Join the College of Liberal Arts and Eric Braysmith, lecturer in Liberal Arts, for the Friday Night in the Forum film series. The films are shown in their original languages, with English subtitles, and aspect ratios in Forum 1 (FA1) in the Forum Wing of the Wright Administration Building on the USI campus. The venue features stadium seating, digital projection, and digital surround sound. Immediately following each film, Eric Braysmith will lead an informal discussion. For more information, see the Friday Night in the Forum Facebook page.
The film series is free and open to the public.
All showings take place in Forum I, accessible via the first floor of the Wright Administration Building. Parking is available in Lot B, located across University Boulevard.
Films begin promptly at 7 p.m. | All films include English subtitles
March 21
Oppenheimer (2023) A dramatization of the life story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who had a large hand in the development of the atomic bomb, thus helping end World War 2. We see his life from his university days all the way to post-WW2, where his fame saw him embroiled in political machinations
March 28
The Bikeriders (2023) After a chance encounter, headstrong Kathy is drawn to Benny, a member of Midwestern motorcycle club the Vandals. As the club transforms into a dangerous underworld of violence, Benny must choose between Kathy and his loyalty to the club.
April 4
Boogie Nights (1997) Adult film director Jack Horner is always on the lookout for new talent and it's only by chance that he meets Eddie Adams who is working as a busboy in a restaurant. Eddie is young, good looking and plenty of libido to spare. Using the screen name Dirk Diggler, he quickly rises to the top of his industry winning awards year after year. Drugs and ego however come between Dirk and those around him and he soon finds that fame is fleeting.
April 11
Who Wants to Kill Jessie? (1966) "What if someone had an absurd dream and the visions ran out in the street?" a scientist asks Rose, a researcher who discovers a way to engender beneficial dreams (to produce contented, productive workers). There's a problem: after an injection of her elixir, dream elements become real. Rose learns this after dosing her husband Henry to stop his dreaming about Jessie, a curvaceous comic-book heroine who has anti-gravitational gloves he needs to study so he can solve a problem at the factory where he's chief engineer: Henry wakes up with Jessie asleep next to him pursued by a cowboy and a super hero. Jealousy consumes Rose. All this plus satire aimed at the Czechoslovak state.
April 18
Head (1968) Running in from seemingly nowhere, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork - better known collectively as The Monkees - disrupt a bridge opening ceremony. From where did they come from and why have they come to disrupt the proceedings? They were filming a series of vignettes in several different genres, including a Wild West sequence, a desert war sequence, a Confederate Army Civil War sequence, and a science fiction sequence. They disagree with much of what is happening around them and try to figure out how to escape from the oppression they feel - symbolized by a big black box in which they are seemingly imprisoned - by the forces around them. That oppression is often shown in the form of "The Big Victor Mature"
April 25
Hundreds of Beavers (2022) In this 19th century, supernatural winter epic, a drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America's greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers.
November 1
Playtime (1967) Monsieur Hulot has to contact an American official in Paris, but he gets lost in the maze of modern architecture which is filled with the latest technical gadgets. Caught in the tourist invasion, Hulot roams around Paris with a group of American tourists, causing chaos in his usual manner.
November 8
Fallen Leaves (2023) In modern-day Helsinki, two lonely souls in search of love meet by chance in a karaoke bar. However, their path to happiness is beset by obstacles - from lost phone numbers to mistaken addresses, alcoholism, and a charming stray dog.
November 15
La Dolce Vita (1960) In 1959/1960 Rome, Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) is a writer and journalist, the worst kind of journalist--a tabloid journalist. His job is to try to catch celebrities in compromising or embarrassing situations. He tends to get quite close to his subjects--especially when they're beautiful women. Two such subjects are local heiress Maddalena (Anouk Aimee), and Swedish superstar-actress Sylvia (Anita Ekberg), with both of whom he has affairs despite being engaged to Emma (Yvonne Furneaux), a clingy, insecure, nagging, melodramatic woman. Despite his extravagant, pleasure-filled lifestyle, he is wondering if maybe a simpler life wouldn't be better.
November 22
A Zed & Two Noughts (1985) Identical twins Oliver and Oswald Deuce lose their wives in a car crash caused by a white swan. The brothers, who are zoologists, become obsessed with the death and decay of animals. They both have a relationship with Alba, the driver of the crashed car, who loses first one leg then the other.
