The Hirschfield International Film Series presents an exciting fall schedule of events:
The Court (Bamako)
Melé (Aïssa Maïga) is a singer in a local bar and her down-and-out husband Chaka (Tiécoura Traoré) is straining their relationship. As a mock trial unfolds nearby—the World Bank is accused of exploiting Africa—Mele becomes disheartened with Chaka’s apathy. Director Abderrahmane Sissako (Waiting for Happiness) creates a tale of relationships, both international and intimate, addressing the intersection of the personal and the political with compassion, believability, and artistry. Screened in conjunction with the current exhibition, Resonance from the Past: African Sculpture from the New Orleans Museum of Art. In French and Bambara with English subtitles. (Mali, 2006, 115 minutes)
Saturday October 27, 3:00 and 8:00 p.m., in Dana Auditorium. Free
Lecture: Surrealism, Modernism, and Postwar Japanese Film Radicals
This lecture by Jonathan Hall, professor of comparative literature, University of California at Irvine, is cosponsored by the Film and Media Culture Program, the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs, Women’s and Gender Studies, Japanese Studies, Middlebury Asian Students’ Organization, and International Studies.
Monday, October 29, at 12:15 p.m., at Robert A. Jones ’59 House. Free
The Last King of Scotland
A young doctor from Scotland arrives in Uganda and strikes up an unlikely friendship with the new president Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker in an Oscar-winning performance), who has radical ideas for his African nation. After a time the doctor fears for his life, as Amin’s erratic behavior and manic suspicions take over his regime. “Shocking in its truth, jolting in its lack of sentimentality, Shakespearean in its vision of the doctor’s catastrophic flaw.”—Kyle Smith, New York Post. Screened in conjunction with the exhibition, Resonance from the Past: African Sculpture from the New Orleans Museum of Art. (UK, 2006, 123 minutes)
Saturday, November 3, at 3:00 and 8:00 p.m., in Dana Auditorium. Free
Army of Shadows
Occupied France, 1942: Philippe Gerbier (Lino Ventura) is a civil engineer with the French Resistance until his identity is revealed by a traitor. After escaping from an internment camp, Gerbier arrives in Marseilles, where he seeks revenge on the rat. An edge-of-your-seat story about French life under the Nazis and their collaborators in World War II, this masterpiece by Jean-Pierre Melville (Bob Le Flambeur, Le Doulos, Le Samouraï) takes us deep into the lives of underappreciated heroes. Best Foreign Film, New York Film Critics Circle. In French with English subtitles. (France, 1969, 145 minutes)
Saturday, November 10, at 3:00 and 8:00 p.m., in Dana Auditorium. Free
Lecture: Not Yet Modernist, Already Postmodern: Hong Sang-soo and Modernism in Korean Cinema
Lecture by Seung-hoon Jeong, film studies and comparative literature, Yale University. Cosponsored by the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs, the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, Middlebury Asian Students’ Organization, International Studies, and the Film and Media Culture Program. Monday, November 12, at 12:15 p.m., at the Robert A. Jones ’59 House. Free
Half Nelson
This film earned director Ryan Fleck the 2006 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best First Film, the 2006 San Francisco International Film Festival award for Best Film, and other accolades. Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling in an award-winning performance) is a history teacher in an inner-city school who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Drey, a 13-year-old student who catches Dan smoking crack after school one day. An “unflinching clash between squandered ideals and hopeful realities.”—Gianni Truzzi, Seattle Post-Intelligencer. (USA, 2006, 106 minutes)
Saturday, November 17, at 3:00 and 8:00 p.m., in Dana Auditorium. Free
Paprika
Japanese animé at its best, Paprika portrays Atsuko, a psychiatrist who uses a state-of-the-art machine to analyze her patient’s dreams. She doubles as Paprika, a detective trying to unravel people’s thoughts. When the dream machine is stolen, Paprika sets out to find it and save the city from psychological mayhem. Another disturbing, hypnotic descent into the psyche from director Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress), Paprika is “smart, electrifying, and proudly unhinged.”—Aaron Hillis, Premiere Magazine. In Japanese with English subtitles. (Japan, 2006, 90 minutes)
Saturday, December 1, at 3:00 and 8:00 p.m., in Dana Auditorium. Free
Lecture: City Symphonies and Constructivist Courseware: Mining Modernism for Digital Innovation
Lecture by Marsha Kinder, University Professor, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California. Cosponsored by the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs, International Studies, and the Film and Media Culture Program. Monday, December 3, at 12:15 p.m., at the Robert A. Jones ’59 House. Free
Babel
This celebrated drama explores the global consequences of the accidental shooting of an American woman (Cate Blanchett) in Morocco. As her husband (Brad Pitt) races against time, language, and xenophobia to save her, the film follows the effects of their plight on the couple’s Mexican babysitter as she tries to attend her son’s wedding, and on a Japanese deaf-mute girl desperately seeking affection after her mother’s suicide. Set in four countries and spoken in five languages, Babel cuts through cultural barriers with stunning visual élan. Best Director, Cannes Film Festival. (Mexico, 2006, 143 minutes)
Saturday, December 8, at 3:00 and 8:00 p.m., in Dana Auditorium. Free