Starring: Kevin Kline, Steven Culp, Embeth Davidtz, Patrick Dempsey, Edward Herrmann Director: Michael Hoffman Year of release: 2002 Country: USA (click to enlarge)

It must be said that this whole film bears more than a passing resemblance to "Dead Poet's Scoiety" - inspirational teacher at an all boys private school etc, etc, etc... William Hundert (Kevin Kline) is an instructor at St. Benedict's School for Boys, an exclusive private academy on the East Coast where Hundert drills his charges on the moral lessons to be learned through the study of Greek and Roman philosophers. Hundert is fond of telling his students, "A man's character is his fate," and he strives to impress upon them the importance of the ordered and examined life. So what does Hundert do in his free time besides reading and grading papers? In any decent weather, he spends hours rowing on the school's lake (wearing dodgy kit and with his hair getting grayer to show the passing of time...) Quotes: "As I've gotten older, I realize I'm certain of only two things. Days that begin with rowing on a lake are better than days that do not. Second, a man's character is his fate."

As with many of the "blink and you'll miss it" films listed, the only reason sculling appears to be featured is that it's "the sort of thing that rich white people do at public schools". Mind you while scanning the net for info on where the scene were filmed I did come across the following explanation... "And here, we may perceive another level on which this quiet, classically complex film works. For the several sculling scenes scattered through THE EMPEROR'S CLUB make obvious allusion to the work of America's greatest realist painter, Thomas Eakins, specifically "The Champion Single Sculls" (1871), and other of his 19 "Rowing Pictures." In the scenes, we see the same clean, piston-like sublimation of sexual energy, the application of skill, determination, idealism and discipline that Hundert applies to his profession. "" hmmmm... not quite sure how they tie "clean, piston-like sublimation of sexual energy" to some guy sitting on a rig about 3 ft about the water and pretending to scull (badly) - lets face it, if he still can get his finishes right after 25 yrs, it's probably time to give up... Anyway there are two scenes in the film where Hubert is seen rowing - with Kline on a rig intercut with a footage of a real sculler rowing from a distance