BMFInsights

"Deconstructing the Beatles" Contest Winner!

2012-01-31T11:25:00.003-05:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Manager, BMFI

Thanks to everyone who submitted an entry to our Deconstructing the Beatles Contest! We asked our readers to submit an idea for a screenplay inspired by one of the songs that presenter Scott Freiman will discuss tonight at tonight's event (“Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Penny Lane”, or “A Day in the Life”).

The winner is Katie Pfieffer. Here's her idea:

Strawberry Fields Forever
Set in a farmer's market, Anna helps her family sell their farm produce. She meets Tom, a lonely mushroom farmer, and they set out on a life-changing trip across the U.S. circa 1974.

Congratulations, Katie, you've won two free tickets to tonight's event.

Check out the other entries in the comments here. There are some fun ones!

Thanks to everyone who contributed. Next time you come to BMFI, you'll enjoy a free small popcorn and drink on us! We'll leave the popcorn and drink passes for you at the Box Office.

For more information about A Trip Through Strawberry Fields: Deconstructing the Beatles and to buy tickets, click here.

Alan Webber: Why I Love Moira Shearer

2012-01-31T08:30:00.002-05:00

On the anniversary of Moira Shearer's death, BMFI patron and film fan Alan Webber shares with us his movie memories of the luminous dancer and actress and her best-known performance in The Red Shoes.

Autumn Bonfire
By Alan Webber, BMFI Patron

Like many American males I first fell in love in the darkened balcony of a movie theatre. The reader has no need for caution here: I was no stumbling Clearasil-addicted teenager groping at elbows, but a young boy of six years. It was somewhere around 1950 in Larchmont, New York and my mother dragged me, a runny-nosed youth I’m sure, to a matinee one October Saturday. It was a nearly perfect autumn day and I remember that my new white sneakers brushed against the embers of burning leaves at the curb of Chatsworth Avenue on the way. Little did I know of what was in store for me that crisp day or the gifts I was about to receive…the first of a lifetime of movie loves and my first movie memory.

Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes

A little over two hours later when “FINIS” lit across the blackness, I knew that I was totally infatuated with movies and this alluring beauty on the screen. I didn’t know what “FINIS” meant but the film appeared to end very tragically for her in Monte Carlo…wherever that was. I knew it was very far from Larchmont.

Her name in the film was Victoria Page and she was a fiery redhead who raged across my innocence in a spinning fantasy of Technicolor and dance. “Vicki” was her screen name, but I gradually learned she really was Moira Shearer of the Sadler Wells Ballet and I have never fallen out of love with her in The Red Shoes, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s eccentric, melodramatic and voluptuous masterpiece. Even director Powell was taken by her "cloud of red hair," which "flamed and glittered like an autumn bonfire.” In retrospect, I see that she was my very first Object of Desire even before my younger self flirted with an idea of sex. She was also the probable origin of a lifelong smoldering fondness for fair-skinned redheads.

After the release of The Red Shoes in 1948 she became the best-known ballet dancer in the United States and perhaps the world and with this fame she was able to popularize ballet more than any other contemporary. Many today, myself included, believe that it is still the greatest ballet movie ever made and Moira Shearer was crucial to this success. However, the reception of the film by the public wasn’t without problems. “The film was a huge success when it opened in London in the spring of 1948,” she said to one interviewer, “but, just as I had suspected, the British public didn’t much approve of my appearing in it…..I just wish I had been a more rounded performer at the time.” It was never a movie she wanted to make for she believed she was a novice at acting and felt hampered by her lack of experience. If she felt that way, it didn’t show on the screen.

Following The Red Shoes, Moira Shearer made four other films in which she danced and acted including The Tales of Hoffman for Powell and Pressburger and Black Tights for choreographer Roland Petitt. Her dancing career essentially ended in 1952, after which she acted, wrote, and lectured.

She died on January 31, 2006 at the age of 80.

In the film, Vicki, who has fallen in love with the ballet company’s composer, is warned, “A dancer who relies upon the 'doubtful comforts' of human love will never be a great dancer…never.”

On those scarlet autumn days when I am in a reflective mood and the air is crisp again and I watch The Red Shoes, I can rely on these “doubtful comforts” and remember the Moira Shearer of my boyhood, the autumn bonfire, who has warmed my heart for a movie-going lifetime.

Thanks, Alan!

Film fans, if you would like to submit a post of your own about a movie or film star that you love, please contact Devin Wachs with your idea.

Music Fans: Win Free Tickets to "Deconstructing the Beatles"

2012-01-27T20:15:00.000-05:00

Win free tickets to Scott Freiman's fascinating lecture, A Trip Through Strawberry Fields: Deconstructing the Beatles! This in-depth exploration of the making and meaning of three of The Beatles' most beloved songs comes to Bryn Mawr Film Institute on Tuesday, January 31 at 7:30 pm. For more information and to buy tickets, click here.

Contest: Pretend you’re writing a screenplay inspired by a favorite Beatles tune. Choose a song that Scott will discuss (“Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Penny Lane”, or “A Day in the Life”) and tell us your movie idea based on it in 30 words or less. Jazz it up and have fun!

Post your entries (including your name) in the comments below. The first fifteen people to submit a pitch will win a pass for free popcorn and soda at the event. The entry that we find most compelling will win two free tickets! Submissions must be made by Monday, January 30 at 6:00 pm.

*Please Note: When posting your comment, you will be asked to select a log-in from a list. If you do not have a Google account, etc., please select either 1) "Name/URL", which requires that you have a valid website address of your own, or 2) "Anonymous". If you select the latter, please be sure to sign your name in the post.

Take "A Trip Through Strawberry Fields" with Scott Freiman

2012-01-27T19:37:00.003-05:00

By Daniel Santelli, Jr., BMFI Programming Intern

Think you know everything about the Fab Four? Think again!

On Tuesday, January 31 at 7:30pm, BMFI will host Scott Freiman’s interactive lecture A Trip Through Strawberry Fields: Deconstructing The Beatles. Mr. Freiman, a composer and Beatles expert, will examine three iconic songs (“Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Penny Lane”, and “A Day in the Life”), revealing hidden messages and layered subtext as he uses archival footage and anecdotes to illuminate the Beatles’ creative process. He has performed the lectures across the country in packed theaters, sharing his valuable insights on the tide-turning band.

Click here to win free tickets and more!

Mr. Freiman was kind enough to answer a few questions in a brief email interview:

What about The Beatles do you see as most important? Why deconstruct their work?
The Beatles are incredibly important in popular music--and in music overall. They helped evolve rock and roll and influenced countless artists. They were instrumental in having rock music be taken seriously by music critics. They influences clothing, video, and popular culture. Their music still resonates with people more than fifty years since they first formed.

How does deconstructing the music and lyrics further our understanding of these classics?
My presentations attract audiences from age 8 to 88. There's no other musicians or musical group where people with such a wide range of age and experience can enjoy the same music.

What do you hope audiences who attend the lectures take away from them?
I have always found that understanding more about how a piece of art is constructed (what were the circumstances behind its creation, what creative decisions were made as it was created) helps lead to a greater appreciation of the art. The one comment I consistently get after my presentations is that "I will never listen to music the same way again."

What is your favorite Beatles’ tune?
I'm not great with picking favorites, but "Strawberry Fields Forever" is certainly up there for me. It is fascinating to listen to the song evolve from a simple demo to the sonic masterpiece that landed on vinyl. I plan to share that journey with the audience at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute. "A Day In The Life" is another amazing piece of music. The orchestral climax still gives me chills. I'll also be talking about that song on Tuesday night.

We hope to see you on Tuesday! You can get tickets online here.

Win Tickets to BMFI's Oscar Party!

2012-01-25T17:27:00.000-05:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Manager
The Oscar nominations have been announced! One of these films will become a "Best Picture" winner. They could make you a winner, too! Make a case for which Best Picture nominee you think should win in 140 characters or less. You could win two tickets to BMFI's fourth annual Oscar Party!

Cheer as your favorite front-runners win their statuettes (and you win your bragging rights) as the Academy Awards play on our big screen. Enjoy a delicious dinner as you chat with your fellow film fans. And treat yourself to something fun from our silent auction when you're proven right about a dark horse. Because on Hollywood's biggest night, you deserve to feel like a star, too.

Submit your entry as a comment on this post. Our staff will pick a winner based on the entries' persuasiveness and panache. (Who knows? Maybe the Academy will agree with you, too.)

I look forward to reading your entries and seeing you at the Oscar Party!

Please note: When posting your comment, you will be asked to select a log-in from a list. If you do not have a Google account, etc., please select either 1) "Name/URL", which requires that you have a valid website address of your own, or 2) "Anonymous". If you select the latter, please be sure to sign your name in the post. Thanks!

Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights: An Introduction

2012-01-18T16:30:00.008-05:00

Last week we showed Boogie Nights in conjunction with our new film education course, Paul Thomas Anderson: Cinematic Cypher. Taught by Paul Wright, Ph.D., the class starts tonight. In case you couldn't come to one or both, you can check out an abridged version of BMFI Manager Alexis Mayer's introduction to Boogie Nights below.

Boogie Nights: An Introduction
By Alexis Mayer, BMFI Theater Manager

Boogie Nights is Anderson's second film and he was 26 when he made it. The inspiration came from his own fascination and love of pornography, a fascination which he has made clear in countless interviews, he is neither embarrassed nor apologetic about. The film takes place over the transitional period of pornography--on film and in movie theaters, to video and at home. It is an homage to a time when Anderson felt there was more emphasis on story and characters, and pornography was its own genre, rather than a sleazy parallel culture.

While the film is about pornography, it's not one that takes a political stance, and that was not Anderson's intention. He didn't want to tell a story about pornography's impact on society, but rather the lives of the pornographers themselves and their human qualities. As Roger Ebert puts it in his review, "They may live in a disreputable world, but they have the same ambitions and in a weird way similar values as mainstream Hollywood."

Many of the characters in Boogie Nights are influenced by real life porn figures and their real life experiences and two of the supporting actors are porn actors themselves. Mark Wahlberg's character Dirk Diggler is loosely based on porn star of the time John Holmes, and the final chapter reflects similar events in which Holmes was a murder suspect. Nina Hartley plays the wife of William H. Macy's character Little Bill. And the role of the family court judge in the custody hearing between Amber Waves, played by Julianne Moore, and her ex-husband is performed by actress Veronica Hart, who Anderson likes to call the Meryl Streep of pornography.

Anderson does gloss over some details. Most notably, it was illegal to film pornography in California in the '70s, where and when Boogie Nights takes place. But I forgive him that one. This is a great story, with great performances from a great supporting cast, including Don Cheadle, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Riley, Ricky Jay, and Alfred Molina, to name a few not already mentioned. Mark Wahlberg plays the central character of the film Dirk Diggler but the role was originally offered to Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio turned it down to play Titanic. The role of Jack Horner, porno producer, director and father figure to his gang of actors, is played by Burt Reynolds who refused the role several times before finally accepting, believing it to be an exploitation flick. And supposedly, after seeing a rough cut of the film, he was so disappointed that he fired his agents. And then of course, the film got nominated for three Oscars, including best supporting actor for Mr. Reynolds.

There's a parallel between the character of Dirk Diggler and Paul Thomas Anderson himself that I really like. Anderson says in an interview for Creative Screenwriting Magazine that following big disappointments with his debut feature Hard Eight, he wrote Boogie Nights "fueled by a desire for revenge on all the people who told me I'd ever amount to anything." I think of the scene in the beginning of Boogie Nights where Eddie, before he becomes Dirk, has a fight with his mom and says, "You don't know what I can do, what I'm gonna do, or what I'm gonna be. You don't know I'm good, I have good things you don't know about, and I'm gonna be something! I am!" Dirk goes on to win an Adult Film Award for Best Penis, and Anderson gets his Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

For Further Reading:
Mottram, James, The Sundance Kids - How the Mavericks Took Back Hollywood, New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 2006

Announcing "The Late Show" Spring Programming Contest

2012-01-12T16:32:00.000-05:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Manager, BMFI
BMFI's first The Late Show series kicks off with the fan favorite The Room on January 20. In case you haven't heard, this new series features unusual and cult films on the big screen on select Friday nights at 11:30 pm. But just as the series is beginning, it's time to finalize the films for its spring edition! (Yes, we book our special programming several months in advance.) Here's where you come in.

We're hosting our second programming contest! What film would you like to see added to the spring Late Show schedule? Tell us what you think we should show and why. If we choose your suggestion, you'll win cool prizes including four tickets to the screening for you and your friends! Interested? See below for details about how to enter and what you will get if you win.

In addition to The Room, the first Late Show series features Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis on February 3, the Japanese horror flick House on February 17, the bizarre family drama/satire Dogtooth on March 16, and the Monkees' Head on March 30. The latter was suggested by Ann Capozzolo, who won our winter programming contest! See her winning entry here.

How it Works:
In the comments section below, write the title of the film that you’d like us to show, and a few sentences about why you think we should feature it. (Hint: Try to make it something that isn’t shown in theaters very often.) Make sure to leave your name!* Entries are due by Wednesday, January 25 at 6:00 pm. We’ll announce the winner right here on our blog.

We’ll choose the film suggestion and write-up that we like best from your entries, and (pending film availability) we'll include it in the series!

If you've already emailed your programming ideas directly to vtemple@brynmawrfilm.org, as we listed in Projections, then we'll consider your suggestions as contest entries and you'll be eligible to win the prize, should we select your idea.

What You Win:
If you’re selected, you’ll win four tickets for you and your friends to go see the movie you chose on the big screen, plus four popcorn and drink passes. A version of your write-up will appear in Projections, our programming guide, and on our blog (with credit, of course). You can also introduce the film the night of the event as well—but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.

I look forward to reading your entries!

*Please Note: When posting your comment, you will be asked to select a log-in from a list. If you do not have a Google account, etc., please select either 1) "Name/URL", which requires that you have a valid website address of your own, or 2) "Anonymous". If you select the latter, please be sure to sign your name in the post.

Costumes Fantastic at Sold-out THE SOUND OF MUSIC Sing-along!

2011-12-22T14:19:00.000-05:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Manager

Last night's The Sound of Music Sing-along was sold out nearly two weeks in advance, and the audience's commitment to this holiday tradition was telling: we had some of the best costumes yet!
Take a look at a few of the costumes that we caught on camera. Which ones are your favorites?

Also, for more pictures, check out Amanda Mahnke's article on Bryn Mawr-Gladwyne Patch.com.

Jess Gaito, Sarah Beltz, and James Paul Johnson sported alpine dress.

No "nun-sense" for Jeffrey and Elaine Pringle!

Lorraine Troiano dressed in a habit, while, Lola and Jessica Troiano were "girls in white dresses".

The members of the Newcomers Club of the Upper Main Line's Songbirds group were "whiskers on kittens".

The McFadden sisters (Kristin, Lauren, and Andrea) were "brown paper packages tied up with string"!

Caitlin Kelly, Colleen Donovan, Joe Turner, Beth Hutton, Alejandro Fernandez, and Julie Hutton got into the Bavarian spirit.

Bryn Mawr Film Institute does sing-alongs to classic musicals on a regular basis. We don't have any more sing-alongs scheduled for this winter, but check our website for updates.

Filmmaker Peter Rose: Video Art in a Public Space

2011-12-08T15:59:00.002-05:00

Bryn Mawr Film Institute is partnering with the University of the Arts Film/Video Department to present a unique display of video art past and present in Bryn Mawr Film Institute's arcade.

Peter Rose, whose work is currently featured in the new exhibition space, gave a fascinating speech at the December 1 art opening about the role of video art in the public arena. For your edification, his thoughtful remarks have been reprinted below.

Video Art in a Public Space

By Peter Rose, Experimental Filmmaker and University of the Arts Faculty Member

Once upon a time, making films was difficult - - a considerable variety of technical skills were required, it could be costly, and it took time, but it was relatively easy to imagine your audience. There would be a mass of people in a darkened room, sitting in some kind of rapt attention, and it was an occasion for a kind of collective dream. (Godard has this wonderful line about how when we go to the cinema we don’t think, we are thought...) The past thirty years, however, have seen both a simplification of the material and technical necessities of the medium and a vast and confusing elaboration of exhibition possibilities.

How are people seeing work these days? Will they see it in a theater? On an IPhone? On their computer? Can we determine how the image will look or what it will sound like in the viewing context? Can we count on any sustained attention? How can you possibly make work not knowing how it will be presented. Parenthetically, I suppose it’s somewhat analogous to asking Bach if he could imagine the B Minor Mass being played on an IPod. I don’t think he’d be thrilled, but then more people have had an encounter with his music than would ever have heard it in a concert hall, so I guess it’s a trade-off.

Still from Rose's "The Geosophist's Tears" (2002)

Let’s approach the matter from the perspectives of Time and Mind. When we see work in a theatre we have a bounded sense of time. We know when the work begins (assuming we’ve arrived on time) and we have a sense of how long it will last. So we have an internal map of our passage through time, we can locate ourselves on that map and we have an anticipation of some kind of closure. But we are carried along on this journey in a passive way. Too, most narrative films have an implied three act structure so we have an unconscious sense of dramatic development- it’s like listening to a sonata where you’ve got an ABA structure. You know where you’ve been and where you’re going. Time is linear. And, for better or worse, it’s a shared, collective experience. We become, however intermittently, part of a responsive group mind and our responses are inflected by that participation. And if films are made by vast industrial enterprises, as they usually are, it’s a many to many transmission. Also, of note, is that the producers and exhibitors have some control over viewing conditions- there are relatively standard levels of illumination and sound reproduction.

Opposed to this is our experience of time watching work on the web. I”m thinking not so much of what we see on Netflix, which usually conforms to the kind of experience I’ve outlined here, but to the experience of time when we look at YouTube or Vimeo. Usually these works are shorter, less narrative, more purely visual or sonic. By virtue of both the brevity of their presentation, the alternate nature of their idiom, and the control offered by the encounter we have an entirely different sense of time. We don’t always quite know what to expect but we can usually anticipate some kind of visual spectacle, an encounter with perverse wit, or some satisfaction of salacious curiosity. There is no scale to the experience- we may be looking at it on a computer monitor, or viewing it on an Ipad or IPhone- it’s a mental rather than physical encounter. We stand outside it and encounter it as a kind of moving, illuminated object. Not only that but viewers are free to follow links, to interrupt their viewing without penalty- so there can be no presuppositions about the sustained nature of attention. And the artist has no control over ambient light, screen brightness, sound reproduction, etc. Notions of suspense, sustained observation, patience, duration, and, perhaps, metaphor go out the window. And it’s all quite private. I’m reminded of some commentary offered years ago about television. Usually thought of as a mass medium- considering the broadcast end of it- it’s usually an experience had by a few people, alone, in their living or bedroom, so it’s a many to one proposition. In this case, on the computer, given the fact that single artists are usually responsible for what we see, it’s a one to one transmission. But most importantly we viewers are in control- we can start over anytime we wish. Watching work on a computer is not quite like being told a story- it’s like holding the story in your hand and being able to play with it. Time is a bit more flexible and the mind involved is just our own.

But what about seeing displays in Times Square, for example. Is this different? In Times Square you can decide not to look, to move to another location, to shift your gaze. Advertisers seek only to grab your attention for an instant- there is no ambition to secure an engagement that takes time and there is no sense that something is unfolding that requires duration to understand. Time is, in a sense, incidental- experience comes in glimpses rather than via an attentive gaze. And of course even though we’re usually in a crowd the experience is quite singular- the shifts in our attention constituting a kind of private editing. And, following up on my earlier observations, given the industrial scale of the enterprise, it’s a many to many transmission.

Still from "Odysseus in Ithaca" (2006), another piece by Peter Rose

How about video installation in a museum? If you go, for example, to PAFA to check out the new Bill Viola installation you’ll find that there is no beginning or end to the work. Three flat screen monitors present us with images of various people passing through tactile veils of water. The meaning lies in metaphor rather than drama; there is a sobriety and a scale that is quite unlike the experience on the web. The work involves sustained duration but It is cyclic and so unlike a theatrical experience. We tend to pay attention to linear time- at least in this culture- one thing usually comes before another, it doesn’t both come before and after. So even though we don’t have control of the flow of time as we do on a computer, we can enter at any arbitrary point and still come to feel some sense of resolution or closure. Too, however briefly, there are small sets of other people in the space jockeying for position (we had an interesting conversation in my class last night about the implications of putting a bench in a viewing space...) and so there is a kind of moving collectivity involved. Much of this work is by individual artists so now it’s a one to many proposition and, not incidentally, the artist usually has much control over the viewing environment.

And so now we come to the issue of video images in public space. We’re walking across a plaza somewhere, or we’re standing in a lobby, or we’re on line at the airport and we see an image on a large screen. it’s not an ad; it’s not a public service announcement; it arrests our attention without disclosing anything about duration- we don’t know how long it will last, where we have come in, whether it will repeat or not; and we know nothing of intention- it’s not selling us something, it’s not a logo; it’s probably not a story. It’s a kind of spectacle- taking the word to mean both a public event and an aid to seeing. What can we compare it to? I propose the following: in an increasingly, and to my mind distressingly, mediated world, wherein our experience seems less and less to derive from tangible physical experience and more and more to be conveyed through representations of experience, a world in which, for example, when I give my students the assignment of studying a physical action and analyzing it from a cinematic perspective I often get complexly edited little films about people sitting on couches and using their remote controls to look at images on a screen, in such a world the encounter with an image of scale and unknown duration may resemble nothing so much as our former encounters with mysterious natural events: dramatic weather, solar eclipses, signs and omens glimpsed in the irrational conjunction of events. Like these, the images seem a little anonymous- it’s not a one to one or a many to one or a one to many proposition it’s, to quote Glen Gould, a zero to many transmission. Maybe it’s more like a visitation than a message; it offers us not the consolation of a collective dream or the reinforcement of private taste or immersion in an underwritten art event, but rather a subversion of what we think goes on in the world, a respite from the mercilessly forward movement of time and history, a quiet shock, an interval of curiosity and wonder. And maybe, on that basis, it’s legitimate to call it art.

Since 1968 Peter Rose has made over thirty films, tapes, performances and installations. Many of the early works raise intriguing questions about the nature of time, space, light, and perception and draw upon Rose's background in mathematics and on the influence of structuralist filmmakers. He subsequently became interested in language as a subject and in video as a medium and generated a substantial body of work that played with the feel and form of sense, concrete texts, politcal satire, oddball performance, and a kind of intellectual comedy. Recent video installations have involved a return to an examination of landscape, time and vision. Rose has been widely exhibited, both nationally and internationally, having been included in shows at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Biennial, the Centre Pompidou, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Film Society at Lincoln Center, and the Rotterdam International Film Festival. He has been awarded fellowships by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Pew Foundation, the Independence Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and is fond of writing descriptions in the third person. Peter is also a professor in the Media Arts department at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia.

See • Hear • Feel • Film shines at BMFI

2011-11-30T17:19:00.000-05:00

By Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Director of Education, Bryn Mawr Film Institute

BMFI’s third-grade visual literacy program, See • Hear • Feel • Film, is off to another great start for this school year. For the fifth year in a row, we are thrilled to have students from the Gotwals Elementary School in Norristown and the Haverford School participating. Returning for their fourth year are students from the Conshohocken Elementary School in the Colonial School District, and children from the Westtown School, as well. Also returning are girls from the Baldwin School, kids from the Gesu School in Philadelphia, and students from Whitehall Elementary School in Norristown.