December 6
Seven Samurai (1954) A veteran samurai, who has fallen on hard times, answers a village's request for protection from bandits. He gathers 6 other samurai to help him, and they teach the townspeople how to defend themselves, and they supply the samurai with three small meals a day. The film culminates in a giant battle when 40 bandits attack the village
March 29
Anatomy of a Murder (1959) An upstate Michigan lawyer defends a soldier who claims he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?
April 5
Kurosowa's Dreams (1990, Japan) A collection of tales based upon eight of director Akira Kurosawa's recurring dreams.
April 12
Pi (1998) A paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature.
April 19
Decision to Leave (2022, South Korea) A detective investigating a man's death in the mountains meets the dead man's mysterious wife in the course of his dogged sleuthing.
April 26
EO (2022, Poland) Follows a donkey who encounters on his journeys good and bad people, experiences joy and pain, exploring a vision of modern Europe through his eyes.
TUSK (2014, 1:42 min) When podcaster Wallace travels to Canada to interview someone, he winds up meeting a strange man named Howe who has many stories to tell about his past life during his interview. Wallace wakes up the next day finding out Howe isn't the person he thought he was. Howe has plans to surgically and mentally turn Wallace into a walrus.
THE LAST MOVIE (1971, 1:48 min) After a film shoot in Peru is shut down when an actor is killed, the unit wrangler decides to give up film-making and stay. But his dreams of a simple life are cut short when the local priest asks him to help: the villagers are killing one another by re-enacting scenes from the film because they don't understand that a film's violence is not real.
PRIDE (2014, 1:59 min) In 1984, 20-year-old closet gay Joe hesitantly arrives in London from Bromley for his first Gay Pride march and is taken under the collective wing of a group of gay men and Lesbian Steph, who meet at the Soho bookshop of flamboyant Jonathan and his Welsh partner Gethin. Not only are gays being threatened by Thatcher, but also the miners are on strike in response to her pit closures, and Northern Irish activist Mark Ashton believes that gays and miners should show solidarity. Almost by accident, a minibus-load of gays find themselves in the Welsh village of Onllwyn in the Dulais valley, and through their sincere fundraising and Jonathan's nifty disco moves persuade most of the community that they are on the same side. When a bigot tries to sabotage the partnership with a tabloid smear Mark turns it back on her with a hugely successful benefit concert to which most of the villagers, now thoroughly in tune with their gay friends, turn up. The miners are defeated and return to work, but at the Pride march the following year a vast contingent of miners show up to repay their comrades with their show of support.
TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (2022, 2:27 min) In Ruben Östlund's wickedly funny Palme d'Or winner, social hierarchy is turned upside down, revealing the tawdry relationship between power and beauty. Celebrity model couple, Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), are invited on a luxury cruise for the uber-rich, helmed by an unhinged boat captain (Woody Harrelson). What first appeared instagrammable ends catastrophically, leaving the survivors stranded on a desert island and fighting for survival.
ON THE ROCKS (2020, 1:36 min) All it took was one long, passionate, late-night kiss on the lips to make novelist and mother-of-two Laura suspicious of her career-driven, high-reaching husband, Dean. Now, as the uncomfortable feelings of doubt and mistrust start creeping up on her, fanned by the horrible idea that the love of her life may be cheating on her, Laura reluctantly enlists the help of the impeccably dressed, semi-retired art dealer, Felix: her suave, mischievous, and effortlessly charming philanderer father. But, even though it is sometimes exhausting, we all want to be loved. And amid a persistent writer's block, Felix's innocent flirts with random women, Martini-fuelled lunches, and high-speed car chases in Manhattan's neon-lit streets, Laura needs to know. Is her life falling apart?
THE GOOD BOSS (2021, Spain, 1:56 min) Awaiting a visit by a committee that could give his company an award for excellence, the owner of an industrial scales manufacturing business tries to resolve any problems from his workers in enough time.
HATCHING (2022, Finland/Sweden, 1:31 min) A young gymnast, who tries desperately to please her demanding mother, discovers a strange egg. She hides it and keeps it warm, but when it hatches, what emerges shocks them all.
AFTER LIFE (1998, Japan, 1:59 min) After death, people have a week to choose only one memory to keep for eternity.
OFFICIAL COMPETITION (2021, Spain, 1:55 min) A wealthy businessman hires a famous filmmaker to help make a smash hit film.
SOUL KITCHEN (2009, Germany, 1:39 min) In Hamburg, German-Greek chef Zinos unknowingly disturbs the peace in his locals-only restaurant by hiring a more talented chef.
