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Wednesday, September 26 20:00 LA STRADA Director: Federico Fellini Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano Music: Nino Rota Cast: Giulietta Massina, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart, Aido Silvani, Marcella Rovena, Livia Venturini Production: Italy, Ponti/De Laurentis Duration: 107 minutes, Black and white, 1954 "The story was created easily: the characters appeared spontaneousiy, they emerged one after the other, as if the film had been finished long time ago and only waited for a moment to be discovered again. What is it that helped me to find it again? I believe, before all, Giulietta. For a long time I wanted to make a film for her: it seems that she is an actress with a rare talent who knows how to express wonder, astonishment, frenetic joy and a comic sulkiness of a clown," (Fellini) All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster's autobiography.

Federico Fellini

Thursday, September 27 17:30 CIRCUS IN CIRCUS Directed by: Oldrich Lipsky Cast: E.P. Leonov, A.S. Lenkov, N.V. Varlei, L.V. Kuravlev Production: Checkosiovakia, USSR, Ceskoslovensky Filmexport Duration: 99 minutes, color, 1975 Oldrich Lipsky (1924-1986) was obsessed by circus, like Fellini, Chaplin, De Mille, and in his fruitful film career he made several movies about artists, clowns, about what happens in and out of thè arena: We’re On Tonight, Traveling Circus, Six Bears and a Clown and Circus in Circus. Düring the Second World War Lipsky was in the work camp, and after the war he studied philosophy for several Semesters at Charles University in Prague. First he worked in theatre- he was also artistic director of SatiricalTheatre, then moved to film studio Barrandovo, where he wrote screenplays and worked as an assistant director. The first film he directed was We'reOn Tonight in 1954. In 1964 he made one of his most successful movies, parody on Western movies, Lemonade Joe ( Limonádovy Joe ). Time is a circus, always packing up and moving away.

Ben Hecht

Thursday, September 27 20:00 AT THE CIRCUS Directed by: Edward Buzzell Cast: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Margaret Dumont, Florence Rice, and others Production: USA, MGM Duration: 81 minutes, Black and white, 1939 Mrs. Minnie Marks, from thè Family of show business artists, gave birth to Leonard (Chico, 1891-1961), Milton (Gamo, 1892-1977), Adolf or Arthur (Harpo, 1893-1964), Julius (Groucho, 1895-1977) and Herberta (Zepo, 1901-1979) and did everything she could to help her sons achieve fame in the show business. They started together, butGamo/Milton leftthem when theyleft vaudeville and moved to Broadway.The road to fame was a slowone atthat time.The brothers traveled that road until 1924. They earned international fame in 1929 when Paramount produced film versions of their two hits: Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers. After that they make one film after the other: Monkey Business, Hourse Feathers, Hollywood on Parade, Duck Soup (according to many, their best film). At the Circus was made in 1939 for MGM, and the song Lydia that Groucho sings at the beginning of the film (composers Arien and Harburg, WizardofOz) was and remained a hit The brothers will be remembered as comediaos who ridiculed everything and laughed at everything. 1t ls believed that that was the main reason of their popularity. However, not everything was allowed to them.The producers restricted them in many ways, censored them, limited their bestand the most brilliantteam of comedians. Even today people like to watch them, because things they do on film is something many would liketo do in real life; chase blonds, outwit the evil, offend thè unlikable, enjoy music, Their dialogues are logically illogical, and one absurd leads to the next. It was impossible to work with them because they could not stand still for ñve minutes

Robert Flory