RUSSIAN ARK
One Shot Wonder

Thursday, January 29 at 7:00 in Darwin 103

Friday, January 30 at 7:00 and Sunday, February 1 at 4:00 in Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall

RUSSIAN ARK is the first entirely unedited, single take, full-length feature film. After months of rehearsal and the deployment of 867 actors, hundreds of extras and 3 live orchestras, Alexander Sokurov's stunning film unfolds in one fluid, unbroken shot, the cameras floating through the majestic spaces of The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, engaging real and imagined characters from Russian and European history. The nameless protagonist, a 19th century diplomat, guides us through the lost, sumptuous dream that was the Enlightenment, and the film, staged among some of the Western Art's traditions' greatest masterpieces, climaxes in a glorious pageant of color, motion and music. (2002, 96 min.,in Russian w/English subtitles)

FATHER AND SON
Family Bonds

Thursday, February 5 at 7:00 in Darwin 103

Director Alexander Sokurov looks at the bond between a widowed Russian father and his son, a student at a local military school, who live together in a rooftop apartment overlooking the sea. From the innocently competitive games they play, to the hours spent quietly in the other's company, to the feelings of desperation, guilt and desired independence that threaten to tear them apart, Sokurov captures their intimacies with a dreamlike tranquility reminiscent of his mentor, Andrei Tarkovsky. (2003, 83 min., in Russian w/English subtitles)

HUD
Remembering Paul Newman

Friday, February 6 at 7:00 and Sunday, February 8 at 4:00 in Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall

Paul Newman gave one of his best performances as the rebellious son in this hugely entertaining contemporary Western. Based on Larry McMurtry’s novel Horseman Pass By, the film won Oscars for Patricia Neal as the earthy housekeeper Alma, Melvyn Douglas as the old rancher, and James Wong Howe’s stunningly beautiful Black and White ‘scope photography. With Brandon de Wilde. (1963, Martin Ritt, 112 min.)

AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON
Ozu Masterpiece

Thursday, February 12 at 7:00 in Darwin 103

Friday, February 13 at 7:00 in Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall

An aging widower – the great Chishu Ryu – becomes concerned that his loving daughter will end up a lovelorn old maid if she continues to live with him through his final years. He attempts to arrange a marriage for her, first settling on a young colleague of his who, happily enough, is also the daughter’s choice. But there are complications, and the search must continue. (1962, Yasujiro Ozu, 112 min., In Japanese with English subtitles.)

SPRINGTIME IN A SMALL TOWN
Chinese Family Drama

Thursday, February 19 at 7:00 in Darwin 103

“Chinese director Tian Zhuangzhuang’s first film since THE BLUE KITE, is an exquisite remake of Fei Mu’s classic melodrama about a sickly young landowner named Li-yan whose lovely, dissatisfied wife finds her passion for her old lover unabated. What’s more, he happens to be her husband’s oldest friend. Tian renders the interplay of conflicting emotions with an unearthly delicacy that reaches a peak during a birthday dinner for Li-yan’s sister, in which each gesture or glance sets off a new vibration of feeling.” New York Film Festival (2002, 116 min., in Mandarin w/English subtitles)

XALA
Sembene Satire

Friday, February 20 at 7:00 in Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall

In Senegalese writer/director Ousmane Sembene’s funniest film, a smug middle-aged businessman who already has two wives proposes to marry a third. On the wedding night he can’t perform and finds out that a xala – a hex – has been put on him. His increasingly desperate attempt to remove it gradually strip away all of the protective security of his class and status. (1974, 123 min., in French and Wolof w/English subtitles)

SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY
Thai Film

Thursday, February 26 at 7:00 in Darwin 103

Friday, February 27 at 7:00 and Sunday, March 1 at 4:00 in Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall

"A rising international star, Thailand’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul made his first American breakthrough with the audacious TROPICAL MALADY, a love story remarkable for its tenderness and originality of vision. Those same qualities shine through his wonderful new film, a reverie based on the director’s memories of growing up as the son of physicians. The movie is broken into two distinct but analogous parts: One focuses on a female doctor in a small-town clinic, the other on a male doctor at a big city hospital. What unites the stories of Apichatpong’s superb eye for nuances of feeling, anti-nostalgic nostalgia, and alluring knack for finding marvelous vignettes.” - NYFF (2006, 105 min., in Thai with English subtitles)

SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER…AND SPRING
Buddhist Fable

Thursday, March 5 at 7:00 in Darwin 103

Friday, March 6 at 7:00 and Sunday, March 8 at 4:00 in Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall

A graceful Buddhist fable by Korean director Kim Ki-duk, A tiny Buddhist temple perched on a floating platform in the middle of a jewel-like lake is tended by an aged monk and his protégé, whose passage through the seasons of life – from the thoughtless cruelty of childhood to the enlightenment of maturity – shapes the structure of this hauntingly beautiful and tantalizingly enigmatic film. (2003, 103 min., in Korean w/English subtitles)

SILENT COMEDIES – Chaplin, Keaton and Langdon!

Thursday, March 12 at 7:00 in Darwin 103

Friday, March 13 at 7:00 and Sunday, March 15 at 4:00 in Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall

A DOG’S LIFE - Regarded by many as Charles Chaplin’s first masterpiece, the Little Tramp rescues a mutt from a dogfight. (1918, 40 min., silent)

THE GOAT - A mistaken-identity crisis precipitates an almost continuous - and continuously brilliant - chase through two adjoining towns where Buster Keaton is taken for Dead Eye Dan, Public Enemy. (1921, 23 min., silent)

THREE’S A CROWD – Rarely shown film by the baby-faced silent clown Harry Langdon. This sentimental comedy that finds Langdon caring for a young woman and her child lost in a snowstorm. (1927, 60 min., silent)

QUEEN KELLY
Restored Silent Classic

Thursday, March 19 at 7:00 in Darwin 103

Directed by Erich von Stroheim, starring Gloria Swanson and produced by Joseph P. Kennedy (yes, that Kennedy), QUEEN KELLY promised to be one of the most important productions of the era. It was never to be shown, however, due to rising production costs and the bizarre nature of the footage shot. The story concerns a wild prince who is engaged to marry a deranged queen when he meets and kidnaps a lovely convent girl named Kitty Kelly (Swanson) and takes her back to his castle for an oyster dinner. This restored version can now been seen as one of the most important and memorable films of the silent period. (1928, 95 min., silent)

HOUR OF THE STAR
Brazilian Drama

Friday, March 20 at 7:00 and Sunday, March 22 at 4:00 in Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall

Macabea, the antiheroine of HOUR OF THE STAR, is a simple naïve 19-year-old girl from the country who is lost in the big city of Sao Paulo. Poor, ugly and unintelligent, she has everything going against her – yet she is also sweet-tempered and doggedly optimistic, a figure of comic pathos touched with grace who has a universal appeal. This film was the remarkable film debut of Suzana Amaral, who, at 52, after raising nine children, finally realized her lifelong ambition of becoming a filmmaker. (1986, 96 min., in Portuguese w/English subtitles)

THE HUMAN BEAST (“La Bete Humaine”)
Renoir Classic

Thursday, March 26 at 7:00 in Darwin 103

Friday, March 27 at 7:00 and Sunday, March 28 at 4:00 in Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall

Between two great masterpieces GRAND ILLUSION and RULES OF THE GAME, Jean Renoir adapted Emile Zola’s novel and updated the story to the 1930’s. The genesis came from Jean Gabin’s desire to play a locomotive engineer, in this case Jacques Lantier, a man tainted with the bad blood of his ancestors. The story deals with a romantic triangle, but the human passions are stunningly complemented by Renoir’s location filming, bringing steam and sex together in a potent cocktail. With Simone Simon and Julien Carette. (1938, 105 min., in French with English subtitles)

TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI (“Don’t Touch the Loot”)
French Gangsters

Thursday, April 2 at 7:00 in Darwin 103

Friday, April 3 at 7:00 in Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall

“Over-the-hill gangland buddies Jean Gabin and René Dary have just pulled the heist of a lifetime: enough grisbi (loot) to give them both a cushy retirement. But when Dary’s two-timing moll Jeanne Moreau spills the beans to drug-dealing bad guy Lino Ventura, it’s time for a showdown with guns and grenades on a deserted country road.” – Film Forum (1954, Jacques Becker, 90 min., in French with English subtitles)

THE BRIDE WORE BLACK
Hitchcock Homage

Thursday, April 9 at 7:00 in Darwin 103

Francois Truffaut's stylish and suspenseful homage to Hitchcock stars a stone-faced Jeanne Moreau tracking down and killing (each in a unique way) the five men responsible for her husband's accidental death. The film features an eerie, atmospheric musical score from Bernard Herrmann, and is beautifully photographed by Raoul Coutard. (1968, 107 min, in French w/English subtitles)

KABHI KHUSHI KABHIE GHAM
(Sometimes Happiness, Sometimes Sadness)
Hooray For Bollywood!

