Global Cinema Winter 2012
A look at the best of the international cinema circuit, featuring an introduction and facilitated discussion by selected members of the Faculty of Arts. Presented by the Faculty of Arts and the Division of Lifelong Learning. All films, 7 pm, in Room 1046 in the Arts and Administration building. General public admission is $8. New student admission price is $5.
January 31, 2012 - The Wave (Die Welle, 2008)
Director: Dennis Gansel. Presenter: Dr. Maria Mayr
At times only loosely based on Morton Rhue's novel The Wave (1981), a fictionalized account of true events taking place in the US in the 1960s, this movie of the same name is set in contemporary Germany. We here find the popular high school teacher Reiner Wenger (Good Bye Lenin) grudgingly in charge of teaching a weeklong project on autocracy. Surprised by his students' unquestioned belief that fascism could not possibly ever take place in present-day, post-Holocaust Germany, Reiner starts an experiment to prove his students wrong. The viewer then accompanies the class in their terrifying metamorphosis from a bunch of bored teenagers into a disciplined, cohesive, and effective community replete with uniforms, creed, and a Fuhrer. Nominated for the Grand Jury Price at the Sundance Film Festival, Dennis Gansel's movie most affectively demonstrates the continued attraction fascist ideology and aesthetics continue to exert. View trailer.
February 14, 2012 - Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux, 2010)
Director: Xavier Beauvois. Presenter: Dr. Anne Graham
Of Gods and Men (2010), a French export by director Xavier Beauvois, is a gorgeous film set in the mid 1990's, when an outbreak of fundamentalist Islamic violence swept across Algeria, disrupting the lives of nine Roman Catholic monks in pursuit of peace and spiritual contemplation. Religious fanaticism is clearly the enemy of quiet contemplation and it takes resolute men such as these monks to hold the courage of their convictions. The movie is powerful and spellbinding and richly deserves the many honors it received, including the Grand Prix at Cannes. View trailer.
February 28, 2012 - Character (Karakter, 1997)
Director: Mike van Diem. Presenter: Dr. John Buffinga
The Dutch movie Karakter or Character (1997) won the academy award for best foreign picture in 1998. Set in Rotterdam of the 1920's, Mike van Diem turns a story about the feelings of spite and revenge that grow up between a father and the son he had out of wedlock into a dark and bitter but visually stunning film in which every scene reminds us of a Dutch masterpiece. There is also a Dickensian quality in the sheer detail with which the narrative unfolds, while the impersonal corporate structures remind us of Kafka. The film is very moving and briskly paced. View trailer.
March 13, 2012 - The Edge (Kray, 2010)
Director: Aleksei Uchitel. Presenter: Alec Brookes
Set on the eponymous edge of the Soviet Union in a labour camp for former POWs sent to this camp upon their return to the motherland, The Edge centres on the character of Ignat (Vladimir Mashkov), a disgraced train engineer, whose steamy passion is directed at women and trains alike in this drama which takes place in 1945 following the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. Director Alexey Uchitel (The Stroll, Dreaming of Space) returns to some of his themes from previous films, including deception and love on the periphery of the Soviet Union, teaming up with Mashkov (The Thief, Tycoon) in this Golden Globe nominated film that was also the Russian submission for best foreign film at last year's Oscars. View trailer.
March 27, 2012 - A Woman in Berlin (Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin, 2008)
Director: Max von Färberböck. Presenter: Dr. John Buffinga
A Woman in Berlin by German director Max von Färberböck is the 2008 movie adaptation of a diary written in 1945 and first published in 1959 by a woman who called herself Anonyma, about the rape of German women by conquering Soviet armies in the final weeks of WWII. While the publication of the book in 1959 caused outrage in both Germany and Russia, the reception of the movie in 2008 was such that it was no longer considered unthinkable that German women cooperated somewhat with the Russians and where it was no longer necessary to uphold the honor of the Soviet army. Nina Hoss plays the lead brilliantly but with characteristic restraint. View trailer.
