious films spanning the history of cinema, the filmmaker depicts his childhood fear of Jesus Christ. These childhood recollections are a point of departure for larger issues, including the roots of Christian anti-Semitism and the need for forgiveness and healing. Director Jay Rosenblatt will introduce his films and lead a question-and-answer session after the screenings. Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, September 27 in York College's Humanities Center Film Viewing Room.

 

 

Friday, September 28

A Lecture by Film Critic Jonathan Rosenbaum

The New Film Criticism and the New Cinephilia: Paradigmatic Shifts

In a recent New York Times article, A.O. Scott questioned whether film criticism still matters in an age where, in spite of almost universally negative reviews, Hollywood movies like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and The Da Vinci Code gross millions of dollars at the box office, while critically-praised arthouse and foreign cinema fails to find an audience.  At the same time, other commentators maintain that film criticism is undergoing a renaissance, thanks largely to the platform that the internet has provided to amateur critics. 

Jonathan Rosenbaum argues, however, that current claims that film criticism is becoming extinct, and counter-claims that it’s entering a new golden age, miss the point.  We should instead be focusing on how the fundamental changes in the way we now watch movies necessitate entirely different critical perspectives.  Today, when someone says, “I just saw a film,” we don’t know whether this person saw something on a large screen with hundreds of other people or alone on a laptop--or whether what he or she saw was on film, video, or DVD, regardless of where and how it was seen.  We’re living in a transitional period where enormous paradigmatic shifts should be engendering new concepts, new terms, and new kinds of analysis, evaluation, and measurement, not to mention new kinds of political and social formations, as well as new forms of etiquette. In most cases, however, we’re stuck with vocabularies and patterns of thinking that are still tied to the ways we were watching movies half a century ago.  In his talk, Mr. Rosenbaum will map out the possible directions that a new film criticism and a new cinephilia might take.

Jonathan Rosenbaum is widely recognized as one of the most important voices in contemporary American film criticism and an outspoken champion of world cinema produced outside the commercial mainstream. He is the lead film critic for the Chicago Reader and has authored many books on film, including Movie Wars: How Hollywood and the Media Limit What Films We Can See (A Cappella Books, 2002); Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), and, most recently, Discovering Orson Welles (University of California Press, 2007). The lecture is free and open to the public.  No tickets or reservations are required. Program begins at 7:00pm on Friday, September 28 in York College's Humanities Center Film Viewing Room.

 

 

Thursday, October 25

A Special Screening Hosted by Film Professor Ray Carney

Honoring the Legacy of Beat Cinema

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac's Beat Generation masterpiece On the Road, Ray Carney, Professor of Film and American Studies at Boston University, will be re-creating one of the major artistic events of the Beat movement. John Cassavetes' Shadows and Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie's Pull My Daisy were originally given their world premiere screenings on a double bill at Amos Vogel's Cinema 16 in New York on November 11, 1959. The two films have seldom or never played together on the same program since then. Now, almost a half century later, they will be brought together again. Professor Carney will introduce the screening and briefly discuss the Beat Movement.

Professor Carney co-curated the Whitney Museum of American Art's Beat Culture and the New America 1950-1965 show, is the author of more than ten books on film and other art, and manages the largest non-commercial web site in the world devoted to the art of film (at www.Cassavetes.com).

 

 

Thursday, November 15

An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

An Inconvenient Truth (2006), one of the most widely-seen and discussed documentaries in recent years, presents Al Gore’s campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide. Intertwining simple but harrowing statistics with personal reflections, Gore explains that the tools and methods to reverse the damage we have done are at hand and that the economic consequences of tackling the problem are positive rather than negative. This documentary helped to open a national dialogue about the scientific evidence underlying climate change and the observation that our warming world is impacting physical and biological systems. Dr. Keith Peterman, a chemistry professor at York College, addresses issues associated with climate change in his courses and has participated in field studies related to climate change in the tropics and the artic. He will introduce An Inconvenient Truth by discussing a case study of species impact due to climate change observed by York College students during a recent field study in the cloud forests of Costa Rica. A question-and-answer session will follow the screening. Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, November 15 in York College's Humanities Center Film Viewing Room.
 


