Calendar: Week 9

May 25 - May 31

The Band’s Visit
Eran Kolirin, 2007 - 87 min.

Not allowed as Israel’s submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language film, as less than half the dialogue is in Hebrew and Arabic, Kolirin’s directorial debut certainly deserved the honor. An Egyptian brass band travels to Israel to play at the opening of an Arab cultural center, but somehow gets lost along the way. Rather than building on the expected political and cultural tensions, the film develops as an emotionally varied, understated comedy, defined both by its quirky and effective visual humor and moments of lonely melancholy. In Arabic, Hebrew and English with English subtitles. 35mm.

Daniel Sefik Presents Nosferatu
F.W. Murnau, 1922 - 90 min.

An unauthorized translation of Stoker’s Dracula made for a shortlived Weimar studio, Murnau’s Nosferatu has survived lawsuits, truncation, and piracy to become the greatest of all vampire films. Unlike German fantastic cinema that relied on Expressionist sets, Murnau’s film locates the uncanny en plein air, creating a countryside of terror. Max Schreck’s landmark performance – attuned to the gruesomeness of Stoker’s novel, not the suavity of later cinematic vampires – fueled speculation that the mysterious actor was a vampire. 35mm.
Live piano accompaniment by Daniel Sefik.

Passages from Finnegan's Wake
Marry Ellen Bute, 1965-67 - 97 min.

A half-forgotten, half-legendary pioneer in American abstract and animated filmmaking, Mary Ellen Bute, late in her career as an artist, created this adaptation of James Joyce, her only feature. In the transformation from Joyce’s polyglot prose to the necessarily concrete imagery of actors and sets, Passages discovers a truly oneiric film style, a weirdly post-New Wave rediscovery of Surrealism, and in her panoply of allusion – 1950s dance crazes, atomic weaponry, ICBMs, and television all make appearances – she finds a cinematic approximation of the novel’s nearly impenetrable vertically compressed structure.16mm.

Le Silence de la Mer
Jean-Pierre Melville, 1949 - 88 min.

Jean-Pierre Melville’s debut film, and arguably his best, Le Silence de la Mer adapts Vercors’ iconic Resistance novella about a German officer who is billeted with a Frenchman and his niece. The two take a vow of silence, but are nonetheless riveted by the officer, who each evening warms himself by the fire and shares his ideals. Silence was an enormous influence on Bresson and the French New Wave, ushering in an era of independent, low-budget films that were marked as much by their stylish inventiveness as by their subtlety and humanity.In French; subtitled. Archival 35mm.

Repulsion
Roman Polanski, 1965 - 105 min.

One of the most nightmarish works by a director known for leaving the viewer disturbed, Repulsion was Polanski’s first English-language film. Catherine Deneuve plays Carole Ledoux, a quiet Belgian working as a beautician and living with her sister Helen (Yvonne Furneaux) in London. When Helen goes on vacation with her married lover (Ian Hendry), Carole’s isolation and sexual repression breed increasingly violent fantasies that spiral into madness. The first installment of Polanski’s “apartment trilogy” (Rosemary’s Baby, The Tenant), Repulsion represents one of the director’s best uses of sound. Archival 35mm.

Maria Calendaria
Emilio Fernández, 1943 - 102 min.

The first Mexican film to attract critical attention in Europe was, fitfully, an exotic paean to Indian life in Xochimilco. Fernández drew the lyrical beauty of the film from the folkloric implications of Eisenstein’s images of the Mexican countryside. One-time Hollywood star Dolores del Río plays the flower girl whose dubious heritage arouses resentment. A merchant to whom she owes a small sum does everything to ruin her life: orchestrating the arrest of her fiancé and turning the village against her after finding a nude likeness of her on an artist’s canvas. In Spanish with no Subtitles. Archival 35mm. Presented by Visiting Professor Cecilia Sayad.

Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster
Jun Fukuda, 1966 - 87 min.

While there’s room for debate on whether Godzilla is a dinosaur per se, there’s no argument against the Godzilla movies’ key role in the development both of techniques used in dinosaur films and in the cult energy that surround them. In this delightful installment, a group of teenagers end up stranded on an island run by a brutal terrorist organization whose only merit is the protection it offers from the vicious sea monster Ebirah, who keeps the islands inhabitants isolated. The youths’ only hope is in awakening Godzilla! In Japanese with English subtitles. 35mm.

Be Kind, Rewind
Michel Gondry, 2008 - 101 min.

When a freak accident causes Jerry (Jack Black) to become magnetized and erase all the video tapes from his friend Mike (Mos Def)’s struggling video store, there is only one solution: “You name it, we shoot it. Be Kind, Rewind Videos, a la carte.” From Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’s Michel Gondry comes a unique comedy about two friends who, in an effort to save their video store, remake classic films like Ghostbusters and Rush Hour and inspire their community. This film will make you laugh, warm your heart, and like Cinema Paradiso - remind you of the movies’ magic. 35mm.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Christian Mungiu, 2007 - 113 min.

Many critics expressed shock when this austere Palmes D’Or winner wasn’t among the nominees for Best Foreign Language Film. A young woman, aided by her roommate and friend, attempts to get an abortion under Ceausescu’s repressive regime. They encounter the seedy underbelly of Bucharest, including the grotesque abortionist Dr. Bebe. It’s been compared to The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and 12:08 East of Bucharest, largely for their shared Romanian heritage, but 4 Months is even bleaker, a portrait of a nation trapped by tyranny and repression. In Romanian with English subtitles. 35mm.