Friday, February 8, 2008

City Lights/Underground Film Screening

City Lights and underground are bi-weekly film programs devoted to, respectively, classical and experimental cinema. Join us for our screenings in the Radio/Television Building, Room 251, every Friday at 7:00 PM.

February 8: Liebelei (Max Ophuls, 1933, 88 min.)

One of Max Ophuls first films he directed in Germany before fleeing to France to escape the Nazis. In Liebelei a young philandering army officer, trapped in a loveless affair with the wife of a strutting baron, falls in love with a shy young seamstress but cannot escape repercussions of his past. Based on a play by Arthur Schnitzler, Liebelei contrasts the obsession with appearances and social decorum of high society with the rash sincerity and energy of youth in a style more visual than verbal.

The feature will be accompanied by Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World’s Fair at San Francisco (Keystone, 1915) (9 min.) and Mabel’s Dramatic Career (Keystone, 1913) (14 min.). These two wonderful films showcase Mabel Normand and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle in their most well known form, slapstick, with a turn towards documentary/biography in both.