‘Vampyr’ to open film series
“Vampyr,” a 1932 film by Danish writer/director Carl Theodor Dreyer that has been ranked by many as one of the greatest horror films of all time, will open the 18th edition of the Buffalo Film Seminars, the semester-long series of screenings and conversation sponsored by UB and the Market Arcade Film and Arts Center.
The series will take place at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays, beginning Jan. 13, in the Market Arcade Film and Arts Center, 639 Main St. in downtown Buffalo. The series is hosted by Diane Christian, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of English, and Bruce Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Samuel P. Capen Professor of American Culture in the Department of English.
Christian and Jackson will introduce each film and lead the discussion at the end of the screening.
The screenings are part of “Film Directors” (ENG 413), an undergraduate course being taught by the pair. Students registered for the course are admitted free; others may attend at the Market Arcade’s regular ticket prices of $9 for adults, $7 for students with ID and $6.50 for seniors. Discount tickets for the series are available.
“Goldenrod handouts”—with production and critical notes on each film—are available in the lobby of the Market Arcade 45 minutes before each screening and are posted online at the Buffalo Film Seminars Web site the day before the screening.
Free parking is available in the fenced M&T lot across the street from the theater's Washington Street entrance. The ticket seller in the theater will reimburse patrons the $2 parking fee.
Dreyer's first sound feature, “Vampyr” was based loosely on the Victorian short story “Camilla” by noted horror author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu about a young man who discovers a female vampire in a mysterious European castle.
The remainder of the schedule, with film descriptions culled from several sources, including IMDB, the online movie database, and www.filmsite.org:
• Jan 20: “Sullivan’s Travels,” 1941, directed by Preston Sturges. A Hollywood director poses as a hobo for his next work, a serious social epic. The film is generally considered to be one of Sturges' greatest dramatic comedies—and a satirical statement of his own director's creed.
• Jan 27: “Pickup on South Street,” 1953, directed by Samuel Fuller. A spy and the FBI hunt a petty thief who has lifted microfilm from a woman's purse.
• Feb 3: “Les Diaboliques,” 1955, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. The wife and mistress of a sadistic boarding school headmaster plot to kill him. But after the murder is committed, his body disappears and strange events begin to plague the two women. The film is famous for its shocking surprise ending.
• Feb 10: “The Innocents,” 1961, directed by Jack Clayton. A Victorian governess fears that a boy and girl have been possessed by a dead couple. Based on Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw."
• Feb 17: “High and Low”/“Tengoku To-Jigoku,” 1963, Akira Kurosawa. A Japanese shoe tycoon pays a king's ransom for his chauffeur's kidnapped son.
• Feb 24: “The Shop on Main Street,” 1966, directed by Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos. The Nazis put a Slovakian carpenter in charge of a deaf old Jewish woman's button shop. The film received the Oscar for best foreign-language film.
• March 3: “Le Cercle rouge,” 1970, directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. A detective pursues a thief, who robs a jewelry store with a former convict and a retired police officer.
• March 17: “The Long Goodbye,” 1973, directed by Robert Altman. Raymond Chandler's private eye Philip Marlowe tries to help a friend who is accused of murdering his wife.
• March 24: “Nostalghia,” 1983, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. While traveling with his beautiful Italian interpreter in a Tuscan village, a Russian poet suddenly becomes transfixed by memories of his homeland and his family. A local mystic helps him see the right path in his life.
• March 31: “Voskhozhdeniye,” 1977, directed by Larisa Shepitko. During World War II, two Soviet partisans leave their starving band and head to a nearby farm to get supplies. The Germans have reached the farm first, so the pair must go deep into occupied territory, a voyage that also will take them deep into their souls.
• April 7: “Reds,” 1981, directed by Warren Beatty. U.S. journalist John Reed and his wife, Louise Bryant, witness the Russian Revolution. Beatty and Maureen Stapleton received Oscars for best director and supporting actress, respectively.
• April 14: “32 Short Films About Glenn Gould,” 1993, directed by François Girard. A collection of vignettes highlighting different aspects of the life, work and character of the acclaimed Canadian classical pianist.
• April 21: “All About My Mother”/“Todo sobre mi madre,” 1999, directed by Pedro Almodóvar. After her son is killed in an accident, Manuela leaves Madrid for her old haunts in Barcelona. She reconnects with an old friend, a pre-op transsexual prostitute named La Agrado, who introduces her to Rosa, a young, pregnant nun. Meanwhile, Manuela becomes a personal assistant for Huma Rojo, an actress playing Blanche DuBois in a production of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” The film, which traces the delicate web of friendship and loss that binds these women together, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
For more information, go to Buffalo Film Seminars Web site.
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