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

February 10, 2004

March 2004 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. The three main film themes for Winter 2004 focus on works by Japanese director “Akira Kurosawa,” comedies and noir films about “Class in Classic Hollywood” and “New Taiwanese Cinema.”

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 new Block Cinema Web site at http://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/blockcinema.

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 winter screenings, call the Block Cinema Hotline at (847) 491-4000 or go to the Block Cinema Web site.

MARCH 2004

New Taiwanese Cinema, “Yi Yi,” 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 3 (Edward Yang, 2000, Taiwan, 173 minutes, 35 mm). This winner of Best Director at Cannes tells the story of a Chinese family in urban Taiwan. The father has to balance work and family with the reappearance of a former lover; the mother leaves him for a spiritual retreat after her mother suffers a stroke; and the children are left to uncover life on their own.

Class in Classic Hollywood, “Night and the City,” 8 p.m. Thursday, March 4 (Jules Dassin, 1950, United States and Great Britain, 100 minutes, 35 mm). Small-time crook Harry Fabian runs for his life through the streets of London. After grappling for control of the London wrestling scene, he has discovered that his partners have played him with greater skill. Director Jules Dassin’s exile to Britain, after pressure from the House Un-American Activities Committee, gives this box movie a deeper meaning.

Akira Kurosawa, “Ran,” 8 p.m. Friday, March 5 (Akira Kurosawa, 1985, Japan, 160 minutes, 35 mm). In a lavish retelling of “King Lear,” Kurosawa melds the classic story of family, betrayal and madness with stunning battle sequences and traditional Japanese culture. At age 75, Kurosawa was as sharp as ever, focusing on the individual tragedies in the furious chaos of battle.

New Taiwanese Cinema, “What Time Is It There?” 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 10 (Tsai Ming-liang, 2001, Taiwan, 116 minutes, 35 mm). Watch seller Hsiao-kang falls for a girl who’s leaving for Paris the next day and sells her the watch off his own wrist in this urban fairy tale. Still infatuated, he sets all his watches and all the clocks he finds to Paris time. This film is a meditation on what we do to shorten the distances between us.

Class in Classic Hollywood, “Salt of the Earth,” 8 p.m. Thursday, March 11 (Herbert J. Biberman, 1954, United States, 94 minutes, 35 mm). When the going gets tough the miners’ wives of Mine-Mill Local 890 take to the picket lines to protest Empire Zinc Corporation’s poverty-level wages and inhumane work practices. This was the first film from Independent Productions Corporation, an alliance formed in 1951 to circumvent the blacklist.

Akira Kurosawa, “Dreams,” 8 p.m. Friday, March 12 (Akira Kurosawa, 1990, Japan, 119 minutes, 35 mm). Akira Kurosawa’s bizarre dream life, which comes to life on screen, is populated by demons, dead soldiers, fox marriages, nuclear holocausts and the ear of Vincent Van Gogh. This fantasy combines Kurosawa’s taste for formal theatre and grand drama with light and magic. The viewer witnesses both beautiful hopes and dire concerns. “Dreams,” completed in Kurosawa’s 80th year, marks the final phase of his film career.

REELTIME FILM SERIES

Reeltime is an independent film and video forum jointly sponsored by the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University and the Evanston Public Library in partnership with project directors Andrea Leland, Kathy Berger and Ines Sommer.

The free admission, monthly series of award-winning independent features, documentaries and short-subject videos is held either at the main branch of the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave., in downtown Evanston, or the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston campus. Each screening is followed by a discussion between filmmakers and the audience.

Free parking is available on Northwestern’s Evanston campus after 5 p.m. weekdays and all weekend.

For more information, call the Block Museum at (847) 491-4000 or the Evanston Public Library at (847) 866-0300 or visit the museum’s Web site at www.blockmuseum.northwestern.eduor the Reeltime Web site at www.reeltimeevanston.org.

Reeltime, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 10, “The Same River Twice,”(2003) by Rob Moss, Evanston Public Library. Using the river as a metaphor for a generation’s journey, this engaging documentary juxtaposes the alternative lifestyle of six young people in the 1970s with the more pragmatic turn their lives have taken upon reaching middle age.