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The Anniversary Party
SHOW DATE: 6/3
SPEAKER(S): TBA
Here's some information about the film:
Taking place over the course of one night, The Anniversary Party is a serio-comic, sometimes scathing inspection of a group of friends. Joe and Sally Therrian (Cumming and Leigh) have a party to celebrate several important junctures in their marriage: their sixth anniversary, their decision to start a family, and their reconciliation after a year-long separation. They have invited their closest friends, a group that includes some past and current temptations, and (to avoid insult) their contentious neighbors.
An unexpected gift sends the party spiraling out of control and unleashes an explosion of confessions. The celebration becomes a scorching dissection of a marriage on the brink.
Noted actors Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming co-direct this biting and closely observed film about men and women struggling to make sense of their lives and relationships. Written specifically for this stellar ensemble cast, this film allows some of the industry's most talented actors including Kevin Kline, Phoebe Kates, Gwenyth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love), John C. Reilly (Magnolia), Parker Posey (Daytrippers, Party Girl), Jennifer Beals, and Jane Adams (Happiness) to showcase their talents.
The Luzhin Defence
SHOW DATE: 5/20
SPEAKER(S): Troy Roberts
Here's some information about the film:
Based on Nabokov's novel "The Defence" (in England the book is known as "The Luzhin Defence" and adapted by Academy Award winning director Marleen Gorris (Antonia's Line) "The Luzhin Defence" finds chess master Alexander Luzhin (John Turturro) struggling with his past as he faces the match of his career. Natalia (Emily Watson) is the beautiful daughter of Russian aristocrats who seek to marry her off to nobility. But she is intrigued by and attracted to the intense Luzhin. Luzhin must also contend with Velentinov, his former mentor, who abandoned him to take another young protege under his wing.
It seems that Luzhin and Natalia are conspired against by family and friends--old and new--as Luzhin's world of chess threatens to consume him and destroy and chance at their happiness.
The Golden Bowl
SHOW DATE: 5/13 (Mother's Day!)
SPEAKER(S): Loren Glass
Here's some information about the film:
An intricately plotted tale of thwarted love and betrayal, The Golden Bowl tells the story of Adam Verver (Nick Nolte), an extravagantly rich American widower, and his sheltered daughter Maggie, (Kate Beckinsale), both of whom marry only to discover that their respective mates, Charlotte Stant (Uma Thurman), a beautiful American expatriate, and Prince Amerigo (Jeremy Northam), an impoverished Italian aristocrat, are entangled with one another in a romantic intrigue of seduction and deceit.
Set in England and Italy between 1903 and 1909, The Golden Bowl is adapted from the Henry James novel by the acclaimed and award-winning filmmaking team of Ismail Merchant, James Ivory, and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who have had great past success with James, namely in their films based on his novels The Bostonians and The Europeans. Such literary adaptations as A Room with a View, Maurice, Howards End, The Remains of the Day, and now The Golden Bowl, are clearly a Merchant Ivory forte - between them, this trio has earned six Oscars and thirty-one Academy Award nominations for their screen adaptations. But these films are also consistent showcases for their actors' best work, and The Golden Bowl is no exception.
Our speaker will be Loren Glass, English Professor at Towson University, whose areas of interest include Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century American Literature and Culture; Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Theories of Mass Culture; Film; and Modernism.
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