Reel Pieces with Annette Insdorf: Online

The Reel Pieces Film Club Goes Online:
With New York's cinephiles staying at home, Reel Pieces Moderator Annette Insdorf has designed an online class.

Reel Pieces Remote: Classic Films with Annette Insdorf will begin on Sunday, March 29, meeting weekly at 8 pm for five sessions. The masterpieces she has selected will be streamed via The Criterion Channel. You can view the film any time before the Sunday evening class—and please watch beforehand Professor Insdorf’s prerecorded introduction of approximately 5 minutes. After screening the classic film, you can then hear her lecture at your convenience before the 8 pm session: that’s when she will engage the group in live online discussion. Signing up for this 92Y class includes a free Criterion Channel trial membership good for 45 days (the Criterion Channel offers over 2000 titles).

Tentative Syllabus:

Mar 29: To Be Or Not To Be (1942), directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack. The first example of “black comedy” in treating Nazis on screen; here, they are challenged by a clever acting troupe.

Apr 5: On the Waterfront (1954), directed by Elia Kazan, starring Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden, Rod Steiger, Lee J. Cobb. The Oscar-winning tale of a boxer “who coulda been a contender,” caught between loyalty to the mob and a growing sense of conscience.

Apr 12: Ashes and Diamonds (1958, Poland), directed by Andrzej Wajda, starring Zbigniew Cybulski. Considered one of the greatest films ever made by Francis Coppola as well as Martin Scorsese, this drama unfolds on the last night of World War II: a charismatic young soldier of the Polish Nationalist Army questions the order to kill the representative of the Polish Communist Party.

Apr 19: Z (1969), directed by Costa-Gavras, starring Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Irene Pappas. A heart-pounding, Oscar-winning political thriller based on a true story during the Greek military dictatorship: a magistrate investigates an attack on a progressive hero as well as the ensuing cover-up.

Apr 26: The Tin Drum (1979, Germany), directed by Volker Schlondorff, starring David Bennent, Charles Aznavour, Angela Winkler, Daniel Olbrychski, Mario Adorf, Heinz Bennent. Winner of the Palme d’or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, this epic is adapted from the novel by Gunter Grass. The film adopts the riveting perspective of Oskar, who decides at the age of 3 to stop growing.

Professor Insdorf pays special attention to the opening sequences. And with three of the films set against the backdrop of World War II, she will explore not only cinematic language but political vision. She will also discuss themes like complicity and guilt (addressed by On the Waterfront and Z). All foreign films have English subtitles.