L.A. Confidential (6:00pm) and Film Noir reading group (5:00pm), Zrinyi 14, room 412, Friday, June 18th

On Friday, June 18th, we will be discussing a short piece by Stephe Mulhall,  “Picturing the Human (Body and Soul): A Reading of Blade Runner ”, and watching “L.A. Confidential”. The reading group starts at 5:00 pm, and the screening at 6:00. See you all there!

You can listen to Stephen Mulhall talk aboout Blade Runner here

L.A. Confidential (1997)

Directed by: Curtis Hanson

Starring: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pierce, Kim Basinger

“One of the reasons “L.A. Confidential” is so good, why is deserves to be mentioned with “Chinatown,” is that it’s not just plot and atmosphere. There are convincing characters here, not least Kim Basinger‘s hooker, whose quiet line, “I thought I was helping you,” is one of the movie’s most revealing moments. Russell Crowe (“Virtuosity” and “Romper Stomper”) and Guy Pearce (“The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”) are two Australian actors who here move convincingly into starmaking roles, and Kevin Spacey uses perfect timing to suggest his character’s ability to move between two worlds while betraying both (he has a wonderful scene where he refuses to cooperate with a department investigation–until they threaten his job on the TV show).”

Blade Runner (6:00pm) and Film Noir reading group (5:00pm), Zrinyi 14, room 412, Friday, June 11th

On Friday, June 11th, we will be discussing a short piece by John Belton , “Language, Oedipus, and Chinatown”, and watching “Blade Runner”. The reading group starts at 5:00 pm, and the screening at 6:00. See you all there!

Blade Runner (1982)

Directed by: Ridley Scott

Starring: Rutger Hauer, Harrison Ford, Sean Young

Runtime: 117 min

“The physical and spiritual landscape of Blade Runner is that of the age of technology: those remnants of humanity left behind by the off-world pioneers and settlers find themselves in a world with no sunlight, surrounded by mechanisms huge, soulless buildings, police vehicles observing their deeds from the air, flying advertisement hoardings with probing searchlights, and obscurely purposeful but aberrantly shaped monoliths dividing up the pavements and roadways. In every case, the scale of the machines dwarfs that of their human creators, a diminution which is only restored by the numbers of human beings who populate the city the ebb and flow of crowds is alone capable of making it seem that Los Angeles is inhabited by its people; but even within those crowds, it seems clear that technology threatens its human creators in some intimate way.”

Stephen Mulhall

Chinatown (6:00pm) and Film Noir reading group (5:00pm), Zrinyi 14, room 412, Friday, June 4th

On Friday, June 4th, we will be discussing a short piece by Dennis Proter , “The Private Eye”, and watching “Chinatown”. The reading group starts at 5:00 pm, and the screening at 6:00. See you all there!

Chinatown (1974)

Directed by: Roman Polanski

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston

Runtime: 130 min

“Roman Polanski‘s “Chinatown” is not only a great entertainment, but something more, something I would have thought almost impossible: It’s a 1940s private-eye movie that doesn’t depend on nostalgia or camp for its effect, but works because of the enduring strength of the genre itself. In some respects, this movie actually could have been made in the 1940s. It accepts its conventions and categories at face value and doesn’t make them the object of satire or filter them through a modern sensibility, as Robert Altman did with “The Long Goodbye.” Here’s a private-eye movie in which all the traditions, romantic as they may seem, are left intact. ”

Roger Ebert

The Big Sleep (6:00pm) and Film Noir reading group (5:00pm), Zrinyi 14, room 412, Friday, May 28th

On Friday 28th we will be discussing a short piece by Elisabeth Bronfen , “Femme Fatale: Negotiations of Tragic Desire”, and watching “The Big Sleep”. The reading group starts at 5:00 pm, and the screening at 6:00. See you all there!

The Big Sleep (1946)

Directed by: Howard Hawks

Starring: Humprey Bogart, Lauren Bacall

“Bogart himself made personal style into an art form. What else did he have? He wasn’t particularly handsome, he wore a rug, he wasn’t tall (“I try to be,” he tells Vickers), and he always seemed to act within a certain range. Yet no other movie actor is more likely to be remembered a century from now. And the fascinating subtext in “The Big Sleep” is that in Bacall he found his match.””

Roger Ebert

Double Indemnity (6:00pm) and Film Noir reading group (5:00pm), Zrinyi 14, room 412, Friday, May 21th

On Friday 21th we will be discussing a short piece by Deborah Knight , “On Reason and Passion in The Maltese Falcon”,  and watching “Double Indemnity”. The reading group starts at 5:00 pm, and the screening at 6:00.

See you all there!

Double Indemnity

Directed by: Billy Wilder

Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurrey, Edward G. Robinson

“”Double Indemnity” has one of the most familiar noir themes: The hero is not a criminal, but a weak man who is tempted and succumbs. In this “double” story, the woman and man tempt one another; neither would have acted alone. Both are attracted not so much by the crime as by the thrill of committing it with the other person. Love and money are pretenses. The husband’s death turns out to be their one-night stand.”

Roger Ebert