The day of love isn’t all about chocolate and roses. Instead of spending their Valentine’s Day evening with significant others, members of the Obscure Cinema Society spent time with one another through their mutual love of movies.

The club hosted its ‘Reel Love’ screening to give students an alternative to typical Valentine’s Day activities. About 20 to 25 students ventured to Kittredge Auditorium for a quirky movie.

To set the mood, the club played Marilyn Monroe’s ‘I Wanna Be Loved By You,’ which quickly slid into Elvis Presley’s ‘Any Way You Want Me,’ among other romantic melodies. After tossing around some Valentine’s Day jokes, gorging on confectionary treats and putting the audience through a ‘Find Your Reel Love’ quiz, the group presented the night’s feature presentation, ‘Harold and Maude’ (1971), starring Bud Cort (Harold) and Ruth Gordon (Maude).

This peculiar friendship-turned-love story was anything but typical for a lovey-dovey Hallmark kind of evening. The story was about a budding relationship between a lonely suicidal adolescent boy who attends funerals as a hobby and a spunky, ecstatic 79-year-old woman who enjoys the same pastime. By the movie’s end, some pairs in the audience found their fingers intertwined and murmured ‘I love you’ to each other.

‘I liked the quirkiness of it all,’ said Xelinda Yancy, a 1995 College of Visual and Performing Arts alumna. ‘I hadn’t seen this movie and wanted to see it. I like the idea of obscure cinema.’

With many twists and turns throughout the film, Maude eventually passes away on the night of her 80^th birthday, finally bidding adieu to this world.

Sarah McIntire and Anna Butler, both sophomore wildlife science majors, enjoyed the film even though it wasn’t a mainstream one.

‘I really liked it,’ McIntire said. ‘I had never heard of it before. Definitely obscure.’

The Obscure Cinema Society is not just a club for avid movie and Hollywood buffs, but for those interested in film as a broader subject. The club gathers to view more independent and less mainstream movies, said Co-President Kat Smith.

Established in 2009, the ‘group of friends who loves movies’only drew in three people at their first interest meeting. Though an average of 20 or 30 people show up to each of the group’s three or four monthly screenings, the society collectively brings more than 170 students together. The group generally shows movies each Friday.

Kat Smith, a sophomore advertising design and communication major, said she enjoys the role she plays in this on-campus organization and setting up events like ‘Reel Love.’ She said the OCSprovides an alternative on campus to other activities.

‘It’s a way for creative people to meet each other and enjoy films that they may not have otherwise necessarily seen,’ Smith said.

Though Valentine’s Day may lead us to appreciate the ones we love just a little bit more, this group, and ultimately the particular film screened at ‘Reel Love,’ made students appreciate those they love every day instead of just on one day dedicated to romantic tradition.

alliecaren@syr.edu

Published on February 14, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Allie: ajcaren@syr.edu