See • Hear • Feel • Film, created by Anne Marie Santoro of the Jacob Burns Film Center, teaches third-grade students critical viewing skills and the cinematic techniques of storytelling. Using movies to spark their own creative expression, the children learn to write with clarity, confidence, and joy, and improve their own storytelling skills. The curriculum, designed to meet the Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, consists of viewing short movies from around the world and participating in writing exercises and creative collaboration.

Baldwin School students (above)
enjoyed the Unit I activities at BMFI
during a recent school visit.

Learning to think critically about visual media and understanding how filmmakers use the tools and techniques of their medium to communicate with viewers is an essential part of a 21st-century education and crucial to being an informed citizen in today’s culture. While the program focuses on cinema, the lessons gleaned from it are integral to more thoughtful engagement with other visual media, such as television and the web.

Personally, as a film educator, I can say that I wish I’d been exposed to a program like this when I was in grade school. Thinking of the potential for more and better engagement with film and other media this program gives its participants, it’s too bad I had to wait until high school or college to begin to learn the concepts it imparts. I’ll never know what the head start on my understanding of media that a program like this gives students could’ve meant for my education and even career.

If you’d like to learn more about See • Hear • Feel • Film, please visit http://brynmawrfilm.org/education/seehear.php or contact me, BMFI’s Director of Education.

Thanksgiving Films to Feast On

2011-11-23T17:21:00.000-05:00

By Mike Mazzanti, BMFI Intern

Starting today, November 23, Bryn Mawr Film Institute will begin screening two new films stirring up Oscar buzz. My Week with Marilyn tells the story of the tension between Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier during the production of The Prince and the Showgirl and is led by a mesmerizing performance from Michelle Williams. Also showing is The Descendants, Alexander Payne's new dramedy that follows a land baron (George Clooney) as he attempts to reconnect with his two daughters. Critics have hailed it as “terrific” and “near perfect”.

My Week with Marilyn and The Descendants start today at BMFI

However, if you were looking for a movie themed more around turkey, mashed potatoes, and dinner tables filled with family and friends, here are five filling films for your Thanksgiving holiday feasting (though I don’t recommend adding gravy):

First, regarded as one of Woody Allen’s best, Hannah and Her Sisters is a sharp, tender, and witty comedy about three sisters, two Thanksgivings, and a tangled web of relationships. The film won three Academy Awards, for its sparkling script and performances by Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest.

Katie Holmes in Pieces of April

For a second helping, Pieces of April revolves around black-sheep April Burns (Katie Holmes) and her attempts to make the perfect Thankgiving dinner for her dying mother (Oscar-nominee Patricia Clarkson) and the rest of her estranged family in this intelligent and heartfelt 2003 indie dramedy.

Want something different on your plate? Ang Lee's The Ice Storm is a star-studded drama (Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, and Elijah Wood) centered on a wealthy Connecticut family during the weekend after Thanksgiving in 1973 who find their lives spiraling out of control.

Al Pacino and Chris O'Donnell in Scent of a Woman

For more drama (with touches of comedy), Al Pacino gives a masterful performance in Scent of a Woman, the story of a prep school student in need of money who “babysits” a blind man (Pacino). The classic Thanksgiving scene may or may not end with Pacino putting someone in a chokehold. “Hoo-ahh!”

Finally, if you want something less touching and dramatic and with more killer turkeys, give thanks for the irreverent and ridiculous Thankskilling, which follows a group of teens getting axed off by a homicidal turkey. Thankskilling has become a fan favorite as a horrible-but-hilarious low-budget horror-comedy flick with a tagline so crude it cannot be quoted here.

So, be it gripping drama or heartfelt comedy, Pacino chokeholds or killer turkeys, this list should satisfy your holiday movie craving. Happy Thanksgiving!

Veterans' Day Discount

2011-11-11T10:23:00.000-05:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Manager, BMFI

Today, Veterans' Day, Bryn Mawr Film Insitute honors our nation's troops by offering discounted admission for all films playing today to anyone who presents their military ID.

Just show your military ID at the Box Office and receive BMFI members' price admission ($5) to any show all day long. We're currently featuring the Sundance hit Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Ides of March, directed by and starring George Clooney. Both films are showing at 4:00, 7:15, and 9:30 today.

Thank you for your service to our country.

Film Preservationist Robert A. Harris: The Winning Question

2011-11-10T15:29:00.000-05:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Manager, BMFI

We at BMFI are looking forward to hosting renowned film preservationist and producer Robert A. Harris for a dinner and multimedia talk on Thursday, December 1. Tickets are available now at the Box Office and online here.

One lucky winner will attending the lecture for free! Last week, we offered two tickets to Mr. Harris's lecture to the person who came up with the best question to ask Mr. Harris (as judged by BMFI staff). I hope you'll all come to the event and ask your questions in person, but we can only have one winner.

And the free tickets go to... Alan Webber! If he could ask one question of Mr. Harris, this is what he'd ask:

Vertigo is certainly one of the most beautiful films ever made and the use of color has meaning in the film. The “green” of Madeleine’s Jaguar is repeated elsewhere in the film and is no “ordinary green”. How does the preservationist assure that this “green” doesn’t become “ordinary” in the preservation process and adheres to Hitchcock’s original color scheme of over 50 years ago?

That is one detailed question! I for one look forward to hearing Mr. Harris's answer in person on December 1. Thanks to everyone who submitted their questions. You can read the other entries in the comments here.

Alan, congratulations, and please contact me to redeem your tickets.

Win Tickets to Meet Hollywood Film Preservationist Robert A. Harris

2011-11-03T12:05:00.000-04:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Manager

Not unlike Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady (which Robert A. Harris restored), sometimes films need to be refreshed and polished to be seen for the beauties they are. Film preservationist Robert A. Harris is both Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering to these tarnished gems, gently cajoling new color and life out of some of the twentieth century's best cinematic masterpieces. Learn about his fascinating process and hear his stories of Hollywood past and present at a special illustrated lecture and dinner on Thursday, December 1.

In addition to My Fair Lady, Robert A. Harris is responsible for restoring Lawrence of Arabia, The Godfather trilogy, Vertigo, Rear Window, Spartacus, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and more. A fascinating man (and quite the raconteur), he has numerous stories from the Hollywood trenches as a producer (The Grifters) and film preservationist.

A scene from The Godfather, before (left) and after Robert A. Harris's restoration.

Be a Winner:
Do you want to find out about where he gets the film prints that he restores? What it was like to work with Martin Scorsese and David Lean? How the change from 35mm to digital effects film preservation?

In the comments here, post one question you'd like to ask Robert A. Harris. We'll choose our favorite question. The author will receive two tickets to hear Robert A. Harris's illustrated lecture in the theater, where they'll be able to ask him in person!

Entries must be posted by Monday, November 7 at noon. We'll announce the winners next week.

Please note: When posting your comment, you will be asked to select a log-in from a list. If you do not have a Google account, etc., please select either 1) "Name/URL", which requires that you have a valid website address of your own, or 2) "Anonymous". If you select the latter, please be sure to sign your name in the post. Thanks!

BMFI Manager Alexis Mayer: Why I Love DEAD MAN

2011-11-01T14:31:00.000-04:00

BMFI Theater Manager and film preservationist Alexis Mayer writes about why she loves Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, which is being shown tonight in conjunction with BMFI's Film Education Spotlight series and four-week course on Jarmusch's films. Her take on the "acid western" is the latest in a series of posts began this summer about the movies that BMFI's staff and community members love.

Why I Love Dead Man
By Alexis Mayer, Theater Manager

The first time I saw Dead Man was sometime in 2009 in Rochester New York. I was lucky enough to catch it in 35mm. Something terrible had happened that day and so I went in a daze and came to at the end when [SPOILER ALERT] William Blake (Johnny Depp) is in the canoe staring up at the sky as it floats away from the shore. It's a powerful moment and I realized, "Wow, this is an amazing movie, and I just missed the entire thing!"

The film is full of these moments. When I actually saw it (on DVD this time), I had to watch it a second time the very next day. It's one of the few films that I can say I enjoy watching over and over and over again. My favorite thing about this film is it's tone. It's a fantasy western shot in black and white with stunning scenes, an incredible original score by Neil Young, and weird characters played by actors like Crispin Glover.

I find myself lingering on every bit of dialogue; it's purposeful, clever, and funny in a way that is nothing short of perfect. One of my favorite lines is when John Dickinson (Robert Mitchum) tells Conway Twill (Michael Wincott), "You're a real good killer, but be sure you keep that goddamn trap shut." Another is during my favorite scene in the woods when Big George Drakoulious (Billy Bob Thornton) asks his friend Salvatore 'Sally' Jenko (Iggy Pop), "What's a Philistine?" and Sally responds, "Well, it's just a real dirty person."

Dead Man is full of cameos, like Iggy Pop's cross-dressing
Salvatore "Sally" (left), shown here with star Johnny Depp.

This movie is so good! Don't miss the chance to see it today in 35mm at Bryn Mawr Film Institute!

Theater Manager Alexis Mayer is a film handler and projectionist with a B.F.A. in Visual and Media Arts from Emerson College and a professional certificate in the Preservation and Restoration of Motion Picture Films from the L. Jefferey Selznick School of Film Preservation.

See Dead Man tonight, Tuesday, November 1 at 7:00 pm. Film critic and author Chris Long, M.A., will introduce the screening. Watch a trailer and buy tickets here.

We Have a Winner for "The Late Show" Film Series Programming Contest!

2011-10-26T18:14:00.000-04:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Manager

Thank you for everyone's amazing suggestions for our newest film series, "The Late Show," which will feature an eclectic mix of cult films showing on Friday nights at 10:30 pm. We had 23 responses! You can read them all in the comments here.

You made it very difficult to choose a winner, but we had to pick just one, so... drum roll please...

Congratulations, Ann Capozzolo! Of all the films that were suggested, we've chosen to show Head, the Monkees' trippy 1968 flick, on Friday, March 30. Here is Ann's winning entry, which will also be reprinted in the next issue of Projections, our quarterly programming guide:

Please consider the [1968] movie Head starring the Monkees. This plotless film did what the creators wanted: showed the ‘zany, goofy’ Monkees in a different light. Written and produced by Bob Rafelson and a pre-Easy Rider Jack Nicholson, Head captures psychedelia in a raw and avant-garde way. Sprinkled amongst the psychedelic chaos are some great musical numbers and unusual cameos (Annette Funicello, anyone?) to spot.

Ann, you'll receive four tickets for you and your friends to see Head on the big screen. You will all receive the VIP treatment that night, with complimentary popcorns and drinks. You can also introduce the film as well if you'd like—but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. And, of course, your winning entry will be credited in Projections and on our blog!

If you're wondering, a winner was chosen based on 1) how the suggested film fit with the rest of the series and its purpose, 2) how well-written and convincing the entry was, and 3) film availability (a necessary reality).

Even if you didn't win this time, don't fret. There will be other contests!

Halloween Chills at BMFI

2011-10-25T15:44:00.000-04:00

By Mike Mazzanti, BMFI Intern

It’s the time of year for costumes, pumpkins, and stores filled with aisle-after-aisle of candy. This week Bryn Mawr Film Institute celebrates with two spooky events, one R-rated and one for the whole family.

For those still donning masks, exotic get-ups, and wielding all assortments of weapons, wands, and pillow cases, Bryn Mawr Film Institute has a family-friendly movie just for you! On Saturday, October 29, three evil witches will haunt the screen in Disney’s Hocus Pocus, the spooky story about a brother and sister who accidently awaken an ancient evil. This campy family flick, which stars Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker, concludes BMFI's month of Kids Matinees devoted to kid-friendly scares.

In Disney's Hocus Pocus, Kathy Najimy, Bette Midler, and Sarah Jessica Parker (left to right) play the Sanderson sisters, three nasty witches transported to modern-day Salem.

However, if going door-to-door and saying “Trick or treat!” to neighbor after neighbor doesn’t cut it anymore, we still have you covered. Tonight, Tuesday, October 25, BMFI will feature the provocative, atmospheric, and twisted sci-fi horror flick Splice. After two genetic engineers (Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley) attempt to splice the DNA of humans and animals together, things go disturbingly awry. You can ask real-life genetic researcher Dr. Janet Sawicki about the facts behind the fiction when she introduces the film, which is shown as part of Bryn Mawr Hospital's "What's Up, Doc?" series.

Sarah Polley (right) stars as one of the overzealous scientists in Splice whose experiments create the hybrid creature Dren (Delphine Chanéac), with dangerous consequences for all.

So, whether you’re moonlighting as a superhero or fairy princess with a pillowcase for the night, or are handing out endless pieces of candy to Hannah Montana and Captain America, you’re sure to find a perfectly eerie October at BMFI.

Contest: Choose a Film for BMFI’s New Film Series!

2011-10-13T17:39:00.001-04:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Manager, BMFI

Attention, film geeks! Bryn Mawr Film Institute is programming a brand new series of screenings starting in January. Called “The Late Show,” this BYO series will feature an eclectic mix of five cult films showing on Friday nights at 10:30 pm.

“It’s going to be awesome,” says Valerie Temple, BMFI’s Programming Coordinator. “There’s a lot of fun, unusual fare out there that is rarely shown. We want to spotlight it.”

Best yet, you get to decide one of the films that we’re showing! That’s right, we’re taking your suggestions.

How it Works:
In the comments section below, write the title of the film that you’d like us to show, and a few sentences about why you think we should feature it. (Hint: Try to make it something that isn’t shown in theaters very often.) Make sure to leave your name!* Entries are due by Wednesday, October 19 at 6:00 pm. We’ll announce the winner on Thursday, October 20, right here on our blog.

We’ll choose the film suggestion and write-up that we like best from your entries, and (pending film availability) it will be the final film in the series!

What You Win:
If you’re selected, you’ll win four tickets for you and your friends to go see the movie you chose on the big screen, plus four popcorn and drink passes. A version of your write-up will appear in Projections, our programming guide, and on our blog (with credit, of course). You can also introduce the film the night of the event as well—but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.

I look forward to reading your entries!

*Please Note: When posting your comment, you will be asked to select a log-in from a list. If you do not have a Google account, etc., please select either 1) "Name/URL", which requires that you have a valid website address of your own, or 2) "Anonymous". If you select the latter, please be sure to sign your name in the post.

California Lawsuit Brings Theater Clearance Zones to Forefront

2011-10-06T16:26:00.001-04:00

By Juliet Goodfriend, President, Bryn Mawr Film Institute

Last week the Los Angeles Times published an article detailing the lawsuit brought against Cinemark, one of the top theater chains, by the owners of the Palme d'Or, an independent theater in Palm Desert, California. The suit, which reporter Richard Verrier calls a "David-versus-Goliath battle in the desert," cites that Cinemark, which operates a nearby theater complex, has been "circuit dealing", using their clout to prevent distributors from allowing the smaller Palme d'Or to certain films. You can read the full article here.

This article brings to the foreground an unfair competitive practice that has troubled BMFI for years: chain theaters drawing unreasonable non-compete zones (so-called "clearance zones") around them and not letting independent theaters show the same film at the same time (showing "day and date"). In our region it is mostly the Clearview Bala and Anthony Wayne that we struggle against; rarely the Narberth.

The good news for BMFI is that distributors have learned that their films will earn much more here than at the local chains, so we are more likely to get the movies we want, when we want them. And we think you'll enjoy them more at our theater.

The legal case in California will no doubt unearth an older case in Philadelphia between the Roxy and the Ritz. The Roxy lost that one. Let's see how the new case comes out--maybe the little guy will win for once.

Juliet Goodfriend's Take on the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival

2011-09-27T10:12:00.002-04:00

Toronto International Film Festival 2011
by Juliet J. Goodfriend, Executive Director, BMFI

This year, as in years past, I feel frustrated that I missed as many good films as I saw. No, I didn’t get to Shame, or Crazy Horse, or We Need to Talk About Kevin, or Le Havre, or Martha Marcy May Marlene, or Faust. All missed because of scheduling overload and conflicts. Nevertheless, I found enough good movies to keep us very busy in 2011 and saw quite a few that you will be happy not to see at BMFI.

Programming Main Attractions is rife with distributor negotiations, and my having seen a great many films helps us narrow our battleground to the territory with the most potential—artistically and commercially. Below are my take on the 33 I did catch. It has taken some time to get this written, as I came home with a dreadful cold in addition to some good film impressions. (Did you follow my tweets after each film as the festival progressed?)

16 Films I Would Like to Get for BMFI:

Albert Nobbs (d. Rodrigo Garcia)
Glenn Close played this role of a male servant on stage and we who never saw it should be delighted that the movie is an excellent translation. It is a very tender treatment of gender uncertainty, class, and the meaning of love. Need more? Nope!

Albert Nobbs

The Artist (d. Michel Hazanavicius) is a mostly silent, black and white homage to Hollywood that feels so good you want it to last longer. It seems to be true that great directors yearn to make a silent. This one succeeded in spades. And the little dog adds just the right touch.

The Awakening (d. Nick Murphy)
At last, a ghost movie that I can really endorse. As with others of its genre, this takes place in a “haunted” boys’ school in England. But it seems to me to move beyond other tales by engaging in the analysis of the source of the ghostly mysteries: in early trauma and guilt of the heroine. The methods of ghost-killing are ingenious and the whole movie is well constructed and entertaining.

A Dangerous Method (d. David Cronenberg)
Despite an annoying performance by Keira Knightley, this film passes the test because of 1) Viggo Mortenson, 2) Michael Fassbinder and 3) the interesting interplay between Freud and Jung. As with several other period pieces this year, the mise en scene makes up for a number of weaknesses. This is a must-see for spouses of psychiatrists!

Death of a Superhero (d. Ian Fitzgibbon)
Making imaginative use of graphic novel animation, this movie puts us into the head of an adolescent cancer patient. It is not sentimental, but it captures his parent’s fraught attempts to cure him and his buddies’ well-meaning attempts to de-flower him before he dies. One would not expect to be entertained by a film dealing with pediatric oncology, but this boy and this film are special and believable.

The Descendants (d. Alexander Payne) is perhaps the best movie I saw at TIFF. Pictorially vivid and real scenes of Hawaii—a setting rarely used for dramatic movies—and real emotions about the hardest experiences in life: death, marital deception, family discord. George Clooney has never been better. Hardened movie industry guys were crying on my row.

The Descendants

Flying Machine (d. Martin Clapp, Dorota Kobiela, Geoff Lindsey)
Starring Lang Lang playing Chopin, what a charming interlude for me during the hectic TIFF. The music is marvelous, the animation and live action lovely to look at but not tightly tied with a terrific plot. Instead the point is for parents to pay attention to their inner souls and creativity and to be present and inspiring to their children. A good moral, indeed. And with enough plusses that I would love to show it to our younger audiences, and I’d go again just to hear Lang play. He is voiced by another actor!

Footnote (d. Joseph Cedar) is an Israeli film that reveals and revels in a father-son schtick as only university-based Talmudic scholars could endure. Father-son issues date to Abraham and Isaac. Here the sacrifice takes a turn. A must see for male academics--both fathers and sons. I liked it very much, too.

Hysteria (d. Tanya Wexler)
OK, this goes over the top in a number of ways but it certainly tickled me! And that’s more than I would have expected from a history of hysteria. Except that it’s a history of vibrators--hence the giggles and fun. The credits alone are an education. It will captivate much of the movie-going audience, no matter their gender or age.

Hysteria

The Ides of March (d. George Clooney) is not a great movie. But it is good enough, especially as a directing effort of its star, and the acting of Ryan Gosling. My fault with it is its lack of genuine originality. We’ve seen this film before, and this treatment is very smooth and professional, but it does not offer warmth or human empathy. Nevertheless, it is engrossing and you don’t want to leave before it’s over. The ending will enrage some and delight others.

I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful (d. Jonathan Demme) is the first film produced by our aspirational arthouse model, Jacob Burns Film Center, so I went to see it out of loyalty. It tells the tale of a remarkably out-spoken and determined resident of the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans following Katrina. We would all be better off with more Carolyn Parkers in our neighborhoods, that’s for sure.

In Darkness (d. Agnieszka Holland)
If two and a half hours in a sewer is not too hard on your senses, then see this film. As one friend said, it’s actually a refreshing relief when one character escapes the sewer to voluntarily go to a concentration camp! Nevertheless, this true story of the fourteen-month ordeal of a group of Polish Jews during the Holocaust is worth the stench and dampness. The “Righteous” Polish sewer worker who cared for “his Jews” experiences a genuine moral dilemma as his work endangers his family and co-workers. We still need to see these stories on film. And this director does not spare us the harsh realities. I did object to her stealing Spielberg’s red touches from Schindler’s List! A petty complaint, perhaps.

In Darkness

The Island President (d. Jon Shenk )
In this excellent documentary we follow, very intimately, the efforts of the young President of the Maldives who, at age 42, overturned a 30-year dictator and took on the task of saving this archipelago of 2000 islands from certain destruction by the rising seas of our man-made warmer climate. He has not yet achieved his goal, but watching him learn (and then teach) diplomacy and will pique the interest of all doc audiences. How his efforts are stunted by China and the USA, to name but a couple of challengers, will reconfirm our distrust of large nations’ motivations to correct the destructive direction of their societies.

The Kid with a Bike (d. the Dardenne Brothers) is just about perfect: characters you really care about, insights into the hearts of a troubled boy and a well-meaning foster mother, good pace and enough plot to keep you interested. These directors typically deal with troubled children or families, but never better than this time.

Page Eight (d. David Hare) is the smart and sophisticated spy story that one expects from this fine stage writer-director, and it doesn’t let you down. Bill Nighy is the cool spy whose every move is calculated to keep you wanting to see more. Why couldn’t this be the first of a long series? Even alone it is well worth the time. And there’s Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes, and Rachel Weisz showing their best as well.

Samsara (d. Ron Fricke) Transformative and transporting photography with a message that if nature isn’t destroying the earth, man certainly is. This is an utterly beautiful movie: think National Geographic and Koyaanisqatsi combined and HD enhanced. As huge scenes of nature or of mankind are captured in seemingly horizon-less views, they are instantly deconstructed into their composite details. And the power of the moving picture to create a mind-changing perspective is proven once again, e.g. I will never eat chicken that is not from my daughter’s farm again!

Samsara

14 Films I Would Not Bring to BMFI (not counting the ones I won’t even bother to list)

360 (d. Fernando Meirelles)
Almost a good movie, but not. One does wonder how there can be so many dumb women involved with bad men. And then one wonders who all these women are because it’s very hard to tell them apart.

Almayer’s Folly (d. Chantal Akerman)
Interesting to transplant Joseph Conrad’s 1895 novel to the 1950s in Malaysia. It is a beautiful but very slow-moving film that is good for a certain mood, but I am not certain what that mood would be.

Always Brando (d. Ridha Behi)
The scenery of Tunisia and the looks of the Brando double don’t compensate for the film’s weak premise and execution.

Damsels in Distress (d.Whit Stillman)
There may be some co-eds who identify with, or laugh at this, but not many, I bet. There was one very funny line (I bet it will be in the trailer) and for the rest, you have to like Greta Gerwig a lot. It was another disappointment.

