Hirschfield International Film Series 2015-2016
Extraordinary foreign and independent films, screened on Saturdays at 3:00 and 8:00 p.m. in Dana Auditorium, plus special events and lectures (times vary; see listings for details). Free and open to the public.
Some of the works in this series may be inappropriate for children; we regret that we are unable to preview the material.
Skip to a movie listing: Boyhood | Life Itself | The Wind Rises | Two Days, One Night | Farewell My Concubine | Ten Thousand Saints | The Imitation Game | Citizenfour | To Kill a Man | The Club | The Look of Silence | The Assassin | Much Ado About Nothing | Leviathan | Girlhood | Wild Tales | Beyond the Lights | Mr. Turner | Ida| Closed Curtain | Art and Craft | Timbuktu
Special Events: Talk by Eleanor Henderson '01
September 19, Saturday
Boyhood
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, this coming-of-age story is seen through the eyes of Mason, a child who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Director Richard Linklater set his groundbreaking movie to a soundtrack spanning the years from Coldplay’s “Yellow” to Arcade Fire’s “Deep Blue.” “Boyhood isn’t just a masterpiece. It’s a miracle”––Ann Hornaday, Washington Post. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Richard Linklater, USA, 2014, 165 minutes) Free
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September 26, Saturday
Life Itself
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
Acclaimed director Steve James and executive producers Martin Scorsese and Steven Zaillian present this documentary that recounts the inspiring and entertaining life of Roger Ebert—arguably the nation’s best-known and most influential movie critic. “A film about illness and death, about writing, about cinema and, finally, and very movingly, a film about love”––Geoffrey O’Brien, New York Times. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Steve James, USA, 2014, 120 m inutes) Free
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October 17, Saturday
The Wind Rises
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
Academy Award winner Hayao Miyazaki, one of Japan’s greatest animators and directors, draws his final feature with magnificence. The film is inspired by the life of second world war Zero fighter plane designer Jiro Horikoshi, encompassing the great Kanto earthquake of 1923. “Miyazaki is at the peak of his visual craftsmanship here”––Scott Foundas, Variety. In Japanese with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, 2013, 126 minutes) Free
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October 31, Saturday
Two Days, One Night
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
In this Dardennes brothers film starring Marion Cotillard, young Belgian mother Sandra works at a solar-panel plant but learns that her coworkers have voted against her medical leave to preserve their bonuses. She has only one weekend to persuade them to change their minds. “Cotillard gets so persuasively inside Sandra’s skin that it’s not at all surprising that this performance has earned her another Oscar nomination”––Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In French with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Department of French and the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France/Italy, 95 minutes, 2014) Free
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November 7, Saturday
Farewell My Concubine
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
Douzi is a delicate young boy whose mother, a prostitute, drops him into the hands of Master Guan, the head of the Peking Opera in 1925. “It is one of those very rare film spectacles that deliver just about everything the ads are likely to promise: action, history, exotic color, multitudes in confrontation, broad overviews of social and political landscapes”––Vincent Canby, New York Times. In Mandarin with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series in conjunction with the Shanghai Quartet/WuMan pipa concert on October 29. (Kaige Chen, China, 171 minutes, 1993) Free
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November 14, Saturday
Ten Thousand Saints
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
Shuttling between bucolic Vermont and the grime of late ’80s New York, this movie treats a teen’s especially ill-timed pregnancy as a potentially happy moment of truth—a juncture at which varied shards of a few broken homes might be assembled into something like a family—if only the right combination can be found. “Smart, sensitive, and accessible to both young and middle-aged viewers”––John DeFore, Sundance Festival Review. See associated event with author Eleanor Henderson ’01 on Nov. 16. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini, USA, 113 minutes, 2015) Free
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November 16, Monday
Eleanor Henderson ’01
4:30 PM, Axinn Center, Abernethy Room
Henderson reads from her first novel, Ten Thousand Saints (Ecco, 2011) and discusses its film adaptation, written and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, and released in the summer of 2015. See associated screening Nov. 14. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. Free
November 21, Saturday
The Imitation Game
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
This Oscar-winning film tells the true story of how Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) and a team of cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park during World War II struggled to crack the Nazis’ naval code, and thereby help the Allies win the war. “So innately compelling is Turing’s story—to say nothing of Cumberbatch’s masterful performance. It’s hard not to get caught up in this well-told tale and its skillful manipulations”––Scott Foundas, Variety. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Morten Tyldum, UK/USA, 114 minutes, 2014) Free
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December 5, Saturday
Citizenfour
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
This Oscar-nominated documentary unfolds the life of Edward Snowden as he hands over classified documents, raising serious legal questions about privacy and the National Security Administration. “A gripping record of how our rulers are addicted to gaining more and more power and control over us, if we let them”––Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Laura Poitras, USA/Germany/UK, 114 minutes, 2014) Free
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December 12, Saturday
To Kill a Man
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
Jorge is a tranquil, middle-class family man whose neighborhood has been overrun by a fringe class of street thugs. His comparatively fortunate existence makes him the target of their intimidation one night, and a hulking outlaw robs him of his insulin needle. “A grim, fat-free revenge thriller that extracts an impressive degree of moral equivocation from its exceedingly simple premise.”––Guy Lodge, Variety. In Spanish with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Alejandro Fernández Almendras, Chile/France, 82 minutes, 2014) Free
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January 16, Saturday
The Club
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
Four priests live together in a secluded house in a small, seaside town. Each of them has been sent to this place to purge the sins from the past, living according to a str
ict regime under the watchful eye of a female caretaker. The fragile stability of their routine is soon disrupted by the arrival of a fifth man, a newly-disgraced companion, who brings with him the secrets they thought deeply buried. "A bold, blunt, yet c
