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.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Filmmaker Appearance and FIDDLER Sing-along: A Good Week for BMFI Special Events
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:
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| Filmmaker Tigre Hill at The Barrel of a Gun screening and Q&A |
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| Rachel Hancock, Asher Hancock, and Levi Hancock with grandmother Sybil Terres Gilmar in costume! |
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| Bernie Brenner also in costume at the Fiddler on the Roof Sing-along |
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| 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!
Friday, May 13, 2011
New Summer Programming and the Return of Summer Classics!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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| BMFI remembers Elizabeth Taylor |
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| Stay out of the water... |
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| See Creature From the Black Lagoon in spectacular 3-D! |
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.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
After careful consideration, we have a winner!
By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern
Congratulations again to Erica Kleckner and to all of the 2011 SFW students. See you on June 27!
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.
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| On set at the 2009 Summer Filmmaking Workshop |
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thoughts on CERTIFIED COPY
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.
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.
***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.
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| Certified Copy, starring Juliette Binoche and William Shimell, is playing now at BMFI |
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.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
BUDRUS screening with Skype interview ushers in the future at BMFI
By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern
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.
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.
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.
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| 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.
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| See Budrus on Tuesday, May 3 at 7:30pm, followed by Q&A via Skype with Ronit Avni |
Monday, April 25, 2011
Contest Deadline Approaching!
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!
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!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Free Wine and Heart Health Talk at SIDEWAYS Screening
By Meredith Slifkin, BMFI Intern
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!”
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?
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?
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| See Sideways on Wednesday, April 20 at 7:30pm, with free wine tasting at 6:30pm. |
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!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Upcoming CLUELESS Event at BMFI: A Special “Intern-view”
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.
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.
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.”
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 |
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.
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| Alicia Silverstone earns her cult status as the privileged and popular Cher Horowitz |
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.”
Monday, March 7, 2011
BMFI's Oscar Party a Winner!
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.
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
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
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