Dark Horse (d. Todd Solondz)
This was one of several disappointments of the festival. The great cast had no material and poor direction (from a good writer-director) and there was no reason to expect the characters will ever grow up or amount to anything.

Elles (d. Malgorzata Szumowska)
Too much deviant kiddy porn as Juliette Binoche examines female sexuality among young prostitutes for an article she is writing. Binoche is always a pleasure to watch, but did I really want to see her masturbate? As we sometimes tell our exploring toddlers, “Not in the living room, in your own room,” and that goes for theaters, too.

Into the Abyss (d. Werner Herzog)
Not his best and who wants to get inside these dreadful characters anyway?

Keyhole (d. Guy Maddin)
Canada’s favorite experimental filmmaker muddled up some aspects of the Odyssey with his family’s home and his memory of growing up. Neither evocative nor interesting to me, though I liked his My Winnepeg.

Neil Young Journeys (d. Jonathan Demme)
Not very interesting, but lots of good lyrics (bad tunes) and whiskers.

Rampart (d. Oren Moverman)
I loved this director’s The Messenger, but this film was too raw and harsh. Woody Harrelson is excellent, but I could not watch it for very long.

This Side of Resurrection (d. Joaquim Sapinho)
Good surfing photography. End of story.

Trishna (d. Michael Winterbottom)
Moving Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy) to current day rural and urban India made this movie a sure-fire travelogue but a dull tale. Another disappointment.

Twixt (d. Francis Ford Coppola)
This teaches the lesson that really great directors can trip and fall. Coppola inserts 3-D only twice in his return to the horror story genre. While that’s fun, it doesn’t help. Nor does it help that there is a connection in the plot and his personal family life. The master misses.

The Woman in the Fifth (d. Pawel Pawlikowski)
Another big disappointment from Kristin Scott Thomas and Ethan Hawke, both of whom seem dead in this film. Nothing to recommend it, though a lot of the audience waited till the end to leave and moan rather than bolting half way through.

Labor Day Movies

2011-09-01T11:37:00.001-04:00

By Zoe Portman, BMFI Intern

In honor of Labor Day, here are six films that all reflect pride in the power of the common laborer and their ability to organize. Celebrate the end of summer and the return to work by recognizing the sacrifices of workers across the years.

1) The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Based on John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath stars Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, a migrant worker during the Depression, traveling from Oklahoma to California with his family. Despite overwhelming poverty, the Joads manage to keep their family together, because they are “the people.” Both John Steinbeck and director John Ford were later investigated by Senator McCarthy due to the pro-union stance of the film.

2) Salt of the Earth (1954)

This story of Mexican miners living in New Mexico who go on strike for humane working and living conditions was made by workers who were blacklisted from Hollywood due to Communist leanings. Starring few professional actors, actual miners appeared in Salt of the Earth, which was purposefully suppressed and shown in very few theaters at the time of its release, due to the controversial subject matter. (This film will be shown as part of BMFI's Film History Discussion Series: 1945-Present later this fall.)

3) On the Waterfront (1954)

On the Waterfront stars Marlon Brando at his glowering best as dockworker Terry Malloy who confronts a corrupt labor boss Johnny Friendly. Friendly controls the docks and all dockworkers, and no one is willing to tell the police about his crimes, until Terry finds the courage to speak up. This film is always "a contender."

4) Matewan (1987)

John Sayles's Matewan depicts the struggle of West Virginian coal miners in the 1920s. A union organizer comes to town, attempting to unite workers of different races while struggling against a union infiltrator who attempts to incite violence. The mythic tone of the story is underscored by the realism of its characters, and the film is praised for its strong performances.

5) Harlan County, USA (1976)

This documentary chronicles a nearly year-long miners strike in Harlan County, Kentucky. Told through interviews with miners and their families, Harlan County, USA is unremitting in its images of poor working conditions, while the presence of the camera crew at the strike is credited with limiting the violence enacted against the striking miners.

6) Norma Rae (1979)

Sally Fields won the Best Actress Academy Award for portraying Norma Rae, a textile worker who attempts to unionize her mill despite the riffs it causes in her personal life and the dangers of antagonizing the factory.

BMFI will be showing regularly scheduled main attractions this week, but if you're in the mood for a more topical film, you can check these out.

Zoe Portman is a Film Studies student entering her fourth year at Hampshire College. She recently completed an internship at Bryn Mawr Film Institute.

Devin Wachs: Why I Love GONE WITH THE WIND

2011-08-29T16:17:00.002-04:00

We all have films we love here at BMFI, and Wednesday we're showing Gone with the Wind. Read why this 1939 classic makes Public Relations Manager Devin Wachs believe in time-travel. Check back for additional posts by other BMFI staff and community members that explore the movies we love.

Why I Love GONE WITH THE WIND
By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Manager, BMFI

I first saw Gone with the Wind on Thanksgiving when I was eight or nine years old. The film took my breath away (and still does). Even seeing it on our 24” TV set with the holiday buzz going on all around me, Scarlett captured my heart with her spirit and spunk in the face of the Civil War and its aftermath. What a character! What passion! What resilience! She’s not “nice”—she uses people and is petty and self-serving—but she is a survivor, very human and surprisingly sympathetic, thanks in large part to Vivien Leigh’s Oscar-winning performance. For the next few years, it seemed like Gone with the Wind was on TV every Thanksgiving morning, and as God as my witness, I’d always watch as much of it as I could. It became kind of an unofficial holiday tradition.

Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) was a frequent Thanksgiving "guest" as I was growing up. BMFI is showing Gone with the Wind on the big screen this Wednesday, August 31.

But nothing beat seeing it on the big screen a few years later. It was re-released to theaters in the summer of 1998 and my friend’s mom drove us to Portland, OR, an hour-and-a-half drive, to see it on the big screen. It was worth the trip. The name of the theater escapes me, but I do remember red velvet curtains and plush seats. I felt like I was going back in time.
Because that’s what this film does for me. The story sweeps me up in a bizarre, manufactured nostalgia for the lost Antebellum South, a place that I can never really go, unless Doc Brown shows up in a DeLorean. Realistically, I wouldn’t want to—hoop skirts are overrated and my modern, “Left Coast” mindset would not go over well in that social and political climate. But because the film tells the story of the era by focusing on Scarlett’s individual struggles and the forces that shape her, even a modern viewer is permitted to look beyond the outdated politics and racial injustice (both of the Antebellum South and 1939 Hollywood) to appreciate the character and the way the war changes her life. You connect with her, even if you don’t like her. Even a Yankee girl like me can identify with Scarlett’s sense of loss over the life she’s known, her fear of poverty, and the human suffering that she was never prepared by education or birth to witness, even if we don’t hold the same values. Scarlett is a product of her time, just like the film is a product of 1939, for better and for worse.

The film's vision of the Old South pulls in the viewer because we see it through Scarlett's eyes.

When I see Gone with the Wind, I’m not just taking a trip to Tara, but also to an important era in Hollywood. 1939 is widely considered to be Hollywood’s best year. Yet people were so excited for this all-star adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s bestselling novel that the film received a three-day premiere in Atlanta. It stayed in theaters for two years upon its original release. Even with such stiff competition as The Wizard of Oz, Ninotchka, and Goodbye Mr. Chips, Gone with the Wind was nominated for thirteen Oscars in twelve categories and won eight (plus two honorary awards). By watching the film—especially in a theater like the original audiences would have done—I am connected to the other people who have shared this cinematic treasure over the years.

Gone with the Wind's Atlanta premiere was a three-day event drawing thousands.

Gone with the Wind reminds me why I love cinema, for all it was and can be. It reminds me of the power of cinema to transport the viewer and how it connects the audience with a story. That’s why I’m going to be lining up with some of you (hopefully) on August 31, to see it for the second time in a theater. I hope the film means as much to you as it does to me.

Devin Wachs is the Public Relations Manager for Bryn Mawr Film Institute. She joined BMFI in 2005, following her graduation from Bryn Mawr College. If you send BMFI a message on Facebook or Twitter or are interested in onscreen sponsorships, she's the one who'll be in touch!

Gone with the Wind is showing on Wednesday, August 31 at 7:00pm at BMFI. You can get your tickets now at the Box Office or online here.

Bonus: Bake 425 will be offering free sample slices of their pizza in the arcade from 6:30pm to 7:00pm.

Salesmen and Librarians Delight at THE MUSIC MAN Sing-along

2011-08-25T15:43:00.003-04:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Manager

The crowd wowed at last night's sing-along screening of The Music Man with over 200 attendees of all ages, many of whom came in costume! We had Marion the Librarians, travelling salesmen, a Grecian Urn, and even one "Gary, Indiana". Check out some of our favorite costumes below.

Sing-along Success
The crowd was out the door for The Music Man Sing-along.

Greek 'n Gary
Gioia Sharp came as the head of the Ladies' Auxiliary Committee, Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn, played in the film by Hermione Gingold. (Fans might remember that the women practice posing like Grecian urns.) Gioia's brother, Greg DiLoreto, is Gary, Indiana!

Shh!
Swarthmore College librarian (and sing-along regular) Danie Martin takes a break from work to dress up as... Marion the Librarian!

Join the Band
Loann Scarpato toots her own horn... er, trombone.

Study break!
Cara Anne got into the spirit as Marion the Librarian, posing here with pal Emily Trueswell.

Travelling Saleswoman
Watch out, Harold Hill, Jennie Teti might beat you to the sale.

White Glove Test
Doug and Anne Holsclawe were beautifully accessorized with a parasol, white gloves, hat, and, of course, the complimentary popcorn they received for wearing a costume!

Thanks for coming everyone! An enthusiastic audience is what makes these events so much fun.

If you already like our sing-alongs or think you might want to attend your first one, we have two favorites back at BMFI this fall: The Wizard of Oz on Tuesday, November 22 and The Sound of Music on Wednesday, December 21! Remember, if you wear a costume to our sing-alongs, you get a free small popcorn.

Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D.: Three Reasons Why I Love JAWS

2011-08-12T15:58:00.000-04:00

We all have films we love here at BMFI, and next Tuesday we're showing Jaws. Our Director of Education gives you three reasons why he loves this Spielberg blockbuster. Check back for additional posts by other BMFI staff and community members that explore the movies we love.

Three Reasons Why I Love Jaws
By Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., BMFI Director of Education

Jaws (1975) is impressive, like its antagonist, because it is efficient, it never stops moving, and it forever changed the way we look at its kind. But I love it for all the movies it made possible over the last thirty-six years.

How much should fans of mainstream cinematic entertainment love Jaws? Let me count the ways:

1. While it wasn’t Steven Spielberg’s first theatrical film, the success of Jaws made the director’s subsequent career possible. This means, if you’re among the multitudes who love Close Encounters of the Third Kind, any of the Indiana Jones movies, E.T., Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, or War of the Worlds, you owe a debt of gratitude to Jaws. But it’s not that simple, because even though they’re smaller films, if Spielberg hadn’t made these blockbusters, he wouldn’t have had the clout to make The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, Schindler’s List, Amistad, or Munich. Furthermore, without this success, his name/role as producer wouldn’t have been sufficient to “greenlight” Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Men in Black, Transformers, or Super 8. So, if you like any of these films, thank Mr. Spielberg, and his mechanical shark that couldn’t.*

2. Summer used to be the last time of year a studio would release a big budget movie. The conventional wisdom used to be to open big pictures around holidays and/or on a few screens, so critical acclaim and word of mouth could build a potential audience. Jaws changed all this by opening on hundreds of screens at once, and not relying on/hoping for support from critics, and the result completely altered the industry’s perception of the potential profit for such a film. While this move to increasingly expensive, wide-release, (summer) tent-pole productions has certainly produced some negative results [e.g. Godzilla (1998), Transformers 2], without it, audiences would have been denied such thoughtful crowd-pleasers as The Dark Knight, such bold financial gambles as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and such technologically ambitious works as Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Avatar.

Roy Scheider as Chief Brody and Robert Shaw as Quint team up with a shark specialist (played by Richard Dreyfuss) to track down the giant great white shark terrorizing Amity Island in Jaws.

3. Jaws was one of the earliest and most successful examples of a high-concept film. Essentially, such a movie is one that is extremely saleable because of the simplicity of its premise and the potency of its imagery. So, without the success of Jaws (massive killer shark terrorizes summer beach town), we might never have had such entertaining films as:
a. Beverly Hills Cop (A wiseacre Detroit cop goes to Beverly Hills.)
  b. Jurassic Park (We can clone dinosaurs. Let’s open an amusement park.)
  c. Ghostbusters (Wiseacre “scientists” fight ghosts. Hilarity ensues.)
  d. The Sixth Sense (A precocious child sees dead people.)
  e. Armageddon (An asteroid is hurtling towards earth, and we’ve just got to blow it up.)
  f. Top Gun (Tom Cruise is a fighter pilot who plays by his own rules.)
  g. The Firm (Tom Cruise is a Harvard-educated lawyer who plays by his own rules.)**
  h. A Few Good Men (Tom Cruise is another Harvard-educated lawyer who plays by his own rules.)**

* The mechanical shark, nicknamed “Bruce” (after Spielberg’s attorney at the time, Bruce Ramer), was notorious for its frequent breakdowns and very sporadic performance. These challenges necessitated (or facilitated) Spielberg making the film much more suspenseful than horrific—a quality that many people consider to be at the core of the film’s appeal and success.

**I’m sort of joking with these last two, but you get the idea.

Dr. Douglas received his Ph.D. from the Department of Radio/Television/Film at Northwestern University. He will introduce BMFI's 35mm screening of Jaws on Tuesday, August 16 at 7:00pm. If you want to learn more about the film, he's also teaching a Summer Classics Seminar about Jaws, starting at 6:30pm.

Why I love CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

2011-08-08T15:04:00.001-04:00

BMFI intern Zoe Portman continues the Why I Love Movies series of blog posts. Learn why BMFI's screening of Creature of the Black Lagoon fulfills her long-time ambition. Check back for additional posts by other BMFI staff and community members that explore the movies we love.

Why I Love Creature from the Black Lagoon
Zoe Portman, BMFI Intern

This summer I will finally be able to realize the goal I’ve nursed for nearly a decade: to see Creature from the Black Lagoon in the original 3-D.

I was thirteen when I saw Creature from the Black Lagoon for the first time. I had gone to a horror movie convention over Halloween weekend, and met Ben Chapman, the stuntman who portrayed the Gill-man on land (the 6’5” septuagenarian autographed my friend’s sneaker). I was thrilled to see Creature in the original 3-D, which was being shown in honor of its 50^th anniversary. As I was sitting in a conference room which had been temporarily converted into a screening room, a bombshell fell: the expected shipment of 3-D glasses had never arrived and we would have to watch the film in a mere two dimensions. Since my ride wasn’t due for hours, and these were the days when cell phones were still the exception rather than the rule, I had no choice except to stay, despite my disappointment.

The Gill-man's iconic swim through the Black Lagoon

I emerged from the murky depths of the dark room six hours later, glazed, having watched all three of the Creature films. In addition to the original, we saw Revenge of the Creature and The Creature Walks Among Us. Although my higher cognitive functions were shot after hours of exposure to the kind of cheesy dialogue and overacting that only the 1950s could produce, I was still able to determine that Creature from the Black Lagoon was far superior to its sequels. Black Lagoon catapulted the Gill-man into classic Universal monster status, particularly with the iconic scene where he swims through the lagoon, just feet below the unaware object of his affections. In contrast, the sequels burned his gills off and dressed him awkwardly in clothes, and proved that true love can never exist between a prehistoric amphibious humanoid and a beautiful ichthyologist.

Emerging from the murky depths...

Creature from the Black Lagoon is shown in conjunction with another Jack Arnold 3-D extravaganza, It Came from Outer Space. These films were the first two Universal films to be filmed in 3-D, and are shown as part of our 3-D: What’s all the Fuss? Series. See Creature from the Black Lagoon on Wednesday, August 10, at 7:00pm. I know I’ll be the first in line to get my tickets!

Zoe Portman is a Film Studies student entering her fourth year at Hampshire College, currently interning at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute.

Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D.: Why I Love NOTORIOUS

2011-07-29T20:27:00.000-04:00

BMFI's Director of Education, Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., contributes this second entry in a series of blog posts about how the movies showing at BMFI have inspired our staff and volunteers. We hope you love them as much as we do.

Why I Love Notorious
By Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., BMFI Director of Education

Notorious (1946) isn’t one of Alfred Hitchcock’s flashiest films, even though it has two of the most glamorous stars he ever worked with—Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. Notorious doesn’t have nearly the most memorable narrative or surprising plot twist of any Hitchcock film, though its story provides such a potent conflict, it’s been lifted for a number of novels, television episodes, and films—perhaps most famously by screenwriter Robert Towne for Mission: Impossible 2. Neither does Notorious have one of the director’s most visually arresting scenes—think of Psycho or North by Northwest—but it does have the single most clever and meaningful use of a coffee cup in the history of cinema.

But don’t lament Notorious for what it doesn’t have; love it for what it does. Beyond the great elements mentioned above, the movie also contains perhaps the single most romantic and suggestive on-screen kiss ever to come out of the studio system, one of Hitchcock’s most thoroughly malevolent “mothers”, and one of the best uses of the MacGuffin ever.

The coffee cup in question. Ingrid Bergman shines as a spy who infiltrates a ring of Nazis in Rio de Janeiro in Hitchcock's Notorious, showing Tuesday, August 2 at BMFI.

I love it for that coffee cup I first noticed when I saw the film as a college student. That petite mug put me on the path to learning and caring about mise-en-scene. It is true that sometimes a coffee cup is just a coffee cup... but Notorious taught me to never take it for granted.

Dr. Douglas will introduce BMFI's 35mm screening of Notorious on Tuesday, August 2. The film is being shown in conjunction with his four-week film class, Alfred Hitchcock: The Best of the Rest.

Dr. Douglas received his Ph.D. from the Department of Radio/Television/Film at Northwestern University. His next class at BMFI is a one-night Summer Classics Seminar focusing on Steven Spielberg's classic thriller, Jaws, on August 16.

Club BMFI: Member Appreciation Events

2011-07-13T11:23:00.111-04:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Manager

Groucho famously said, "I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member," but here at BMFI, we're glad that our members disagree. Our 6,400 members are vital to our success and we rely on their support and passion for our theater and programming.

It's true, our members already get benefits like discounted admission to movies and film education courses, but we wanted to do something extra to say thank you. To that effect, we hope that members new and old will join us at one of the "Club BMFI" members-only meet-and-greets that we're hosting before the screenings in our "3-D: What's all the Fuss?" Film Series.

Complimentary white wine, sodas, and popcorn will be served in the first floor Community Room from 6:00-7:00pm tonight, Wednesday, July 13 (before It Came from Outer Space in 3-D) and Wednesday, August 10 (before Creature from the Black Lagoon in 3-D). Members will also be able to put faces to names when they meet BMFI's new Membership Coordinator, Patricia Russo, and other BMFI staff members. Please bring your member ID card.

For those of you who aren't members or need to renew, you can find more information and join online or call Patricia at 610-527-4008 x106. You can also join in person tonight at our "Club BMFI" event or at the Box Office the next time you come to the movies!

Five Film Favorites for the Fourth of July

2011-07-03T13:43:00.015-04:00

By Zoe Portman, BMFI Intern

To commemorate America’s Independence Day and spark that patriotic spirit, here are five films that celebrate America and inspire that fourth of July feeling.

1) Independence Day (1996)

Starring Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and Bill Pullman, Independence Day is the story of an alien invasion of Earth launched in the days preceding America’s Independence Day. Nothing screams American patriotism like blatant xenophobia and making the rest of the world celebrate our independence. No wonder this was a #1 hit!

2) Air Force One (1997)

Get off my plane!

Harrison Ford is the President of the United States, flying home on Air Force One from a conference in Russia. All he wants to do is relax with his wife and daughter, and watch the football game. However, his plans are disrupted when the plane is hijacked by Soviet radicals, led by Gary Oldman. Can good old American know-how defeat these highly trained military terrorists?

3) Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Starring James Cagney as the singer/songwriter/performer George M. Cohan, Yankee Doodle Dandy is the story of Cohan’s contribution to World War I morale, told in flashback as his patriotic songs are revived for World War II. James Cagney won a Best Actor Academy Award for portraying the song-and-dance man.

4) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Jefferson Smith, a Boy Ranger leader filled with idealistic patriotism, accidently discovers political corruption in the senate. Despite his naivety, he refuses to back down, instead fighting for the American values he believes in. Even in the wake of recent political corruption and scandals, this Frank Capra classic is sure to inspire faith in America.

5) Good Night and Good Luck (2005)

In the same vein as All the President’s Men, Good Night and Good Luck shows how honest reporting can shine through the darkness of fear and hysteria. Edward R. Murrow, already famous and beloved for his radio reports during the London Blitz, decides to attack Senator Joseph McCarthy’s fear tactics during the height of the Red Scare. This film is a testament to the power of the press.

Zoe Portman is a Film Studies student entering her fourth year at Hampshire College, currently interning at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute.

Juliet Goodfriend: Why I Love GUYS AND DOLLS

2011-06-24T11:00:00.000-04:00

We all have our favorite movies. Sometimes they inspire us, or remind us of sharing a popcorn bucket with someone special, or make us laugh even though we can deliver the lines ourselves in our sleep. One of the wonderful things about working at BMFI is that we get to share some of our favorite films with you; we hope they might become some of your favorites, too. BMFI's President, Juliet Goodfriend, contributes the first in a series of posts written by BMFI staff and volunteers about the movies they love that are showing this summer at BMFI.

Why I Love Guys and Dolls
Juliet Goodfriend, BMFI President

My memory of Guys and Dolls precedes the movie. I think my parents went to the try-outs for [the stage production of] Guys and Dolls in Philadelphia in 1950. As they did with every musical they saw, they brought home sheet music from the performance and my brother, sister, father, mother, and I sang the songs as Mom played them on the piano. So the music became imbedded in my memory, in my very being.

Well, when the movie came out I saw it first (and subsequently two more times) at the Erlen Theater on Ogontz Avenue in Philadelphia in 1955. That theater had a midnight blue ceiling with gold stars and around the edges of the auditorium was the silhouette of a Spanish--or was it a Moorish?--city. It was very exotic and romantic.

Hearing Frank Sinatra's golden tones blended in my imagination with Marlon Brando's gorgeous "bad boy" looks and kept me rapt through all three viewings. I imagined someone was singing those love songs to me. Not "someone"--no, Marlon himself! Even if his voice did not compare with Sinatra's, his earnest, apologetic, and strangely innocent singing and dialogue won my heart. The story? The plot? Oh, not nearly so important as the songs.... they still work magic for me.

Join Juliet at Bryn Mawr Film Institute's sing-along screening of Guys and Dolls on Wednesday, June 29 at 7:00pm. Free popcorn if you wear a costume!

COMPANY Back by Popular Demand!

2011-06-22T12:21:00.011-04:00

By Zoe Portman, BMFI Intern

Lines were out the door last Sunday as crowds of people turned out to see Stephen Sondheim’s musical Company. If the sold-out theater was any indication, the screening was a big success! So BMFI is pleased to announce that this one-night only special event is being shown again on Sunday, July 10 at 1pm. Buy your tickets early, because you don’t want to miss this! Tickets are on sale now at BrynMawrFilm.org!

