News and Media

Published: Sep 8, 2010

SAVANNAH, Ga.—The Savannah College of Art and Design and Trustees Theater announce the 2010-11 season of the SCAD Cinema Circle. The season builds on the highly successful programming format of last year’s series with pre- and post-show discussions and membership packages, including an exclusive special screening during the Savannah Film Festival.

The mission of the SCAD Cinema Circle is to provide film lovers and students with an enriched viewing experience of first-class, award-winning and cutting-edge films from around the world. All screenings are presented at Trustees Theater, 216 E. Broughton St.

The SCAD Cinema Circle features pre-show discussions that highlight the cinematic, cultural and historic importance of each film. At the conclusion of the screening, a post-show discussion, led by SCAD’s cinema studies and film and television professors, provides an in-depth review of the film and the context in which it was produced.

Robert Eisinger, dean of SCAD’s School of Liberal Arts, said of the second season: “SCAD enthusiastically brings to the Savannah community another series of important, entertaining and outstanding films. We are especially excited about showing a range of superb films—from Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry, to the 1927 Fritz Lang masterpiece, Metropolis. By exposing students, faculty, staff and the greater Savannah community to excellence, we underscore that great texts include great films. Our film series is the envy of any art and design university.” 

Len Cripe, executive director of Trustees Theater, added, “SCAD's Cinema Circle gives SCAD students and Savannah filmgoers the opportunity to watch and discuss some of the most important films of the last century, while the 1946 Trustees Theater is the perfect setting to enjoy these great movies and great discussions."

The SCAD Cinema Circle offers three levels of memberships. The top-level Producers Circle includes up to 14 tickets a year, a chance to purchase advance tickets to the Savannah Film Festival, free admission to a special screening for SCAD Cinema Circle members during the film festival, and advance ticket sales on select SCAD box office events ($100 for the general public; $75 for seniors, military, students and the SCAD community). The Directors Circle includes up to 14 tickets per year, free admission to the Savannah Film Festival special screening for SCAD Cinema Circle members and advance ticket sales on select SCAD box office events ($75 for the general public; $50 for seniors, military, students and the SCAD community). The Actors Circle offers six tickets per year ($30 for the general public; $25 for seniors, military, students and the SCAD community). All membership levels include the pre- and post-film discussions and the SCAD Cinema Circle quarterly newsletter. Individual film tickets are also available at $8 for the general public; $6 for seniors, students and military; and free with a valid SCAD ID.

For more information, call 912.525.5051 or send an e-mail. To purchase tickets, visit SCAD box office.

The schedule of films follows:

Friday, Sept. 24, 7 p.m.
Easy Rider (1969)
Two men (Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper) set out on a drug-filled motorcycle journey across the United States on their Harley Davidsons with an alcoholic lawyer (Jack Nicholson) in tow to discover the country and their place in it. Easy Rider is part of the American consciousness—a film that reverberates with meaning and a true picture of its time.
Starring: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson
Language: English
Columbia Pictures; Directed by Dennis Hopper
Rated R; 95 minutes; 1969

Friday, Oct. 8, 7 p.m.
The 400 Blows (1959)
François Truffaut’s first feature, The 400 Blows (Les quatre cents coups), is also his most personal. Told through the eyes of Truffaut’s lifelong cinematic counterpart, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), The 400 Blows sensitively recreates the trials of Truffaut’s own difficult childhood, unsentimentally portraying aloof parents, oppressive teachers, petty crime and a friendship that would last a lifetime. The film marks Truffaut’s passage from leading critic of the French New Wave to his emergence as one of Europe’s most brilliant auteurs.
Starring: Jean-Pierre Léaud
Language: French
Les Films du Carrosse; Directed by François Truffaut
Black & White; Not Rated; 99 minutes; 1959

Savannah Film Festival special screening
To be announced

Friday, Nov. 12, 7 p.m.
Dirty Harry (1971)
Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is the kind of cop that is safer to have on the police force than on the streets. Hot-tempered and carrying a chip on his shoulder, Harry fights crime by the rules … his rules. When Harry is assigned to locate Scorpio, a sniper who has been terrorizing the city, he hunts the killer down, tracking him down day and night with his relentless pursuit.
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Andy Robinson
Language: English
Warner Bros.; Directed by Don Siegel
Rated R; 103 minutes; 1971

Saturday, Jan. 8, 7 p.m.
Metropolis (1927) *Newly Restored Version
In the year 2026, when the populace is divided between workers who must live underground and the wealthy, who enjoy a futuristic city of splendor, a man from the upper class abandons his privileged life to join oppressed workers in a revolt. Perhaps the most famous and influential of all silent films, German director Fritz Lang's masterpiece has now been magnificently restored to include 25 minutes of lost footage.
Starring: Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Theodor Loos
Language: German
Universum Film; Directed by Fritz Lang
Black & White; Not Rated; 153 minutes; 1927

