After a two-year hiatus, Okanagan College’s popular “Classics at the Classic” returns next week for its fifth season, with a contemporary twist.
In previous years, the series has largely showcased established classics and foreign-language films, but this season the series focuses on the works of three of the most exciting and distinctive directors working today: Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Terrence Malick.
Sponsored by Okanagan College and supported by the Salmar Association, the non-profit program runs in conjunction with a second-year film criticism and theory course taught by English professor Tim Walters, who introduces each of the films.
“My hope with this year’s selection is that rather than looking to the past, I have selected movies made by the most original and compelling filmmakers working at the very peak of their power today,” says Walters.
He was also keen to focus on directors whose films are immediately identifiable and have highly distinctive styles and personalities so students can watch them develop over the course of several films.
“Plus, these are all films that I love, and that I think will be tremendously exciting for my students and for the general public.”
The “Contemporary Classics at the Classic” runs Monday nights at the Salmar Classic Theatre beginning at 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 12 with Wes Anderson’s 1998 cult classic Rushmore.
The schedule includes:
• Jan. 19 at 5 p.m. – Terrrence Malick’s Badlands.
• Feb. 2 at 7:30 p.m. – Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights.
• Feb. 16 at 5 p.m. – Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums.
• March 2 at 7:30 p.m. Malick’s The Thin Red Line.
• March 9 at 7:30 p.m. – Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia.
• March 16 at 5 p.m. – Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox and at 7:30, The Life Aquatic, with Steve Zissou.
• March 23 at 5 p.m. – Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will be Blood.
• March 30 a 7:30 p.m. Malick’s Tree of Life.
The films are open to the public and admission is $5. For more information, email Tim Walters at TWalters@okanagan.bc.ca.