 

SPRING 2008

 

Thursday, February 14

Killer of Sheep (1977)

Killer of Sheep (1977) examines the black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse. The film offers no solutions; it merely presents life--sometimes hauntingly bleak, sometimes filled with transcendent joy and gentle humor. It was directed by independent African-American filmmaker Charles Burnett on location in Watts over a series of weekends on a budget of less than $10,000, most of which was grant money. Finished in 1977 and shown sporadically, its reputation grew and grew until it won a prize at the 1981 Berlin International Film Festival. Since then, the Library of Congress has declared it a national treasure and the National Society of Film Critics selected it as one of the “100 Essential Films” of all time; it was also released theatrically for the first time in 2007 and received rapturous reviews from critics around the country. Most people, however, have never heard of this important film or its director. In celebration of Black History Month, York College film professor Dr. Ian Olney will present Killer of Sheep, making a case for its historical importance and artistic value.  A question-and-answer session will follow the screening. Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, February 14 in York College's Humanities Center Film Viewing Room.

 

DATE CHANGE!

Wednesday, March 19

Dodo (2006)

An alternately harrowing and hilarious autobiographical documentary about growing up in a dysfunctional family in Western Pennsylvania, Dodo (2006) charts the emotionally-strained relationship between director Bob Golub and his late father, a domineering and abusive alcoholic nicknamed “Dodo.” Golub, an actor and stand-up comedian by profession (he has appeared as a comic on The Tonight Show and Comedy Central, and his credits as an actor include Goodfellas and Art School Confidential), first conceived Dodo as a one-man stage production, which he performed live in theaters around the country. Encouraged by the positive reviews garnered by the show, he decided to transform it into a film, drawing on home movies of his family that he made as a teenager and combining them with newly-shot footage of the town where he grew up, as well as excerpts from his comedy routines and the one-man performance piece, interviews with himself and others, and scenes from an unfinished dramatic movie based on his life. The result is a powerful and often very funny portrait of family dysfunction and its consequences that has won widespread audience praise and critical recognition--most recently at the Pittsburgh Film Festival, where Dodo was awarded the prize for Best Documentary. Director Bob Golub will present his film and lead a question-and-answer session after the screening. Program begins at 7:00pm on Wednesday, March 19 in York College's Humanities Center Film Viewing Room.

 

 

Thursday, April 17

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

On one level a cautionary drug tale, A Scanner Darkly (2006) is also a paranoid fantasy of life in a 21st century surveillance culture in which the distinctions between reality and fantasy and self and other are melted away in a pharmacological and technical mélange. Richard Linklater’s film, based on Philip K. Dick’s novel of the same name, employs a unique rotoscoping technique to give form to Dick’s trenchant observation that “so-called ‘reality’ is a mass delusion that we’ve all been required to believe for reasons totally obscure.” Dr. Dennis Weiss, a professor of philosophy at York College, will introduce A Scanner Darkly and situate it in Dick’s fictional and film oeuvre. Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, April 17 in York College's Humanities Center Film Viewing Room.

 

 

2006-07 Humanities Film Series

 

FALL 2006

 

Tuesday, September 12

City of Hope (1991)

Almost fifteen years before the release of the recent, Oscar-winning Crash (2005), John Sayles's searing independent film, City of Hope (1991), dramatized the racial, economic, and political tensions simmering in contemporary urban America by chronicling the ways in which the lives of a large cast of socially-diverse characters intertwine in a fictional New Jersey city.  Weaving together their stories in a way that challenges stereotypes and defeats the viewer's expectations, Sayles creates a rich and compelling tapestry that remains provocative today for its insights into the fractiousness of modern-day social relations in the United States.  Dr. Jack Ryan, a professor of English at Gettysburg College and the author of John Sayles, Filmmaker (McFarland, 1998), will introduce the film and lead a question-and-answer session after the screening.  Program begins at 7:00pm on Tuesday, September 12 in York College's DeMeester Theatre.

