The 2009 Bosnian and Herzegovinian Film Festival

The official schedule for the Bosnian Film Fest, to be held April 11th and 12th here at Loyola University Chicago, is now available for download here. Our slate of films this year is really dynamite and all screenings are free and open to the public (capacity limited to 300 people). Furthermore, the reception on Saturday evening will include a generous buffet of excellent Bosnian cuisine.

Hope to see you there.

Long Time No Speak

Hello all.

It's been awhile since we've gotten some new stuff up on the blog, but the month of April is going to be pretty exciting for LUCine and film at Loyola in general. We've got the Bosnian fest coming up in two weeks, and we're really pumped for the Student film fest that will be taking place at the very end of the month. If you're interested in helping out with either of these events let us know, and we hope to see you at both. Keep checking the blog for more updates throughout the month.

Cheers,

Vince.

A message from Avery Grant

Calling all film lovers!

You may or may not have heard about LUCine, (Loyola University CINEma) or film club. If you are an IFMS major, or just like to watch movies, then this is the club for you.

Right now we are in the process of planning for next year, some of our events include:
-Big Lebowski Bowling Night (watch The Big Lebowski and then go bowling)
-Caddy Shack Putt-Putt Night (watch Caddy Shack and then go play putt-putt golf)
-Halloween Horror Film Festival
-Student Film Festival
-Bosnian Film Festival
-Biweekly Indie Film Screenings
-Director Guest Speaker

If you are interested in any of these events, or if you have any other ideas/suggestions for cool things do to next year, our meetings are every Monday at 5 pm in the Rambler Room.

Any other questions? Feel free to email:
Vince Labriola (current President) at vlabriola@luc.edu
Jeff Harder (Faculty Advisor) at jharder@luc.edu
Avery Grant at agrant1@luc.edu
Or check out our blog at http://lucinechicago.blogspot.com/

Don't forget, meetings are every Monday 5 pm, in the Rambler Room. Hope to see you there!

Thanks,
Avery Grant

Calvin and Susie

I'm a huge fan of 'Calvin and Hobbes' (who isn't?), and I came across this fan comic depicting Calvin and Susie making out, while Hobbes 'watches' angrily. I thought it was a funny way to show how fooling around gets in the way of imaginary friends, simply that Calvin is getting older and outgrowing Hobbes. Certainly makes you wonder if all those 'Fight Club=Calvin and Hobbes' conspiracy theories are true.

Watchmen and Adaptation

This is meant to be both a review of the film and an examination of the 'art' of adapting material for the screen. I saw Zack Snyder's film at an advance screening this past Tuesday, and as a fan of the original comic book I felt the theatre very impressed; 'Watchmen' stands toe-to-toe with the other big two comic book movies released in the past year ('Iron Man' and 'The Dark Knight') in its own way, and like those two films it has strengths and weaknesses. However, unlike 'Iron Man' and 'Knight', 'Watchmen' has strict source material, instead of a amorphous created universe from which to draw concrete story elements. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons created a piece of magnificent art with their graphic novel, a story so thoughtfully constructed that most who've read it came to the conclusion that it couldn't be adapted into a film. Still, the overwhelming appeal of superhero movies recently meant that, inevitably, 'Watchmen' would fall under the camera lens. Enter Snyder, director of '300,' another graphic novel adaptation.

Let me say this, first and foremost: if you haven't read the original graphic novel, Snyder's adaptation is going to strike you as needlessly confusing. I wouldn't be surprised if you disliked the film. On the other hand, if you're one of those individuals who adhere to the (misguided) principle that adaptation ruins the original material, you will also dislike the film. Is the graphic novel better than the film? Absolutely. For 'Watchmen' to move faithfully from page to screen would require a runtime of - and this is a conservative estimate - ten hours at least. Hoepfully, you fall into the same category of viewer as I do: a huge fan of the graphic novel who realizes the constraints of making a theatrical motion picture adaptation and can take Snyder's film for what it is, an ansolutely fantastic companion piece to the original work. Snyder flawlessly takes the most visually dramatic moments of the graphic novel and populates them with spot-on depictions of the main characters, so that 'Watchmen' functions as an added layer of depth to the original story. I went back and read a bit of the graphic novel after seeing the film, and as much as I loved Rorschach before, having Jackie Earle Haley provide the added cinematic qualities to the character is a positive without a negative. Was I disappointed Snyder omitted/modified elements of the original? Of course, but that doesn't make me dislike the film. In fact, his tweaked ending is, for my money, just as interesting as the original. Snyder will be criticized for his choices, and perhaps rightly so. However, 'Watchmen' is every bit the accomplishment that 'Iron Man' or 'Dark Knight' were, in its own way. My recommendation: pick up a copy of the graphic novel and read it through before seeing the film. Together they function as the finest example of cross-medium popular entertaiment I've ever seen, and for me that's enough to give 'Watchmen' four stars.

-V.