The New York Philharmonic's production of Stephen Sondheim's musical Company features an all-star cast, including Neil Patrick Harris (left) and Christina Hendricks (second to right).

A series of vignettes surrounding a bachelor’s 35th birthday about his relationships with his various married friends, Company has been revived numerous times since its original 1970 Broadway production, which won a record-setting six Tony Awards. The version presented by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra was updated in the early '90s for a modern crowd, and has an all-star cast including Neil Patrick Harris, Patti LuPone, Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer, Christina Hendricks, and Martha Plimpton

BMFI Wins Fifth Readers' Choice Award!

2011-06-21T10:58:00.003-04:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Coordinator

We are thrilled to announce that Bryn Mawr Film Institute has been voted the "Best Movie Theater" by Main Line Times and Main Line Suburban Life's readers! This is the fourth year running that BMFI has won this Readers' Choice award, our fifth year in total.

Thank you to Main Line Media News and the dear readers who voted for us. We appreciate your continuing support!

The winners were announced on Thursday in a special supplement in both newspapers. Pick up an issue by Wednesday to see which of your (other) favorite local haunts were winners.

Filmmaker Appearance and FIDDLER Sing-along: A Good Week for BMFI Special Events

2011-05-26T15:04:00.001-04:00

By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern

Thanks to everyone who has been coming out to attend special events at BMFI! Last Tuesday, May 18, we were honored to have filmmaker Tigre Hill join us for a screening of his documentary, The Barrel of a Gun, and last night, Wednesday, May 25, everyone had a great time at the Fiddler on the Roof Sing-along. There was singing, dancing, matchmaking (maybe). Below are a few photos from the events:

Filmmaker Tigre Hill at The Barrel of a Gun screening and Q&A

Rachel Hancock, Asher Hancock, and Levi Hancock with grandmother Sybil Terres Gilmar in costume!

Bernie Brenner also in costume at the Fiddler on the Roof Sing-along

Dan Schwartz in the same costume that he wore when he played Tevye at St. Joseph's Prep!

Thanks again to everyone who came out and helped to make these events a success. If you missed out on the sing-along, don't fret. Check out our upcoming Singing in the Summer film series!

New Summer Programming and the Return of Summer Classics!

2011-05-13T23:00:00.000-04:00

By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern

Summer is almost here! Soon schools will be out, the beaches will be stormed, and the lines at Rita’s will stretch around the corner. Most importantly, the Summer Classics series begins at BMFI! The latest issue of Projections is at the printer as we speak, but you can check out the web version online now.

Summer Classics at BMFI will feature everything from thrills and chills to epic romances to campy 3-D extravaganzas. The series kicks off on Tuesday, June 14 with Arthur Penn’s The Chase. Here are some other highlights:

In a tribute to the last of the true Hollywood starlets, Elizabeth Taylor, BMFI will screen the two films for which she won Academy Awards, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and BUtterfield 8, and host a special dinner and presentation by film critic Carrie Rickey about Taylor’s life and work.

BMFI remembers Elizabeth Taylor

Other highlights include films by two iconic directors, Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock, and fan-favorite sing-alongs to Guys and Dolls, Brigadoon, and The Music Man. There will also be summertime “thrills and chills,” including the film that defined the summer blockbuster, Jaws (which is all part of our evil plot to keep you out of the water and coming to BMFI instead, of course). Actually, there will be a one day Summer Classics Seminar held on Jaws, taught by BMFI Director of Education Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D.

Stay out of the water...

Lovers of all things camp, cult, and kitsch will be pleased to partake in the original 3-D experience with 1950s camp classics It Came From Outer Space and Creature From the Black Lagoon. After a whirlwind summer of classic films, the series will conclude with epic romances that must be seen on the big screen, Casablanca and Gone with the Wind.

See Creature From the Black Lagoon in spectacular 3-D!

Whew! That’s just the summary. Check out Projections for the full list of films. There’s no better way to spend a summer night than seeing your favorite films and stars on the big screen.

As always, there is a terrific crop of new releases including the latest from Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris, and Terrence Malick, Tree of Life, and this year’s Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Picture, the Danish drama In a Better World.

If that’s not enough to convince you to come out BMFI, remember that the one place that’s always air-conditioned in the summer is a movie theater.

After careful consideration, we have a winner!

2011-05-04T11:55:00.000-04:00

By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern

Congratulations to Erica Kleckner of Berwyn, the winner of our short video contest! Erica won a full scholarship to this year’s Summer Filmmaking Workshop at BMFI for her video about how she would spend her summer if she didn't take part in the workshop. See her winning video here:

Thanks to her short, Erica joins the rag-tag group of dreamers (also known as motivated high school students) who will spend six weeks this summer working with film professionals from Youth Media Interactive to learn the ins-and-outs of the filmmaking process. They will gain valuable experience (and have a lot of fun) as they write, direct, edit, and produce their own short film. Click here for more information about the annual Summer Filmmaking Workshop at BMFI.

On set at the 2009 Summer Filmmaking Workshop

Congratulations again to Erica Kleckner and to all of the 2011 SFW students. See you on June 27!

Thoughts on CERTIFIED COPY

2011-04-29T12:17:00.012-04:00

By Stan Shapiro, BMFI Patron

***SPOILER ALERT***

Upon leaving this movie with another couple we found that we were split as to what actually was going on. This was specifically in reference to the relationship between Juliette Binoche and William Shimell who played the central characters. Most of the film concerned a drive through Tuscan countryside and villages by Binoche, as Elle, an antiques dealer, and Shimell as James, killing time until his 9 PM flight back to London. He had come there to give a talk plugging his new book, Certified Copy, which dealt with the aesthetics of forgeries and copies and related ideas about authenticity, plagiarism, copies vs originals. In his lecture, James reminded the audience that, from a biological point of view, the whole aim of existence is to make copies of yourself through replicating your DNA. Even La Gioconda is just a copy of the original person.

They seem, at first, not to be well acquainted at all and she, a French ex-pat who lives in Tuscany, appears to be showing him around and helping him pass the time until his flight. She has also bought six copies of his book as gifts that she wants him to sign. They begin to have a discussion about his book and the ideas in it. She acknowledges not liking it, espousing the idea of preferring life to be more simple and, if you like something, such as costume jewelry, then that is all that matters and not whether it is a copy or fake. He agrees and expresses admiration for her sister Marie whom she has described as personifying that kind of simplicity.

She takes him to a museum, possibly in Siena, to show him a portrait of a woman and the story behind it. The picture was revered for 200 years as a genuine Roman artifact until it was discovered to be a copy from a fresco in Herculaneum. It was commissioned in the 18th century by a Tuscan aristocrat and they were even able to discover who the painter was. Nevertheless the town continues to treat it as a treasure, referring to it as their La Gioconda. For Elle this is the essence of her position regarding real vs. copy; she puts her emphasis on how people respond to the work.

Certified Copy, starring Juliette Binoche and William Shimell, is playing now at BMFI

Things start to get opaque, if not confusing, in a café. He says he’s going to tell her a story. He was in Florence a few years ago in the piazza and there was a woman talking to a little boy in front of the David. And she was telling him about the statue but she didn’t reveal that this one was a copy. We see Elle as he’s talking; she becomes emotionally upset and a tear runs down her cheek. He also tells her about waking up in the morning there, and from his window, seeing a woman come out and start walking down the street. A boy comes out and follows her. She goes to the corner and turns to see if he is there and goes to the next corner, which he can see from his other window, and she turns again to see if he’s following. They never walk together. In an earlier scene Elle and her son leave the reading and go out to a cafe. The boy walks 10-15 feet behind her!

James then gets a phone call and he goes outside to take it. During this interval a discussion starts up between Elle and the patronne, a woman in her sixties, who takes them as a couple and begins philosophizing about marriage and a woman’s role. Men are all the same. They treat their jobs like a mistress; but it’s the same for a woman whether it’s a job or a mistress because the important thing is that she’s a married woman, etc. Elle allows her to believe they are married and even says that they have been married for fifteen years and have a son!

From there on one can never tell what the reality is. At times they talk and argue like an old married couple. It seems that, when they are speaking French (it suddenly turns out that he can speak French) they are married, and when they converse in English they are not. She tells a young couple just married that it is her own anniversary. The couple insist they have their picture taken together despite James’ objection. In a restaurant they have a spat where she accuses him of falling asleep and snoring on their anniversary and he blurts out that he doesn’t snore. Then he retaliates by reminding her of the time she fell asleep at the wheel driving back from Florence one night. She says she only nodded off and they quibble whether that is different from sleeping.

She goes into a church and he peers after her but stays outside. She emerges and goes to the steps of a small hotel and sits down. Elle has not gone in to pray but to take off her bra which was hurting her. She tells him that this is the piazza in which they spent their wedding night and he should guess which hotel they stayed at. He looks around, guesses wrong and comments wryly on how bad his memory is. She goes into the hotel where she is sitting and tells the clerk that she and her husband spent their wedding night fifteen years ago here in room number nine. If it’s free can they go up and look at it? Elle goes up and James follows. She says he should look out the window. He looks and can’t remember what he’s supposed to see. She tells him to look out the other window and he still doesn’t know. She has curled up seductively on the bed; James, though clearly uncomfortable, takes off his coat, and, instead of lying down with her, we next see him in the bathroom urinating. The church bells chime eight times (his plane is at nine) and the film ends.

While there are other sequences, they are similarly problematic as to what is the ‘reality.’ Are they married or are they just role playing? It's never clear. At one point in a restaurant, she goes to the ladies and puts on lipstick and chooses from several pairs of costume earrings in her purse. This action mirrors what she has said about her sister, using earrings as a specific example, being simple and going for what is pleasing regardless of value.

This film challenges our usual position of pretending that what we see is real and basing our understanding and judgments on that illusion. Here we can’t even pretend that what we see is supposed to be real. By being internally inconsistent, the film is deliberately upsetting that comfortable mind-set, scrambling reality in transgressive ways.

Looked at one way, it could be a film about two married people, estranged after fifteen years, coming together for an afternoon. Or, looked at from another angle, it could be two people meeting for the first time who fall into role playing the unfolding saga of such a troubled marriage. (The two windows in room number nine at the end may be emblematic of this multiple view.) Or it could be a pastiche of various moments of a fifteen-year marriage. Though we expect something resembling a linear perspective (a beginning, middle and end), instead, we are presented with a kaleidoscopic view of a relationship, seen at different times from different perspectives.

Perhaps this is the purpose: to shake up our views of conventional reality, the way a cubist painting, say, fractures our vision, distorting how ordinary objects or people appear. We really don't have to decide whether they are married or not. In this way the film achieves a more universal dimension chronicling moments and phases of relationships at various points and in between. The universality is reflected also in the choice of ‘Elle’ as Juliet’s name. Even more to the point, maybe we have to look at this film as being like Picasso’s Weeping Woman series: the facial features in particular, showing frontal and side views at the same time.

BUDRUS screening with Skype interview ushers in the future at BMFI

2011-04-28T12:17:00.000-04:00

By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern

Remember the '80s movies that would imagine a future with flying cars and talking robot trash compactors? Think Blade Runner, or Back to the Future Part II, or even Judge Dredd. These predictions of the future invariably include some form of a talking hologram that people use to communicate, instead of a telephone. Personally, I never understood why the future would ever include flying cars, or why the greater population would suddenly see fit to don homogenous brightly colored jumpsuits. However, the hologram telephone thing sort of made sense.

Flying car in Blade Runner (1982)

Well, we may not be able to project holograms of ourselves yet, but Skype is about the closest thing that we have to this high tech vision of the future. Video-chatting has had an enormous impact on personal and business relationships, offering opportunities for contact and connection previously unavailable.

On May 3, BMFI will show a screening of Budrus, the acclaimed documentary about a peace movement taking place in a small Palestinian town. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with producer Ronit Avni…via Skype. Ronit Avni is a filmmaker and social activist, and she will be “skyping” in from Washington, D.C. to answer questions from the audience about the film and about her work to promote peace in the Middle East.

See Budrus on Tuesday, May 3 at 7:30pm, followed by Q&A via Skype with Ronit Avni

Come see this insightful documentary, and take a step into the future with Skype. We’ve yet to install talking robot trash compactors at BMFI, but this event will usher in a new age of possibility for interaction between audience and filmmakers.

Contest Deadline Approaching!

2011-04-25T11:00:00.000-04:00

By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern

Attention High School students and parents: you can still apply to this year’s Summer Filmmaking Workshop! The Summer Filmmaking Workshop is a six-week program in which twelve teens will collaborate to make one incredible short film. They will learn about every aspect of the filmmaking process, taking it from screenplay to screen, and will even develop a marketing plan. The program is taught by experienced filmmakers and will provide a truly unique experience for anyone interested in film, regardless of previous experience.

In fact, it’s not even too late to win a full scholarship to the workshop, valued at $2,000! How can I do this, you might ask? By entering the short video contest! Interested applicants should create a short video (three minutes or less) about how they would spend their summer if NOT at the Summer Filmmaking Workshop. Maybe you would be enslaved by your parents in a job as their personal butler, or maybe you’d be making it big in Hollywood schmoozing with the cinema elite. Either way, let us know and you stand to win the grand prize.

Post the videos on YouTube and email the link to Director of Education Andrew J. Douglas at adouglas@brynmawrfilm.org by Saturday, April 30. The videos will be judged by BMFI staff, and there will even be partial scholarships awarded for “honorable mention” videos. Find more information about the Summer Filmmaking Workshop, directions on how to apply, and a downloadable application form by clicking here.

Better start filming though, because the deadline for the contest is coming up soon on April 30!

Free Wine and Heart Health Talk at SIDEWAYS Screening

2011-04-14T12:43:00.000-04:00

By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern

It has been seven years since Alexander Payne’s mid-life-crisis masterpiece, Sideways, opened on the big screen, and I think that’s just long enough to deem it a “modern classic.” In fact, the film seems "ripe" for another "picking," so oenophiles come out to BMFI on April 20 for a special Sideways event!

Enjoy a trifecta of wine-related activities, including a free wine tasting, a lecture on wine and heart health from cardiologist Dr. Henry Mayer, and a screening of the film. The event is co-sponsored by Bryn Mawr Hospital in honor of Heart Month, so this is a great way not only to enjoy some good wine and a great film, but to learn about and support heart health as well. Did I mention free wine?

See Sideways on Wednesday, April 20 at 7:30pm, with free wine tasting at 6:30pm.

Sideways tells the story of Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church), who embark on a bachelor expedition through California wine country before Jack’s wedding. Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh co-star as the women they meet along the way. Based on the novel by Rex Pickett, Sideways was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture in 2004, and earned a Best Adapted Screenplay win for writer/director Alexander Payne.

This event is a great opportunity to see a favorite film on the big screen, and to gain some wisdom on the benefits of wine to a heart healthy lifestyle. If the good doctor tells you to drink wine, then I think it’s best to comply. The screening and introduction from Dr. Mayer begin at 7:30, but remember to arrive at 6:30 for the free wine tasting in the atrium!

I’m looking forward to it, but “I will not drink Merlot!”

Upcoming CLUELESS Event at BMFI: A Special “Intern-view”

2011-03-31T14:19:00.000-04:00

By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern

Attention lovers of teen comedies, literary adaptations, and anyone who has ever uttered the phrase, “as if!”: Clueless is coming to BMFI for a special one night only screening on Thursday, April 7 at 10:00pm! The cult classic, which takes place at a wealthy Beverly Hills high school and is based on the plot of Jane Austen’s Emma, will be shown in conjunction with the senior thesis project of Bryn Mawr College senior (and former BMFI intern) Ivy Howell.

Ivy has been working hard to organize this screening while also writing her thesis, so as a Haverford College alum and current BMFI intern, I know how important it is that we all come out to support Ivy at this event! I caught up with Ivy over email to ask her a few questions about the screening. Read on to hear more about our conversation (intern-to-intern) about the upcoming event and the Clueless legacy.

See Clueless on Thursday, April 7 at 10:00pm, with introduction by Bryn Mawr College Senior and former BMFI intern Ivy Howell

Can you give us a brief description or abstract of your project?

I'm looking at these films as cultural products of the nineties, a period marked by rapid globalization, changing relationships to consumerism, and closer ties between public and private life due to changing media technologies. Keeping in mind this context, I'm examining relationship between gender, class, and race in these films and the relationship these movies have to the larger romantic comedy genre.

I wanted to do something a little more practical too, and, since I've always had an interest in film programming, I wanted to see what it would be like to organize a screening of my own. I'm really excited that BMFI wanted to collaborate with me on this; it's been a stellar learning experience.

What drew you to the topic of 90s teen romantic comedies? What films do you discuss in addition to Clueless?

I've always been conflicted by the fact that I love these films so much, yet, at the same time, I can't help but take issue with certain assumptions and stereotypes that appear over and over again. For instance, most mainstream teen films from the nineties take place in mostly white, upper middle class suburbs. These films put a lot of emphasis on how characters look and dress; as a matter of fact, all the films I examined - Clueless, She's All That, and Mean Girls (which isn't from the 90s, but I think its interesting to compare a post-9/11 film to earlier ones) - have strong makeover subplots where a girl gets made over. Combine that with the idealized fantasy world that these films live in, and I found myself faced with a really rich body of work, with plenty of questions and contradictions to explore in detail.

Alicia Silverstone earns her cult status as the privileged and popular Cher Horowitz

The teen film genre seems to lend itself particularly well to literary adaptations. Could you discuss this phenomenon?

The romantic comedy genre has been around forever, and there are lots of stories to draw from. The romantic comedy tradition, particularly screwball comedies from the 1930s and 1940s, has always been rooted in adaptation, whether plays or novels. Also, Jane Austen novels or Shakespeare plays have a lot of characters and rely upon a social setting with pretty rigid rules about how people interact with one another, two features that lend themselves to depicting the high school experience.

There are quite a few expressions from Clueless that have entered our lexicon. Do you have a favorite line from the film?

"As if!"

***

Thanks, Ivy! I definitely agree with her answer to the last question, though up there on my list are also “way harsh” and “Ren and Stimpy, they’re way existential.”

All are welcome at this event, where you can come enjoy the film and learn about the teen comedy genre during Ivy’s introduction. It’s a great opportunity to witness the sort of events that are possible when BMFI works together with its community partners to bring truly unique events to the theater.

Hope to see you there! For now, “I’m outtie.”

BMFI's Oscar Party a Winner!

2011-03-07T16:46:00.246-05:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Coordinator

Bryn Mawr Film Institute celebrated its third annual Oscar Party in style on Sunday, February 28. Over 240 guests watched a big screen simulcast of the 83rd Academy Awards in the theater and enjoyed a gourmet buffet dinner, La Colombe coffee, a cash bar, and a silent auction. All proceeds benefited Bryn Mawr Film Institute. We met our fundraising goals for the party and had fun doing it! Check out some of our photos below. You can also find more photos online at Bryn Mawr-Gladwyne Patch.

Guests were serenaded by String Variations' Barbara Murray and Gael Abbasi.

Guests were encouraged to wear their red carpet best or come in costumes inspired by one of the nominated films. Joan Shrager (posing here with our Oscar ice sculpture) spent two hours getting her Black Swan makeup just right.

Allyson Gaht and Shannon Leahy-Miller took their costume cue from nominee True Grit, while Debra McKaibben (center) was ready for the red carpet.

JPM Catering and Events catered our Oscar Party. The menu included braised beef shortribs, lemon chicken, and chilled spinach tortellini.

Oscar Party volunteer committee members Toby Blender and Gus Cileone manned the upstairs bar.

Joel Shoulson chats with event co-chair Phyllis Liebert and event chair Betsy Klausman.

Our Oscar Party Contest winner Janice Marini (right), who got our vote for "Best Acceptance Speech", posed with friend Lisa Longo.

Chris Daly and Brian Crawley study the silent auction items. Guests bid on everything from gift certificates to Margaret Kuo's and The Capital Grille to a deluxe vacation in Aruba.

Lee Cummings posed with her silent auction find: an "Oscar statue" of her very own!

Our committee members posed with BMFI President Juliet Goodfriend (seated) before the event. A big thank you to our volunteers!

We hope that everyone enjoyed themselves. Our sincere thanks go out to all of our guests, members, sponsors, and volunteers! We appreciate your support of BMFI and look forward to seeing you at next year's Oscar Party!

Check out this week's issue of City Suburban News and next week's Main Line Times and Main Line Suburban Life for more photos from our Oscar Party.

Photos by Devin Wachs and Emmy Chotalal for Bryn Mawr Film Institute

Another Winner Will Walk Our Red Carpet on Oscar Night

2011-02-18T12:21:00.003-05:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Coordinator

Only nine days until BMFI celebrates the 83rd Academy Awards with its third annual Oscar Party! on Sunday, February 27. Guests will watch a big-screen simulcast of the Oscars and enjoy a gourmet buffet dinner, drinks, cash bar, and silent auction. Tickets are going fast! Have you bought your ticket?

Last week we announced a contest to win two tickets to our Oscar Party! Thirty-one contestants made their cases for the award category that they'd most like to see added to the ceremony. All of the entries were creative and entertaining. But, like the Best Picture Oscar, only one can take home the prize: Lawrence, you've won two tickets to BMFI's Oscar Party! The winning award category: Best Movie We Forgot to Nominate a Decade Ago.

The three runners up were Brenda McFadden (Best Break-Out Role), Miranda (Best Low-Budget Picture), and Rhianna Shaheen (Best Meryl Streep Performance of the Year). Runners up will receive two free passes to BMFI! Read the winning entries below and the rest of the entries in the comments here.

The Winner:
Lawrence for Best Movie We Forgot to Nominate a Decade Ago
What do movies like Metropolis, Scarface, King Kong (1933 version), Modern Times, Sullivan’s Travels, The African Queen, The Searchers, Some Like it Hot, Psycho, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Wild Bunch, The Empire Strikes Back, and Blade Runner all have in common? They would arguably be considered classic and/or great movies that were never recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with a nomination for Best Picture. This award has been created to correct such injustices. This award for the “Best Movie We Forgot to Nominate a Decade Ago” goes to the movie that 10 years ago should have been recognized with a Best Picture award nomination (or win) but received neither. This film has stood the test of time, and has continued to receive critical and popular acclaim, and finally deserves to be recognized. Partly to avoid this omission, the Academy has now expanded the number of nominees for Best Picture from five to ten films, so it will be harder to find a winning picture starting in 2019 (although Star Trek stands a chance). The award considers films released 10 years ago, so that the 2010 Academy Award would go to a film released in 2000. My proposed six nominees (I had trouble whittling it down to five) for the 2010 award are: Almost Famous, Billy Elliot, Cast Away, Memento, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Requiem for a Dream, although we would have to go through the formal nominee selection process (and only have five) to be fair.

