WVU DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

1997 COLLOQUIUM ON LITERATURE AND FILM:

CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF CINEMA

Film festival featuring jewels from the West Virginia Library Commission’s Film Library.

Thursday, October 16, 3-6 p.m. Gluck Theater (all 16 mm films)

Early shorts and animation - celebrating 100 years of cinema:

Note: Reel changing takes approximately five minutes!

3 p.m. PIECES OF SILVER (1989) - 8 min. Over 100 years ago, Thomas Edison ordered the first roll of film from the Eastman Kodak Company. This film directed and produced by Chuck Workman for Eastman Kodak was made in celebration of 100 years of the film medium.

3:15 p.m. THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1903) - 8 min. A brilliant early short full of action and speed. Also remarkable for its tinting technique.

3:30 p.m. Georges Méliès: IMPOSSIBLE VOYAGE (LE VOYAGE À TRAVERS L’IMPOSSIBLE, 1904) - 18 min. This silent classic has been newly restored by the George Eastman House Film Archive. The original hand-tinting is a marvel. Created by one of the fathers of the cinema in France.

4:00 p.m. Luis Buñuel: ANDALUSIAN DOG (1929) - 16 min. One of the best known surrealistic shorts. Buñuel about UN CHIEN ANDALOU: "Our rule was very simple: no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted."

4:20 p.m. Brothers Quay: THE STREETS OF CROCODILES (1986) - 21 min. Surrealist puppet animation film at the end of which the following text is included: "In that city of cheap human material no instincts can flourish, no dark and unusual passions can be aroused. THE STREETS OF CROCODILES was a concession of our city to modernity and metropolitan corruption. The misfortune of that area is that nothing ever succeeds there, nothing can ever reach a definite conclusion. Obviously, we were unable to afford anything better than a cardboard imitation, a photo montage cut out from last year’s mouldering newspapers."

4:45 p.m. Brothers Quay: ARTIFICIALI PERSPECTIVA or ANAMORPHOSIS (1991) - 15 min. A fascinating investigation of perspective and illusion in painting.

5:10 p.m. THE MAN WHO PLANTED TREES (1987) - 30 min. Directed by Frédéric Back for the Canadian Broadcasting Co. From a story by Jean Giono, narrated by Christopher Plummer. Touching story with exquisite animation.

5:45 p.m. PRECIOUS IMAGES (1987) - 8 min. This fast succession of highlights from American movies was produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the American Directors’ Guild in 1986. It gives compelling evidence of the power of images and recalls viewers’ aware collective (movie) memories.

Thursday, October 16, 9-10:15 p.m. - Rhododendron Room (VIDEO only)

9 p.m. Walter Ruttmann: BERLIN, SYMPHONY OF A GREAT CITY (1927) - 66 min. One of the most remarkable efforts to create the story line--a day in the life of a city--through a fast-paced montage of city impressions rather than characters and dialog. This version features the original musical score.

Friday, October 17, 9:30-11 p.m. - Rhododendron Room (VIDEO only)

9:30 p.m. LUMIÈRE & COMPANY (1995) - 88 min. - An homage to the work of the Brothers Lumière, whose camera was given to 40 contemporary directors so each could make his or her own 90-second film with this camera.

 

Saturday, October 18, 9 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Gluck Theater (all 16 mm films)

West Virginia Regional Filmmaking and Documentaries:

9:00 a.m. THE RIVER (1937) - 30 min. Documentary by West Virginia Filmmaker Pare Lorentz. Records the catastrophic flooding of the Mississippi River and subsequent efforts by the Tennessee Valley Authority to safeguard against future flooding in this region.

9:35 a.m. TOL’ABLE DAVID (1921) - 80 min. Highly melodramatic family drama, directed by Henry King.

11:00 a.m. HARLAN COUNTY USA (1976) - 103 min. Documentary about the struggle of 180 coal mining families to win a United Mine Workers contract in Kentucky. Directed by Barbara Koppel.

12:45-1:30 LUNCH BREAK

1:30 p.m. SPECIAL PRESENTATION WITH FILMMAKER PRESENT:

I’M NOT AN ANTHROPOLOGIST (1995) - 30 min. Professor Jim Lane, director of the Film Program at Emerson College in Boston, will briefly introduce this film of his and answer questions afterward.

2:30 p.m. VISION OF LIGHTS: THE ART OF CINEMATOGRAPHY (1992) - 95 min. Whereas LUMIÈRE & COMPANY presents the directors’ perspective, this film highlights the work of the cameramen. Shows some of the finest camerawork done in American and international film productions throughout this century.

 

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SPECIAL CONCLUDING EVENT (4:30 - 6 p.m.) - Gluck Theatre:

4:30 p.m. Tonight Neither Hamlet - by German dramatist Rainer Lewandowski.

Dramatic reading by Professor John Whitty of the WVU Division of Theatre.

Performance will start promptly.