INTERNATIONAL FILM SERIES SCHEDULE - FALL 2006All IFS showings take place on the Wednesday nights indicated at 7pm in the Reeve Union Theatre. Lengths of films shown may vary. All films are in their native language with English subtitles.
October 18, 2006, Breathless
A young car thief kills a policeman and tries to persuade a girl to hide in Italy with him. Renowned filmmaker Francois Truffaut once remarked, "Of all Jean-Luc's films, it is Breathless that I prefer. It is a heart-rending film. In it there is deep unhappiness and even, as Aragon says, 'deep, deep, deep unhappiness.'" In writing about Breathless, meanwhile, critic James Monaco has observed, "What impresses us about Godard's films is their collage of cultural data and artifacts. Godard's characters are afloat in a raging sea of images and sounds, metaphors and syllogisms, political half-truths and cultural clichés. And if there can be said to be one central action that unites and connects the various films, it is the battle to rescue life from abstraction, to return to the comfort of the concrete." Directed by Jean-Luc Godard (In Praise of Love). France, 1960.
November 1, 2006, Stroszek
In Berlin, an alcoholic man, recently released from prison, joins his elderly friend and a prostitute in a determined dream to leave Germany and seek a better life in Wisconsin. Historian Jack Ellis has written, "Of all the new German film makers, Herzog may be the most original and imaginative; certainly his work is the most varied." Historians Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell have added, "Herzog's allegiance to the silent cinema was evident in his belief that sheerly striking images could express mystical truths beyond language . . . The loosening of cause and effect characteristic of the art cinema finds one apotheosis in Herzog's dedication to the rapt contemplation of the pure, timeless image." Directed by Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man). Germany, 1977.
November 15, 2006, The Eel
Acting on the advice of an anonymous note, Takuro Yamashita returns home early one night to find his wife in bed with another man. He kills her then turns himself in to the police. After being released from prison, he opens a barber shop. He helps save a woman from a suicide attempt, after which she works at his shop. It becomes clear that she has romantic affections for Takuro, but his reciprocation is redirected towards his pet eel. Directed by Shohei Imamura (Dr. Akagi). Japan, 1997.
November 29, 2006, The Devil's Backbone
It is 1939, the end of three years of bloody civil war in Spain and General Franco's right-wing Nationalists are poised to defeat the left-wing Republican forces. A ten-year-old boy named Carlos Fernando Tielve, the son of a fallen Republican war hero, is left by his tutor in an orphanage in the middle of nowhere. The orphanage has an odd assortment of characters and an unexploded bomb in the middle of the courtyard. It also has the ghost of a boy named Santi, a previous resident of the orphanage, whose death may not have been what it appears. With the orphanage left defenseless by its isolation, and the swift progression of Franco's troops, the small group of characters must find a way to survive amid increasingly distressing events. Directed by Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth). Spain, 2001.
February 7, 2007, Run Lola Run
The film explores the events that fate alone controls and displays the constant "what if's" that occur every moment and that can easily change the happenings of the next. The film follows the events between a woman, Lola, and her boyfriend, Mani, who she desperately tries to save from death by helping him obtain a huge amount of money he carelessly lost. It takes you on three different journeys with Lola, all controlled by fate, showing you what would happen in each, and all the "what if's" that provide the foundations for each outcome. Directed by Tom Tykwer (The Princess and the Warrior). Germany, 1998.
February 21, 2007, Platform
Set in Fenyang, Shanxi Province, the film focuses on a group of amateur theatre troupe performers whose fate mirrors that of the general population in China as massive socio-economic changes sweep across the mainland. The film commences in 1979 with the troupe performing numbers idolizing Mao Zedong, ending in the '80s when the shows reflect the strong Western influences pervading China, covering a decade in which China saw tremendous changes. Directed by Zhang Ke Zia (The Pickpocket). China, 2000.
March 7, 2007, Six in Paris
Six vignettes set in different sections of Paris, by six directors. St. Germain des Pres, Gare du Nord, Rue St. Denis, and Montparnasse et Levallois are stories of love, flirtation and prostitution; Place d'Etoile concerns a haberdasher and his umbrella; and La Muette, a bourgeois family and earplugs. Directed by Claude Chabrol, Jean Douchet, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Daniel Pollet, Eric Rohmer, and Jean Rouch. France, 1965.
March 28, 2007, After Life
After people die, they spend a week with counselors, also dead, who help them pick one memory, the only memory they can take to eternity. They describe the memory to the staff who work with a crew to film it and screen it at week's end; eternity follows. 22 dead arrive that week, assigned to three counselors and a trainee. Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda (Nobody Knows). Japan, 1998.
April 11, 2007, All About My Mother
A single mother in Madrid sees her only son die on his 17th birthday as he runs to seek an actress's autograph. She goes to Barcelona to find the lad's father, a transvestite named Lola who does not know he has a child. Directed by Pedro Almodovar (Volver, Talk to Her). Spain, 1999.
April 25, 2007, The Man Without a Past
A man arrives in Helsinki and gets beaten up so severely he develops amnesia. Unable to remember his name or anything from his past life, he cannot get a job or an apartment, so he starts living on the outskirts of the city and slowly starts putting his life back on track. Directed by Aki Kaurismaki (Crime and Punishment). Finland, 2002.
Rosemaree Ott, Univ. Services Associate
UW Oshkosh
Radio-TV-Film A/C W112
800 Algoma Blvd
Oshkosh, WI 54901
(920) 424-3131
<ott@uwosh.edu>