Dead Filmmakers Society Summer Film Series 2009

All screenings will be held in the Sandburg Theater, Western Illinois University Union. Films begin at 7 p.m. and there is no admission charge. Many films will be preceded by selected short subjects. All films are from the private collection of Western Illinois film professor Richard Ness, who will serve as host.

The series is sponsored by the WIU Department of Broadcasting.

6/10 – THE RETURN OF THE SOLDIER (Great Britain, 1981)
Julie Christie, Glenda Jackson and Ann-Margaret headline this beautifully filmed study of class conflict πabout a shell-shocked soldier (Alan Bates) who seems to be able to recall his relationship with a former working-class lover but not his aristocratic wife. Featuring a haunting score by Richard Rodney Bennett.
6/17 – THE SHAMELESS OLD LADY (France, 1965)
When her husband dies an elderly woman sets out to discover the life she never had in this adaptation of a Bertolt Brecht story, with a great performance by octogenarian Sylvie. In French with English subtitles.
6/24 – LET THERE BE LIGHT (1946)/THE QUIET ONE (1948)
Two landmark studies of psychoanalysis in the 1940s. First, John Huston provides an uncompromising look at the treatment of disturbed returning soldiers that was kept out of circulation by the War Department for decades. Then an Oscar nominee for Documentary tells the story of a troubled African American boy who gradually comes out of his shell at a detention center.
7/1 – UGETSU (Japan, 1953)
The lives of a rural potter and his brother-in-law take different paths as they seek success in Kenji Mizoguchi’s acclaimed study of ambition and class in 16th-century Japan that is also one of the most beautiful and haunting ghost stories ever made. In Japanese with English subtitles.
7/8 – VALUE FOR MONEY (Great Britain, 1955)/THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN (Great Britain, 1969)
A double dose of British financial films. First, a Yorkshire man heads to the big city after receiving an inheritance and falls under the spell of bombshell Diana Dors. Next up is the only film to feature Peter Sellers, a Beatle and two members of Monty Python, in a wild comedy about an eccentric millionaire who sets out to prove people will do anything for money. With songs by Badfinger.
7/15 –A DAY IN THE DEATH OF JOE EGG (Great Britain, 1972)
Alan Bates and Janet Suzman star as a couple who indulge in dark fantasies to cope with the reality of dealing with their severely mentally disabled child in director Peter Medak’s adaptation of the acclaimed play by Peter Nichols. Also starring British teleπvision favorites Peter Bowles and Joan Hickson.
7/22 – SUNDAYS AND CYBELE (France, 1962)
This Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film stars Hardy Kruger as a traumatized soldier who forms a special bond with an alienated young girl. In French with English subtitles, and presented in its widescreen format.
7/29 – ROBIN AND MARIAN (Great Britain, 1976)
Richard Lester’s revisionist take on the Robin Hood legend finds its aging, disillusioned hero rekindling his romance with Marian, while continuing his battle against the Sheriff of Nottingham. The excellent cast includes Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Shaw, Richard Harris, Nicol Williamson and Ian Holm.

SPECIAL THURSDAY NIGHT BONUS SCREENING

7/30 – GANGWAY (Great Britain, 1936) / SPRING TONIC (1935)
We end the summer with another double bill. First, a rare chance to see Britain’s most popular musical comedy star of the 1930s Jessie Matthews in an entertaining tale of jewel thefts, gangsters, and fast-talking reporters. Then Zasu Pitts lends her comic talents to a goofy screwball farce based on a Ben Hecht play that finds a runaway bride involved with circus performers, moonshiners and an escaped tiger.