Ted and Ricky’s Director Trifecta

Presented by DeBartolo Performing Arts Center

With the close of the Fall 2017 semester, so too comes the Winter Break. And each Winter Break is observed with solemnity by the Browning Cinema as it goes dark for roughly one month until Notre Dame returns to session. Two films will be slipping in prior to that hiatus, though. The first is Frederick Wiseman’s enrapturing three hour (and then some) documentary Ex Libris: The New York Public Library. The second film before the holidays is also a New York City joint. The last of the semester’s Sunday Family Film Series will be Miracle on 34th Street, the holiday classic from now 70 years ago wherein Kris Kringle (played by Edmund Gwenn in an Oscar-winning role) goes before the New York City bench to prove he is, indeed, Santa Claus.

The episode wraps up with Ted and Ricky engaging the recent thought experiment about which director had the greatest run of three straight films. For example, a common answer offered online, which neither Ted nor Ricky support, was Stephen Spielberg for Saving Private Ryan (1998), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), and Minority Report (2002). Ted and Ricky both discuss the merits (and detriments) of such a thought experiment and present their top three directors each with their run of three films, which makes for a 3^3 cube and a bunch of binge-worthy options as the break approaches.