From Philomathean Society

Contact: (film@philomathean.org) Chloe LeGendre, Jordan Greenwald & Wyn Furman, Chairs

The Film Committee of the Philomathean Society of the University of Pennsylvania was founded in 2002. Since its inception, it has aimed to expand the minds and tastes of culture-hungry students at the University of Pennsylvania. While film selections are generally esoteric in nature, the committee likes to take a pragmatic approach in all of its endeavors. Through the use of an adhocracy, committee members are able to explore the boundaries of self-expression, while still benefiting mankind as a whole.

Schedule

Monday, April 21, 6:30-9:00PM

Film Screening and Discussion with Professor Karen Beckman

Crash is an Academy Award-winning drama film directed by Paul Haggis. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2004, and was released internationally in 2005. The film is about racial and social tensions in Los Angeles. A self-described "passion piece" for director Paul Haggis, Crash was inspired by a real life incident in which his Porsche was carjacked outside a video store on Wilshire Boulevard in 1991. It won three Oscars for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing of 2005 at the 78th Academy Awards.

The film depicts several characters living in LA during a 36-hour period and brings them together through car accidents, shootings, and carjackings. Most of the characters depicted in the film are racially prejudiced in some way and become involved in conflicts which force them to examine their own prejudices. Through these characters' interactions, the film seeks to depict and examine not only racial tension, but also the distance between strangers in general. Starring Sandra Bullock, Ryan Phillippe, Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle, Jennifer Esposito, Brendan Fraser, and Christopher "Ludacris" Bridges. 113 minutes.

Karen Beckman is Jaffe Associate Professor of the History of Art and Director of the Cinema Studies Program. She completed her BA in English at Cambridge University and her Ph.D in English at Princeton University. Her book, Vanishing Women: Magic, Film and Feminism (Duke UP, 2003), examines the relationship between the elusive female body and the medium of film. She is currently working on a book about car crashes and film, and is co-editing a volume with Jean Y. Ma entitled, Still Moving: Between Cinema and Photography (forthcoming Duke UP). She has published articles on a range of subjects, including feminism and terrorism, death penalty photography, pop art and literature, and the relationship between cinema and contemporary art. Her ongoing teaching and research interests include theories of gender, sexuality and race, cinema and photography, and the future of inter-disciplinarity.

Please check back shortly for the complete Spring 2008's schedule

Phormer Pheatured Philms

"Buongiorno, Notte" (2003, Marco Bellocchio) film screening and discussion with Professor Nicola Gentili, Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Murderball, Monday, February 24, 2008

Beware of a Holy Whore, Monday, February 17, 2008

The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Monday, February 11, 2008

Le cercle rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville) Monday February 4th 2008

Inland Empire (David Lynch, 2007) Thursday September 13th 2007 A Penn and Philo Premiere (due to its limited release this past year), this is classic Lynch: plenty of flickering lights, dark hallways, and hookers dancing to the "Locomotion." As the director himself describes it, this film is about "a woman in trouble and a mystery". Perhaps nothing more need be said.

The Beaver Trilogy (Trent Harris, 2001) Thursday October 11th 2007 By special arrangement with the filmmaker, the Committee shows this cult classic. It begins in 1979 with the chance meeting in a Salt Lake City parking lot where filmmaker Trent Harris is approached by an earnest small-town dreamer from Beaver, Utah. Harris jumps at the chance when the young man invites him to come to the small town of Beaver to film a talent show. The rest is history

Autumn Sonata (Ingmar Bergman, 1978) Monday November 5th 2007 Arguably the finest film of Bergman's middle-period. Autumn Sonata, in the musical form it references, tells the story of an estranged mother (Ingrid Bergman) and daughter (Liv Ullman) wrestling with their past.

Being There (Hal Ashby, 1979) Thursday December 6th 2007 The last great Peter Sellers film, Being There tells the story of an idiot gardener who becomes a national figure in American politics. This is one of philosopher Slavoj Žižek's favorite films. Enough said.