University News

Summer Film Series - The Dead Filmmakers Society 2018

May 24, 2018

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MACOMB, IL -- The summer film favorite, "The Dead Filmmakers Society," returns this year with showings at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday nights in Western Illinois University's Sandburg Theater in the University Union.

All screenings are open free to the public and many films will be preceded by selected short subjects. All films are from the private collection of WIU film Professor Richard Ness, who will serve as the host of the series.

This year's showings include:

• June 7 – "I Saw What You Did" (1965): "I saw what you did, and I know who you are." Teenage girls making prank phone calls get a wrong number when they become the target of a killer in this thriller from director William Castle. A scenery-chewing Joan Crawford provides marquee value.

• June 14 – "The Loved One" (1965): Advertised as "The movie with something to offend everyone," this twisted adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's satire on the funeral industry features an all-star cast, including Rod Steiger, John Gielgud, Jonathan Winters (in two roles), Paul Williams as a teen scientist, Liberace as a casket salesman and the astonishing Ayllene Gibbons as Mrs. Joyboy. The film was co-written by Christopher Isherwood and Terry Southern.

• June 21 – "Les Enfants Du Paradis" (Children of Paradise, France, 1945): Made under difficult conditions in Nazi-occupied France, this epic period romance set in the theatrical world of 19th-century Paris is considered one of the undisputed masterpieces of the cinema, and a perfect showcase for the exquisite artistry of famed mime Jean-Louis Barrault. The film is shown in French with English subtitles.

• June 28 – "Moment to Moment" (1966): This summer the series will again present a film starring Iowa native Jean Seberg. This time it's a mystery thriller also starring Honor Blackman (Pussy Galore in "Goldfinger") and directed by Hollywood legend Mervyn LeRoy.

• July 5 – "Lucie Sur Seine" (1982): A woman in a bleak Paris suburb becomes involved with a truck driver who has committed murder in this little-known French drama that employs elements of film noir to comment on the immigrant experience in contemporary Europe. The film is shown in French with English subtitles and contains adult content.

• July 12 – "House of Cards" (1969) - American boxer George Peppard is hired to tutor a young boy who becomes the victim of a kidnapping plot by a Fascist group attempting world domination. With Inger Stevens and Orson Welles. Directed by John Guillerman ("The Towering InfernoI, "Death on the Nile") and based on a novel by Stanley Ellin. The film is shown in its widescreen version.

• July 19 – "The Shop on Main Street" (Czechoslovakia, 1965): In this Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film, a small-town worker gets a chance to improve his situation when he is assigned to take over an elderly Jewish woman's button shop, but as the village is taken over his attempts to get her to understand what is happening lead to a tragic outcome. The film is shown in Czech with English subtitles.

• July 26 – "The Rocket Man" (1954): In this children's fantasy, co-written by Lenny Bruce, George "Foghorn" Winslow (the little boy with the very deep voice in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes") is given a very special gun from a spaceman. The cast includes Charles Coburn, Spring Byington, Anne Francis, John Agar and a cameo by director Oscar Rudolph's young son Alan, who grew up to become a major independent filmmaker ("Welcome to L.A."and "Choose Me").

The series is sponsored by WIU's Film Studies Program and the WIU Department of English.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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