Cinema Fellowship

The "Cinema Fellowship" is an initiative begun be senior film studies major, Caleb Stallings. The mission of the Cinema Fellowship is "To provide an environment that seeks to engage various disciplines within the liberal arts through the works of the cinema" but the concept is very simple. Each month a faculty will put 2-3 films on reserve in the library. One of the nice things about this initiative is that the Cinema Fellowship is taking advantage of all of the films that the library has. You can find all of our films just inside the entrance of the library. After everyone interested has had a chance to view the films there will be a discussion held in the Bowld Commons. This month Professor Gavin Richardson has chosen to feature Shakespeare on film with film adaptations of The Merchant of Venice. So just ask at the library front desk for any of the Merchant of Venice films on reserve under Dr. Richardson. After you have had a chance to see all of the films the discussion and meeting will be held upstairs in The Bowld on October 25 at 7:30pm. For the month of October the movies discussed are listed below.

Silent Shakespeare


"In the early days of the cinema, pioneer filmmakers created these seven charming films based on the plays of William Shakespeare. Considered a "lowbrow" medium, the fledgling movie industry sought to elevate its status by immortalizing the classics and hiring the actors of the day. Most of these early photoplays were only one or two reels long but whatever they gave up in language and length, they made up for in exuberance, cinematic artistry, visual wit and bravura acting."

2004 Radford Merchant of Venice.

Michael Radford's film of "The Merchant of Venice" stars Al Pacino as Shylock, and the look of him-heavy of tread, eyes darting and wary-defines the encompassing mood. The text has been sliced and pared, and what remains is intimate and sorrowful, as if the characters knew from the start what manner of tribulation they would face. Antonio (Jeremy Irons) seems already to be mourning the loss not just of his ships at sea but of his friend Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes) to the wealthy and marriageable Portia (Lynn Collins). Her early scenes are the weakest in the movie, the comedy of the semi-fantastic sitting uneasily amid the gathering gloom. What Radford does best-and it's a trick he mislaid in the slower niceties of "Il Postino"-is to shove and wheedle the story along, so that the court scene and even the final bickering over marital rings take on the air not merely of patchings-up but of bristling suspense.

2004 Trevor Nunn's Stage adaptation of Merchant of Venice
This is sort of a filmed stage performance Richard Price and Chris Hunt as the Performance Company present ; the Royal National Theatre production ; produced in association with the Lexington Road Entertainment Group.