Indiana University

Skip to:

  1. Search
  2. Breadcrumb Navigation
  3. Content
  4. Browse by Topic
  5. Services & Resources
  6. Additional Resources
  7. Multimedia News

Media Contacts

Jon Vickers
IU Cinema
jwvicker@indiana.edu
812-855-7632

Last modified: Monday, February 27, 2012

Filmmakers Whit Stillman, Bette Gordon to deliver back-to-back lectures, screenings at IU Cinema

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 27, 2012

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- With back-to-back lectures and multiple film screenings, audiences will be able to soak up the essence of cult-status filmmakers Whit Stillman and Bette Gordon at IU Cinema on March 1 to 5.

Fresh from a similar retrospective at the Harvard Film Archive, Stillman -- a Harvard graduate and former journalist who's known as much for his sly depictions of the upper-class WASPs of the sociocultural elite as his melding of wry comedy and political innuendo -- will speak at the cinema at 3 p.m. March 2 as part of the Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker Lecture Series.

IU Cinema will then screen his celebrated screenwriting and directorial debut, "Metropolitan," at 6:30 p.m. March 2. A portrait of young, privileged Manhattanites making the rounds at debutante balls, the film won Stillman an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and a Sundance Film Festival nomination.

The cinema will also screen three other films, including his soon-to-be-released comedy "Damsels in Distress" (6:30 p.m. March 1; 9:30 p.m. March 2; 6:30 p.m. March 3), "Barcelona" (9:30 p.m. March 1) and "The Last Days of Disco" (9:30 p.m., March 3).

"Whit Stillman is a master at presenting smart comedies with rapid, often cynical dialogue. His films have the sophisticated feel of a modernized Ernst Lubitsch comedy," IU Cinema director Jon Vickers said. "It will be a treat to have Mr. Stillman in attendance for this series."

Bette Gordon

Filmmaker Bette Gordon on set with actor Steve Buscemi.

Print-Quality Photo

IU Cinema will then welcome director Bette Gordon, who will deliver a Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker Lecture at 3 p.m. March 5 at the cinema.

The subject of recent retrospectives around the country with the reissue of her 1983 film "Variety," writer Evangeline Morphos said of Gordon: "Bette's work explores themes of sexuality, power and fragility. Because of the boldness of her subject matter -- pornography, obsession, violence -- her work is often shocking, but always truthful. We can never look away."

The cinema will screen two of Gordon's films: "Variety" (6:30 p.m. March 4) and "Handsome Harry" (7 p.m. March 5). "Handsome Harry," which premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, tells the story of one man's journey of self-discovery as he attempts to fulfill a request from a dying Navy buddy to apologize for a gay-bashing incident that happened during the Vietnam War.

Want to go?
Both lectures and film screenings are free, but ticketed. Tickets can be obtained at the IU Auditorium Box Office from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, or 30 minutes before each screening at IU Cinema. Tickets can be purchased online here, but fees apply.

About IU Cinema
Indiana University Cinema is a world-class facility and program dedicated to the scholarly study and highest standards of exhibition of film in its traditional and modern forms. For more information on the facility or programs, call 812-856-2503 or visit www.cinema.indiana.edu.