Wicked (2024)

in English with subtitles

film screening followed by a discussion with

Prof. Dr. phil. Robin Curtis, 

Managing Director and Chair in Media and Cultural Studies 

at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Monday, December 16, 2024 | 6:30 p.m.
UFA Palast Düsseldorf | Worringerstr. 142 | 40210 Düsseldorf

 

One of the most popular musicals on the stage, Wicked makes its journey to the big screen as a cinematic event this holiday season. Directed by filmmaker Jon M. Chu, Wicked is the first chapter of a two-part movie franchise. 

It is the untold story of the witches of Oz, starring Emmy, Grammy and Tony Award winning Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, a young woman misunderstood because of her green skin who has yet to discover her true power, and Grammy-winning, multi-platinum recording artist Ariana Grande as Glinda, a popular young woman gilded by privilege who has yet to discover her true heart. The two meet as students at Shiz University in the fantastical Land of Oz and forge an unlikely but profound friendship. Following an encounter with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a crossroads and their lives take very different paths. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fulfill their destinies as Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

After the screening, we will dive into a discussion of the Wicked franchise and the cinematography of the film. 

Since 2021, Prof. Dr. phil. Robin Curtis has held the Chair of Media and Cultural Studies at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. Prior to her current position, she held the Chair of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Freiburg. From 2012 to 2017, she was Professor of “Theory and History of Audiovisual Media” at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and habilitated in 2012 with the thesis “Filmic Immersion.” Curtis was also a Feodor Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation from 2008 to 2011 at the State University at New York in Buffalo and an Adjunct Professor at New York University. She completed her doctorate in 2003 at the Free University of Berlin on the topic “Situating the Self: Visceral Experience and Anxiety in the German Non-Fictional Autobiographical Film”. From 2002 to 2010 she worked as a research assistant in the Collaborative Research Center “Cultures of the Performative” at the Free University of Berlin.

Prof. Dr. phil. Robin Curtis studied Cinema Studies and German Languages and Literature at the University of Toronto and continued studying Theater Studies and North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin completing her studies with a Master's degree.

Please register here via Eventbrite. 

Tickets are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. We kindly ask you to only reserve the number of tickets that you will definitely use.

This event is kindly supported by the Federal Foreign Office.