Politics, Theater, and Wagner Film Festival

The great 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner provides the thematic focus for the 2009 SummerScape film festival. By taking a varied and imaginative approach to this highly complex and influential figure, we have assembled a wide array of films that range from early silent epic fantasy to Hollywood satire, and from acknowledged film classics and to more obscure offerings.

Films include:

• Thursday, July 16: Lola Montès (1955), directed by Max Ophuls
• Sunday, July 19: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), directed by Max Reinhardt
• Thursday, July 23: The Great Dictator (1940), directed by Charlie Chaplin
• Sunday, July 26: To Be or Not To Be (1942), by Ernst Lubitsch
• Thursday, July 30: Deception (1946), directed by Irving Rapper
• Sunday, August 2: Unfaithfully Yours (1948), directed by Preston Sturges
• Thursday, August 6: Meeting Venus (1991), directed by Istvan Szabo
• Sunday, August 9: Ludwig (1972), directed by Luchino Visconti
• Thursday, August 13: Perceval le Gallois (1978), directed by Eric Rohmer
• Sunday, August 16: Die Nibelungen, Part 1: Siegfrieds Tod, directed by Fritz Lang
• Thursday, August 20: Die Nibelungen, Part 2: Kriemhilds Rache, directed by Fritz Lang

All films are at 7:00 pm in the Ottaway Film Center
Tickets: $8