Fri 23 Oct 2009
Williamstown Film Festival … (with bonus Ephs-in-film update)
Posted by jeffz under Arts, Elia Kazan '31, Lee-Hom Wang '98, Video at 3:40 am
The Williamstown Film Festival begins today! Lots of interesting events in the line-up, but this one stands out for me:
WFF returns to MASS MoCA on Friday night, October 30th with La Nave de Los Monstruos (The Ship of Monsters), a Mexican sci-fi musical in which Venusian women land on Earth in search of men. Ethel, America’s leading rock-infused string quartet, accompanies the film with a live original score. In honor of Halloween, a costume contest will precede the film.
[By the way, women of Venus, I live in Washington D.C., and I'm ready to be your intergalactic love slave ... oh, and how much must it suck to be in American's second-leading rock infused string-quartet ... "oh, you rock the strings? Sweet, you must be in 'Ethel'" ... "ummm, well, actually ..." -- awkward!]
Other events of note: Barry Levinson (Diner, Rain Man, etc.) speaking at The Clark, and a lunch seminar with James Ivory at The Orchards (and really, could an event featuring Victorian-period-drama-maven Ivory be held anywhere else in Williamstown; if tea and crumpets aren’t on the menu, it will be criminal).
Kudos to Steve Lawson ‘71 for making this happen …
Speaking of Williams and film, does any college without a film program have a group of alumni directors that can rival this group of Ephs: Elia Kazan, John Frankenheimer, John Sayles? I’d be surprised … (and how sweet is Sayles’ webpage?!). Browsing Sayles’ prolific IMDB page, I was pleased to discover that he wrote Battle Beyond the Stars, an especially corny entry in the-post Star Wars explosion of low budget underdog sci-fi movies, and one I watched at least 25 times before I turned 10. Space Cowboy, anyone? Anyone?
In other film news, notable Eph actors Monique Curnen ‘92 (starring in Legacy opposite Stringer Bell, err, Idris Elba), Lee Hom Wang ‘98 (featured in Jackie Chan’s upcoming Chinese-language war movie) and David Straitharn ‘70 (too many wicked-cool sounding films to fully list — can you find the connection to Amherst in one of them — but Howl, The Tempest, Odysseus in America, and Challenger all figure to be high-profile releases) all have intriguing projects on the horizon … I am particularly looking forward to Challenger. Ask anyone in my generation the first news event that they clearly recall, and eight out of ten will list the Challenger disaster.
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10 Responses to “Williamstown Film Festival … (with bonus Ephs-in-film update)”
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JeffZ says:
Oh, and not the Williamstown Film Festival, but I just noticed this event on the Ephplanet newsfeed. Nice website and a cool-sounding organization, by the way:
http://www.purplevalleyfilms.com/pvf/?p=542
Ronit says:
http://blog.massmoca.org/ has some cool things related to this
Dick Swart says:
Great post!
Now, in one of those bursts of synapsal pre-seniliity, allow me to comment using movies on Parent ’12’s query about the rewards of eating together to building a sense of community over in The Great Housing Race.
Excluding ‘Eating Raul’ and ‘The Cook, the Thief …’, this list of food movies makes a point:
• Eat, Drink, Man, Woman
• Like Water for Chocolate
• Babette’s Feast
• The Big Night
• Julia/Julie (or at least the Julia sections)
and, at the a deux level, that scene from ‘Tom Jones’ and Wallace Shawn’s ‘My Dinner with Andre’.
Please add to this list, all movie/foodies!
JeffZ says:
I’m not sure I’ve ever been hungrier than I was following my viewing of Big Night …
Jr. Mom says:
Great post, Jeff. I have always been a big fan of Strathairn. Classy, talented, understated actor whom we don’t see enough of.
Let’s see…food and movies. All of the ones you listed, Dick. Love Babette’s Feast! What else, hmmm…there’s Diner, and the Jack Nicholson egg salad sandwich scene in Easy Rider, and No Reservations was a bad movie, but with a couple of good food scenes, and of course, a new classic, Sideways, with Giametti.
A bit off point, but in the spirit of the movies and icons, (and Dick’s Rita Hayworth clip), here is something wonderful. Stunning, gorgeous, photographs…
Ronit says:
@Dick Swart: I think the Godfather and When Harry Met Sally had some great food scenes.
Dick Swart says:
@Ronit:
I’ll have what she’s having
Parent '12 says:
JeffZ- this is a great post. I knew that Barry Levinson was going to be on campus, but not James Ivory. One of the “antique” row houses would have been the perfect place to host him.
[on another matter, totally unrelated, & which you'd probably find close to sacraligeous, which Joe's pizza are you referring to? I thought a "famous" one closed. Granted Joe's isn't like Ray's, but it's name is not unique.]
@Dick Swart: You’ve taken all the movies that come quickly to mind right out of my mouth.
In looking at the link that Jr. Mom provided… Didn’t Grace Kelly bring James Stewart a romantic dinner in Rear Window?
JeffZ says:
Thanks! The Joe’s I refer to is this one:
http://www.joespizza.com/
Simply the perfect slice of NY style pizza …
Parent '12 says:
@JeffZ: I thought that was the Joe’s you meant. Thanks for the link so I could see what happened to the location.
As you undoubtedly know, it was on the corner of Carmine/Bleecker & I could have sworn that a gelato place went in there. So, now I see it’s down the block.
Plus, what a surprise– there are 2 satellites in Southern California. My ex-New Yorker relatives must be pleased. I don’t remember having great pizza in California when I was younger.