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Feature Article
How to Manage Your Manager 
By Karen Wagner

Women Transforming Culture
How They Do It:
Leading a Research Team
By Natalia Nieto

Cultural Corner
Cinema Forum: Critique & Discussion
By Martha Swanzey

News, Recent and Upcoming Events

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Spring 2010 Newsletter

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Murray Hill Institute Newsletter
Spring 2010
Volume 7 No. 2

CULTURAL CORNER
Cinema Forum: Critque & Discussion
By Martha Swanzey

In Tennessee Williams’ play, The Glass Menagerie, Amanda Wingfield says to her son, Tom, “You go entirely too much to the movies…why do you go to the movies so much?”  He responds, “I like adventure, Mother, something I don’t get much of at the Continental Shoe Warehouse.”  Well, our friends who come to our monthly Cinema Forum: Critique & Discussion (fancy name!) don’t necessarily come for adventure, though we might occasionally supply it —like when we run out of Camembert.

They come, we hope, because they are good friends who enjoy and appreciate each others’ company, have an informed knowledge of film and are eager and able to comment intelligently on the content and artistry of the films we show.  Our friends who come to our home on these occasions come from a variety of professional backgrounds—medicine, law, education, science, engineering, business, and from a number of countries —Ireland, Austria, Poland, for example. This variety of experience and expertise assures a lively and insightful exchange of viewpoints and always a number of unique and diverse reactions to what we view.

The films are selected by us with a good deal of input from our “regulars.”   People will suggest classics we all know and love or newer films that will spark discussion and disagreement—the latter always a lot of fun.  Well-known movies shown include Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt and Strangers on a Train, film noir classics like Double Indemnity and Laura, screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby, British classics like Brief Encounter and Brighton Rock, and foreign language films like East/West and Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

Sometimes we have a little fun with the film and our audience.  For example, when showing the wonderful Alastair Sim crime thriller, Green for Danger, we paused the film and had our friends guess, on the basis of clues strewn throughout, who the killer might be, inviting all to give reasons for their conclusions.  When we resumed the film people were able to see whether they were right or wrong.  Also, we invite any of our friends to introduce a film they have recommended, to point out any significant features we should note to enhance our appreciation.  On other occasions, we have given little quizzes following the films to see if folks noticed key elements.  For example, in Shadow of a Doubt, Hitchcock, in order to identify his villain (Joseph Cotton) with his heroine (Teresa Wright), presents a number of visual and oral clues involving “two-ness”—two suspects, two cities, double brandies, two months, two people named Charlie, etc. “Hey, audience, did you notice?”

We create a friendly atmosphere and loosen tongues with wine and cheese.  We try to recognize the seasons, both by choice of film and décor.  So, for March we would have green decorations and perhaps The Quiet Man or this year’s selection, My Left Foot; romance and red in February, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir;  terror and orange and black in October, Invasion of The Body Snatchers; and something inspirational at the appropriate point in the liturgical season.  We send out an attractive brochure every three months with the schedule and titles of each one of the three films for those three listed months.  Films are garnered chiefly from the Netflix collections.

Our house is not large and we do not employ a big screen (although my husband, Tom, has suggested we do a drive-in movie thing with people parking in our back yard. I hope he’s kidding!), yet our friends keep coming and we always have new people.  We have found this to be an excellent way to see people we love on a regular basis; and we feel that they appreciate the opportunity to engage in lively and intelligent discussion.  We have learned that film criticism hardly qualifies as an exact science.  The goal is to include a little bit of everything, but to prevent the resulting chosen films from being just a cinematic smorgasbord —a case of mere variety taking precedence over true value.

Martha Swanzey is on the Board of Directors for Murray Hill Institute.  She and her husband, Tom, have held the Cinema Forum: Critique & Discussion in their home on a monthly basis for ten years.