 

Tuesday, October 24

Rough Cut (2005)

Rough Cut (2005), an independent documentary directed by native Pennsylvanian Todd Klick, demonstrates once again that truth is stranger than fiction.  On January 10, 2003, a woman was found murdered in her East Pennsboro Township home.  Eight months earlier, an independent horror film was shot on the nearby Appalachian Trail.  How did these two events tie together?  Rough Cut explores the twisted tale of two young filmmakers who had a dream of making a horror movie and the bizarre events that followed.  Director Todd Klick will introduce his film and lead a question-and-answer session after the screening.  Program begins at 7:00pm on Tuesday, October 24 in York College's DeMeester Theatre.

 

Tuesday, November 14

Butterfly (1999)

Set in rural Spain in 1936, Jose Luis Cuerda's Butterfly (1999) tells the story of a young schoolboy who forms a special bond with his teacher, a crusty old man who, despite his fearsome reputation among his pupils, takes the boy under his wing and teaches him to appreciate literature and nature.  The boy's idyllic education is interrupted, however, by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, which teaches him real-life lessons about political persecution, discrimination, religious hysteria, and the terror of war.  Dr. Cindy Doutrich, a professor of Spanish at York College, will introduce the film and lead a question-and-answer session after the screening.  Program begins at 7:00pm on Tuesday, November 14 in York College's DeMeester Theatre.

 

SPRING 2007

 

Tuesday, February 6

[ TRAIN OF LIFE POSTER ]

Train of Life (1998)

Radu Mihaileanu's comic fable, Train of Life (1998), tells the story of the inhabitants of an Eastern European Jewish village who discover, in the summer of 1941, that their shtetl is about to be invaded by German troops.  To avoid being sent to the death camps, the villagers decide to fake their own deportation by masquerading as a group of Nazi soldiers and Jewish prisoners, and embarking on a wild train ride towards the Russian border and the promise of freedom.  Dr. Kay McAdams, a professor of history at York College, will introduce the film and lead a question-and-answer session after the screening.  Program begins at 7:00pm on Tuesday, February 6 in York College's DeMeester Theatre.

 

Tuesday, March 13

[ GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK POSTER ]

Good Night and Good Luck (2005)

George Clooney's recent, Oscar-winning film, Good Night and Good Luck (2005), recreates a crucial chapter in twentieth-century American history when acclaimed CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow took to the airwaves in a personal, patriotic crusade to challenge the infamous anti-Communist witch-hunt being conducted by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the mid-1950s.  Although the events depicted in the film take place fifty years in the past, its observations about the importance of an unfettered press to a free, open, and democratic society are timelier now than ever.  Dr. Jill Craven, a professor of film at Millersville University, will introduce the film and lead a question-and-answer session after the screening.  Program begins at 7:00pm on Tuesday, March 13 in York College's DeMeester Theatre.

 

Tuesday, April 17

Short Films: Tracks (2005) and Civil War (2006)

The 2006-07 Humanities Film Series ends with two independent short films directed by native Pennsylvanian C.C. Webster.  Tracks (2005), winner of the award for best short film at the 2005 Quittapahilla Film Festival, tells the story of an environmental science teacher who inherits an old car from her estranged father.  She plans to get rid of the unwanted gift as quickly as possible, but finds this surprisingly hard to do when it keeps giving her pieces to a puzzle about the man she thought she wanted to forget.  Civil War (2006), a short film sponsored by the Lifetime cable television channel, tells the story of a mutiny that happens between a group of 13-year-old girls on a field trip to the battlefield of Gettysburg, focusing on the harsh cruelty of young women towards each other.  Director C.C. Webster will introduce her short films and lead a question-and-answer session after the screenings.  Program begins at 7:00pm on Tuesday, April 17 in York College's DeMeester Theatre.

 

2005-06 Humanities Film Series

 

FALL 2005

 

Thursday, September 22

[ VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT POSTER ]

A Very Long Engagement (2004)

