Film seminars back for 50th edition

The Buffalo Film Seminars is back for its 50th — yes, 50th — edition, and the popular series hosted by UB faculty members Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian continues with another semester chock full of great films and thought-provoking discussions.

The series moved to a remote format during the pandemic and has continued that way ever since. Jackson and Christian say the format of online screenings and discussions held via Zoom opens the series to viewers who would otherwise not have the opportunity to participate.

The weekly discussions for BFS 50 will take place at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays from Jan. 28 through May 6.

An email notification about each film will be sent out on the Saturday before the Zoom discussion date to students registered for Christian and Jackson’s “Film Directors” class (ENG 381), as well as to the Department of English’s Discussion List and to the Buffalo Film Seminars’ listserv (email Jackson or Christian to get on the BFS listserv). That notice will include a URL for the pair’s Vimeo introduction to the film and a PDF of that week’s Goldenrod Handout. The notice will also include an invitation to the Zoom discussion.

All films except for “Charulata,” “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel” are available for free streaming to UB email account holders via the UB Libraries’ film portals. The Swank and Kanopy links for those films are included in the lineup below. Many public and university libraries provide their card-holders free streaming access to films in the Swank and Kanopy catalogs.

Those without UB email accounts can find all of the films, except for “Night of the Hunter,” on Amazon Prime. “Night of the Hunter” is available in hi-resolution on YouTube. Most films are also available on other streaming services. Search what’s streaming at https://www.justwatch.com/.

The series opens on Jan. 28 with the 1927 science fiction silent film “Metropolis,” directed by Fritz Lang. Among the first feature-length films of the sci-fi genre, it tells the story of the son of the mastermind of a futuristic city who falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences. Watch here on Kanopy.

The remainder of the spring 2025 schedule, with descriptions culled from the IMDb online movie database and other sources:

Feb. 4: “All Quiet on the Western Front,” 1930, directed by Lewis Milestone. A German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wans as he gets a firsthand view of the horror. Watch here on Swank. 

Feb. 11: “Duck Soup,” 1933, directed by Leo McCarey. The Marx Brothers star in this tale of the struggling nation of Freedonia. When the country’s wealthy benefactor insists that the wacky Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) become president, the bordering nation of Sylvania sends in spies (Harpo and Chico Marx) to set the stage for revolution. Plenty of mayhem ensues. Watch here on Swank.

Feb. 18: “Double Indemnity,” 1944, directed by Billy Wilder. An insurance representative is seduced by a dissatisfied housewife into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, a claims investigator. Watch here on Swank. 

Feb. 25: “Sansho the Bailiff,” 1954, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. In medieval Japan, a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him but are separated and the children grow up amid suffering and oppression. Watch here on Kanopy. 

March 4: “Night of the Hunter,” 1955, directed by Charles Laughton. A self-proclaimed preacher marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their father hid the $10,000 he’d stolen in a robbery. Watch here on Swank. 

March 11: “The Exterminating Angel,” 1962, directed by Luis Buñuel. The guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave. Watch here on Kanopy. 

March 18: No screening, spring break.

March 25: “Charulata,” 1964, directed by Satyajit Ray. The lonely wife of a newspaper editor falls in love with her visiting cousin-in-law, who shares her love for literature. Watch on Apple TV and Prime.

April 1: “Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles,” 1975, directed by Chantal Akerman. A lonely widow who lives with her teenage son does her daily chores and turns the occasional trick to make ends meet. But something happens that changes her safe routine. Watch on Kanopy. 

April 8: “Monty Python’s Life of Brian,” 1979, directed by Terry Jones. Born on the original Christmas in the stable next door to Jesus Christ, Brian of Nazareth spends his life being mistaken for a messiah. Watch on YouTube, Apple TV, Prime, Google Play, Fandango, AMC+, Roku, Prime and Sling.

April 15: “Come and See,” 1985, directed by Elem Klimov. A young Belarusian teen joins the resistance movement against the occupying Germans and experiences the horrors of World War II. Watch on Kanopy. 

April 22: “The English Patient,” 1996, directed by Anthony Minghella. At the close of World War II, a young nurse tends to a badly burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing involvement in a fateful love affair. Watch on Swank. 

April 29: “Volver,” 2006, directed by Pedro Almodóvar. After her death, a mother returns to her hometown in order to fix the situations she couldn’t resolve during her lifetime. Watch on AVON (Academic Video Online).  

May 6: “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” 2014, directed by Wes Anderson. A writer encounters the owner of an aging, high-class hotel who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel’s glorious years under an exceptional concierge. Watch on YouTube, Apple TV, Prime, Google Play and Fandango.