Back by popular demand....
A look at some of the best films from the international cinema circuit, featuring an introduction and facilitated discussion by selected Faculty of Arts professors.
$6 per film or $30 for the series.
(See
ticket details at bottom of page.)
Schedule
Tue., Jan. 20
Black Book (Netherlands, 2006)
Winner of the Best International Film Award at the 2006 Venice Film
Festival and a Golden Lion nominee.
In occupied Holland (1944), a young Jewish woman falls for a
Gestapo officer while seeking revenge for her family’s
murders. Verhoeven has rethought all the usual clichés of
WWII dramas, in which there are no simple heroes or villains in
this fast-paced film. With a reported $22 million budget, the
largest ever for a majority Dutch-language production, the film is
awash in costumes and production design that will impress the
toughest critics.
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Facilitator: Dr. John Buffinga, Associate Professor, German and
Spanish.
Tue., Feb. 3
The Return (Russia, 2003)
Won 28 International Film Festival awards starting with a Golden
Lion at the 2003 Venice Film Festival.
This film is an intimate look at rebellion against patriarchal
authority. Two brothers discover their father has returned after a
12-year absence. With the half-hearted blessing of their mother,
the father and sons set out on what is supposed to be a fishing
vacation. The three embark on a boat for a remote island to unearth
a mysterious strongbox. Once there, the escalating tensions
precipitate a tragedy that has been inevitable from the outset of
the film.
Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev
Facilitator: Dr. Fred White, Associate Dean of Arts.
Tue., Feb. 17
The Proposition (Australia, 2005)
Won four Australian Film Institute Awards (2005) and was nominated
for eight more.
Capt. Stanley and his men capture two of the four Burns
brothers, Charlie and Mike. Their gang is held responsible for
attacking the Hopkins farm and murdering the whole family. Arthur
Burns, the eldest brother and the gang's mastermind, remains at
large and has retreated to a mountain hideout. Capt.
Stanley’s proposition to Charlie is to gain pardon and save
his beloved younger brother Mike from the gallows by finding and
killing Arthur within nine days.
Director: John
Hillcoat
Facilitator: Dominique Bregent-Heald, Assistant Professor of
History.
Tue., March 3
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter,
Jr. (USA, 1999)
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics’ Association award for best
documentary (2000) and nominated by the Directors’ Guild of
America for outstanding directorial achievement.
This is a documentary about Fred Leuchter, an engineer who
became an expert on execution devices and was later hired by
revisionist historian Ernst Zundel to “prove” that
there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz. Leuchter published a
controversial report confirming Zundel’s position, which
ultimately ruined his own career.
Director: Errol
Morris
Facilitator: Bradley Clissold, Assistant Professor of English.
Tue., March 17
The Cuckoo (Russia, 2002)
This film has won 17 awards and been nominated for five more.
This is the story of three different people, from three
different cultures, speaking three different languages, who are
suddenly forced to live together at the end of the second world
war. Each finds a way to communicate with the others, often
resulting in comical misunderstandings. The three live together for
a short time, offering new insights into community, communication
and self-identity.
Director: Aleksandr Rogozhkin
Facilitator: Dennis Ioffe, lecturer in the Department of German and
Russian.
Tue., March 31
Distant (Turkey, 2002)
2003 Cannes Film Festival winner for best actor and Grand Jury
Prize.
Yusef leaves his small hometown and travels to Istanbul to seek
employment and stay with his cousin Mahmut. His cousin is a
successful commercial photographer and his ordered life is
disrupted by the presence of Yusef. Both live in isolation and make
decisions that bring about the subtlest of changes in their lives,
changes that have great consequences.
Director: Nuri Bilge
Ceylan
Facilitators: Jennifer Dyer, Director of the M Phil. Program in the
Humanities and PhD candidate, Adam Chambers.
Tickets are available at the door (exact change is appreciated!) or may be reserved in advance by calling the Division of Lifelong Learning: 737-7979 or Toll Free (NL only) 1-866-959-8474.
All films take place at 7 p.m. in the INCO Innovation Centre
theatre (IIC2001) on the St. John's campus.
