The Graduate Student Organization is retrying an idea from Stony Brook’s past. Beginning with “Pulp Fiction,” GSO will be putting on a series of feature classics right here at Stony Brook’s Staller Center.
“We want to give students the experience of watching a classic film, not a blockbuster, but a well-known classic that perhaps they’ve even seen before, in a giant theater with all their friends,” Ramiro Malaga Ortega, speaker for GSO, said. ”We feel that the ‘arthouse’ aesthetic is dying out, and we want to preserve it, because it’s really magical.”
Ortega said he believes the message should be to simply bring back the arthouse feel. The Staller Center used to run its own series of classic movies that threw homage to the art of cinema. GSO is looking to reclaim that magic and “Pulp Fiction” was the right place to start.
“’Pulp Fiction’ is a well-known film that we thought would be a good way to start off the series given its broad appeal to many audiences,” Ortega said.
On Oct. 5 at 8 p.m., nearly 200 students packed into the Staller Center and experienced number seven on IMDb’s “Top 250 Movies of All Time.”
It did not immediately shape up to be what GSO wanted. At around 7:55 p.m., there were only 22 students inside Staller Center’s main stage. Then, a rush of students flooded in, including freshman undeclared major James Gomez.
“I haven’t seen it but I am excited,” Gomez said. “I was basically convinced to see it.”
Brian Walker, a fellow freshman with an undecided major, went with Gomez.
“It has been too long since I last saw it,” Walker said.
“I liked the film and this was a good chance to see it again with my friends,” Liam Heath, freshman, undecided, said.
GSO will be screening “The Silence Of The Lambs” on October 26 at 8 p.m. in the Staller Center as part of the Halloween festivities here on campus, Ortega said.
The two movies are just the beginning for the revived Classic Series that will be coming to Staller center by GSO.
“We haven’t set the lineup for next Spring just yet,” Ortega added. “Suggestions are welcome!”
If anyone has any ideas on classic movies they’d like to see with their friends, just send an email to [email protected]. If “Pulp Fiction” is any indication, GSO is open to some R-rated movie-night suggestions.