The Runners Up:
Rhianna Shaheen for Best Meryl Streep Performance of the Year:
Obviouslyyy the Academy should give Meryl Streep her own category. How about Best Meryl Streep Performance of the Year…Yes/Yes? Let’s just face it; this woman should just get an award for simply EXISTING! First of all, her perfection on screen can make any so-so movie absolutely fabulous. Mamma Mia anyone? Secondly, what's an Oscar season without Meryl's magic? I mean really it feels a little empty this year. And lastly for having received an astounding total of 16 nominations over the course of her 34 year career the MOST deserving actress in Hollywood has only won TWICE!!! TWICE?? HOW DOES THIS EVEN HAPPEN? With her own category all can be forgiven, Academy. No worries! ☺
For your consideration:
Rhianna Shaheen

Miranda for Best Low-Budget Picture:
I’d like to see an award for Best Low-Budget Picture. Maybe use $5 million as a cut-off. A few of my favorites this year were Blue Valentine, Fish Tank, Tiny Furniture & Please Give, none of which cost more than $3 million and Tiny Furniture cost just $45,000! Compare that to the Oscar front runners - The King’s Speech at $15 million, True Grit at $38 million and Social Network at $40 million. Consider that ALL Academy members vote to nominate the ten Best Picture candidates and the production designers, costumers, cinematographers and sound designers probably have a lesser appreciation for low and micro-budget films, which by necessity have more technical limitations.

Brenda McFadden for Best Break-Out Role:
I would like to see a category for Best Break-Out Role--something like the Grammy for Best New Artist, though it would not necessarily have to be a brand new actor--just an actor or actress who has not had a Stand-Out performance in the past. It could be a young, new actor or it could even be a veteran who has always been cast in small roles or bad movies. This award is often stolen by a Best Supporting Actress nominee, sometimes leaving the true BSA without her Oscar. For instance, this year Hailee S. in True Grit would be one of the Break-Out (or Stand-Out or "Best Role") nominees (and in my opinion the Winner). Plus I like the idea of a category that includes male and female actors. Yes, we need to have an Oscar for "Best Role"!

Thanks for competing, everyone!

From Open Screen Monday to Sundance: Local Filmmaker Wins Prize

2011-02-16T16:25:00.010-05:00

By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern

Filmmaker Jon Foy has screened a number of his projects at BMFI as part of Open Screen Mondays, and now Foy is the recipient of the Documentary Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival! His film, Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles, follows friend and artist Justin Duerr through his fascination with the mystery of the Toynbee Tiles, a collection of tiles that began appearing throughout Philadelphia in the 1980s with the cryptic message, “Toynbee Idea in Movie 2001. Resurrect Dead on Planet Jupiter.” To learn more about Foy, Duerr, and the tiles, check out this article on the film published in this week’s Philadelphia Weekly.

Artist Justin Duerr and one of the notorious Toynbee Tiles

Interested in the future award-winners to come out of Open Screen Mondays? Have a film of your own that you want to screen? Open Screen Mondays screens work by local filmmakers on the first Monday of every month, starting at 9:15pm. This unique platform allows you to see your work on the big screen, share it with friends, family, and everyone else, and get valuable feedback from an audience...for free. All are welcome to submit their short films and anyone can come to the screenings. The next Open Screen Monday is March 7. Who knows? You may be on your way to Sundance next!

Another Chance to Win Two Free Tickets to BMFI's Oscar Party!

2011-02-10T14:53:00.001-05:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Coordinator

BMFI is awarding two free tickets to our third annual Oscar Party! on Sunday, February 27 to one lucky contestant! Great movies deserve to be watched on the big screen, and so do the 83rd Academy Awards. Enjoy a silver screen simulcast of Hollywood’s biggest night while you and a friend enjoy a gourmet buffet dinner, drinks, cash bar, and silent auction.

Every year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors meets to consider new categories. It's been ten years since they added a new award: Best Animated Feature. (Shrek took home the gold.)

Pretend that we’re on the Board. Make a case in for the award category that you’d most like to see added to the ceremony by commenting below. The person who submits the most creative and convincing entry, as judged by BMFI staff, will win two tickets to our Oscar Party! Perhaps you’d like to bring back awards long since eliminated (eg. Best Dance Direction, Best Assistant Director), or maybe you’re part of the campaign to recognize the work of stunt coordinators. Post your entry by Monday, February 14 at 5pm. We'll announce the winner next week.

And remember to buy your tickets before it's too late!

Please note: When posting your comment, you will be asked to select a log-in from a list. If you do not have a Google account, etc., please select either 1) "Name/URL", which requires that you have a valid website address of your own, or 2) "Anonymous". If you select the latter, please be sure to sign your name in the post. Thanks!

Producer Beth Rasin Keeps Her Eye on Ball

2011-02-10T11:58:00.042-05:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Coordinator

Last Thursday evening 280 squash fans enjoyed the Philadelphia premiere screening of the new documentary Keep Eye on Ball: The Hashim Khan Story, followed by a Q&A with producer Beth Rasin. As if that wasn’t enough, there was also a book signing with Trinity College squash coach Paul Assaiante and James Zug, the author of Run to the Roar: Coaching to Overcome Fear, at a reception sponsored by Trinity's alumni club before the film.

Keep Eye on Ball producer Beth Rasin and Run to the Roar author James Zug pose together before the screening.

I had the chance to chat with Beth while the film played. A master of many trades, Beth has worked for organizations including Women’s World Cup Soccer and the US Olympic Committee. She is the Associate Director of the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions, the largest professional squash event in North America, and she managed the US Women’s National Squash Team for ten years. Currently, Beth is the Executive Director of PowerPlay NYC, Inc., a non-profit providing sports and life skills training for girls in underserved communities.

Here are some highlights from our conversation and the Q&A:

How did you get involved with the film?

I met Josh [Easdon, the director] in 2005. I was the Associate Director of the Tournament of Champions, which is like a who’s who in the international squash world. I helped him set up three days of interviews with the great players in the sport… Josh said that he didn’t know how to do fundraising, and I said, “I’ve done a lot, let’s talk.” We had coffee and I shared some ideas. He asked me if I wanted to be the producer. It was supposed to be a year-and-a-half long project. Six years later…

How did the project get started?

Josh is a squash-teaching pro who developed an interest in filmmaking fifteen years ago and got a Masters in Media Studies from the New School. He initially wanted to do a documentary about the history of squash, but Josh soon realized if he captured Hashim’s story, he would also capture the history of squash.

Hashim’s father was a butler at the British Officer’s club in Peshawar. He went to the club with his dad as a child. Later he became a ball boy there and developed an affinity for the game. In 1951 he was invited to play in the British Open, four years after the partition of India and Pakistan. No one had ever heard of Pakistan before. He gave Pakistan an identity around the world. He really was their first national hero! Even more impressive, he was already 37 at the time of his first British Open—long after most athletes are past their prime—and he won the next six years.

Squash champion Hashim Khan (right) shakes hands with M.A. Karim after winning his first British Open in 1951.

In the course of filming the documentary, you travelled to Pakistan with Hashim, then 92 years old. How were you received? What did you learn?

Most people expressed gratitude to us for making this film about their hero. The Department of State had issued travel warnings about Pakistan, so we weren’t sure what we’d run into, but we never encountered any anti-American sentiment.

I consider myself an educated person, but after we arrived in Pakistan, I realized that I didn’t know very much about the culture of that part of the world. I also didn’t know anything about Islam. As we progressed in making the film, the ability to explore these things was really interesting. Hashim’s story is quite compelling, and by telling it, I hope that we shed some light, beyond most of our current media sound bites, about that part of the world and also about what it means to be a Muslim; it’s not really that different from Christianity or Judaism.

The Pakistani people, and especially the Pashtuns (the tribe from which Hashim is descended), have an incredibly strong tradition of hospitality; they feel duty bound to provide hospitality and protection as long as you show them respect. Pakistan is one of the “poorer” countries I’ve travelled to, but they have this great sense of community and contentment in their lives. It was an eye-opening, life-changing journey. It reinforced for me that all of us have more in common as human beings than anything that divides us.

Did you run into any issues travelling as the only woman on the filmmaking team?

We went to a lunch honoring Hashim and I was the only woman in the room. Everyone who got up to spoke acknowledged my presence by starting off, “Gentlemen and lady…” I got an understanding of a different part of the world, but there was a lot of mutual respect.

Also, as a woman, I was the only one from the film who could meet Hashim’s eldest daughter and her eldest daughters. They follow a very conservative tradition and won’t meet men outside of the family.

What attracts you to sports?

Sports offers the opportunity to transcend the artificial boundaries that separate us: language, nationalities. And sports can also inspire us – when we watch athletes dig deep to perform at their very best we can be inspired to do that in our own lives.

I also just love being physically active. I’ve played a lot of sports—almost every sport under the sun—and nothing compares to squash. It is such a great combination of the physical and the mental—you have to do a lot of running and at the same time, a lot of thinking, because there are so many angles and different shots to hit. Even though squash is played in more countries around the world than any other sport, except soccer, the squash community is also very connected—as evidenced by the huge turnout for the film.

Would you produce another film?

Absolutely. After I’ve gotten a little sleep.

Thank you, Beth!

If you missed this screening of Keep Eye on Ball or would like to watch it again, you can order a DVD here.

The nominations are in... and we have a winner!

2011-01-26T09:10:00.000-05:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Coordinator

It's official. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the contenders for the most coveted prize in Hollywood, Oscar gold. The King's Speech snagged the most Oscar nominations--a whopping twelve--and Black Swan has a chance to take home five prizes. But who will take home a statue? Who will give an acceptance speech? Who will become a part of Hollywood history?

Last week, we encouraged you to write your own Oscar acceptance speech for a chance to win two tickets to our Oscar Party! on February 27, which will feature a big screen simulcast of the Academy Awards, gourmet food, delicious drinks, a cash bar, and a silent auction. We received a number of wonderful (and very creative) entries, but it was Colin Firth and the cookies that put us over the top. Congratulations, Janice Marini, you've won!

Here's her winning entry:

Colin Firth reads the card. "And the Academy Award for Best Screenplay Adaptation goes to... JANICE MARINI for Salmon and Name Tags: My Life in Special Events, based on her novel of the same name..." I slink to the stage in red Prada. Somehow my hair stays perfect, and my mascara isn't running even though tears are slowly running down my face. Colin hands me the statuette and kisses me like it's the end of Bridget Jones's Diary. When I catch my breath, I look out toward the audience and camera and jokingly send a message to Ardmore: "Eat your heart out, Rosemary." Then I thank the studio, my agents, my publisher, my publicist, and the incredible cast, especially Keira Knightley, for bringing the main character to life. I thank my incredible director Ken Loach for his stunning work--since a slapsticky American comedy was a bit of a departure for him... I thank my former boss by name (which I won't do here!) for the endless supply of material and daily humiliations that beame the backbone of Salmon and Name Tags. I thank Archway Dutch Cocoa cookies for fueling the effort to write the screenplay. I acknowledge my family by name, all my friends in Philadelphia, and end by thanking my wonderful husband Joe. I couldn't have done it without his endless reserves of good humor, encouragement and love.

You can read all of the entries here (scroll down to the comments). And remember to buy your tickets before it's too late!

Win Tickets to BMFI's Oscar Party!

2011-01-18T15:29:00.007-05:00

By Devin Wachs, Public Relations Coordinator

It's that time of year. Time for red carpet, champagne, and glitzy dresses. Time for the movie stars to truly shine. Time for BMFI's Oscar Party!

Join us on February 27 for BMFI's third annual Oscar Party! Celebrate Hollywood's hottest night in style. Enjoy a gourmet buffet dinner, drinks, a cash bar, and a silent auction, and watch the Oscars simulcast live on our big screen. Tickets are available at the Box Office and online here.

Want to be a winner yourself? Imagine that you're in the Kodak Theater and your name is called. Did you hear right? Yes, you won! You can hardly believe it, you've been dreaming of this day since you were a kid.

Tell us what you would say or do in your acceptance speech. Post it in the comments here. A jury of your peers will choose a winner to receive two tickets to our Oscar Party! Entries must be posted by Monday, January 24 at noon. We'll announce the winners next week.

Please note: When posting your comment, you will be asked to select a log-in from a list. If you do not have a Google account, etc., please select either 1) "Name/URL", which requires that you have a valid website address of your own, or 2) "Anonymous". If you select the latter, please be sure to sign your name in the post. Thanks!

Exclusive Interview with MY DOG TULIP Filmmakers Paul and Sandra Fierlinger

2011-01-13T18:18:00.001-05:00

By Meredith Slifkin

The holidays may be over, but there’s no reason to get the winter blues when there are such great events at BMFI! On Wednesday, January 19 at 7:30pm, there will be a special screening of My Dog Tulip followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers, Paul and Sandra Fierlinger. The Fierlingers will also teach a FREE Master Class at 2:00pm about animation in the digital world.

My Dog Tulip is the story of a man, his dog, and the extraordinary nature of canine-human friendship. This animated adaptation of the memoir by J.R. Ackerley has already earned widespread praise for filmmakers Paul and Sandra, who reside on the Main Line.

Paul and Sandra Fierlinger will teach a free Master Class at 2:00pm and
answer questions after the 7:30pm screening of My Dog Tulip on January 19.

Paul began working in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s, where he became the state’s first independent producer of animated films. In 1968 he escaped the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, seeking solace in Holland and eventually the United States, where he continued to create animated films for television and the big screen. Paul was awarded the PEW Fellowship in the Arts in 1997 for his body of work.

Sandra is a native of Wayne, Pennsylvania, and graduated with highest honors from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She has collaborated with her husband, Paul, on many projects, including short and feature films for Sesame Street and PBS.

I caught up with Paul and Sandra via email. Keep reading for their take on My Dog Tulip, animation, and their exciting new project!

My Dog Tulip features the voices of Christopher Plummer, Isabella Rossellini, and the late Lynn Redgrave.

Q: What drew you both to My Dog Tulip? Has it been a “pet” project of yours for awhile, or did you come across the Ackerley material recently?

Paul: The book has been with us since it first came out in the New York Review of Books Classics series. Soon after reading it I began to make notes which I stuck between the pages with a possible theatrical film in mind. After a few weeks we got busy with other projects and the whole idea just vanished from our thoughts and conversations. When the two producers who became the actual film’s producers first called us—this happened years later—I had no recollection of ever thinking of Tulip as a movie and was immensely surprised when I discovered my notes between the yellowing pages. Mind you, the producers called us to make Tom Sawyer, not Tulip, but as we talked about all sorts of other ideas, the four of us on that conference call agreed that My Dog Tulip was a good one.

Q: The animation in My Dog Tulip has such a distinct look to it. Would you tell us about the method of hand-drawn computer animation used? Will this technique play a prominent role in the future of the animation art form?

Paul: The computer software we used is called TVPaint (made in Metz, France) and it has been our primary production tool since its inception, twenty years ago. We have been their beta-testers for about fifteen of those years now. It has gone through a slow recognition process mainly because the world wide market for such an application is incredibly miniscule, and these five Frenchies, who are still together after twenty years, had both zero marketing skills and money. TVP is now a household name in any 2-D animator’s family, and all the prominent animation schools around the world; this happened by word of mouth only. The software has grown in those twenty years, too, of course, and has finally reached the well-deserved status of the best there is for handmade (or computer assisted; take your pick) independent productions of art films. Hand-drawn films are coming back in a big way.

The Fierlingers created My Dog Tulip using hand-drawn computer animation.

Q: Was your style of animation at all influenced by the Czech cartoonists and animation artists from the golden age of Kratky Film?

Paul: That yes, and by the way I grew up in the United States during WWII, and by the dreaded boarding school in which I had to spend my first four years in Czechoslovakia, by my father’s insistence that I drop the idea of becoming an animator, by the fact that no one had ever thought possible that one person alone could draw films, by my first and second divorces, the dogs I had owned, the despair I had fallen into that I will be forever locked within the barbed wire borders of that horrible place ruled by a tyrannical Soviet system, by my escape back to the West, by every advertising agency I had ever done work for, by my third and final marriage on a boat off Ordinary Point on the Chesapeake Bay, and by my 41 years of life on or close to the Main Line.

Q: Sandra, when did you become interested in animation? How do your skills as a painter influence your work with computer animation?

Sandra: Animation was never in my vocabulary as an artist growing up on the Main Line. Then Paul hired me as a colorist, married me, and what else am I supposed to do? The garden is so small.

Q: Are you working on any new projects?

Paul: The film we are working on now is being done in a way no one else has ever done before us, unless you count Charles Dickens, but he was not an animator. Sandra and I have embarked upon the serialization of an animated graphic novel to be released in installments on an e-magazine website, yet to be determined. This work in progress will be screened as the core of our Master Class earlier in the afternoon. We will also be discussing the explosion of hand drawn animated illustrations and tiny art films made by tiny cameras all over the pages of internet e-readers, a new publishing phenomenon which already is beginning to happen.

Exclusive image from Paul and Sandra's new project, Slocum at Sea with Himself.
Excerpts will be featured in the free Master Class taught by the Fierlingers.

Thanks, Paul and Sandra!

If you have questions of your own for the Fierlingers, join us at BMFI's Master Class or the My Dog Tulip screening.

The Master Class is free and open to everyone, but there are only a few spaces left! To register, email VTemple@BrynMawrFilm.org or call 610-527-4008 x109.

You can purchase tickets to the My Dog Tulip screening and Q&A by clicking here or visiting the Box Office.

And the Award Goes to... BMFI's Oscar Party 2011!

2011-01-06T10:41:00.000-05:00

By Meredith Slifkin

“There’s no other way to describe it, it’s the moment of a lifetime.” Kathryn Bigelow uttered these heartfelt words at the 2010 Academy Awards after winning Best Director for The Hurt Locker, but she could easily have been referring to last year’s Oscar Party at BMFI!

The anticipation is mounting as Hollywood prepares to celebrate its best and brightest, and you can experience Oscar magic larger than life at BMFI’s third annual Oscar Party. The 83rd Academy Awards will be simulcast live from Hollywood on BMFI’s big screen on Sunday, February 27 at 7:00pm.

"Hello Gorgeous"

There’s no better way to experience Hollywood’s party of the year than right here where we’ll have all the glitz and glamour of the real thing, but with a better view. At the Kodak Theatre you’d be stuck in the nosebleeds, but you’ll be able to see every glorious pore on George Clooney’s face on the big screen at BMFI. You may not walk home with a gold statue, but there will be good food, good company, plentiful spirits, and a silent auction! Back for its third year by popular demand, this year’s Oscar Party will offer a gourmet buffet dinner prepared by JPM Catering, and a myriad of social-lubricating cocktails at the cash bar.

"You like me, you really like me!"

There will also be a silent auction featuring gift certificates to some of the Main Line’s best restaurants and businesses including Mediterranean Grill, LeBus, and Margaret Kuo’s. All proceeds will benefit Bryn Mawr Film Institute so really it’s a win-win—you'll get to enjoy dinner at a delicious restaurant, while helping to ensure that your favorite non-profit movie theatre can keep on keeping on.

Don’t forget to come in your red-carpet best—evening gowns, dapper suits—or costumes inspired by the films. I expect to see at least one Black Swan-inspired outfit, and maybe a few Western hats to channel True Grit, or Harvard sweatshirts from The Social Network. (But please, don’t go so far as to pull a James Franco in 127 Hours…) However you show up, this party will be an amazing event full of fun, food, and film, all leading up to that exciting final moment—Best Picture!

"I'm the king of the world!"

Tickets for the Oscar Party are $55 for BMFI members and $65 general admission, and are available now for purchase online or at the box office.

Exclusive Interview with Paul Wright, Ph.D., Instructor for “Trafficking in the Absurd: The Coen Brothers’ Films”

2010-12-23T14:52:00.000-05:00

By Meredith Slifkin

Where will you be Wednesdays this January? Sign up for the new BMFI course, “Trafficking in the Absurd: The Coen Brothers’ Films,” which meets on Wednesdays (Jan 5.-Jan 26) from 6:30pm-9:30-pm in the Multimedia Room. This exciting course will examine the “comic absurdity” and “flawed humanity” prevalent in the works of the notoriously quirky (and brilliant) Coen brothers. There will be a special focus on Miller’s Crossing, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, and A Serious Man.

The instructor for “Trafficking in the Absurd” is Paul Wright, Ph.D., who was good enough to give me an exclusive interview about the course, and about his personal interest in the Coen Brothers. Wright is an Assistant Professor of English and the Co-Director of the Honors Program at Cabrini College. Previous courses he has taught at BMFI include Scorcese’s Cinema of Loneliness, Kurosawa: East Meets West, and Icon in the Director’s Chair: Clint Eastwood. Posted below is our enlightening interview:

Q: Why the Coen Brothers? What attracts you to their body of work, both personally and academically?

A: The Coen Brothers first got under my skin with their unique sensibility sometime around 1986, when I saw their first feature, Blood Simple, on television late one Saturday night. Aside from being unable to sleep for the suspense of that film, I was struck by their knack for exposing the self-delusion of their characters--the characters' inability to see the world except through their own prism of misbegotten assumptions. This is a theme the Coens have returned to many times over the years. Academically, what has continued to enchant me is their unabashed love of film genre. They have tackled nearly every cinematic genre imaginable--suspense, slapstick, the gangster film, art-house, film noir, spy-thriller, western, spiritual morality tale, and more. They approach each film genre with a genuine passion for the material and the form, but always with an eye toward ironic re-imaginings of those forms.

Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski (1998). "Trafficking in the Absurd: The Coen Brothers' Films" begins Wednesday, January 5 and continues on Wednesdays through January 26.

Q: “Trafficking in the Absurd” is a striking name for the course, can you explain your choice of this title?

A: I think it was a viewing of The Big Lebowski that inspired me here. When the Dude (Jeff Bridges) is told another character is a nihilist, he responds, "Ah, that must be exhausting." I think this perfectly captures the Coen Brothers' playful (and to my mind, very healthy) sense of the absurd in so many of their films. For them, life's absurdities are not merely existential or coldly philosophical in nature--they embody the self-involved comedy that each of us makes of our daily lives, so often without intending it. It's not just the Coens who "traffic in the absurd"; we all do.

Q: What can students hope to get out of this course?

A: To build more on the previous response, I'm hoping that people come away from the course understanding that blunt honesty need not equal contempt. Aside from the course's focus on the great artistry of the Coens as writer-directors, I stress that for all the Coens' revelry in human beings' penchant for self-importance and self-deception, the Coens' brutal candor and irony never amount to outright contempt for the human condition. I have read some dismissive assessments of the Coens that argue they are misanthropes. This seems as off the mark to me as criticisms of the great Japanese director Ozu, who was said to have treated actors only as props and "colors" for his palette. I think these criticisms of the Coens miss their fundamental appreciation for the downright charms of flawed human beings trying to break out of the orbits of our own delusions. There is something profoundly engaging and affecting about Coen characters; even a villain in Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men has a perverse charm. While most of us (thankfully) are less like Anton and more like the bumbling characters of Burn After Reading, what's essential here is the quirky charisma of Coen characters. It might be unsettling just how much of ourselves we recognize in these characters, but that recognition is also a great pleasure in its own right. There is a reason so many gifted actors gravitate toward the Coen Brothers, and I think it's bound up with the celebration of flawed humanity in their writing.

“It’s not just the Coens who ‘traffic in the absurd’; we all do.”

