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McNamara documentary to open film series
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
“The Fog of War,” an Academy Award-winning documentary about Robert McNamara, secretary of defense during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations who later became president of the World Bank, will open the 17th edition of the Buffalo Film Seminars, the semester-long series of screenings and discussions sponsored by UB and the Market Arcade Film and Arts Center.
The series will take place at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays, beginning Aug. 26, 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. Following a short break at the end of each film, they will lead a discussion of the film.
The screenings are part of Film Directors (Eng 413), an undergraduate course being taught by the pair. Students enrolled in the course are admitted free; others may attend at the Market Arcade’s regular admission prices of $8.50 for adults, $6.50 for students and $6 for those 62 and over. Season tickets are available any time at a 15 percent reduction for the cost of the remaining films.
“Goldenrod handouts”—four to eight-page notes on each film—are available in the lobby of the Market Arcade 30 minutes before each screening, and later online at the Buffalo Film Seminars Web site.
Free parking is available in the M&T fenced lot opposite the theater’s Washington Street entrance. The ticket clerk in the theater will reimburse patrons the $2 parking fee.
Directed by Errol Morris, “Fog of War” (2003) combines an interview with the then-85-year-old McNamara, who served as secretary of defense during the Vietnam War and the Cuban Missile Crisis, with archival footage, documents and an original score by noted composer Philip Glass. Subtitled “Eleven Lessons of Robert S. McNamara,” the film organizes McNamara’s observations into a list of “lessons learned” about modern war.
The remainder of the schedule:
Sept 2: “Trouble in Paradise,” 1932, directed by Ernst Lubitsch.
Sept 9: “Duck Soup,” 1933, directed by the Marx Brothers.
Sept 16: “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” 1938, directed by Michael Curtiz.
Sept 23: “Brute Force,” 1947, directed by Jules Dassin.
Sept 30: “The Professionals,” 1966, directed by Richard Brooks.
Oct 7: “Love,” 1971, directed by Károly Makk.
Oct 14: “The Conversation,” 1974, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
Oct 21: “Seven Beauties,” 1975, directed by Lina Wertmuller.
Oct 28: “A Face in the Crowd,” 1957, directed by Elia Kazan.
Nov 4: “Blind Chance,” 1981, directed by Krzyzstof Kieslowski.
Nov 11: “Paris, Texas,” 1984, directed by Wim Wenders.
Nov 18: “In the Mood for Love,” 2000, Wong Kar Wei.
Nov 25: “The Lives of Others,” 2006, directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.
Dec 2: “2001: A Space Odyssey,” 1968, directed by Stanley Kubrick.
For more information about the Buffalo Film seminars, click here.