Saturday, Jan. 22, 7 p.m.
Breathless (1960)
There was before Breathless, and there was after Breathless. Jean-Luc Godard burst onto the film scene in 1960 with this jazzy, freeform, and sexy homage to the American film genres that inspired him as a writer for Cahiers du cinéma. With its lack of polish, surplus of attitude, anything-goes crime narrative, and effervescent young stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, Breathless helped launch the French New Wave and ensured cinema would never be the same.
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg
Language: French
Les Productions Georges de Beauregard; Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Black & White; Not Rated; 90 minutes; 1960

Saturday, Feb. 19, 7 p.m.
Carrie (1976)
A high-school wallflower and outcast (Sissy Spacek) with a telekinetic ability wreaks havoc and revenge upon her classmates after they play a horrible joke on her at the senior prom. This horror classic is based on the novel by Stephen King.
Starring: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, John Travolta
Language: English
United Artists; Directed by Brian DePalma
Rated R; 98 minutes; 1976

Saturday, April 16, 7 p.m.
Stand by Me (1986)
During the summer of 1959, four boys stray away from their rural homes in Oregon to discover the whereabouts of a dead boy who was hit by a train. As the four boys follow the train tracks that will lead them to the dead boy, they fight, joke, ponder the mysteries of life and begin to experience the pitfalls of growing up in this sentimental tale of boyhood in the ‘50s.
Starring: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman
Language: English
Columbia Pictures; Directed by Rob Reiner
Rated R; 87 minutes; 1986

Friday, April 22, 7 p.m.
Days of Heaven (1978)
After killing a steelworker in a fight outside of Chicago, Bill (Richard Gere), along with his lover, Abby, and his teenage sister, Linda, flees to Texas. There, the trio becomes farm laborers for a wealthy but dying farmer. The farmer falls in love with Abby, and Abby and Bill plot to take over the farm. This turbulent and stunning drama set in the days before World War I is told through the eyes of Linda.
Starring: Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard, Linda Manz
Language: English
Paramount Pictures; Directed by Terrence Malick
Rated PG; 94 minutes; 1978

Saturday, May 28, 7 p.m.
The Third Man (1949)
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, black-market opportunist Harry Lime—and thus begins this legendary tale of love, deception and murder. Thanks to brilliant performances by Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli and Orson Welles; Anton Karas’s evocative zither score; Graham Greene’s razor-sharp dialogue; and Robert Krasker’s dramatic use of light and shadow, The Third Man, directed by the inimitable Carol Reed, only grows in stature as the years pass.
Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton, Alida Valli
Language: English
London Film Productions; Directed by Carol Reed
Black & White; Not Rated; 104 minutes; 1949

Friday, June 17, 7 p.m.
The Misfits (1961)
A Western unlike any other ever made, The Misfits revolves around three jobless cowboys and a lone woman who keeps house for them. John Huston draws us into this strange world, the carnival atmosphere of a small-time rodeo near Reno, and a wild horse roundup in the mountains nearby. The film marks Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable’s last screen performances.
Starring: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift
MGM/UA; Directed by John Huston
Black and White; Not Rated; 124 minutes; 1961

Saturday, July 2, 7 p.m.
Guys &  Dolls (1955)
Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) runs the best craps game in town, but with the police creeping in on him, he needs to find a new safe location to do business. He finds one but needs a grand to get it going, so he coaxes a bet with Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando), a high-stakes gambler, to take a prim missionary (Jean Simmons) to Havana, land of fun and “sin.”
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons
Samuel Goldwyn Mayer; Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Not Rated; 152 minutes; 1955

Saturday, July 16, 7 p.m.
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
This expert political thriller, thanks in part to a fascinating plotline, emerges as one of the tautest films ever made. Its premise is diabolical: While being held prisoner in Korea, an American G.I. is programmed by the Chinese Communists to kill at will. The suspense builds to a riveting, action-packed political assassination finale in Madison Square Garden.
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury
MGM/UA; Directed by John Frankenheimer
Black and White; Rated PG-13; 126 minutes; 1962

Saturday, July 30, 7 p.m.
Shane (1953)
Based on Jack Shaeffer's novel, the film follows a drifter and retired gunfighter (Alan Ladd) who helps a homestead family that is terrorized by an aging cattleman and his hired gun. In fighting the last, decisive battle, the gunfighter sees the end of his own way of life. Mysterious, moody and atmospheric, this classic Western myth is enhanced by the intense performances of its splendid cast.
Starring: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur
Paramount Pictures; Directed by George Stevens
Not Rated; 117 minutes; 1953