University News
Summer Film Series - The Dead Filmmakers Society 2016
June 13, 2016
MACOMB, IL - The summer film favorite "The Dead Filmmakers Society" returns this year with eight showings scheduled on Wednesday nights in the Sandburg Theater of the Western Illinois University Union.
All films begin at 5:30 p.m., and all showings are open free to the public. Many of the films will be preceded by selected short subjects.
Each film is from the private collection of WIU Film Professor Richard Ness, who will serve as host of each screening.
This year's showings include:
• June 8 – "Tiger Bay" (Great Britain, 1959): The 16th season kicks off with a British thriller about a young girl who witnesses a murder and is held captive by the killer. John Mills plays the police superintendent investigating the case, but the film's real star is his young daughter, Hayley. As a result of her performance in this film, Hayley was signed to a contract with Walt Disney and became one of their biggest stars. The film is directed by action specialist J. Lee Thompson.
• June 15 – "The Golden Demon" (Japan, 1954): The golden demon of the title is the obsession with money, which ruins the lives of two young lovers. The Tokyo of 1890 is beautifully captured in this stunningly photographed production. In Japanese with English subtitles.
• June 22 – "City of Hope" (1991): Critically acclaimed writer-director John Sayles ("Lone Star," "Eight Men Out") provides a multi-character mosaic of modern urban life involving politicians, police and criminals (with the distinctions not always clear). The cast includes David Straithairn, Chris Cooper, Angela Bassett, Vincent Spano, Lawrence Tierney and Gina Gershon. The film will be shown in its original widescreen aspect ratio. (This film is rated R for graphic language and adult content.)
• June 29 – "The Great Man" (1956): This is one of the great forgotten films of the 1950s. When radio reporter Jose Ferrer (who also directed) is assigned to prepare a tribute to a popular radio personality he discovers the deceased is not quite the beloved figure he was thought to be. "The Great Man" features a great supporting cast, including both Ed and Keenan Wynn, Julie London, Dean Jagger, and Jim Backus and his wife, Henny.
• July 6 – "The Pumpkin Eater" (Great Britain, 1964): Anne Bancroft received an Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe for her performance as the mother of a large family dealing with her husband's infidelity. Also starring Peter Finch, James Mason, and Maggie Smith, scripted by Harold Pinter, and featuring a poignant music score by Georges Delerue.
• July 13 – "Garden of Delights" (Spain, 1972): When a wealthy businessman suffers from amnesia after an auto accident and cannot recall the numbers to his Swiss bank accounts, his greedy relatives stage scenes from his past to try to jog his memory in this bizarre and at times surreal film from director Carlos Saura. In Spanish with English subtitles.
• July 20 – "The Horsemen" (Great Britain, 1960): Director John Frankenheimer stages some vivid action scenes in this compelling drama set in a desolate region of Afghanistan where the men indulge in the brutal sport of buskashi, played on horseback. Scripted by Dalton Trumbo and featuring Jack Palance, Omar Sharif and Leigh Taylor-Young. Shown in its original widescreen.
• July 27 – "Ingrid" (1984)/"A Day in the Country" – The summer event closes with a pair of short productions. The first is a documentary on actress Ingrid Bergman, featuring clips from her films and scenes of her personal life. Then Jean Renoir (one of the directors with whom Bergman worked) provides a perfectly crafted gem based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant about the tragic consequences of a Parisian family's brief summer outing. In French with English subtitles.
This summer's film series is sponsored by WIU's Film Studies program and the WIU Department of English.
Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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