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

January 18, 2005

January 2005 Film Calendar

This January, Block Cinema, a collaboration of the Northwestern University School of Communication and the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston campus, will present films with the themes “Great British Film: From The British Film Institute,” “Animation Freakout” and “Production Design.” Several shorts and an independent feature film by Northwestern undergraduate students also will be featured.

Admission is $6 for the general public and $4 for Northwestern faculty, staff and students. A winter season pass is $20. Special events are $10.

For more information, call the Block Cinema Hotline at (847) 491-4000 or go to the Block Cinema Web site at http://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/blockcinema.

Great British Film, “The Third Man,” 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 5 (Carol Reed, 1949, United Kingdom, 93 minutes, 35 mm). Pulp western novelist Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton) travels to Vienna to find that the friend he was coming to help was run over by a car. Martins interviews two of the three men who carried away his friend’s corpse. Set just months after the end of World War II, the film follows Martins’ search for the third man.

Production Design, “Citizen Kane,” 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 6 (Orson Welles, 1941, United States, 120 minutes, 35 mm). Film enthusiasts call this movie “the greatest film ever made.” It begins with the death of Charles Foster Kane and his last word, “Rosebud.” The rest follows, chronicling the life of one of the world’s richest men, as a reporter attempts to discover the meaning of this word. Countless sets litter the screen including vast newspaper offices, seedy bars, entire opera houses and the elaborate and ostentatious Xanadu mansion.

Short, “Date Double,” 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 7 (Adam Bertocci, 2002, United States, 2 minutes, DVD) followed by Animation Freakout, “The Animation Show” (Don Hertzfeldt and Mike Judge, 2003, United States, 94 minutes, 35 mm). “Beavis and Butthead” creator Mike Judge and animator Don Hertzfeldt curated this popular festival of 18 offbeat film shorts. Highlights include Hertzfeldt’s “Rejected,” Bill Plympton’s “Parking” and six Oscar-nominated shorts such as “Fifty Percent Gray,” and the Burton-esque nightmare “Strange Invaders.”

Reeltime, “Grave of the Fireflies,” 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 12 (Isao Takahata, 1988, Japan, 88 minutes, 35 mm). This animated classic follows two orphaned children as they struggle to survive in the Japanese countryside after American planes firebomb their village during World War II. The poetic power of animation is used to depict an empathetic and universal portrait of the human cost of war. This film contains themes suitable for mature teens and adults and will be shown with English subtitles. Northwestern University’s Scott Curtis, associate professor of film, and Jack Kelley, president of the North Suburban Peace Initiative, will be present for a discussion.

Production Design, “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans,” 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 13 (F.W. Murnau, 1927, United States, 95 minutes, 35 mm). A husband’s roving eyes threaten his family’s rural home and way of life. He’s cowed and controlled by a fast city woman’s greed. The film unfolds like a fairy tale.

Animation Freakout, “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut,” 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 14 (Trey Parker, 1999, United States, 81 minutes, 35 mm). This film version of the hit TV series “South Park” starts when Cartman, Kyle, Stan and Kenny sneak into a naughty movie. Inspired by the movie, Kenny winds up killing himself. While he embarks on a journey to Hell, “Mothers of the U.S.A.” unite to blame Canada, homosexuals, Saddam Hussein and Satan for Kenny’s untimely death. As the mothers threaten to take over the planet, the only people who can stop them are the foul-mouthed child heroes. Lane Fenrich, senior lecturer of history at Northwestern University, will introduce the film.

Production Design, “The Wizard of Oz,” 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 15 (Victor Fleming, 1939, United States, 101 minutes, 35 mm). Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) finds herself uprooted from her Kansas home after a tornado picks up and carries her, her house and her dog Toto into a Technicolor world of strange creatures and fantastic backdrops. Dorothy befriends the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion in her quest down the Yellow Brick Road to see the Wizard of Oz and defeat the Wicked Witch of the West. William Horning’s production design houses are the essence of the uncanny and a mixture of fun and fright.

