October 30, 2006

ANGELS AND INSECTS is Philip Haas' adaptation of an A. S. Byatt's novella that stars Kristin Scott Thomas, Mark Rylance and Patsy Kensit. It tells the story of a naturalist's sojourn among decadent VICTORIAN aristocrats. ANGELS AND INSECTS, when released, was the highest grossing independent film of the year and Haas was nominated for the Cannes' Film Festival's prestigious Golden Palm, the highest honor given at Cannes. The film contains explicit sex and frontal male nudity.

The screening will be held at Nesbitt Hall on the Drexel University campus at 7:00pm on Monday, October 30^th and is FREE and OPEN to the public. Nesbitt Hall is on the north side of Market Street between 32^nd and 33^rd streets. Following the film, there will be a talk with Haas, who is spending a week at Drexel's Westphal College of Media Arts & Design conducting a series of classes, critiques and screenings as a Rankin Scholar in Residence.

Haas' other dramatic films include MUSIC OF CHANCE, from the novel by Paul Auster and starring James Spader, UP AT THE VILLA, from Somerset Maugham's novel and starring Sean Penn and Kirstin Scott Thomas, and the soon to be theatrically released THE SITUATION about America's involvement in Iraq. Haas also directed a series of 10 documentaries on modern artists, and he brings a painterly eye to his moving canvases. Haas' work has been honored at retrospectives at the Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater, The Tate Gallery, the George Pompidou Center and the National Gallery of Art.

What the critics said about ANGELS AND INSECTS:

"3 1/2 Stars" - Siskel and Ebert

"ANGELS AND INSECTS affirms that Haas truly has an artistic identity," Stanley Kaufman, NEW REPUBLIC

"Beneath the elaborate Victorian rituals and intricate costumes on displays, there lurks as mesmerizingly bizarre a film as you may ever see." Janet Maslin, THE NEW YORK TIMES

• DETAILS
• Screening of ANGELS AND INSECTS, followed by Q&A with filmmaker Philip Haas
• Monday, October 30^th @ 7pm
• Stein Auditorium (111 Nesbitt Hall - 33^rd & Market Sts.)
• FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
• This event is being presented by the Philadelphia Film Society and Drexel's Westphal College of Media Arts & Design.
• For information: Rita Soto, 215-895-1029