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. |