MEDIA CONTACT: Judy Moore at (847) 491-4819 or jkm229@northwestern.edu

October 28, 2003

December 2003 Film Calendar

Block Cinema, a collaboration of the School of Communication and the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston campus, screens classic and contemporary films in the museum’s James B. Pick and Rosalyn M. Laudati Auditorium.

Block Cinema features a series on different themes, directors or countries during each quarter of the academic year.

Throughout fall 2003, Northwestern University faculty members will introduce their favorite films and lead post-screening discussions. These “Professor’s Pick” screenings will showcase the talents of professors from across the University, providing a wide variety of views on movies and methods of interpretation.

Inspired by the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art’s “Drawn toward the Avant-Garde: Nineteenth and Twentieth Century French Drawings from the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copenhagen” exhibition (Sept. 26 to Nov. 30), Block Cinema has programmed a series of “Classic French Films.” They include movies directed by Jean Renoir, the son of French Impressionist Auguste Renoir; Jean Vigo, the “poet maudit” of 1930s French cinema; Robert Bresson, a devout but doubting Catholic, whose minimalist direction strips cinema to its essential elements; and a few films from the cadre of directors who made up the French New Wave.

There also will be an “Independent Film” series that will focus on some of the best independent films of the 1980s and early 1990s by John Sayles, Jim Jarmusch, Todd Haynes and the Coen brothers, directors who were heavily influenced by such iconoclastic mavericks as Orson Welles, John Cassavetes and the directors of the French New Wave. Each film will shed light on a very specific group of people whether it is a minority group, a bunch of losers, or wealthy New York debutants.

Block Cinema, in partnership with like-minded groups, brings numerous special and rare screenings to Chicago in addition to its regular schedule. All foreign films are subtitled in English, unless otherwise noted. Detailed descriptions of the films are available in the tri-quarterly Block Cinema calendar and on the Block Cinema Web site at www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/education/nufilms.html.

Block Cinema is curated by Block Cinema staff and a student group called the Film and Projection Society (FPS).

General admission is $6, or $4 for Northwestern faculty and staff, Block Museum members, students and senior citizens. Special Block Cinema events are $10, unless otherwise noted. A season pass is $20, but does not include admission to special events. Tickets and season passes are available at the door 30 minutes before showtime.

For more information about the fall screenings, call the Block Cinema Hotline at (847) 491-4000 or go to the Block Cinema Web site at www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/education/nufilms.html.

DECEMBER 2003

Classic French Cinema, “Contempt,” 8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3 (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963, France, 103 minutes, 35mm). “Contempt” is the story of the end of a marriage. Camille (Brigitte Bardot) falls out of love with her husband Paul Javel, a failed playwright, who is rewriting a screenplay by American producer Jeremiah Prokosch (Jack Palance). Second thoughts take root as his respect for the movie’s director grows and his disgust with the American producer mounts.

Professor’s Pick, “The Seventh Seal,” 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4 (Ingmar Bergman, 1957, Sweden, 96 minutes, 35 mm). A meditation on death, religion and God, the images of this film look like they could have come from medieval paintings: a returning Knight from the Crusades challenges Death to a game of chess; a parade of miserable souls flagellate themselves, hoping that their penance will end the Black Plague; and a group holding hands in the distance performs the dance of Death against the gray light of the northern European sky. It is Bergman’s best known film.

Independent Film, “The Wedding Banquet,” 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5 (Ang Lee, 1993, Taiwan/United States, 106 minutes, 35 mm). This smart social comedy was Ang Lee’s second effort with writer-producer James Schamus, co-founder of the independent production company Good Machine. A young, gay Taiwanese immigrant living in New York agrees to marry a Chinese woman so that she can obtain a green card. He lands himself in trouble when his parents, unaware of their son’s sexuality, decide to fly in from Taiwan for the wedding. This film offers an insightful look at the interplay between race, culture and gender.