Q: Your academic interests also include the European Renaissance, does this influence your work in film studies at all? I imagine Machiavelli is actually pretty relevant to the films of the Coen brothers…

A: Yes, when I wear my other academic hat, I teach the European literary traditions of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. I did my doctorate in comparative literature under the direction of an historian; I suppose "cultural historian" is the best way to describe my scholarship. This isn't as far-fetched a connection to cinema as one might think. If there is a defining feature of Renaissance culture, it is its increasingly anxious sense of the theatricality and performative aspects of our world. Long before becoming a best-selling Shakespeare biographer, Stephen Greenblatt famously wrote about Renaissance courtiers and writers engaged in "self-fashioning"--i.e., the drive to mold and in essence create the "self" as a fiction indispensable to our social lives. If you think about the Coen Brothers' ironic sense of their characters trying to fashion their own lives and meaning in the world, you realize that many of the themes we ascribe to modern theater and cinema (or even "post-modern" society at large) have deep roots in the historical past. I actually find a powerful resonance between my two areas of study. As for Machiavelli, one can certainly find in The Prince a kind of handbook for would-be "players" and manipulators. What I love about your question is that, like the Coens, Machiavelli also has a real knack for exposing those princes who fail precisely because they assume the world looks at things as they do. This is the cardinal sin of the Coen Brothers' moral universe.

Michael Stulhbarg in the Coens' 2009 Oscar-Nominated, A Serious Man

Q: Do you have a favorite film by the Coens? Or any on the syllabus that you’re especially excited to be teaching?

A: It's so tough to pick a favorite obviously, so I can only throw out the powerful associations of certain of their films that get me every time. As I said above, Blood Simple had the most formative impact when I saw it in high school. Miller's Crossing also comes to mind as it bridges the venerable gangster genre with the primal loneliness that comes with living among others; I often think of this film as the existentialist's Godfather. O Brother Where Art Thou, that loose and wonderful adaptation of Homer, speaks to the literature professor in me. Fargo channels my inner mid-Westerner, and as an adoptive father, I can't watch Raising Arizona without laughter and tears. If I had to pick two films that are favorites in my current stage of life (whatever that is exactly), I'd have to go with The Big Lebowski and A Serious Man. Lebowski has the virtue of being endlessly re-watchable and charming; A Serious Man is its more somber and philosophical cousin, I suppose. Both are films I find myself sharing and quoting obsessively with a like-minded soul in my life. At any rate, I guess you could say I love the Coens all round.

Special thanks to Paul Wright for graciously agreeing to this interview. Sign up now for “Trafficking in the Absurd: The Coen Brothers’ Films.” The cost is $100 for BMFI members and $125 for non-members. Click here to register online, or call 610-527-4008 x107.

Black Swan Meet-and-Greet with Dancers from the Pennsylvania Ballet!

2010-12-14T14:01:00.002-05:00

By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern

What could be more exciting than seeing the new thriller, Black Swan? Going to a pre-screening meet-and-greet at BMFI with real dancers from the film! Black Swan is the psychosexual thriller from Darren Aronofsky, director of 2008’s critical darling, The Wrestler, which starred Mickey Rourke as an aging pro-wrestler with personal woes. In Black Swan, Aronofsky uses his signature gritty style to explore another intense medium of performance, ballet, and an even more troubled protagonist, a ballerina played by Natalie Portman. Indeed, Portman’s character is as much antagonist as protagonist in this psychologically complex film, which explores the dark side of her character that emerges as the result of a rivalry with a fellow dancer and the demands of starring as Swan Queen in the canonical Swan Lake. Black Swan features thrills, chills, and some really phenomenal acting from Natalie Portman, who has already been nominated for a Golden Globe and an Independent Spirit Award for her performance.

Natalie Portman commands the screen in Black Swan, opening at Bryn Mawr Film Institute on Friday, December 17.

In addition to being an intense character study, Black Swan also provides a window into the elusive world of professional ballet. The film immerses the viewer into this world as fully as the dancers themselves; it would be an understatement to say that ballet is their raison d’etre.

Meet real dancers from the Pennsylvania ballet at the Meet-and-Greet before the 8pm screening of Black Swan on Monday, December 20.

At BMFI you have the opportunity to understand this world even better, at the meet-and-greet with dancers from the Pennsylvania Ballet who appeared in the film on Monday, December 20. Gather in the atrium to mingle with the dancers and enjoy some “holiday spirits” from the cash bar. This is your chance to ask all about the life of a professional dancer and what it was like to work on the film. The meet-and-greet begins at 7:00pm and is a free event, but regular ticketing prices do apply for the screening that follows at 8:00pm.

Can’t get enough of the ballerinas? Well, they will be staying for a special Q&A after the screening, so you’ll have a chance to ask them some more questions! Like, “Who’s dreamier in real life, Vincent Cassel or Darren Aronofsky?” Ok, probably no one will ask that question, so come prepared with some good ones of your own!

The Yule Blog

2010-12-08T15:16:00.001-05:00

By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern

Whether you believe that ‘tis the season to be merry, or you see the spread of yuletide joy and just want to shout “bah humbug!”, there is something at BMFI to help get you in the holiday spirit! Yes, all members of the family (even the Scrooges) will want to spend a cozy day at the theatre and enjoy one of the great events in BMFI’s Holiday Happenings series. The screenings include everything from classic holiday films like It’s a Wonderful Life to a simulcast of the Bolshoi Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker. For a complete list of shows, dates, and times, check out the Holiday Happenings page, or keep reading for a few highlights.

For the music lover there’s The Nutcracker from the Bolshoi Theatre. Does anything embody the holiday season more than this classic ballet? And broadcast from the historic Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow at that—I can just picture a blanket of snow coating the Kremlin in a perfect scene of winter splendor. The only word for it is transplendent (Annie Hall fans?).

Snowflakes will leap across BMFI's screen at the live simulcast of the Bolshoi Ballet's production of The Nutcracker.

You too can be “the richest man in town” if you get in the holiday spirit by coming to the screening of It’s a Wonderful Life, the classic starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. Whether you watch it every year or you’re taking the kids to see it for the first time, you’ll love to see George lasso the moon and hear that bell ring atop the Christmas tree. Don’t miss this special matinee screening on Saturday, December 18.

Jimmy Stewart realizes that he has "a wonderful life" in the Frank Capra holiday classic, featured on December 18.

What could be better than going to see the beloved Rogers and Hammerstein musical, The Sound of Music? Going to BMFI’s The Sound of Music Sing-along, back for a third year in a row! Rejoice and be merry in song and in costume at this special event. There’s always free popcorn for those who come in costume, and this year there will even be a cash bar where you can partake in some “holiday spirits”.

More than one kind of “spirits” will abound at the screening of Drexel Professor Ian Abrams’s version of A Christmas Carol! Abrams has edited together many different versions of the film to create one seamless retelling of the classic tale that features Scrooges as varied as Mr. Magoo, Alastair Sims, and Bill Murray. Philadelphia Inquirer film critic Steven Rea will introduce and discuss this delightful take on a holiday classic.

Michael Caine, shown with the muppets in A Muppet Christmas Carol, is one of the many Scrooges featured in Ian Abrams's compilation.

Here’s a complete list of BMFI's Holiday Happenings:

• The Nativity Story • Saturday, December 11, 11:00am
• Spano Conducts Sibelius • Monday, December 13, 12:30pm
• A Christmas Carol: A Unique Take on a Holiday Classic • Wednesday, December 15, 7:30pm
• It's a Wonderful Life • Saturday, December 18, 11:00am
• Live Simulcast: The Nutcracker • Sunday, December 19, 11:00am
• Black Swan reception • Monday, December 20, 7:00pm
• The Sound of Music Sing-along • Wednesday, December 22, 7:00pm

Wishing a very happy and healthy holiday season to you all!

BMFI Preview: Winter Programming Highlights

2010-12-01T16:24:00.004-05:00

By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern

Bryn Mawr Film Institute patons rejoice! The new film and program schedule for December 2010-March 2011 will soon be available. Yes, happy days are here again, now that you can glimpse into the future and foresee four glorious months of films and events at BMFI. For the full list of screenings and classes, grab a copy of the new issue of Projections when it comes out December 9 or visit http://www.brynmawrfilm.org/, which has details for all of the upcoming events. For now, I will just whet your appetites with a preview of a few of our exciting new programs.

Oscar season is almost upon us, so that means a flurry of year-end films already gaining buzz. Among the new releases are the much anticipated Black Swan, the thriller from Darren Aronofsky starring Natalie Portman; The King’s Speech, which features Colin Firth as King George VI; and True Grit, a Western from the Coen Brothers starring Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin, and Matt Damon. Let me just repeat some of those names for you—Aronofsky, Firth, Coen, Bridges, Brolin—these highly talented actors and filmmakers are each coming off of recent Oscar wins and nominations, so you can bet that their new films will be must-sees!

The King's Speech, which stars Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter, is scheduled to start at BMFI on December 25.

In addition to a great crop of new releases, BMFI will also be featuring a truly unique selection of One Night Only films that you won’t want to miss. (Really, don’t miss them--they are shown for one night only, after all!) Come to a special screening of the award-winning animated charmer My Dog Tulip and a free (yes, free!) Master Class with the filmmakers, Paul and Sandra Fierlinger, who will talk about the art of animated documentary and creating films in the digital world. I know that I’m excited for the screening of Kings of Pastry, the documentary about a three-day French pastry baking competition. This isn’t an episode of Top Chef or Cake Boss, these chefs are skilled artisans competing for a coveted title that would earn much more than bragging rights—it would fulfill a lifelong ambition. Did I mention that there will be free treats at the screening?

We all have our favorite classic films, and delight in the opportunity to see them on the big screen. The Remembering Film Legends series will feature the films of two recently departed greats—the Academy Award-winning director and Philadelphia native, Arthur Penn, and the iconic Tony Curtis. You won’t want to miss Curtis in Some Like it Hot, the uproarious comedy voted the funniest film of all time by the American Film Institute! This ultimate classic will be shown in conjunction with a Cinema Classics Seminar taught by BMFI’s Director of Education, Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D.

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon shine in Some Like It Hot. The comedy classic will be shown as part of a tribute to Curtis and featured at the center of BMFI's newest Cinema Classics Seminar.

As many of you have already discovered, BMFI is not just a place for film, but also for broadcasts of incredible music, theatre and opera performances from renowned venues all over the world. From the comfort and convenience of BMFI you can see Romeo and Juliet from the Globe Theatre in London, or Pagliacci from the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. And of course the popular Philadelphia Orchestra Concert Series will continue will live HD simulcasts.

Spend Valentine's Day with Romeo and Juliet, broadcast in HD from London's Globe Theatre.

Now you can see ballet simulcasts as well—for the first time BMFI has added ballet to the program, including live simulcasts of the holiday favorite The Nutcracker from the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, and the classic Giselle from London's Royal Opera House, among others! Check out the list here.

This is only a taste of what's coming. To learn more, keep a look out for the new issue of Projections (mailed to members and available at the theater starting December 9) or visit http://www.brynmawrfilm.org/!

METROPOLIS and Fritz Lang's Legacy; or, Robot Doppelgangers: Kitsch or Classic?

2010-10-21T10:05:00.081-04:00

By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern

On Monday, October 25, Bryn Mawr Film Institute is hosting both a screening of the sci-fi epic Metropolis and a Cinema Classics Seminar, a one-session class that focuses on this classic film and includes the in-theater screening. Why is this a must-see film? Long before James Cameron was out there sinking giant ships and painting people blue, trying to tackle tough issues of class and race while offering up a big budget Hollywood extravaganza, Fritz Lang was making groundbreaking cinema.

Metropolis is the most expensive silent film ever made—that's money well spent on the breathtaking sets and visuals that create this dystopian futuristic setting. The production of this film was executed on a grand scale and the result is far ahead of its time. In the industrial society depicted in Metropolis, the citizens are either “thinkers” or “workers”; the exaggerated gap between them serves as Lang’s commentary on Capitalistic society. The plot combines social commentary, science-fiction, and even a love story, making Metropolis a classic of epic proportions.

Metropolis director Fritz Lang is a titan of early cinema and has had an enduring influence on film. He was born in Vienna in 1890 and fought for Austria during the First World War, an experience that he cited as being influential to his work. After years of military service, travel, and education all over Europe, Lang became involved in acting and then filmmaking. Eventually he landed in Germany, where he thrived as part of the German Expressionist movement. Lang made a name for himself by combining art with entertainment, making classic films such as Metropolis (1927) and M (1931), which are both technically spectacular and thoroughly enjoyable to watch.

In 1934 Lang fled the ever-strengthening Nazi regime in Germany for Paris, though the circumstances of his exodus remain controversial. It is speculated that Lang actually met with the infamous Joseph Goebbels before leaving, though it is unclear whether this meeting was called because Goebbels wished to interrogate Lang about his arguably anti-Nazi film, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, or whether Goebbels was in fact so impressed with Lang’s ability as a filmmaker that he offered him a post as head of the German film studio, UFA. To further complicate the situation, Lang worried that he would be persecuted for being half-Jewish (despite being raised Catholic). At the same time his marriage to Thea Von Harbou was falling apart because of her increased identification with the Nazi party. Amidst all of this controversy it is unclear exactly why Lang left Germany, but it is known for certain that by 1934 he had fled to Paris, where he worked briefly before coming to the United States in 1936. Lang brought his talents to Hollywood where he continued to make acclaimed films into the 1960s. He is credited with introducing the German Expressionist style to American cinema, which was especially influential to the emerging film noir genre.

What is German Expressionism? Well, it’s a film genre that began in Germany in the 1920s, and has heavily influenced probably all cinema to follow. It is highly stylistic, with plots and characters that are often steeped in madness or psychological distress. German Expressionism toes the line between the real and the surreal, while often crossing over into the realms of paranormal and science-fiction. Equally important is the visual style of German Expressionism—the stark lights and darks, dramatic shadows, exaggerated make-up, and constructed sets. The result is a disorienting exaggeration of reality, and an overwhelming sense of creepiness. German Expressionist influences are clearly visible in film noir, horror, psychological thrillers, and of course science-fiction films. If you were to have a conversation with say, Alfred Hitchcock, Tim Burton, or even Mr. Cameron, I’m sure they’d have a lot to say on the matter.

Metropolis is a true cinema classic. Now you can enjoy Fritz Lang’s masterpiece on the big screen as he intended, restored to its original glory--this new version includes 25 minutes of recently discovered footage that had been lost since 1927! If that’s not enough, I’ll leave you with two words: robot doppelganger!

At BMFI:
Metropolis screening - Monday, October 25, 7:00pm

Cinema Classics Seminar: Metropolis (registration required) - Monday, October 25, 6:30-10:00pm
Seminar includes in-theater screening, lecture, discussion, readings, and popcorn and a drink.

Filmmakers Amp Up Screening of ROCK SCHOOL

2010-09-23T20:37:00.075-04:00

Producer Sheena Joyce and director Don Argott rocked the house at last night’s screening of Rock School, their 2005 Sundance hit about Philadelphia’s original Paul Green School of Rock. The husband-wife filmmaking team’s first documentary feature focuses on Paul Green, the foul-mouthed (but effective) teacher of a group of remarkable nine- to seventeen-year-old musicians who more than do justice to the music of Frank Zappa and Black Sabbath.

Filmmakers Sheena Joyce and Don Argott sign BMFI's autograph book after the screening of Rock School.

This screening kicked off our four-film series celebrating the contributions that Bryn Mawr College alumnae have made to film in honor of Bryn Mawr College’s 125th Anniversary.

Bryn Mawr College president Jane Dammen McAuliffe introduced Sheena Joyce, class of 1998, before the screening, and both Sheena and Don answered audience questions afterwards. Keep reading for selections from the Q&A!

Q: How did the project come about?
Don Argott: The project took shape because I had a production company with another partner. We had always planned on doing a feature, but mostly we had been doing commercial work and corporate videos. He wanted to go to LA, but I had no interest in going there. After the company dissolved, I wanted to do something creative to remind myself why I was in the business. I was out walking when I saw a poster for the Paul Green School of Rock. It had this cartoony type and caught my attention. This was back in 2002, before everything was online, and so I didn’t have a lot of information to go on, but I dug around a little. Finally, I looked up his number in the phone book and gave him a call. I told him I’d like to do a documentary about him, without ever having met him. He said, “All I ask is that you take it seriously and do it for real.” (Apparently VH1 had been in talks about doing something but then backed out, so he was a little protective.) There was something about our first meeting and we hit it off; it helped that I am a musician, too. Two days later, I was there with my camera, and stayed there for the next nine months filming. Sheena quit her job at the film office and came on as a full-time producer on the project.
Sheena Joyce: I was working at the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, the area's film commission, which acts as a free producer to visiting productions. I wanted to do whatever I could to encourage Don, and I offered to help him with this new project. It started at night and on weekends, but eventually, I got so involved, I quit my job, and we formed 9.14 Pictures together.

Q: What’s Paul Green doing now?
DA: He used this opportunity with the kids to build from there. As we were in post-production he opened up a school in New Jersey and one in Downingtown and used the marketing push from the film to franchise. Now there are 48 franchises across the country. He sold off the company and lives in New York now. He's still involved in music, though, and has a new venture called Studio House.

Q: What was it like seeing the movie again on the big screen?
DA: This is the first time we’ve seen the movie in five years, since it came out. It was amazing seeing the film again. It put me back in the spot of where we were then. I forgot how funny it was! It was so nice to revisit it. It brought back a lot of memories.

Q: What other features have you done?
SJ: After this we did Two Days in April, where we followed four college football players as they entered the NFL draft. The project was funded by Netflix and the film is available on Netflix. We followed that up with The Art of the Steal, about the Barnes Foundation’s move from Merion, which was featured at the Toronto Film Festival and released nationally this year. It is now on DVD and will be on Showtime in October. Currently we have four documentaries we’re working on in various stages of production.

Q: This was your first film. How has your approach to filmmaking changed since, if at all?
DA: We cut our teeth on this thing, we were so naïve. We thought, “No one listens to Frank Zappa anymore, it’ll be easy to get the music rights.” $250,000 later… Rock School was like getting our Ph.D. in filmmaking.
SJ: It was trial by fire, but the real work begins when you sell it. You have to make it “deliverable”—get clearances, photo licenses, releases, music licenses. I would say that our procedures have changed, but our filmmaking hasn’t changed. We still try to bring a rock and roll sensibility to whatever we do—even The Art of the Steal opens with a cover of a Black Sabbath song done by a jazz trio called The Bad Plus.

Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Bryn Mawr College's President, joined BMFI's Juliet Goodfriend (seated)
to welcome filmmaker Sheena Joyce, Bryn Mawr College '98.

The Celebrating Bryn Mawr College Film Series continues with three additional screenings, starting with Christopher Strong, starring Katharine Hepburn '28, which will feature a talk about the famous alum's influence on cinema by Bryn Mawr College film studies professor Dr. Homay King. Then filmmaker Susan Koch '76 will introduce and discuss her documentary about the Homeless World Cup, Kicking It. The series concludes with the return of Sarah Schenck '87 to Bryn Mawr Film Institute to screen and discuss her first feature film as producer, Virgin, starring Elizabeth Moss (Mad Men) and Robin Wright.

Toronto International Film Festival 2010: Juliet Goodfriend's Notes

2010-09-21T13:55:00.000-04:00

This year was a watershed for Toronto, with the opening of the gorgeous Bell Light Box, the first six stories of a new high rise with five state of the art theaters, three galleries for film art, a reference library, more than two restaurants of high quality, conference and education rooms, and a shop—all dedicated to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Every square inch is named to recognize a donor, and the whole thing is a gorgeous and uplifting tribute to film!

The industry and press screenings, which I attended, were split between the Bell Light Box and the horribly noisy, gaudy, mall-like Scotia Bank metroplex, a contrast that made the new venue even more desirable. Both were within three blocks of my hotel and I actually never ventured farther.

I clocked over 70 or 80 hours watching films and have about 35 notches on my belt (which I tightened somewhat, since there was no time for eating much). Even so, there were many "must sees" that I missed.

The "themes" this year? Several films dealt with families recovering from or dealing with the aftermath of ghastly actions done to or by their children/siblings, including Rabbit Hole (child is run over and killed), Beautiful Boy (child becomes a mass murderer), Aftershock (children caught in the 1976 earthquake of Tangshan, China), and Conviction (sister defends her brother who is accused and convicted of murder). The two post-Holocaust films I saw (The Debt and Sarah's Key) dealt with its aftermath and the impact on families of exposing a "truth". And, to be expected, the documentaries all tangle with “truth,” often in connection with family ties (Tabloid, Client 9), leaving the viewer wondering which part of what they saw was fact and which fiction. But I leave it to the critics to expound further on themes.

Let me add, however, that, as in the past several years, blood is abundant. But it had a different character at this year's festival, i.e. more clinical and less often from gun-violence: surgical blood, body parts/function, and vomit. Blood poured forth from incisions, amputations (127 Hours), and gouge wounds (Black Swan). In Three, by Tom Tykwer, a good film, we were treated to the surgical excision of a testicle from shaving prep to the gland dropping into the tray! We were also introduced to home dialysis, though it was not shocking (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives). Curiously, almost every film I saw had a vomiting sequence! Why? How does propelling the contents of the stomach propel the narrative? And did I mention defecation? That body function was also not ignored by the directors. It has been added to urination as key streams in most films. What is the director saying by putting a character on the toilet or displaying the gushing contents of the stomach?

These perverse memories will fade, I hope, as the residue of some really fine storytelling and beautiful cinematography lingers. At least I hope so. In fact, too much will fade, too soon, except for those great films we are able to show at BMFI. And there will be many, I promise.

Below is the list of films I saw, categorized as "Miss-able," "Interesting, but not for BMFI", and "Will Try to Get This for BMFI". I also list some that I missed but others said were terrific.

Will Try to Get This for BMFI

127 Hours (Danny Boyle, USA)
The most memorable film I saw, this one rises above its fact-based storyline—it follows the plight of a young outdoorsman (James Franco) stuck in a canyon crevasse who must amputate his arm to escape—with verve and visual style. 127 Hours’ score, scenery, spirit, and sensitivity immerse one in the experience as only a great film can do.

L'Amour Fou (Pierre Thoretton, France)
No doubt here that this documentary captures truthfully the life and accomplishments of Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Berge, through their art and furnishings collection. If you liked Valentino, you’ll like this!

Another Year (Mike Leigh, UK)
One of the best, for sure, this poignant film deeply and tenderly observes a couple’s life over the course of a year, contrasting their warm marriage with the empty or unhappy lives of friends and family.

Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, USA)
To soak up Tchaikovsky and backstage ballet for 103 minutes is my idea of great entertainment, even if the Tchaikovsky is “adapted” and Natalie Portman is no Margot Fonteyn. Reminiscent of The Red Shoes, this film’s ballerina doesn’t have a chance against her fantasies, an overbearing and seductive ballet-master, jealous dancers, and her ballet-mama, a breed well known in the hallways of ballet schools everywhere. It is a gorgeous film that pits the White Swan against the Black Swan.

Client 9: The Rise And Fall Of Eliot Spitzer (Alex Gibney, USA)
A terrific documentary about the tragic (to my mind) downfall of New York’s Governor Eliot Spitzer. Shown to be a victim of the Wall Street tycoons whose practices he tried to correct, Spitzer himself explains what he can about his weaknesses and assumes responsibility for his “downfall.” However, it looks like his moral weaknesses were minor compared with those of arrogant state legislators and investment bankers. Such a sad tale, especially for Spitzer and his wife.

