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Arts & Entertainment

Lecture on Good and Evil in Film

In cooperation with Commonweal Magazine’s Speakers Program, St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel at the University of Connecticut will host two Aquinas Lectures by Richard Alleva, Commonweal Film Critic, on Sunday, April 15 at 5:30 PM and Monday, April 16 at 7:30 PM. The talks are titled “A Divine Comedy at the Movies: Sunday, Hell: Some Infernal Problems; Monday, Heaven: Some Celestial Limitations.” Both will take place at the Aquinas Student Center, 46 North Eagleville Road on the Storrs Campus. They will focus on the age-old dramatic conflict between good and evil, alternately examining how the motion-picture medium has portrayed each side of this struggle. The presentations are free, and the public is cordially invited to share the insights of this distinguished speaker.

Richard Alleva, a native of Waterbury, earned a Bachelor of Arts in Drama from UConn and a Master of Fine Arts in Playwriting at the Catholic University of America. His interest in film analysis began at an early age, through a chance reading of in-depth reviews by Esquire Magazine’s film critic, the late Dwight Macdonald. The responsive chord they struck eventually led him to consider a career in acting and playwriting. He toured nationally with Catholic University’s National Players repertory company, performed in summer stock in the Washington DC area, and authored a series of stories, stage plays and screenplays. He also served on the writing team for the Maryland PBS series Footsteps about the challenges of parenting.

From 1985 till 1990, he was the film critic for Crisis magazine, and then joined Commonweal. His reviews focus on movies with religious themes, characters or feelings, as well as prominent films with secular themes of wide interest. He also looks for releases that have not garnered wide attention elsewhere, but offer good reasons not to miss them.

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He has lectured on film in libraries throughout Connecticut, and served as assistant head of children’s services at the Russell Library in Middletown. His articles have appeared in such works as The Best American Movie Writing, 1999, edited by Peter Bogdanovich (St. Martin’s Griffin), as well as several issues of Image magazine, edited by Geoffrey Wolfe. One of the latter articles, “Starring the Devil: Hollywood’s Uncertain Grasp of Evil,” examined the long history of dramatic portrayal of evil, from medieval miracle plays through late 20th-century motion pictures. Early caricatures of the devil as a villainous buffoon gave way in the Elizabethan era to more complex stories (like Macbeth) in which fallible human beings fall prey to evil ways. The pendulum swung back in the 19th century, as villains in melodramas, including early motion pictures, often sported handlebar mustaches and fiendish grins. Richard noted that recently a radically new development changed the rubric for treatment of villains in movies. Sunday’s presentation will explore all this and more. Monday’s will focus on the other side of the portrayal coin. Both lectures will be followed by periods for questions and open discussion.

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