Spring Break
Movie Review
Tivoli Theater celebrates 50 years of Janus films
Tony Millett
Issue date: 10/1/07 Section: Culture
- Page 1 of 1
The Tivoli, in association with the UMKC Department of Communications Studies, is presenting a fine selection of art house films, all in newly-struck 35-mm prints.
Of course, for $650 you can buy the Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films box set, which collects fifty of their films in a lavish package, (and while you're at it, pick up one for me as well.) But why not go to the Tivoli at Manor Square Tuesday nights and catch them on the big screen?
Films are meant to be projected on a screen, light shining through the negative and positive space, creating a warm luminosity that engages the eye.
This is a rare opportunity to enjoy these movies the way they were meant to be seen.
Don't let the subtitles scare you. You're college students; you should know how to read by now. Go and see these films!
Appropriately enough, this series kicked off with probably the most famous art house director, Sweden's Ingmar Bergman.
"Wild Strawberries," "Smiles of a Summer Night" and "The Seventh Seal" are the three early Bergman films that secured his reputation as not only a brilliant visual artist, but as a director of philosophical, questioning works. These works deal with difficult ideas such as faith, the existence (or not) of God, and existence itself.
He is, along with Frederico Fellini, the most parodied director of the era.
Everyone from Saturday Night Live to Bill and Ted had a crack at the Death character in "The Seventh Seal."
But Communication Studies department head Tom Poe pointed out in his brief introductory remarks, Bergman's work is "great enough to survive cliché."
The films transcend parody, familiarity and the expectations of an audience that grew accustomed to artiness.
The art house film was created in New York City in the `50s.
Bryant Haliday and Cyrus Harvey Jr. founded Janus Films in 1956 and began distributing what would now be considered world cinema. These were not only European films, but films from Japan, the Soviet Union, Scandinavia and basically anywhere that had cameras.
I call it a new genre because until that time, no one had really taken cinema seriously as art, except for a few obscure theorists. But suddenly it was fashionable to be current with the latest Antonioni or Kurosawa.
The availability of these strange anti-Hollywood films would go on to influence future auteurs such as Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen. In the `60s and `70s, there was still something vaguely dirty and dangerous about going to see a foreign film. Now is your chance to see what all the fuss was about.
Carl Dreyer's "Day of Wrath" will show Oct. 2. I haven't seen this film, but I can vouch for two of my all time favorites that are also coming up.
On Oct. 9, Luis Bunuel's irreverent take on Christian iconography "Viridiana" then, Oct. 30, the masterful first film by Francois Truffaut, "400 Blows."
The series runs through the end of October, shows begin at 7 p.m., and they are free with a valid school ID.
tonymillett@yahoo.com
Of course, for $650 you can buy the Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films box set, which collects fifty of their films in a lavish package, (and while you're at it, pick up one for me as well.) But why not go to the Tivoli at Manor Square Tuesday nights and catch them on the big screen?
Films are meant to be projected on a screen, light shining through the negative and positive space, creating a warm luminosity that engages the eye.
This is a rare opportunity to enjoy these movies the way they were meant to be seen.
Don't let the subtitles scare you. You're college students; you should know how to read by now. Go and see these films!
Appropriately enough, this series kicked off with probably the most famous art house director, Sweden's Ingmar Bergman.
"Wild Strawberries," "Smiles of a Summer Night" and "The Seventh Seal" are the three early Bergman films that secured his reputation as not only a brilliant visual artist, but as a director of philosophical, questioning works. These works deal with difficult ideas such as faith, the existence (or not) of God, and existence itself.
He is, along with Frederico Fellini, the most parodied director of the era.
Everyone from Saturday Night Live to Bill and Ted had a crack at the Death character in "The Seventh Seal."
But Communication Studies department head Tom Poe pointed out in his brief introductory remarks, Bergman's work is "great enough to survive cliché."
The films transcend parody, familiarity and the expectations of an audience that grew accustomed to artiness.
The art house film was created in New York City in the `50s.
Bryant Haliday and Cyrus Harvey Jr. founded Janus Films in 1956 and began distributing what would now be considered world cinema. These were not only European films, but films from Japan, the Soviet Union, Scandinavia and basically anywhere that had cameras.
I call it a new genre because until that time, no one had really taken cinema seriously as art, except for a few obscure theorists. But suddenly it was fashionable to be current with the latest Antonioni or Kurosawa.
The availability of these strange anti-Hollywood films would go on to influence future auteurs such as Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen. In the `60s and `70s, there was still something vaguely dirty and dangerous about going to see a foreign film. Now is your chance to see what all the fuss was about.
Carl Dreyer's "Day of Wrath" will show Oct. 2. I haven't seen this film, but I can vouch for two of my all time favorites that are also coming up.
On Oct. 9, Luis Bunuel's irreverent take on Christian iconography "Viridiana" then, Oct. 30, the masterful first film by Francois Truffaut, "400 Blows."
The series runs through the end of October, shows begin at 7 p.m., and they are free with a valid school ID.
tonymillett@yahoo.com
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