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Friday Film Festival - Spring 2004 "New York Stories" Stories of life in the Five Boroughs |
| Series hosted by: Robert Landsman & Mike Carlisle, CUNY GC Mathematics Ph.D. Program |
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Friday Film Festival - Spring 2004 "New York Stories" Stories of life in the Five Boroughs |
| Series hosted by: Robert Landsman & Mike Carlisle, CUNY GC Mathematics Ph.D. Program |
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All screenings (with the exception of March 26th and April 30th)
will be held in the Film Screening Room on the
"C" level
(Rm. C419) of the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, NYC. There are 13 films in this series. Each film will be shown on a Friday evening at 6:00 PM, January 30th through May 14th (with the exceptions shown on the chart). Doors open at 5:30 PM. Early arrival is suggested as seating is limited. The running time of each film is indicated in the table to the right following the year in which the film was released. Click on each title for additional information within this website. Clicking on a director's name or a title heading a film's description will take you to further information on that particular film at the IMDb [the Internet Movie Database], the web's premiere movie site. Some of you may prefer, however, to wait until after you have seen the film to read about the plot and analyze the reviews. These films will be projected from DVD when possible. Seating is limited; first-come, first-served. Admission is free. Fresh popcorn and other snacks will be available! The upcoming film in the series is indicated by the highlighted row in the film grid. A film's name in the grid links to a synopsis below; a director's name links to the IMDb's listing of that director's filmography. A film's name next to a synopsis links to the IMDb's main page for that film. |
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1)
The Chosen (1981)
Director: Jeremy Paul Kagan
Starring: Maxillian Schell, Rod Steiger, Robby Benson, Barry Miller
Based on the Chaim Potok novel -- Two Jewish teenagers in 1940s New York meet as playground rivals. Their initial wariness turns to fascination and close friendship as each discovers and admires the other's differences. Reuven is experienced, practical, and worldly-wise; Danny is brilliant and mystical, incredibly erudite in some matters, but incredibly naive in others. Can their friendship survive the sharp differences between Danny's ultra Orthodoxy and Reuven's Modern Orthodox Judaism?
2)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Director: John Frankenheimer
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva
After Raymond returns from the Korean War as a decorated hero, the other members of his platoon can't really remember what he did to win his medal. Two of the soldiers start having recurring nightmares, and one of them decides to investigate Raymond's current activities. What dark and sinister secrets are being withheld by the Government and the Army?
3)
Rear Window (1954)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr
In 1950's New York, an adventuresome free-lance photographer finds himself confined to a wheelchair in his tiny apartment while a broken leg mends. With only the occasional distraction of a visiting nurse and his frustrated love interest, his attention is naturally drawn to the courtyard outside his "rear window" and the occupants of the apartment buildings which surround it. Soon he is consumed by the private dramas of his neighbors lives which play themselves out before his eyes.
4)
The Apartment (1960)
Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston
C.C. Baxter, insurance clerk and only a face in a crowd of 30,000 employees, has a little problem: he can't use his own apartment. Since he once lent out his key to one of his superiors and his mistress, this custom has spread ever since. Now, different superiors from different departments take his place for their rendevous. Being promised not to be forgotten when it comes to shifts in personnel, C.C. Baxter swallows his anger... until the plot thickens.
5)
The Producers (1968)
Director: Mel Brooks
Starring: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars, Estelle Winwood
Producer Max Bialystock is having trouble financing his Broadway shows. His timid accountant Leo Bloom, reviewing his books, cooks up a scheme - produce "Springtime For Hitler," a guaranteed-to-offend flop. They get more than their money's worth....
6)
Mean Streets (1973)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, David Proval, Amy Robinson, Richard Romanus
The future is set for Tony and Michael - owning a neighborhood bar and making deals in the mean streets of Little Italy. For Charlie, the future is less clearly defined. A small-time hood, he works for his uncle, making collections and reclaiming bad debts. He's probably too nice to succeed. In love with a woman his uncle disapproves of (because of her epilepsy) and a friend of her cousin, Johnny Boy, a near psychotic whose trouble-making threatens them all - he can't reconcile opposing values. A failed attempt to escape (to Brooklyn) moves them all a step closer to a bitter, almost preordained future.
Director: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Ned Beatty
In 1975 terrorist violence is the stuff of network nightly news programming and the corporate structure of the UBS television network is changing. Meanwhile, Howard Beale, the aging UBS news anchor, has lost his once strong ratings share and so the network fires him. Beale reacts in an unexpected way. This greatly affects the fortunes of Beale, his coworkers (Max Schumacher and Diana Christensen), and the network.
8)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Director: John Badham
Starring: John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney, Barry Miller, Joseph Cali
Tony is an uneducated Brooklyn teenager. The highlight of his week is going to the local disco, where he is the king of the dancefloor. Tony meets Stephanie at the disco and they agree to dance together in a competition. Stephanie resists Tony's attempts to romance her, as she aspires to greater things; she is moving across the river to Manhattan. Gradually, Tony also becomes disillusioned with the life he is leading and he and Stephanie decide to help one another to start afresh.
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Michael Murphy, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep
Isaac, 42, has divorced Jill. She is now living with another woman, Connie, and is writing a book in which she will reveal some very private points of their relationship. Isaac has a love affair with Tracy, 17, when he meets Mary, the mistress of his best friend Yale. Yale is already married to Emily.
10)
The Fisher King (1991)
Director: Terry Gilliam
Starring: Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges, Mercedes Ruehl, Amanda Plummer, Michael Jeter
A shock radio DJ, suicidally despondent because of a horrible mistake he made three years earlier, attempts to find redemption in helping a homeless man named Parry, who happens to have been involved in the incident.
11)
Style Wars (1983)
Director: Henry Chalfant & Tony Silver
"Starring": Cap, Frosty Freeze, (former NYC mayor) Ed Koch, Kase 2, Crazy Legs, Skeme, and other '80s graffiti artists
A documentary on the early 1980's underground graffiti subculture. Teenagers breakdance to the beginnings of hip-hop and attempt to "destroy all lines" of the New York subway system by spraypainting their graffiti nicknames ("tags") onto as many different lines' cars as possible. The City retaliates with paint-resistant trains, razor wire fences around trainyards, and speeches by Mayor Ed Koch. Is graffiti "art"? Eventually, some artists became artists in their own right, and "graffiti" style has become a wide-spread popular art form.
This film will be preceded by a short talk about New York art in the early '80s.
12)
Moscow on the Hudson (1984)
Director: Paul Mazursky
Starring: Robin Williams, Maria Conchita Alonso, Cleavant Derricks, Alejandro Rey, Yakov Smirnoff
When a Russian musician defects in Bloomingdale's department store in New York, he finds adjusting to American life more difficult than he imagined.
13)
Working Girl (1988)
Director: Mike Nichols
Starring: Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Melanie Griffith, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack
Tess McGill is a frustrated secretary, struggling to forge ahead in the world of big business in New York. She gets her chance when her boss breaks her leg on a skiing holiday. McGill takes advantage of her absence to push ahead with her career. She teams up with investment broker Jack Trainer to work on a big deal. The situation is complicated after the return of her boss.
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Last updated May 10, 2004 Site verified in MS IE 6, Netscape 6.2, Opera 6.05 Optimized for 1024 x 768 |
 
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GC Friday Film Festival - Spring 2004