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

February 3, 2005

March 2005 Film Calendar

This March, 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 also will be featured.

Admission is $6 for the general public and $4 for Northwestern faculty, staff and students, or as noted below. 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.

Production Design, “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen,” 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 2 (Terry Gilliam, 1988, United States, 125 minutes, 35 mm). Amidst the chaos of a small, besieged German town in the late 18th century, a traveling theater group puts on a performance based on the adventures and travels of Baron Munchausen. After a man claiming to be the real baron appears, he has to prove this fact by embarking on a final, fantastic adventure through Dante Ferretti’s dazzling sets.

Production Design, “On the Waterfront,” 8 p.m. Thursday, March 3 (Elia Kazan, 1952, United States, 108 minutes, 35 mm). In this Academy Award-winning film, former prizefighter Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) now works the docks -- a job his mobster brother set him up with. After Malloy witnesses the murder of a fellow longshoreman at the docks, he must confront the reality of the corruption around him and reconcile it with the dreams he once had.

Short, “Darkness/Light/Darkness,” 8 p.m. Friday, March 4 (Jan Svankmajer, 1989, Czechoslovakia, 7 minutes, 35 mm) followed by Animation Freakout, “The Triplets of Belleville” (Sylvain Chomet, 2003, France, 78 minutes, 35 mm). The Oscar-nominated “Triplets” follows Champion, a semi-autistic Tour de France bicyclist, and Madame Souza, his stalwart grandmother. When they find themselves embroiled in the criminal element of Belleville, Madam Souza saves the day with the help of the triplets. This animated film has been described as a “surrealist cartoon for grownups.”

Great British Film, “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner,” 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 9 (Tony Richardson, 1960, United Kingdom, 104 minutes, 35 mm). Colin Smith (Tom Courtenay), a juvenile delinquent, has been sent to a boy’s reformatory for robbing a bakery. Revealing his potential as a long distance runner, Smith climbs to an ever-higher status in the institution until he has cemented his place as the Governor’s prize runner. Soon his longing for delinquency returns. This film was part of the renaissance of British filmmaking that began in the 1950s.

Production Design, “Batman,” 8 p.m. Thursday, March 10 (Tim Burton, 1989, United States, 126 minutes, 35 mm). When the sun sets on Gotham City, millionaire Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) transforms into Batman, to fight crime and avenge his parents’ murder. Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson), surviving a near death experience in a freak accident at a chemical factory, reinvents himself as the most charismatic and fun-loving member of the criminal underworld, The Joker. Hoping to unmask the secrets behind the Dark Knight, prizewinning journalist Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) finds herself entangled in a romance with Batman. The film is visually lavish.

Short, “Travelling Light,” 8 p.m. Friday, March 11 (Jane Aaron, 1985, United States, 2 minutes, 16 mm) followed by “Set in Motion” (Jane Aaron, 1986, United States, 4 minutes, 16 mm) and Animation Freakout, “The Adventures of Prince Achmed” (Lotte Reiniger, 1926, United States, 66 minutes, 35 mm). Lotte Reiniger was only 23 years old in 1923 when she set out to make one of cinema’s first animated features. Three years later, she completed one of the most beautiful, striking and lasting works in all of animation. “The Adventures of Prince Achmed” is an adaptation of the “1001 Nights,” presented through silhouettes. It still dazzles with its simple elegance and innovation. With live piano accompaniment by David Drazin.