Screen/Society--Film in Theory--"Bijou" [explicit content-adults only!]

Friday, February 24, 2017 - 2:00pm to 3:30pm
Screen/Society--Film in Theory--"Bijou" [explicit content-adults only!]

Film Screening:

Bijou 

(Wakefield Poole, 1972, 77 min, USA, in English, Color, Blu-Ray)

[NB: Explicit Content - Adults Only!]

-- Introduced by John Stadler (Graduate Program in Literature)

-- Response by Ryan Powell (Graduate Program in Literature)

-- In-depth discussion to follow!

 

-- Dinner provided for audience members who plan to participate in the post-film discussion, and who RSVP in advance to laura.jaramillo@duke.edu. A brief reading for the event will also be distributed over email.

Acclaimed director Wakefield Poole's second feature, the surreal and trippy Bijou, set a new standard for explicit cinema when it opened in 1972. The film concerns a construction worker who witnesses a car accident and pockets the female victim's purse in which he discovers her invitation to a club named 'Bijou.' There he enters a strange erotic world where dark fantasies become reality. A fever dream blending the erotic and the divine in equal parts, Bijou is a psychosexual puzzle that rewards multiple viewings. 

Film in Theory is a new graduate student film initiative aimed at exploring cinema and its intersections with contemporary critical theory. We believe campus screenings are an accessible way to engage both the academic community and the broader local community with the research conducted in the Literature department. Literature graduate students are uniquely situated to connect theoretical and aesthetic issues relevant to contemporary sociopolitical events. The series is intended to highlight the diversity of critical lenses that help us make sense of an increasingly interconnected and mediated world.

Cost: Free and open to the public.

Sponsors: The Graduate Program in Literature and the Program in Arts of the Moving Image (AMI). Film in Theory is generously funded by the Mellon Humanities Futures Initiative.

White 107 (White Lecture Hall)