Events of the Week: Maysles and Wiseman

Tonight, the International House is having a special event with Albert Maysles, the noted direct cinema documentary filmmaker. He will be participating in a discussion at 7:00. [event information]

And this upcoming Tuesday, Nov. 11, the Philadelphia Film Society at the Roxy will be screening Frederick Wiseman's latest documentary, National Gallery. Wiseman himself will be in attendance for the screening. 7:00pm [event information]

Films of the week: Oskar Fischinger shorts

This Thursday, the International House will show a program of short films by animation pioneer Oskar Fischinger. Fischinger, a German filmmaker, emigrated during the Nazi years but never quite finding a welcome home in the American studio system. Coming out of the avant-garde practice of the abstract film, he developed a visual-music animation approach that became influential in animation, including most famously in Disney's 1940s use of abstract animation (Fantasia, et al). The result is a sumptious play of color, shape, and movement, definitely worth seeing on the big screen. All the films will be screened on 35mm, with some newly restored prints. The full program is available here.

Optical Poetry: Oskar Fischinger Retrospective
International House
Thursday, Oct. 2
7:00pm

Film of the Week: The Conformist

The Ritz theaters do not show repertory films all that regularly, but the plus side when they do, there are multiple screenings for the week. That gives plenty of opportunity to go see The Conformist (1970) this week. It's one of Berolucci's most famous films and justifiably so: it's a work which achieves a remarkable balance of the modernist currents of 1960s art cinema with a literary-thematic storytelling centered around Italian war and postwar history. And, if anything, seeing it on a big screen is an opportunity to enjoy cinematographer Vittorio Storaro's work.

The Conformist

Ritz Bourse

Friday, September  19 - Thursday, September 25

showtimes: 1:20 4:05 7:00 9:30

Film of the Week: Rare Markopoulos screening

Next Wednesday, The International House will be screening Gregory Markopoulos's Illiac Passion. Those familiar with Markopolous will know how rare screenings of his work are. A key figure in the postwar American avant-garde, he removed his films form circulation during his lifetime. Since then, his partner Robert Beavers has been giving limited screenings.  So we're getting a chance of seeing 16mm prints that for a long time were not screened in the US.

On one hand, Markopolous's style is not the most immediately accessible. He has a fondness for rigorous formal montage, cutting as often as every second in regular repetitions. And while his films involve narratives of sorts, they are highly oblique and mythological. (Illiac Passion retells the story of Prometheus.) On the other hand, he had a lush hand with color, equal to Kenneth Anger's. 

The Illiac Passion

International House

Wednesday 9/17

7:00 pm

dir. Gregory Markopoulos, US, 1967, 16mm, 92 min.

Introduced by Robert Beavers and Mark Webber 

Co-presented with Cinema Studies at the University of Pennsylvania