Friday, April 10 at 7:00 in Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall

Big, big, big emotional family melodrama with great sets, dazzling costumes, music, dance, glitzy cars, helicopters and did I mention EMOTION? The story revolves around the extremely wealthy Raichand family, and what happens when one of their sons falls in love with a girl from a middle-class family. KABHI… has been a huge international success, it’s been playing continuously in Paris for six years. (2001, Karar Johar, 210 min., in Hindi w/English subtitles)

...Closed for Spring Break...

LE CERCLE ROUGE
“One of the all-time exercises in cinematic cool.” – New York Daily News

Thursday, April 23 at 7:00 in Darwin 103

Sunday, April 26 at 4:00 in Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall

Impassive faces, snap-brim hats, dangling cigarettes, sunglasses after dark, raincoats without rain, nightclub floor shows, and a prologue quote from an ersatz Indian mystic. We’re unmistakably in the milieu of Melville (Army of Shadows), here bringing together four archetypal tough guys for their appointment with destiny. The outstanding cast includes Yves Montand and Alain Delon. “A deluxe piece of heist film engineering. Melville provides a satisfying payoff for the audience, if not the characters—according to the hardboiled karma of the plot, everyone winds up philosophical or dead. A virtuoso display of the geometry of movie action, from the red circle of chalk Delon uses on a pool cue to the slashing lines he cuts in his blocky American car.” - The New Yorker (1970, Jean-Pierre Melville, 150 min., in French w/English subtitles)

LEON, THE PROFESSIONAL
French Gangsters in New York City

Thursday, April 30 at 7:00 in Darwin 103

Two years after it was first released, Luc Besson came out with this extended version of his international hit Leon (released as The Professional in the U.S.). 24 minutes of footage was added to the stylish tale of a hit-man (Jean Reno) who becomes an unlikely friend to a 12-year-old girl (Natalie Portman) as he shoots it out with the police and a maniacal gangster, played in typically unrestrained fashion by Gary Oldman. (1994/1996, 132 mins.)

Two Early Documentaries by Mira Nair

Friday, May 1 at 7:00 and Sunday, May 3 at 4:00 in Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall

INDIA CABARET - By focusing on a group of female strippers who work in a nightclub in the suburbs of Bombay, India Cabaret explores the "respectable" and "corrupt" stereotypes which typify women in contemporary Indian society. It shows us the ordinary lives the dancers lead during the day, and follows them into the dressing room where they transform themselves into "queens of the night." The film tells their story by examining their attitudes to their profession and themselves, and by relating their hopes and fears while respecting their sense of pride, independence, strength and resilience. (1985, 60 min.)

SO FAR FROM INDIA - A documentary examining two worlds: that of an Indian subway newsstand worker in Manhattan and the traditional world of his new bride awaiting him in his ancestral home in India. (1982, 52 min.)

CARMEN JONES

Thursday, May 7 at 7:00 in Darwin 103

Friday, May 8 at 7:00 in Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall

Bizet's opera Carmen was transposed and transported from Spain to a Jacksonville, Florida army base in the forties, the libretto rewritten by Oscar Hammerstein II for an all black-American cast. Dorothy Dandridge is Carmen, and the rest of the cast includes Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey and Brock Peters. (1954, Otto Preminger, 105 minutes)

KARMEN GEI

Thursday, May 14 at 7:00 in Darwin 103

Friday, May 15 at 7:00 in Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall

“Joseph Gai Ramaka has taken Bizet's Carmen and, in his own words, "plunged it into the magical and chaotic urbanity of an African city in the twenty–first century." Karmen Geï is a breathtakingly lavish spectacle, eloquently translated into ancient and contemporary Senegalese musical forms, the elegant cinematography offering up a parade of vivid images.” – PFA (2001, 86 mins., in French and Wolof with English subtitles)