Buffalo Film Seminars Fall Series to Begin Aug. 30 with Original Print of Renoir’s "Grand Illusion"

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The restored version of Jean Renoir's 1937 classic film "The Grand Illusion," starring Jean Gabin and Eric von Stroheim, will open the Fall 2000 Buffalo Film Seminars, the popular 14-week series of screenings and discussions of great films sponsored by the University at Buffalo and the Market Arcade Film and Arts Centre.

The fall series includes outstanding films produced from 1937-98 in a broad range of genres. Screening time is 7 p.m. on Wednesdays, from Aug. 30 through Dec. 6, in the Market Arcade Film and Arts Centre, 639 Main St., Buffalo. There will be no screening Nov. 22. Series schedule.

Films will be introduced by Bruce Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Samuel P. Capen Professor of American Culture in the Department of English in the UB College of Arts and Sciences, and Diane Christian, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, also in the UB English department.

Following a short break at the end of each film, the two will lead discussions about the films with UB students and members of the public.

Admission to each film will be $6.50 (general public) and $4.50 (students and seniors 62 and older). Series tickets offering 14 screenings for the price of 12 may be purchased at all Dipson Theater box offices for $78 (general public) and $54 (students and seniors over 62).

Free parking for film patrons will be available in the lot directly opposite the Market Arcade's Washington Street entrance.

Jackson says the seminars are based on three ideas about watching film.

"One," he says, "is that the best way to watch a good film is projected on a good screen in a darkened room in the presence of other people. Watching a good film on TV or videotape is like reading a good novel in Cliff's Notes or Classic Comics: you get the contour, but you don't have the real experience of the thing.

"The second is that one of the best ways to understand your reaction to a film you've just seen is by talking about it with people who have also seen it and who are as interested in it as you are," Jackson says.

"Third, is that it is not only possible for such a discussion to involve students and nonstudents, younger people and older people, people who are passionate about film in general and people who happen to be interested in the specific movie under consideration, but that the discussion actually benefits from such a mixture of sensibilities."