(in The Shulman Auditorium)
This college-wide “club” was originally set up as an opportunity for me to showcase films on the “big screen” that I thought lended themselves to fun informal-academic discussion. Being informal, the discussion is natural and not designed to be steered – except the evening’s host will decide upon a few key themes as hints before the film to seed some later thoughts. Previous films include favourites like Chris Nolan’s Memento to titles that more seasoned film fans may have watched (eg. Waking Life).
The “club” is Free to attend — please do invite your friends from outside of college too! Sometimes, light snacks and drinks are provided by the MCR for attendees!
This year’s hosts are Dr David Collins (Philosophy of Art) and Seb Wilkes (Physics)
Movies in Michaelmas Term 2023
Films are on Odd Week Wednesdays at 19:00 unless otherwise stated.
Michaelmas 2022 films
Safe presents a different take than Interstellar on the idea of an environment becoming inhospitable to life. In her ‘breakthrough’ performance, Julianne Moore plays a woman who begins experiencing symptoms that have no detectable medical cause. She becomes convinced that she is allergic to her surroundings, if not to modern life itself … but is this the correct explanation, or does it express her character’s (and our) desire for an answer to believe in?
Ikiru is the story of an office clerk in post-war Japan diagnosed with a terminal illness and decides to use the remainder of his life to really live, but is confronted by the question of how to do that—what makes a life worth living? This film illustrates the existentialist idea that knowledge of our mortality can shock us into authenticity, in contrast to the inauthenticity of much of modern life, as exemplified by the bureaucratic structures and rules of the main character’s workplace.
The French Dispatch is Wes Anderson’s latest work, and is a vibrant comedic anthology detailing the journalistic endevaours of the ‘Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun’. Through an ensemble cast, Wes Anderson not only brings his famous art style to the direction of the film, but I believe challenges the boundaries of what format defines a ‘movie’ – but what makes a ‘movie’ a movie?
Tonni Erdmann: Is it a comedy with a bittersweet ending, or an ultimately sad drama about characters doing things and getting into situations that are funny? Either way, this film about a father’s attempts to connect with his adult daughter by adopting an absurd alter-ego and infiltrating her workplace deals with the difficulty of really relating to, and being understood by, others. Plus, it features what may be cinema’s longest, funniest, and most awkward group nude scene!
Fargo is set in a cold and wintery Minnesota. It ‘examines’ how Minnesota’s criminal masterminds hatch and execute an ordacious plan to defraud a company executive by means of kidnapping his daughter. However, the warming, but equally sharp, police chief Marge Gunderson soon begins to suspect something isn’t right. Will she see past all the snow and smiles?
