Cogut Institute for the Humanities

Film-Thinking 2021–22

  •  Location: Granoff Center for the Creative ArtsRoom: Martinos Auditorium

    For its spring event, Film-Thinking will feature “The Spider’s Stratagem,” a 1970 Italian political mystery directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. A post-screening conversation begins at 6:00 pm. The conversation will feature Brown University faculty members Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg (Italian Studies and Comparative Literature), Massimo Riva (Italian Studies), Benjamin Parker (English), and Timothy Bewes (English).

    The event is a part of the international film festival Il Cinema Ritrovato, March 10–12. See the festival website for additional events.

    The Spider’s Strategem [Strategia del ragno]
    Italy, 1970 (100 mins)
    Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
    Written by Marilù Parolini, Eduardo de Gregorio, Bernardo Bertolucci, based on the story “The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero [Tema del traidor y del héroe]” by Jorge Luis Borges

    Cast: Giulio Brogi, Alida Valli, Pippo Campanini, Franco Giovanelli, Tino Scotti | Production: Giovanni Bertolucci, Aldo U. Passalacqua | Cinematography: Franco Di Giacomo, Vittorio Storaro | Editing: Roberto Perpignani | Sound: Giorgio Pelloni | Language: Italian with English subtitles

    Athos Magnani (Giulio Brogi) is the son of an anti-fascist hero who was assassinated three decades earlier. When he is called back to his father’s hometown by the man’s former mistress (Alida Valli), he has a series of perplexing, surreal encounters with her and the men who were his father’s allies long ago. As he tries to unravel the mystery of his father’s murder, he is forced to reckon with the nature of compromised ideals. Bertolucci’s free adaptation of Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero” “arose from the need to face the ambiguity of history regarding the demystification of heroic father figures,” as Bertolucci said in an interview at the time of the film’s release.

    The film is a unique example of what has been called “magical neorealism.” Bertolucci and Vittorio Storaro, the camera operator, “shot most of [the film] in the brief interval of light between day and evening when a traditional operator would have said ‘stop’!” Nights in the Po River valley “are made of light blue light,” said Bertolucci, and the effect of that light on the film is reminiscent of René Magritte’s mysterious, evocative paintings. The film, Bertolucci said, “was shot in a trance-like condition like a dream: it is the dream of a film, the true cinema of memory.”

    Film-Thinking is a series of conversations hosted by the Cogut Institute for the Humanities, asking how cinema can help us to think the many challenges facing our moment. According to the novelist Jonathan Coe, “A movie is something we should only see when somebody else shows it to us.” In the spirit of Coe’s remark, each Film-Thinking event comprises a curated screening of a film and a post-screening conversation. A pre-circulated Film Note offers a point of departure for the screening and the discussion. The aim of Film-Thinking is to enlarge our sense of the politics of cinema and collectively expand our understanding of film’s capacity for thought. This project has been made possible, in part, by the Brown Arts Institute. Learn more.

    This event is free and open to the public. Brief intermission at 5:45 pm. Refreshments provided. For questions or to request special services, accommodations, or assistance, please contact humanities-institute@brown.edu or (401) 863-6120.

    Brown University abides by public health guidance and health and safety protocols to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19. Event attendees, including visitors and guests, must comply with all University policies and protocols in place at the time of the event, including current University policy regarding face masks and coverings (see the University’s COVID-19 Campus Activity Status page for the current policy for both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals).

  •  Location: Granoff Center for the Creative ArtsRoom: Martinos Auditorium

    The first Film-Thinking event of the year will feature “To Sleep With Anger,” a 1990 US film directed by Charles Burnett. A post-screening conversation begins promptly at 8:00 pm with Brown University faculty members Rolland Murray (English), Stéphanie Larrieux (Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America), Matthew Guterl (American Studies), and Timothy Bewes (English).

    To Sleep With Anger
    USA, 1990 (102 mins)
    Written and directed by Charles Burnett
    Cast: Danny Glover, Paul Butler, Mary Alice, Carl Lumbly, Vonetta McGee, Richard Brooks, Sheryl Lee Ralph | Production: Thomas S. Byrnes, Caldecot Chubb, Darin Scott | Cinematography: Walt Lloyd | Editing: Nancy Richardson | Music: Stephen James Taylor | Language: English

    A slow-burning masterwork of the early 1990s, this third feature by Charles Burnett is a singular piece of American mythmaking. Danny Glover plays the enigmatic southern drifter Harry, a devilish charmer who turns up out of the blue on the South Central Los Angeles doorstep of his old friends. In short order, Harry’s presence seems to cast a chaotic spell on what appeared to be a peaceful household, exposing smoldering tensions between parents and children, tradition and change, virtue and temptation. Interweaving evocative strains of gospel and blues with rich, poetic-realist images, “To Sleep with Anger” is a sublimely stirring film from an autonomous artistic sensibility, a portrait of family resilience steeped in the traditions of African American mysticism and folklore. [Description edited from the Criterion Collection]

    Film-Thinking is a series of conversations hosted by the Cogut Institute for the Humanities, asking how cinema can help us to think the many challenges facing our moment. According to the novelist Jonathan Coe, “A movie is something we should only see when somebody else shows it to us.” In the spirit of Coe’s remark, each Film-Thinking event comprises a curated screening of a film and a post-screening conversation. A pre-circulated Film Note offers a point of departure for the screening and the discussion. The aim of Film-Thinking is to enlarge our sense of the politics of cinema and collectively expand our understanding of film’s capacity for thought.

    This project has been made possible, in part, by the Brown Arts Institute.

    Free and open to the public.
    Brief intermission at 7:45 pm. Refreshments provided.

    Learn more: https://humanities.brown.edu/events/film-thinking

    Read the film note