Cool It (Ondi Timoner, USA)
A response to An Inconvenient Truth, this documentary about Bjorn Lomborg (author of The Skeptical Environmentalist) raises interesting questions about the “value” of various means of combating global warming and places them in contrast to other imperatives on which the same funds could be spent. Interesting and possibly controversial.

Conviction (Tony Goldwyn, USA)
An earnest, true, and improbable story about an uneducated Boston woman (Hilary Swank) who goes all the way through college and law school in order to defend her brother (Sam Rockwell), convicted of murder. Good enough.

The Debt (John Madden, UK)
An excellent thriller, this Nazi-hunting film features Helen Mirren leading a good cast. After years of torment following the botched capture of a concentration camp surgeon, three former Israeli Mossad agents get a second chance. Again, it is the impact of the truth on her family that drives Mirren’s character and deepens our interest in this film of international intrigue.

The Illusionist (L’Illusionniste) (Sylvain Chomet, UK)
The most beautiful film of the festival, this is a work of great art that brings to life an unproduced script by Jacques Tati using hand-painted animation. It is a magical piece about the limits of magic and imagination, of innocence, and the bond of dreams unfulfilled. There is even a self-reflective moment when the character Tatischeff (Tati’s real name) views Mon Oncle at the cinema. A bit boring, but anyone who loves visual art will wallow happily in its beauty.

Never Let Me Go (Mark Romanek, UK)
An adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s dystopian novel, this film does not feel like science fiction. It is so naturally acted that its characters and 20th century setting are utterly believable… until you realize they are not. The film does not make explicit moral comments about its content, but viewers are invited to, for sure!

Rabbit Hole (John Cameron Mitchell, USA)
A fine film about a couple trying to recover and save their marriage after their son is killed by a sweet kid driving a bit too fast. Nicole Kidman plays the wife who cannot move on after this event; we ache for her even as she becomes obsessed with the teenage driver.

Sarah's Key (Elle s'appelait Sarah) (Gilles Paquet-Brenner, France)
No quarrels with this, except the utterly predictable ending. Kristin Scott Thomas is believably anguished as she realizes that her in-laws’ apartment was one from which a Jewish family was evicted during the Nazi occupation of Paris, beginning her obsession with its former tenants. Her exposure of the truth and its effect on her husband and his family structure the tale.

Tabloid (Errol Morris, USA)
A doc that makes you laugh at the saddest, craziest revelations about a beauty queen with a high IQ and an absurd history. Another take on truth and lies and the media’s construction of both, this is a hoot, even if one feels sad for the nutty lady.

Tamara Drewe (Stephen Frears, UK)
A very well-made film and one of the few comedies I saw, Tamara Drewe was thoroughly enjoyable, though not “great”. Set in the English countryside mostly at a writer’s retreat, the film includes a range of characters and comic situations to catch and hold one’s interest: impudent teenage girls and their ghastly pranks, an arrogant, successful writer and his much-wronged wife, a struggling and nerdy academic, and a herd of cows that… no, I won’t spoil it.

The Trip (Michael Winterbottom, UK)
The best comedy and one of my favorite films of the fest, this movie brings together Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, both remarkable comics and actors, on a trip through the Lake District with stops at the best inns and restaurants. It is apparently mostly improvised. I laughed so hard I had an asthma attack! Brilliant, as they say. I wish I had understood all the Brit-only allusions.

Interesting, but not for BMFI

Aftershock (Tang Shan Da Di Zhen) (Feng Xiaogang, China)
Aptly described as an epic, this film recreates the horrible Tang Shen earthquake of 1976 in which 240,000 were killed. Indeed, it is dedicated to them, but goes on to show documentary footage from the recent Cheng Du quake. At its heart the film deals with family issues, especially poignant to the Chinese: favoring sons over daughters. It is heart-rending and the earthquake scenes and footage are not for the faint of heart.

Beautiful Boy (Shawn Ku, USA)
Parents try to cope with the aftermath of their 18-year-old son committing mass murder. This is tough material and fairly well done.

Casino Jack (George Hickenlooper, Canada)
Kevin Spacey plays Jack Abramoff well, but the movie is not sure if it is a comedy or a tragedy. As with most historical fiction, it does not announce its deviations from the fact, but I admit it kept my interest.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog, USA)
The caves of Chauvet in 3D! This is a Herzog travelogue about an area twice as old as Lascaux. The art and anthropological paleontology are more exciting than the 3D, but that technology reveals the contours of these remarkable caves as 2D could not. Everything Herzog does is worth seeing, including this, in whatever dimension you find it.

Confessions (Kokuhaku) (Tetsuya Nakashima, Japan)
This film proved to me that wearing uniforms, even in socially-considerate Japan, will not make nice kids out of destructive middle school bullies. The teacher’s vindictiveness after these kids murder her child drives the movie’s plot and morality. Gadzooks, it was a film that made me want to call my kids and tell them to pull the grandchildren out of school to keep them from evil!

I Wish I Knew (Hai Shang Chuan Qi) (Jia Zhangke, China/The Netherlands)
A personalized history of Shanghai from the 1930s to now with many excursions into the history of Chinese film, this is too long and too slow to capture most viewers, but it contains many interesting scenes of China over the past 70 years. The film is all told through interviews with mostly elderly Shanghainese whose indomitable spirits are so inspiring. For those with an interest in China, this is worth sitting through.

Mamma Gogo (Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Iceland)
A self-revealing satire about Icelandic film and finance industries that form the backdrop for an odd homage to his recently deceased mother. The narrative is held together by his mother’s steep decline into dementia, even as Iceland’s economy does much the same.

Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, USA)
Very dry, dour, and slow, so I left.

Norwegian Wood (Noruwei No Mori) (Tran Anh Hung, Japan)
I did not see enough of it to comment, but it looked promising.

Special Treatment (Sans queue ni tête) (Jeanne Labrune, France/Luxembourg/Belgium)
Isabelle Huppert shows her verve and acting style in this odd film that pits psychoanalysis against prostitution as therapies for bourgeois angst. A very funny premise.

Three (Drei) (Tom Tykwer, Germany)
The director of Run Lola Run, Tykwer has put together an entertaining love triangle—first a wife and then her husband fall in love with the same man. It has some very funny plot twists, clever cinematography, and for probably the first time in the history of narrative feature film, the surgical excision of a testicle! I would show it, but who would come see it?

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Lung Boonmee Raluek Chat)
(Apichatpong Weerasethakul, UK/Thailand/France/Germany/Spain)
This prize winner left me wondering “Why?” What was it about and why did it win? Yes, it has a gentle touch and a lyrical spirit, but is it worth the prizes it got in Venice and Cannes? Someone help me.

Miss-able

Curling (Denis Côté, Canada)
Character transformation through the very odd game of curling? Well maybe for Canadians, but not for me.

Everything Must Go (Dan Rush, USA)
I didn’t see enough of this to comment, but Will Ferrell does “sad” at least as well as he does “funny”. However, I wonder why he is shown peeing and then wiping the drips from the toilet? Are we meant to think he is caring? Oh well, at least he did not vomit during the footage I viewed.

It's Kind of a Funny Story (Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, USA)
This film totally missed its potential to be really funny and clever and therefore it is rather painful, despite some good acting. If nothing else were showing, you might go see it.

Last Night (Missy Tadjedin, France/USA)
I did not make it through the end, but many folk liked it.

Miral (Julian Schnabel, UK/Israel/France)
A monumental disappointment! Following The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which won numerous international awards, this film shows that Julian Schnabel can make really bad movies, too. Often filmed out of focus with a palsied, hand-held camera, it is visually unwatchable. The script is clumsy, pedantic, and one-sided.

Passion Play (Mitch Glazer, USA)
The question on everyone’s lips as they left this film, even before it was over, was “How did this film get made and why was it admitted to TIFF?” It is pretty dreadful. Mickey Rourke, Megan Fox, and Bill Murray don’t save it; the premise is ridiculous. It offered me some time to nap.

What's Wrong with Virginia (Dustin Lance Black, USA)
Nothing nice about this flick, not the characters nor their actions. Okay if you are in the mood for a downer about religious crackpots in the guise of the law who take sexual advantage of the mentally ill! If this is small-town America, keep me in the cities, Lord!

Movies I wish I had seen:

Incendies

Inside Job

The King’s Speech

Little White Lies

Passione

Potiche

A Day for Peace

2010-09-20T14:40:00.000-04:00

By TOM DI NARDO

Ever since creatures balanced themselves on two legs and discovered blunt instruments, humans have committed violence on each other, whether individually, in groups, in warfare or in many forms of savagery. Could homo sapiens ever mature to the point where peace, even temporary peace, is possible?

You can believe it after seeing British filmmaker Jeremy Gilley’s film The Day After Peace, shown around the world on September 21 (and locally at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute and the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville). The film is only one facet of the worldwide phenomenon known as Peace One Day, which has curiously been less visible in the United States than in Europe, Asia, or Africa.

Gilley convinced the United Kingdom and Costa Rica to propose a United Nations resolution, urging international non-violence on the day the UN had symbolically chosen in 1981. UN’s Secretary General Kofi Annan was highly enthused about the project, preparing the formal announcement of approval by all 192 nations of the General Assembly. Unfortunately, it was scheduled for ….. 10 am on September 11, 2001.

During the following years of global rancor, Gilley traveled to many countries, wrote to all Nobel peace recipients and achieved minor agreements and tentative covenants. He even scored a meeting with the Dalai Lama, who said that “whether in our lifetime or not, we must make the effort.”

In a bitter failure, some in the League of Arab States dismissed his idea only because he had met with Nobelist and Israeli Shimon Peres---though Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had refused to see him. But Gilley continued to ask the impossible, refining a trait that eventually began to be rewarded.

Many diverse groups around the world began to participate in related educational activities and sports. Ice cream mavens Ben and Jerry funded 70 detailed activity plans, allowing teachers from grades six to 12 to involve students in projects emphasizing tolerance, understanding and non-violence.

Though he had received support from many major personalities, including tenor Luciano Pavarotti, Gilley realized that he needed the help of famous names to widen awareness of Peace One Day. The film shows a nervous Gilley meeting actress Angelina Jolie, who first expresses a wish that worthy projects wouldn’t need celebrities. She then immediately calls her agent to block the evening of September 20, and to schedule an early end to her shooting on that day to publicize showing of the film.

One of the film’s astounding sequences is Gilley’s friendly meeting with actor Jude Law. Gilley mentions an upcoming visit to Afghanistan, and is stunned when Law asks the dates. Eventually, Law spends eight days with Gilley in remote Afghan villages, and the result is a signed pact from the Taliban leader promising no attacks toward humanitarian aid on Peace Day. Thanks to that window of safety, UNICEF workers poured in and vaccinated over a million children on that one day.

Gilley also took advantage of the overwhelming international popularity of football, the most played game in the world. The program called “One Day One Goal” supports hundreds of games all over the world on that day, with players who are normally adversaries or separated socially sharing a common experience. Competitors Puma and Adidas have both agreed to support this program in supplying equipment.

Local schools all over the country are involved in this day of unity; for instance, Germantown Friends School, with a dedication of community involvement, has invited youngsters from public and neighboring schools, plus kids from the Police Athletic League, to play together at their four fields on Tuesday. The YouTube video of “One Day One Goal” is a stunner, with the finale of the short clip showing football players celebrating in all UN countries.

A wealth of Peace One Day websites and YouTube videos demonstrate an embrace of many different facets of the September 21 celebration. One example is Jane Goodall, a UN peace ambassador and famed naturalist, who is involved with environmental problems with her Roots & Shoots program.

Eventually, it comes down to this: If one person with a dream of hope for the world can make such a huge global difference, and touch that many people, could a world of non-conflict really be possible?

If there can be Peace One Day, why not peace… one day?

Tom Di Nardo is a free-lance writer in Philadelphia.

Bryn Mawr Film Institute will be showing The Day After Peace tomorrow, Tuesday, September 21 at 5:00 pm.

This Week at BMFI

2010-09-14T15:56:00.005-04:00

Things have been busy at BMFI! Check out the schedule for the coming week:

Opening this week for limited screenings is Winter's Bone, the heart-wrenching drama about modern life in the Ozark Mountains based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell and directed by emerging talent Debra Granik. Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky and Mao's Last Dancer will continue at BMFI another week.

Experience Gotterdammerung, the final opera in Wagner's epic Ring cycle, on the big screen on Wednesday, September 15 at 7:00 pm or Sunday, September 19 at 1:00 pm. These HD presentations kick off BMFI's Fall Opera Series and conclude the Ring cycle as performed by the Catalan performance troupe La Fura dels Baus in Valencia, Spain.

See The Day After Peace on Tuesday, September 21 at 5:00 pm. Jeremy Gilley's documentary about his struggle to effect world peace for just one day a year will be shown in honor of the International Day of Peace. Admission to this inspirational film is FREE for BMFI members.

Get some industry insight from local producer and Bryn Mawr College alum Sheena Joyce at a screening of her charming 2005 documentary Rock School on Wednesday, September 22 at 7:30 pm. This screening is the first in a four-film series celebrating Bryn Mawr College's 125th Anniversary.

Attend a fascinating conversation, moderated by WHYY's Elisabeth Perez-Luna, with former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt as she recounts her shocking true story about being kidnapped and held hostage for six-and-a-half years. Celebrating the release of Betancourt's new memoir, this event on Thursday, September 23 at 7:30 pm will also feature a screening of the award-winning 2003 documentary The Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt.

To get more out of our programming and your favorite movies, sign up for our exciting new Film Courses and our fall season of Talk Cinema! Hurry--our Film History Discussion Group: 1945-Present begins Monday, September 20, and the One Day Seminar: Cinema of the 1960s takes place on Saturday, September 25.

Coming soon:
Lebanon, an unflinching look at the 1982 invasion of Lebanon by Israeli forces culled from director Samuel Moaz's firsthand experiences as an Israeli solider in the conflict, will start a run at BMFI in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more information about daily moderated discussions that will accompany selected screenings of this gripping film.

We'll see you at the movies!

Supercalifragilistic: MARY POPPINS Sing-along a Hit!

2010-08-05T17:04:00.004-04:00

Last night, Wednesday, August 4, Bryn Mawr Film Institute celebrated everyone's favorite magical nanny with a sing-along screening of Mary Poppins. A sell-out, the screening was the perfect way to conclude our "Singing in the Summer" series of sing-alongs! The 1964 Disney hit starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke still inspires the imagination as much today as ever--patrons of all ages came out decked as suffragettes, chimney sweeps, a penguin, and Mary herself! (As with all of our sing-alongs, everyone who came in costume got free popcorn.)

Check out the pictures and see the costumes for yourself. Which one is your favorite?

Visiting all the way from Dortmund, Germany, Oskar Schleicher, Christina Weinmann, and Annicka Weinmann (right to left) joined Rosemont's Mimi Weinmann. The first group in line, their costumes ran the gamut!

These junior chimney sweeps made our Mary Poppins a family reunion. Three branches of the family gathered together just to sing along with Mary. From right to left: Sam Rovito, Ben Rovito, Shane Baeur, Matthew Dickerson, Izzy Rovito, Gabby Rovito, and Abby Dickerson.

Maddie Clancy looked adorable in a perfect adaptation of the dress Mary wears in the animated dream sequence. The sing along was the perfect opportunity to pull out her old halloween costume.

I was hoping that someone would come dressed as a penguin! Thanks, Grace Wooten, for making my wish come true. Grace is shown here with her aunt, Eileen Cunliffe. Three generations of the women in their family came to the sing along for "a girls night out" together.

Ava Soroush was merry as Mary, with her bag, umbrella, and her father Matt by her side.

Danie Martin and Emily Maxtone-Gram are both big fans of the film, and showed their support by dressing up as Mary and a chimney sweep (with a creative choice of sweeper).

If you enjoyed this sing-along (or wish you had come), we're going to be doing two more this fall. The schedule will be announced soon. Keep an eye on our website and look out for the new issue of Projections magazine with all the details!

The Intern's Perspective: BMFI's August Programming

2010-08-03T11:54:00.001-04:00

Richie Weker, a long-time BMFI intern and a rising senior at Lower Merion High School, reflects on BMFI's August programming. Enjoy!

If there are four things in life that I love they have to be, in no particular order, music, birthdays, girls, and food. It is often difficult to integrate these into my life, given my already busy schedule. Who would have thought that Bryn Mawr Film Institute’s August programming would help me conveniently include these delights in my life?

First, the music: on Wednesday, August 4 at 7:00pm, Bryn Mawr Film Institute will continue its tradition of sing-alongs with a screening of Mary Poppins, where patrons can sing along with Julie Andrews in her Oscar-winning film debut. If you wear a costume—you could dress up as a chimney sweep (or the chimney), the bird woman, or a penguin, for example—you get a free small popcorn! We can also finally learn how to spell the incredible “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” when the song’s lyrics appear on the big screen.

As if this wasn’t enough for BMFI, they are even throwing a birthday bash that lasts five weeks! Famed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa would have hit the century mark this year and BMFI is showing five films that best represent the director’s lifelong achievements, including Rashomon, The Hidden Fortress, and Stray Dog. A movie will be shown once every Tuesday night at 7:00pm, starting with Seven Samurai on Tuesday, August 3 and ending with Yojimbo on Tuesday, August 31.

Girls are very confusing and yet fascinating to me. I have yet to fully understand them, but I am getting there through many hours of hard research and observation. This August, BMFI will offer me three great opportunities to study three big name female stars as part of the Leading Ladies of the Silver Screen film series. Running Wednesday nights from August 11 through August 25, the series features Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina, Elizabeth Taylor in A Place in the Sun, and Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve.

As for food, the fourth delight, the answer is simple. The rich and buttery popcorn at BMFI is simply unbeatable! You would have to be crazy to pass up on this and the many treats that BMFI has to offer.

Thank you, Richie! Find out more information about our August programming online at http://www.brynmawrfilm.org/.

Patrons feast on FORKS OVER KNIVES with guest Rip Esselstyn

2010-07-29T17:09:00.000-04:00

On Monday night, nearly 400 people gathered at Bryn Mawr Film Institute for the premiere of Forks Over Knives, a revolutionary documentary written and directed by Lee Fulkerson that explores the relationship between our health and the foods we eat. The film makes the profound claim that many of the diseases plaguing Americans can be controlled by rejecting a diet of animal-based and processed foods. Joining us specially for the screening, which was graciously sponsored by Whole Foods Market, was the New York Times bestselling author Rip Esselstyn, who gave a short talk and signed copies of his book, Engine 2 Diet.

Engine 2 Diet author Rip Esselstyn signs BMFI's guest book after the fundraiser reception.

Fifty patrons enjoyed a special plant-strong vegan dinner upstairs at a fundraiser reception before the film, mingling with Esselstyn as a pianist played nearby. Provided by Whole Foods Market, the delicious spread featured Engine 2 lasagna, kale salad, fruit salad and oatmeal cookies.

For those unable to get tickets to the dinner (which filled up weeks in advance), Whole Foods Market provided vegan-friendly snacks in the theatre arcade, including fruit smoothies and a summer soup made without any oils. Whole Foods also organized free health testing including blood pressure and body mass index readings.

Above: Guest Kathy Pollard gets her blood pressure taken--104/62! She beamed, declaring, "I'm powered by a plant-strong diet!"

Esselstyn’s experience firefighting in Austin, Texas led him to write the Engine 2 Diet. BMFI was pleased to invite local firefighters to attend the event for free! Some of Bryn Mawr’s own firefighters and junior firefighters came to the event--and they brought their truck too! The firefighters were invited upstairs to grab a bite before the movie and then headed into the theatre to enjoy the documentary. Find out more about the volunteer Bryn Mawr Fire Company here.

Author Rip Esselstyn (back row, fourth from left) joined Whole Foods Market managers Ruth Harp (second from left) and Charlene Nolan (front row, center) to welcome Bryn Mawr Fire Company's firefighters to the screening.

The arcade was packed for this sell-out event! Some people came all the way from Florida to attend!

Admission to the screening was by suggested donation and all proceeds from this world premiere event and the fundraiser dinner benefited BMFI, a non-profit. For more ways to help BMFI, click here.

Did you see the film? What did you think of the event?

Best of the Tredyffrin Student Film Festival at BMFI

2010-07-28T17:14:00.011-04:00

In addition to showing independent and international cinema, Bryn Mawr Film Institute invites you to see some of the best work from the filmmakers of tomorrow. On Monday, August 2 at 9:15pm, BMFI will showcase the best films of the 4th Annual Tredyffrin Student Film Festival, sponsored by the Tredyffrin Public Library. This is a great opportunity for the public to view the hard work of the contestants on the big screen. Come enjoy a fun evening while viewing the work of these local young artists… for free!

See these festival winners on BMFI’s big screen:

First Place: The End by Dan Leung
Second Place: Vietnam by Ian Connelly
Third Place: The Adventures of Barbara and Octavius by Franklin Brown and Jake Elkin
Honorable Mention: Valley Forge by James Connors

The winners were chosen by BMFI’s own Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D., Valerie Temple, and Ben Hickernell and were announced on Tuesday, July 27.

Read a Main Line Suburban Life article about the festival here.

Watch the clever trailer for the festival here.

The winning films are featured as part of Open Screen Mondays, a monthly program in which filmmakers of all ages can show their work on the big screen and receive praise (or criticism) from their peers, free of charge! Find out more information online here.

HOT News: Vote for BMFI!

2010-07-21T15:59:00.001-04:00

Bryn Mawr Film Institute has been nominated as the Best Indie Theater on MyPHL17’s Best of Philly Hot List for 2010!

Here at BMFI, we feel we’ve done more than renovate a historic theater building—we’ve worked to build a vibrant community of film lovers through our screenings, film education offerings, and membership program.

All of our patrons can enjoy:
* A diverse selection of the best art house and repertory film programming
* Plays from London’s National Theatre and operas from Europe simulcast in HD
* Saturday morning Kids Matinees that families can enjoy together, October through May
* Film classes and educational programs for students of all ages
* Free discussions help you get the most out of the films you love
* The best popcorn on the Main Line!

In addition, BMFI members receive special benefits including discounted tickets and free members-only screenings.

If you love what we offer, help us by telling MyPHL17. With just the click of a mouse, you can show how much BMFI means to filmgoers like you! It’s easy and free to vote, just click here.

Voting is only one small way to help BMFI. You can also talk us up to your friends and family, sign up to volunteer, become a member, become a business sponsor, and/or contribute to our Theater Three Challenge campaign.

Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you at the movies.

The Girl Who Played with Fire - Friday at BMFI!

2010-07-15T10:44:00.002-04:00

The Girl Who Played with Fire starts at BMFI this Friday, June 16. We couldn't be happier to welcome the second film in the Millennium trilogy, based on the best-selling novels of Stieg Larsson. The first film adaptation, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, was already a huge hit at BMFI this spring, playing for nine weeks; it has just been released on DVD. A Hollywood version of Tattoo is in the works from director David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac) as well, although I can't imagine anyone would be better suited to play the enigmatic computer hacker Lisbeth Salander as the Swedish sensation Noomi Rapace, who reprises her role in The Girl Who Played with Fire.

Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl Who Played with Fire.

To read a summary, watch a trailer, view showtimes, and buy tickets, visit BMFI's website.

