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. |