Film Studies Newsletter Spring 2004

University of Pittsburgh Volume 2, Number 2 Spring 2004 The News Reel Film Studies Program Newsletter From the “Director’s Chair” The Film Studies Mary Ann Doane from Inside this issue: Program was quite ac- Brown University spoke tive this past Fall. We on the topic of The offered 24 different Close Up: Scale and De- Film Summit in 1 classes in Critical Stud- tail in Cinema. Fur- Steeltown Dr. Lucy Fischer, ies and, with the help of thermore, our “in Director Pittsburgh Filmmakers, house” lecture series Faculty Profile 2 30 different courses in (The Pittsburgh Film Professor Phil Watts Production. Overall, we Colloquium) presented (French and Italian) or- reached some 250 stu- two sessions. In Octo- ganized a series of five Library News 3 dents (both under- ber, our own Professor French and Francophone graduate and gradu- Marcia Landy (English) films. Their titles are ate). The fall also saw gave a talk on Monty listed on page 7. We Chuck Palahniuk 4 visits by several prestig- Python’s Flying Circus look forward to an ious speakers. Profes- and Unholy Television equally busy and stimu- sor Barbara Klinger and in November Car- lating spring term.■ Our Higher Fac- 5 from the University of negie Mellon’s Professor ulty Indiana gave a talk en- David Shumway spoke titled, The Titanic Hair- about Genres of Holly- Awards 6 cut, and Professor wood Romantic Com- edy. Finally, in Octo- Film Summit in ber and November Pitt’s Events 7 Steeltown It sounds like a typi- Rob Marshall “Life is Hell and then you grew up in Pittsburgh, cal Los Angeles soiree, (director, Chicago), go to the movies.” spoke during an hour- but last October, Holly- Jamie Widdoes George Romero long WQED program wood mavens and mav- (director, 8 Simple about the possibilities ericks brushed elbows Rules for Dating My Teen- and Broadway’s Little for uniting Pittsburgh with prominent com- age Daughter), Sally Shop of Horrors), and Hollywood through munity leaders right Lapiduss (writer, Mad George Romero the auspices of a non- here in Pittsburgh. About You and The Tracy (director, Night of the profit organization. In On Saturday, Octo- Morgan Show), Terri Min- Living Dead, The Dark the evening, a cocktail ber 25, 2003, the non- sky (writer/creator, Lizzy Half, Bruiser), David party took place at the profit Steeltown Enter- McGuire, Less Than Per- Conrad (actor, Miss Warhol Museum with tainment Project hosted fect), Eric Gold (manager, Match), and Jack Smith the aforementioned en- a Pittsburgh Entertain- Ellen Degeneres, Jim (co-executive producer, tertainment leaders and ment Summit at WQED Carrey, and Vince The Young and the Pittsburgh patrons. Multimedia studios and Vaugh), Bernie Gold- Restless) with Pitts- The summit explored The Andy Warhol Mu- mann (producer, Looney burgh community lead- ways in which the city seum. The summit Toons Back in Action and ers. In the afternoon, can tap the talent and united entertainment Taking Lives), Peter Ac- the panel of Hollywood influence of Pittsburgh- industry leaders like kerman (writer, Ice Age heavy-weights, who (Continued on page 2) Our Higher Faculties Faculty Profile ate-level course specifically on cial effects or computer- Stalinist cinema (1934-53) to manipulated imaging or the oxy- complete the trio of courses. moronic ‘collaborative creativity’ of Vladimir Padunov is Padunov says that to his the studios, the results seem to the Associate Director knowledge, no other university of- lead in the same direction: the of the Film Studies fers such an intensive series of erasure of the specific. We’ve Program and an Asso- courses on Russo-Soviet cinema ended up with a night in which all ciate Professor in the at this level, or even an under- cats are black.”■ Department of Slavic graduate course sequence dedi- Languages and Literatures. He is cated to the topic. also on the faculty of the Program With his wife, Nancy Condee, for Cultural Studies. He regularly director of the Graduate Program Summit (cont.) teaches courses on the history of in Cultural Studies, and help from Russo-Soviet cinema, contempo- undergraduate and graduate stu- (Continued from page 1) rary Russian media, and the his- dents and junior faculty, Padunov ers who have found success in the tory of Russian popular culture. organizes the annual Russian film and television industry. This His publications have appeared in Film Symposia, held the first week included brainstorming ways to Framework, The Harriman Insti- of every May. Symposia themes draw some of the $130 billion tute Forum, Isskustvo kino, The are generated from group discus- revenue involved in the entertain- Nation, New Left Review, October, sion and Padunov’s research in- ment industry toward Pittsburgh. and Wide Angle. And according terests. The sixth symposia, to be The cocktail party at the War- to him, he is a “slut.” “I find held this May, will focus on inno- hol Museum was a lively and