Film Club update

CINEMA SALON FILM CLUB AT THE CLARK RESUMES SEPT. 24^TH

Film scholars may lament that “cinephilia is dead,” but for members of the Cinema Salon Film Club at the Clark, film as art is alive and well.

The movies these days seem to be all about competing in a crowded media marketplace, with the opening weekend box office gross vastly more important than any vestigial aesthetic encounter, but there was a time when cinema was widely acknowledged as “the art form of the 20^th century.”  That century may past, but film remains an important medium of art, at least at the margins.

The Cinema Salon Film Club looks to explore some of those margins.  Seeking around the world, into the past and little-seen corners of the present, the Club screens a wide range of films worthy of discussion, for their artistry and ideas, in their simultaneous uniqueness and universality, strange yet familiar within the collective dream of cinema.

A new series of Club screenings will begin on Friday, September 24, at 3:00 pm (note earlier start time to allow for more discussion after the film) in the Clark auditorium.  The theme of this series is “A Criterion of Excellence,” and the Club collectively will pick films to watch from the hundreds of dvds issued by The Criterion Collection, with its guarantee of quality both in choice of films and in meticulous digital transfer.

To kick things off on 9/24, the Club will screen the very first film in the Criterion catalogue (and one of the all-time favorites of Steve Satullo, film programmer at the Clark and presenter of Cinema Salon):  Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion (1937), the granddaddy of all POW escape films and one of the great human documents of the interwar era, starring Jean Gabin, Erich von Stroheim, Pierre Fresnay, and Marcel Dalio.

At the first meeting, the Club will select the next screening out of a varied pool of several candidates that Steve will present.  At the same time, Steve will take open nominations for the next selection after that.  (Votes and nominations may also be entered by email.)  Check out Criterion’s list here:  http://www.criterion.com/library/all

Cinema Salon is technically a private club, and not official Clark programming, but it is free and open to anyone interested enough to inquire.  It’s probable that most future screenings will be at 3:00 on alternate Fridays, but that is subject to variation.  The Club may be likened to the floating crap game in Guys and Dolls -- you need to be in the know to find out what’s being shown when. There are two ways to stay in the know. 

Check the Cinema Salon website: www.cinemasalon.blogspot.com. 

Or send Steve a request to be included in regular email updates: ssatullo@clarkart.edu.

See you at the movies.