If you are looking for a good read, check out Larsson's novels--you won't be alone! Recently released in the US, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the third and final novel in the Millennium trilogy, is currently number three on The New York Times bestseller list; the first two thrillers dominate the paperback bestsellers, with Tattoo featured for 54 weeks now. Forty million copies of the trilogy have been sold worldwide. According to Entertainment Weekly, that's enough for every person in Sweden to own four copies!

For an interesting article about Stieg Larsson and the trilogy's journey from page to screen, check out this recent Entertainment Weekly cover story.

Visit Larsson's website for a complete biography and fun features like the Millennium Stockholm Map.

If you're already a fan of the novels, you may also appreciate writer/director Nora Ephron's affectionate parody in this month's New Yorker magazine, The Girl Who Fixed the Umlaut. (The Philadelphia Inquirer film critic Steven Rea begins his review of the The Girl Who Played with Fire by commenting on her story!)

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is coming to theaters in October 2010.

Shall We Sing? THE KING AND I Reigns at BMFI

2010-07-08T12:48:00.001-04:00

Last night 150 patrons answered the question "Shall We Dance?" with a resounding "Yes!" at Bryn Mawr Film Institute's sing-along screening of THE KING AND I. The 1956 film version stars Deborah Kerr as Anna Leonowens, the feisty widow hired as school teacher to the wives and children of King Mongkut of Siam, played by the masterful Yul Brynner. A chorus of voices chimed in on such Rodgers and Hammerstein hits as "Hello Young Lovers" and "Getting to Know You" as the classic played on the big screen. As always with our sing-along screenings, patrons who came in costume received a free small popcorn!

Sing-along fan Anne O'Brien's costume is a composite: the King on the top half and Anna on the bottom! She's accompanied by Gail Bober, dressed as one of the King's wives.

The family-friendly sing-along had some younger film fans dressed up too. Here Nina Zimmerman poses with her grandma, BMFI President Juliet Goodfriend.

Join everyone's favorite magical nanny for the final sing-along of the summer, Mary Poppins, on Wednesday, August 4 at 7:00 pm. Dress as your favorite chimney sweep and bring a kite or your very own flying umbrella to get free popcorn at BMFI's screening of this Disney musical treat!

Ooooo-KLAHOMA! Sing-along

2010-06-04T14:23:00.094-04:00

Oh, what a beautiful evening it was at Bryn Mawr Film Institute on Wednesday, June 2. Over 125 enthusiastic patrons of all ages came out for BMFI's sing-along screening of OKLAHOMA!, the first of three sing-alongs this summer. Fans of the Rodgers and Hammerstein hit belted out such classic tunes as “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” and “People Will Say We’re in Love” as the film played on the big screen. Many even rustled up costumes in honor of the event!

Conestoga High School alums Julia Race and Emma Backe were excited
to make BMFI's sing-along a part of their summer.

Cowgirls at heart, Eileene Donnelly, Helene Snyder, and Rosemary Haggerty wore the hats and bandanas to prove it.

When asked about her lemon-bedecked hat, Pam Bentz (posing with Ted Douglas) responded, "There was a lack of citrus in Oklahoma!, and I'm here to help rectify that."

Even BMFI President Juliet Goodfriend and the Chairman of the Board, Samuel R. Scott, wore their finest western duds to the sing-along!

If you think this sounds fun, check out the other musical classics that will get the sing-along treatment this summer at BMFI: The King and I shows on Wednesday, July 7 at 7:00pm, followed by Mary Poppins on Wednesday, August 4 at 7:00pm. Remember, patrons who come in costume receive a free small popcorn!

BMFI has a brand-new website!

2010-06-02T13:43:00.005-04:00

Bryn Mawr Film Institute is thrilled to announce the launch of its new website, designed by Zero Defect Design. Now it will be easier than ever to check the schedule and learn about our theater's programming, news, membership, film courses, and fundraising. The new site goes live today, June 2, and will appear in your browser within the next twenty-four hours.

Explore BMFI’s new online home, keeping in mind a number of new features:

Calendar. The daily schedule appears under the calendar. Click on a date in the calendar to see all of the films showing that day. Click on the individual film titles for more information about them.

Online Ticketing. Buy tickets to screenings directly from the website through MovieTickets.com. Click the red ticket icon on the right-hand side, which leads to a general page from which you can navigate to the film and show you would like to see. You can also click the showtime for which you would like to buy a ticket.

Film Pages. Each film has its own individual webpage, featuring a description, the show times, and a trailer and review as available. Certain events are highlighted in the ever-changing box at the top of the homepage, and others are highlighted down below. Click on these highlighted events to access detailed information about them. Find the full list of upcoming screenings and events by selecting the drop-down “Films” menu and selecting “films”. Then click on any of the grey links in the resultant list to get to the specialized events pages.

Comments. Share your thoughts on any event or film that we show—fill out the comments box at the bottom of the appropriate event page and an administrator will review it and post it shortly.

Contact Form. To give feedback to BMFI, click the “Contact Us” button at the top of every page to pull up the new contact form. Select the nature of your inquiry from the drop down menu, fill out the form with your contact information and question, and the appropriate staff member will get back to you as soon as possible.

For Students. A special “For Students” section geared towards high school and college students features information about student discounts, internships, different film organizations, and a list of upcoming screenings we think high school and college students would especially enjoy.

BMFInsights. The most recent posts on BMFI’s blog are now highlighted at the bottom of our home page.

Press Releases and Press Clippings. Select highlights will be featured on the home page; click on the “about” drop down menu and select “Press Releases” or “Press Clippings” to see the full list of available press releases and press clippings.

Bookmark and Share. Click the green “Bookmark & Share” button in the grey right-hand sidebar to share information easily with family and friends.

Photo Archives. This section will be appearing shortly.

The new website also streamlines previously existing content and features, including:

Membership. To become a member, click on “Become a Member” at the top of every page, or select “Membership” from the drop-down “Membership” menu.

Donate. To donate to BMFI, click on “Donate” at the top of every page or choose “Donate” from the drop-down “Support” menu.

Film Courses and Course Archive. Current classes are listed under “Film Studies” or “Film Production” on the drop-down “Education” menu. Explore BMFI’s past course offerings online by selecting “Course Archive”.

History. Click “About” or “History” on the drop-down “About” menu for more information about the theater’s past and present.

We hope that you find the new website helpful, attractive, and easy to use!

Readers' Choice: BMFI is "Best Movie Theater"

2010-06-01T12:37:00.001-04:00

The votes are in and Bryn Mawr Film Institute has been named “Best Movie Theater” by the readers of the Main Line Times and Main Line Suburban Life! Among the hundreds of votes cast, BMFI topped the category for the third straight year, our fourth win total. The complete list winners will be revealed in a special Readers Choice supplement published by Main Line Media News on June 17th.

The 2nd Annual Main Line Student Film Festival Wows at BMFI

2010-05-25T18:04:00.002-04:00

On Thursday night, over one hundred people gathered at BMFI for the second annual Main Line Student Film Festival to screen the twenty finalist films, created by high school filmmakers throughout the Greater Philadelphia area. Over sixty shorts were submitted by students at fifteen different public and private schools. Entries ranged from comedy to documentary and experimental to stop motion animation.

(Left to right) Alex Ramsey and Joe Cilio, student organizers and Haverford School Film Club members, pose with Festival Director Brett Boham.

First, second, and third place winners were determined by a panel of film students, and received cash prizes and film books. Kevin Chou of Germantown Academy was awarded first place for his hilarious comedy, “Iced Tea,” about one young man’s obsession with iced tea and how it leads him to face his greatest fear. Second place went to the Haverford School’s Tyler Wood, Taylor Mansmann, Thomas Isen, and Martin O’Riordan for “In the Wrong Hands,” which wowed audiences and took home the Audience Award as well. Third place was given to the Shipley School’s Katherine Paige Picariello for her “Think Twice,” a drama/music video combination. Honorable Mentions went to “Tumaini” by Alex Takei of Germantown Academy, “Spork” by Corey Hughes of Malvern Prep, and “There was a Time when I thought I’d be Happy” by Craig Hacker and Kyle Boland of Owen J. Roberts High School.

The event was organized by The Haverford School Film Club, created in 2006 as a venue for student filmmakers to collaborate on productions. Over the past four years, the club has produced numerous short films and two features, as well as creating and organizing the annual Main Line Student Film Festival. Alumni of the club have gone on to such prestigious film schools as USC, Loyola Marymount, and Temple.

Check out the winning videos here. Find out more information about the Main Line Student Film Festival at mainlinestudentfilmfestival.ning.com.

Anna Adler's Adventures in Cannes: ICM, Flip Flops, and Films

2010-05-24T10:25:00.001-04:00

University of Pennsylvania student Anna Adler has been diligently keeping us up to date on her trip to the Cannes Film Festival. This is her final post. Enjoy!

I can't believe it has come time for me to leave already! This was such a unique and truly outstanding experience. On Friday, we (the students) had a number of meetings with the program regarding our final paper, which we have a month to complete after the trip is over. Because of this, I did not see any movies that day because the screening times didn't correlate with these other commitments. Instead, Jeff Berg, who is the chairman and CEO of International Creative Management (ICM) (and also a Penn parent), invited us all to his suite at the Carlton Hotel to talk to us about his career path. In particular, he discussed the way in which he broke into the entertainment industry and moved up to his high position. I thought one great piece of advice he gave was to really try to see films of cultures with which you are unfamiliar. Cannes is the perfect opportunity to do this because it is where industry professionals come together from all over the world and display their respective creative works. I believe that I have really challenged myself as a "voyeur" throughout this program--I used to be a little bit intimidated and resistant to watching something so different from what I was used to. Now, I have seen so many amazing films that I know I would have never chosen to see had I not been here, and as a result, will be more open in the future.

Today (Sunday) started out very frustrating, and I thought I was going to have to leave this place on a slightly bad note. Since it was the last day of the festival, all of the main competition and films categorized as "of certain regard" were played again before the prizes were given out. On my way down to the Croisette, I found out that my pass could only serve as an entry ticket to the films that were being shown in the Salle Debussy theater, and only three films of the entire lineup were being shown here; I needed a better pass if I wanted to try to see anything else. I got to the 12 p.m. screening of Mike Leigh's Another Year about thirty minutes before the doors closed, and when I arrived, the line to get in was already around the block. Because of my past good luck with these situations, I thought I would persist and see if I could get in, but the theater filled up as I was approaching the front of the line. While I was slightly annoyed, I realized that Xavier Beauvois' Des Hommes et Des Dieux was going to be the next movie shown in this same theater in a few hours, so I made sure to get in line very early to prevent the screening filling up again. When I went to go show my badge to enter, however, the guard looked down to my feet and refused to let me in because I was wearing flip flops. What was even worse was that he let the next man in behind me who was wearing sandals "without backs," but he claimed that his "were nicer than mine." I was so angry at this point! After I went back to the College International to change my footwear, I was really upset because no other films were going to be played at the Debussy that day. Despite this, I didn't give up and made a paper sign to try to get into the only Lumiere premiere of the day, Julie Bertuccelli's The Tree. In the process of this, a friend of mine in the program with me messaged me that the guards were letting any badges pass to get into Im Sangsoo's The Housemaid, and I quickly jumped in on this opportunity.

Although this movie is very sad, its ambiguous ending (which is similar in this way to Poetry's) has kept me thinking about the film since I've left the theater. What particularly struck me about this film was Sangsoo's deliberate construction of the "mise-en-scene," using lots of imagery of closed and open doorways to represent what is "out in the open" for all to know, and "hidden inside" for the others to figure out.

While I missed getting into the Festival Closing while I was in The Housemaid, I was so happy to hear that Poetry won for best screenplay, and that I had the opportunity to see it while I was in Cannes. I definitely want to see the rest of the films that won a prize when they become available for viewing in the States. I learned so much in the past two weeks, and my love for cinema is now stronger than ever. Even with all of the new ways to view films--on laptops, iPods, premium television, etc.--there is nothing comparable to attending and viewing these types of movies in the magical environment of the Festival de Cannes!

We at Bryn Mawr Film Institute wish Anna many more adventures, cinematic and otherwise, and thank her for sharing her trip to Cannes with us. Au revoir!

Anna Reports from Cannes: Walking the Red Carpet and Antibes Adventures

2010-05-21T12:52:00.000-04:00

This is the fifth post from BMFI's own Cannes Film Festival correspondant, University of Pennsylvania student Anna Adler. Enjoy!

Yesterday, the program I am on took us on a road trip to Antibes to meet with Lorraine Carrady Quinn, who is also a Penn alum. The bus took us on a beautiful ride along the shores of the south of France. Lorraine talked to us about what she does for her family-owned movie exhibition business, which manages many theaters in numerous countries throughout the Caribbean. While I have learned a lot about the production, distribution, and exhibition processes in my courses at Penn, Lorraine really went into detail about the challenges she faces as an exhibitor, specifically in this region of the world. In order for movie theaters to make a profit and also stay in business, Lorraine must choose a unique lineup of movies for each theater so that the audience of that particular area will want to come and see them. While a majority of these films come from Hollywood, Lorraine said that the ones that are the most successful are the highly "visual" films, such as action movies or 3D ones like Avatar.

Afterwards, I thought I would try my luck at getting into the premiere of Doug Liman's Fair Game. I waited outside the line to get in the Lumiere for over an hour, and my attempts were really starting to look hopeless. It was about five minutes before the doors opened, however, that someone handed me a type of ticket that allowed me to go in with someone with a "better" pass than my student one. The guard pointed to a line to the far left, and it turned out to be the line that goes through the entire red carpet. As I walked down the line, I realized that I was going to have to walk past all of the cameras and main actors/actresses posing for them. At this exact moment, I realized I was directly in front of Naomi Watts and the real Valerie Plame (whom Watts plays in the film). I successfully walked down the right side of the red carpet quickly (without tripping), and my friends who got in before me saw me on the big screen that shows this action before the movie begins. I will never forget these few seconds of "fame" for the rest of my life!

I wanted to see this movie because I had written a paper on the Plame affair for my Media Law & Ethics class, which I took abroad in London this past fall. While I liked the movie because I knew the historical context behind it, I feel that I wouldn't have had the same reaction without my previous understanding. At times in the film, I felt a little confused about what was happening, and I had to "Wikipedia" the Plame affair on my Blackberry in order to be able to follow the rest of the plot of the movie. Despite this, I felt that both Sean Penn and Naomi Watts did an outstanding job in their respective roles.

Later that night, a friend of mine from Penn (who is not participating in the program but happens to be here this week) called me at 1:30 a.m. to tell me that she had some extra tickets to the amfAR charity event after party at the Hotel du Cap in Antibes. I thought this opportunity would too be good to pass up, despite my visit to Antibes earlier that day. When we arrived, my friends and I saw that some of the guests who were exiting were wearing black tie and floor-length dresses, and we were casually dressed in jeans! While most of the encounters I have had with security during this trip have been stressful, the woman working the door last night instead laughed with us and let us go right inside. Overall, I can say that this was my favorite day of my Cannes experience thus far!

Tune in for more of Anna's adventures on the Riviera, coming soon!

Anna Adler's Adventures in Cannes: HOWL, POETRY, and More

2010-05-20T02:15:00.003-04:00

University of Pennsylvania student Anna Adler reports from the Cannes Film Festival for BMFI. This is her fourth post--be sure to check out her other adventures on the Riviera!

Today (Wednesday), I woke up to a million missed calls from my mom. She waited outside the Lumiere this morning, and scored a ticket to the "hors" competition film, Olivier Assayas' Carlos. How she managed to accomplish this, I will never know. I really thought she would leave Cannes without seeing a movie, but she proved me wrong! While she was in the movie, we had a speaker come to our program this morning named Rick Hess (of the CAA Investment Group and also a Penn undergraduate alum). He discussed with us the various ways of financing a film, such as bringing the overall package together of actors and talent with investors. While I generally knew about this side of the industry, I really learned a lot about the many, many (and difficult) steps of making an original idea become a visual reality. In particular, he said that his Wharton roommates used to make fun of him for studying English and Cinema while in college, and now today are asking to work for him!

Afterwards, my friends and I decided we would try to get into Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's film, Howl, and we turned out to be successful! It was playing at a smaller theater off the Croisette. James Franco stars in this film as the famous beat poet Allen Ginsburg, whose controversial book Howl and Other Poems made him end up in court in 1957. This became the landmark case that set the legal precedent guaranteeing First Amendment Rights for these type of works. I enjoyed the movie because I have studied this historical era throughout high school and college. We then made our way over to a similar theater on the same "rue" to see a short, documentary film called Modern Day Slaves, which focuses on the abuses of foreigners who come over to the States to find work. While the subject matter was definitely informative and important, I personally did not believe that this content was portrayed in a visually and captivating way. Specifically, I did not feel that the film really left a strong impact on me, as I did not think about it much after I exited the theater.

The most exciting part of the day came next. My mom and I decided we would hold our paper signs out again to try to get into the premiere of Lee Chang-dong's Poetry, which we felt would be impossible since it is a competition movie. My mom said that if I were able to get one ticket, she obviously would let me go first because I am the one who is actually supposed to be here. Fortunately, this never had to happen, because we both were able to get tickets! It was very exciting to enter the Lumiere Theater with my mom, as she truly had such a successful experience during her short time in Cannes. While the movie was very long, I loved this unique screenplay and the way it all tied together thematically and visually. I highly recommend it to all movie-lovers to see. When we walked out, one of the heads of my program said to us, "and that was really cinema!"

Check back for more of Anna's adventures, coming soon...

Hot off the Press: BMFI’s Summer Programming

2010-05-18T12:01:00.002-04:00

If you’re looking for something to do during the dog days of summer, Bryn Mawr Film Institute has got it. We have just gone to press with our Projections program guide, which includes information about summer film courses, series, seminars, and new releases. Keep reading to learn about the highlights, or click here for the full schedule and detailed descriptions. There's truly something for every film fan.

We asked for your suggestions and you selected three fantastic classics to be shown in our inaugural Audience Choice film series: On the Waterfront (1954), The Third Man (1949), and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Enjoy Brando, Welles, and O’Toole on the big screen in these masterful cinematic achievements chosen by you.

For those that want to take a film course at BMFI but can’t commit to multiple sessions, the answer lies in this year’s Summer Classic Seminars. Each night is a stand-alone class built around one of the classics shown in the theater, featuring a lecture and a guided discussion of each. We’ll examine On the Waterfront on Wednesday, July 14, The Third Man on Wednesday, July 21, The Hidden Fortress (1958) on Tuesday, August 17, and The Lady Eve (1941) on Wednesday, August 25. Sessions go from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM with the film screenings at 7:00 PM.

BMFI celebrates song and dance on the big screen this summer. Fred Astaire straps on his dancing shoes in the Fred Astaire Frenzy film series, featuring two films. Daddy Long Legs (June 8, 7:00 PM) and You’ll Never Get Rich (June 9, 7:00 PM) showcase some of Astaire’s best musical romances, co-starring Leslie Caron and Rita Hayworth. For fans looking to belt out a few show tunes, the Singing in the Summer film series is here. Dress up and sing along with the unforgettable movie musicals Oklahoma! (June 2, 7:30 PM), The King and I (July 7, 7:00 PM), and Mary Poppins (August 4, 7:00 PM). You’ll be sure to leave these events “Chim Chim Cheree”-ing all the way home! If you care for a more academic approach, BMFI’s film course Singin’ on Screen: The Musical will certainly increase your appreciation for the movie musical genre.

Another film series all ages can look forward to is Teens on Screen. Enjoy the movies that define the teenage experience through the decades, with George Lucas’s American Graffiti (1973), teen film extraordinaire John Hughes’s Sixteen Candles (1984), and Richard Linklater’s insightful Dazed and Confused (1993) showing on 35mm on Tuesday nights in June.

Those with their eyes on the darlings of film lore can come see the charm and gravitas of Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Barbara Stanwyck on Wednesday nights in August. With the Leading Ladies of the Silver Screen film series, choose from the comedy of Sabrina (1954), the romance of A Place in the Sun (1951), and the hilarity of The Lady Eve (1941), or see all three!

Did the Master of Suspense have a political agenda? See for yourself when Hitchcock returns to BMFI. Enjoy two 35mm screenings of Sabotage (1936) and Lifeboat (1944), shown in conjunction with the four-week film course Alfred Hitchcock: The Political Films.

Another cinematic auteur, Akira Kurosawa put Japanese cinema on the map and influenced many great filmmakers. BMFI is celebrating the legend’s 100th birthday with a five-film series of screenings every Tuesday in August. The Akira Kurosawa Retrospective features his crowning achievement, Seven Samurai (1954), as well as Rashômon (1950), The Hidden Fortress (1958), Stray Dog (1949), and Yojimbo (1961).

Fans of these foreign treasures can also look forward to the wonderful Jacques Tati Festival film series, featuring M. Hulot’s Holiday (1953), Mon Oncle (1958), Playtime (1967), and Trafic (1971). The films, screening four consecutive Tuesdays in July, are shown in conjunction with the course Pantomimes and Proverbs: The Films of Tati and Rohmer, which contrasts the comedy of Jacques Tati (and his alter ego Monsieur Hulot) with the drama and romanticism of Eric Rohmer to reveal new aspects of French cinema.

And of course, you’ll be delighted in the summer’s repertoire of new releases, including the Sundance Film Festival hit The Kids Are All Right, starring Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, and Mark Ruffalo; the French romance Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky; and much, much more. Become a member and check out the newest issue of Projections or visit BrynMawrFilm.org to see what is currently showing on our screens.

The summer has a whole lot in store at BMFI, so relax, take a break from the heat, and enjoy the shows!

Anna Adler's Adventures in Cannes: Round Three

2010-05-18T10:31:00.000-04:00

University of Pennsylvania film student Anna Adler reports from the Cannes Film Festival, exclusively for BMFInsights!

Yesterday (Monday), I started my day by attending a lecture that my program from Penn set up for the students here. The lecturer's name was Geoffrey Gilmore, who is the Creative Director of the Tribeca Film Festival. He was very honest and gave great advice to us, who are all interested in getting involved in the film or media industries professionally one day. A specific, interesting thing I've been thinking about that he discussed is that it is really hard to determine audience behavior today, in particular which exact platform viewers prefer to watch movies on now--such as on a computer, an iPod or iPhone, through premium channel television programming, etc. In addition, Gilmore also talked about how it is really rare for viewers today to agree on whether or not a movie is "good" or "bad." I thought this was "right-on" because every time I have walked out of a film since I've been here, my friends and I always have very different reactions, even to something like Wall Street 2 (see previous post).

After hearing Geoffrey Gilmore, I went to the Croisette to see three films: one by an independent production company called Brotherhood, which was about the dangers of fraternity pledging; a documentary on the President of the Cannes film festival titled Gilles Jacob, L'Arpenteur de la Croisette; and a horror movie called The Pack (La Meute). I enjoyed Brotherhood in the same way that I enjoyed The Perfect Host (see Thursday's post): it was disturbing, yet entertaining, and I was never bored. The documentary was really interesting, and I especially enjoyed the shots of Gilles Jacob interacting with some of the greatest directors, actors, and actresses throughout film history. Finally, I can say the horror movie was just definitely not for me!

Check back for more of Anna's stories from the Riviera!