fun- pleasure in all films,” he clarifies. vations in and transformations of filled event. While the glitz and At Pitt, Padunov developed one the Russian film industry: debut glamour of former-Pittsburghers- of the most intensive curricula in films, alternative technologies, the turned-Hollywood-denizens hob- Russo-Soviet cinema studies in emergence of home theaters, and nobbing with prominent Pitts- the United States. In the fall, he video-films. burgh residents captured one’s taught for the last time Russian Padunov’s field is narratology— imagination, the working mission 0870 (History of Russian Film I: the history and structures of nar- behind the project The Beginnings to Stalin), the first rativity, both verbal and visual. was to launch con- part of a course sequence he de- His interest in Slavic studies cen- nections between signed in 1997 (which concludes ters on Slavic narratives and their Pittsburgh and Hol- with Russian 0871, History of techniques of composition—oral, lywood. Clearly Russian Film II: From Stalin to written, statically graphic, or dy- this could have Ellen Kander Weiss, Rob Marshall, Maxine Lapuduss and Carl Kurlander the Present). The courses are be- namically graphic. “Film studies long-reaching ing passed on to graduate stu- inevitably becomes a part of this effects on local Film Studies dents in the Department of Slavic picture,” he says. But his inter- graduates. Languages and Literature, most of ests are not confined to Russo- According to Carl Kurlander whom, Padunov says, have com- Soviet cinema. He attributes his (writer, St. Elmo’s Fire and Assis- pleted PhD certificates in the Film broad tastes to a childhood as a tant Visiting Professor of Film Studies Program and require latchkey kid in New York City in Studies) who developed this pro- classroom experience teaching the early 1950s, when admission ject with Maxine Lapiduss (writer Russo-Soviet cinema. to theaters “cost next to nothing and producer, Roseanne, Ellen, As part of preparing the gradu- and you were always guaranteed a Dharma and Greg), this project ate students to teach courses on double feature and a newsreel.” could pave the way for University Russo-Soviet cinema, Padunov Still, he is disappointed in the of Pittsburgh graduates to con- also created two new graduate American film industry, which he tinue to live in Pittsburgh and level courses: From Lumière to describes as “the first and most work in the national entertain- Lenin (Russo-Soviet cinema from egregious victim of mass con- ment industry. 1896 to 1934) and Post-Stalinist sumed and…mass produced cul- “This town of industry has to Russian Cinema (from 1953 to the tural artifacts. Whether we point learn that ‘art’ can be an industry, present). He is preparing a gradu- to the explosive dominance of spe- (Continued on page 3) Page 2 The News Reel Hillman Library News American Film Scripts Online with them. The database aims to ters. The database also supplies now available include over 1,000 scripts (and simple and advanced full text The University Library System over 100,000 scenes) when com- search screens. A "Showcase" fea- recently acquired access to pleted. ture displays sample page images American Film Scripts Online Included in AFSO are tables of from selected scripts to give users (AFSO), a joint ongoing contents listing the a sense of the appearance of the project of Alexander scripts both alphabeti- paper originals. Street Press and the cally and by year of To gain access to AFSO, click University of Chi- composition, as well on the "Databases A-Z" link on the cago. To date, this da- as the characters, menu on the left tabase contains the full people and subjects side of the library's texts of 265 scripts written from related to the scripts, supplying home page (www. 1903 to 2002 by 334 writers, links to additional information on library.pitt.edu), along with information on the them. Individual search screens and then scroll scenes and characters in the are provided to help you locate in- down to the link reading American scripts, and the actors, directors, formation on specific writers, Film Scripts Online.■ producers, and writers connected scripts, scenes and charac- Summit (Cont) (Continued from page 2) tertainment Technology Center, Keezer, Director, Pittsburgh Film too,” Kurlander wrote in a col- the Manchester Craftsman’s Office; William Strickland, Jr., umn for the Pittsburgh Post- Guild, and Pittsburgh Filmmak- President, Manchester Craftsman's Gazette, published in November ers) and the premiere screening of Guild; Henry Simonds, Filmmaker; 2002, in which he insisted that— the short documentary Pitts- Barbara Anderson, given the staggering number of burgh: Hollywood’s Best Kept Se- Associate Dean, Col- Pittsburghers working in Holly- cret (produced by award-winning lege of Fine Arts, wood—entertainment should be filmmaker Laura Davis).

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