In line with our commitment to serving you during this time of crisis, in a new and exciting effort to bring you entertaining commentary on films we feel everyone should see and know about, we are introducing FOLCS’ Conversations on Essential Cinema: A Virtual Film Club. Watch a classic movie and then hear a special guest discuss the film in an online Conversation.
The Pawnbroker (1964), was the focus of FOLCS’ very first Virtual Film Club installment.
Sidney Lumet’s powerful drama follows former professor Sol Nazerman (Rod Steiger), a Holocaust survivor who now runs a pawn shop in East Harlem. Tortured by the pain of his past, he is left without faith in humanity and remains detached from those around him, realizing the implications of this choice only when it is too late.
On Thursday, May 14, 2020, FOLCS was joined by Annette Insdorf, Professor of Film at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, for a conversation.
This event was produced in partnership with the New York Film Academy (NYFA).
Watch Conversations on Essential Cinema: The Pawnbroker here.
Annette Insdorf
Professor, Columbia University
Annette Insdorf is Professor of Film at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, and Moderator of the popular “Reel Pieces” series at Manhattan’s 92Y, where she has interviewed over 250 film celebrities. She is the author of the landmark study, Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust (with a foreword by Elie Wiesel); Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski; Francois Truffaut, a study of the French director’s work; Philip Kaufman, and Intimations: The Cinema of Wojciech Has. Her latest book is Cinematic Overtures: How to Read Opening Scenes, currently in its fourth printing.