Production Design, “Sunset Boulevard,” 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 19 (Billy Wilder, 1950, United States, 110 minutes, 35 mm). William Holden portrays Joe Gillis, a B-movie screenwriter. Gloria Swanson is the washed-up, eccentric actress Norma Desmond. When Gillis brings a little sunlight to Desmond’s Gothic mansion, a tragic world blossoms for its new audience. Hans Dreier and John Meehan brought the mansion, the primary location of “Sunset Boulevard,” to life with their Oscar-winning set designs. Paul Edwards, associate professor of performance studies at Northwestern University, will introduce the film.

Studio 22 Shorts Night, 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 20. Before moving to Hollywood, Northwestern alumnus Zach Braff, creator of the hit TV show “Scrubs” and the full-length movie “Garden State,” made a quirky comedy about a young man who needs to see the light. “Lionel on His Sun Day” (Zach Braff, 1997, United States, 25 minutes, BetaSP). Studio 22 also will present a satire of celebrity culture with “The Gary We Know and Love” (Leif Johnson, 1999, United States, 19 minutes, BetaSP) and a tale of two street musicians on a mission to rock out in “Buskin’” (Peter Galassi and Katie Motush, 2004, United States, 18 minutes, BetaSP). Sponsored by Studio 22. Admission is free.

Short, “Power Surge,” 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 21 (Ryan Murdock, 2003, United States, 15 minutes, VHS) followed by Animation Freakout, “Alice” (Jan Svankmajer, 1988, Czechoslovakia, 86 minutes, 35 mm). Surrealist animator Jan Svankmajer based this “claymation” (clay animation) film on Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Svanmajer’s slapstick version tells the story of a young girl who follows a stuffed rabbit that breaks out of a glass cage. The rabbit leads her on a journey through a desk into a world filled with bizarre creatures.

Great British Film, “Great Expectations,” 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26 (David Lean, 1946, United Kingdom, 118 minutes, 35 mm). This classic film tells the story of Pip, an orphan who spends his childhood bouncing back and forth between his working-poor, adoptive parents and the macabre, but rich, Miss Havisham. Pip’s dream of the life and education of a gentleman become a reality through the kindness of an unknown benefactor.

Production Design, “The Godfather,” 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27 (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972, United States, 175 minutes, 35 mm). Filmed with classic simplicity and daringly under lit, Coppola’s film helped redefine the image of Italians in Hollywood by casting actors who disputed the stereotype at the time. Ironically, he created the Italian Mafioso we have come to know and love.

World Premiere, “Movie Boy,” 7 p.m. and repeated at 9:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28 (Jon Lefkovitz, 2004, United States, 70 minutes, BetaSP). Thirteen-year-old Frank Pollack (Eastman Presser) eats, sleeps and breathes movies. After receiving a camcorder for his Bar Mitzvah, he decides to film his own murder mystery, “Zombie.” During his labors, he neglects his friends, family and personal well being. This feature film, made by a Northwestern undergraduate film student, is a bittersweet coming-of-age story about passion, youth and the love of movies. Northwestern student writer/director Jon Lefkovitz will host a question-and-answer session after the 7 p.m. screening.

Great British Film, “Free Cinema Programme One,” 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 29. “O Dreamland” (Lindsay Anderson, 1953, United Kingdom, 11 minutes, 16 mm), “Momma Don’t Allow” (Karel Reisz, 1956 United Kingdom, 22 minutes, 35 mm), “Together” (Lorenza Mazzetti and Denis Home, 1956, United Kingdom, 52 minutes, 35 mm) and “Nice Time” (Claude Goretta and Alain Tanner, 1957, United Kingdom, 17 minutes, 16 mm). This program of films captures a turning point in British cinema history with a new naturalistic and unscripted look launched by young filmmakers at the National Film Theatre.