The most recent film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the director of the international smash-hit  A Very Long Engagement tells the World War I story of a young woman named Mathilde (played by Amelie star Audrey Tautou) who receives news that her fiancé, Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), has been killed in the Battle of the Somme.  Refusing to believe that Manech is truly dead, Mathilde, who walks with difficulty because of a childhood case of polio, resolves to find him, embarking on a journey that is by turns whimsical and horrific.  In his introduction to the film, York College Professor Ian Olney, who teaches and has written extensively about European cinema, will discuss what A Very Long Engagement tells us about the current state of filmmaking in Europe.  For the American moviegoing public, European film has long been synonymous with challenging “art cinema”: the opposite of the mainstream, commercial fare produced by Hollywood.  This may no longer be the case, however, as the growing popularity of European movies like A Very Long Engagement—a very expensive film, largely financed by Warner Brothers, that tells an epic story with state-of-the-art digital effects and a cast of international stars including Audrey Tautou and Jodie Foster—would seem to indicate.  A question-and-answer session led by Professor Olney will follow the screening.  Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, September 22 in York College's DeMeester Theatre.

 

Thursday, October 27

France Divided (2002)

France Divided, a complex and compelling documentary produced, directed, and authored by Eileen M. Angelini, Ph.D., and Barbara P. Barnett, M.A., explores the two sides of France during World War II.  Both collaborators and resisters are seen through the eyes of seven French people: a Holocaust survivor, three hidden children, two historians (including Serge Klarsfeld) and leader of the French Resistance Lucie Aubrac.  Each interviewee presents a very different account of the times by virtue of his or her personal experiences.  Also included are the historic public apologies of the French government and the Catholic Church.  In her introduction to the film, Philadelphia University Professor Eileen Angelini, who co-authored, co-directed, and co-produced France Divided, will discuss the impact that her study of French complicity with and resistance to the Holocaust has had on her teaching and share anecdotes of her experience making the documentary.  A question-and-answer session led by Professor Angelini will follow the screening.  Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, October 27 in York College's DeMeester Theatre.

 

SPRING 2006

 

Thursday, March 16

The Women (1939)

Before there was Sex in the City, there was The Women.  George Cukor's wickedly funny comedy of manners tells the story of a happily-married socialite, Mary Haines (Norma Shearer), who discovers that her husband is having an affair with a gold-digging perfume salesgirl (Joan Crawford).  At the urging of her acerbic best friend, Sylvia (Rosalind Russell), whose marriage is also on the rocks, Mary travels to Reno to get a divorce; however, while waiting with a group of similarly-minded women at a dude ranch outside of Reno for her divorce to become final, Mary has a change of heart and decides to fight for her marriage.  In her introduction to the film, York College professor Colbey Emmerson Reid, who teaches and has written extensively about the intersection of cultural, literary, and cinematic sophistication in the first half of the twentieth century, will discuss the feminization of the American public sphere during that era, explaining how, in Cukor's classic Hollywood comedy, the techniques of gossip, flirtation, and deception undermine the distinction between public and domestic spheres, and showing how such strategies turn marriage and the home into sites of important modernist experimentation.  A question-and-answer session led by Professor Reid will follow the screening.  Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, March 16 in York College's DeMeester Theatre.

 

Thursday, April 6

[ ALL OR NOTHING POSTER ]

All or Nothing (2002)

This quintessentially representative film by Mike Leigh, the director of the recent, Oscar-nominated film, Vera Drake (2004), takes a documentary-like look at the fragility of working-class family life and love in a drab South London high-rise housing project or “sink” estate.  It concentrates, after provocatively hinting at a number of potential plotlines, on the disintegrating relationship between a taxi driver (Timothy Spall) and his common-law spouse (Lesley Manville) and their nearly-grown children.  These are characters, played by screen newcomers and superb veteran Leigh performers, too lethargic or afraid to ask for love despite their immense need for it.  A family emergency provides a catalyst for the renewal of shared affection and trust.  In his introduction to the film, York College Professor Emeritus Edward Jones, author of All or Nothing: The Cinema of Mike Leigh (Peter Lang, 2004), will discuss the director’s collaborative working methods and draw attention to some of the cinematic means Leigh uses to achieve his distinctive tragicomic effects.  This film clearly demonstrates the humanistic intimacy that comprises the art and power of Mike Leigh as a world-class filmmaker.  A question-and-answer session led by Professor Jones will follow the screening.  Program begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, April 6 in York College's DeMeester Theatre.

 

If you have further questions about the Humanities Film Series, please contact Dr. Ian Olney at iolney@ycp.edu or visit his web page at http://goose.ycp.edu/~iolney.