Calendar
2/15 Waiting For Guffman (Christopher Guest, 1996)
Presented by Dan Smith
This mockumentary follows the irrepressible Corky St. Clair as he writes and directs a musical extravaganza for the sesquicentennial of Blaine, Missouri. When he invites a New York agent to scout the show for a potential Broadway run, will the community rise to the occasion? Quirky characters tread on the edge of success and failure in a film at the edge of comedy and documentary, combining scripted and improvisational techniques.
The Big Lebowski (Joel and Ethan Coen, 1998)
Presented by Justus Nieland
Jeff Bridges plays Jeff Lebowski who insists on being called “the Dude,” a laid-back, easygoing burnout who happens to have the same name as a millionaire whose wife owes a lot of dangerous people a whole bunch of money — resulting in the Dude having his rug soiled, sending him spiraling into the Los Angeles underworld.
James Naremore is Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus at Indiana University, and the author of Charles Burnett: A Cinema of Symbolic Knowledge, the first book-length study of the director. His other books include More than Night: Film Noir in its Contexts, Acting in the Cinema, On Kubrick, The Magic World of Orson Welles, and An Invention without a Future: Essays on Cinema.
MSU Faculty Roundtable with Dr. Naremore to follow on Charles Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger, featuring Professors Tama Hamilton-Wray, Jeff Wray, and Ken Harrow.
Sponsored by the MSU Film Studies Program, with support from the Department of Screen Arts and Cultures at the University of Michigan.