linically intelligent film ... it's all at once a gripping thriller, an incendiary social critique and a mordant moral fable." - Jessica Kiang, The Playlist. In Spanish with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series in association with The Vermont International Film Foundation. (Pablo Larraín, Chile, 98 minutes, 2015) Free
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January 23, Saturday
The Look of Silence
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
The Look of Silence is Joshua Oppenheimer’s powerful companion piece to the Oscar®nominated The Act of Killing.Through Oppenheimer’s footage of perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered, as well as the identities of the killers. The documentary focuses on the youngest son, an optometrist named Adi, who decides to break the suffocating spell of submission and terror by doing something unimaginable in a society where the murderers remain in power: he confronts the men who killed his brother and, while testing their eyesight, asks them to accept responsibility for their actions. This unprecedented film initiates and bears witness to the collapse of fifty years of silence. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series in association with The Vermont International Film Foundation. (Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Indonesia/Finland/Norway/UK/Israel/France/USA/Germany/Netherlands, 103 minutes, 2014) Free
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January 30, Saturday
The Assassin
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
Back with his first film in 8 years, legendary Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien wowed this year's Cannes Film Festival (where he won Best Director) with his awe-inspiring THE ASSASSIN 刺客聶隱娘 - a wondrous take on the traditional wuxia film. The story is simple, if elusive - in 9th-century China, Nie Yinniang is a young woman who was abducted in childhood from a decorated general and raised by a nun who trained her in the martial arts. After 13 years of exile, she is returned to the land of her birth as an exceptional assassin, with orders to kill her betrothed husband-to-be. She must confront her parents, her memories, and her long-repressed feelings in a choice to sacrifice the man she loves or break forever with the sacred way of the righteous assassins. Rich with shimmering, breathing texture and punctuated by brief but unforgettable bursts of action, THE ASSASSIN 刺客聶隱娘 is a martial arts film like none made before it. In Mandarin with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series in association with The Vermont International Film Foundation. (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Taiwan, 104 minutes, 2015) Free
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February 20, Saturday
Much Ado About Nothing
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
Shakespeare’s classic comedy is given a contemporary spin by director Joss Whedon. Shot in just 12 days, the story of sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick offers a dark, sexy, and occasionally absurd view of the intricate game that is love. “The first filmed Shakespeare comedy in decades that is actually funny.”––Lou Lumenick, New York Post. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Joss Wheedon, USA, 109 minutes, 2012) Free
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February 27, Saturday
Leviathan
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
A dispute over land in a remote Russian township casts cataclysmic ripples through a family and a community. This film by Audrey Zvyagintsev is a thinly veiled political parable drenched in bitter irony that takes aim against the controversial regime of Vladimir Putin. “The director’s most accessible and naturalistic film, using everyday characters to test how well modern-day Russia is maintaining the social contract with its citizens.”––Peter Debruge, Variety. In Russian with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia, 140 minutes, 2014) Free
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March 5, Saturday
Girlhood
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
Fed up with her abusive family situation, lack of school prospects, and the “boys’ law” in the neighborhood, Marieme starts a new life after meeting a group of free-spirited girls. She changes her name and her style, drops out of school, and starts stealing to be accepted into the gang. “A mesmerizing exercise in the enlightenment that can happen when a filmmaker shifts the male cinematic gaze ever so slightly”––Ann Hornaday, Washington Post. In French with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Department of French and the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Céline Sciamma, France, 113 minutes, 2014) Free
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March 12, Saturday
Wild Tales
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
This Argentinean film by Damian Szifron presents a suddenly shifting reality as the backdrop to a lover’s betrayal, a return to a repressed past, and the violence woven into everyday life, driving the characters to madness as they cede to the undeniable pleasure of losing control. “If everyone behaved the way the characters in Wild Tales behave, civilization would crumble”––Bruce Ingram, Chicago Sun-Times. In Spanish with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Damián Szifron, Argentina/Spain, 122 minutes, 2014) Free
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March 19, Saturday
Beyond the Lights
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
The pressures of fame have music superstar Noni on the edge, until she meets Kaz, an aspiring politician who has been assigned to her detail. Drawn to each other, Noni and Kaz fall fast and hard, despite the protests of those who urge them to put their career ambitions ahead of their romance. “It may be a fantasy, but it is an uncommonly smart and honest one.”––A. O. Scott, New York Times. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Gina Prince-Bythewood, USA, 116 minutes, 2014) Free
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April 9, Saturday
Mr. Turner
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
This film from Mike Leigh explores the last quarter century of the great, if eccentric, British painter J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851). Profoundly affected by the death of his father, and loved by a housekeeper he takes for granted, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea. “funny and visually immaculate”––Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Mike Leigh, UK/France/Germany, 144 minutes, 2014) Free
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April 16, Saturday
Ida
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
Poland, 1962. Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska), an 18-year-old novitiate nun, is on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a dark family secret dating back to the years of the Nazi occupation. “Ida is an art film in the finest sense of the term. It is austere technique counterbalanced by emotions that bleed”––Peter Travers, Rolling Stone. Sponsored by the Holocaust Film Fund and the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Pawel Pawlikowski, Poland/Denmark/France/UK, 82 minutes, 2013) Free
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April 23, Saturday
Closed Curtain
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
An Iranian screenwriter hides from the world in a secluded seaside house, with only his dog as company. His tranquility is shattered one night by a young woman running from the law. But come dawn, another unexpected presence will change everything. Closed Curtain is director Jafar Panahi’s second film since his 20-year ban on filmmaking after 2011’s This Is Not a Film. In Persian with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series.
(Jafar Panahi, Kambuzia Partovi, Iran, 106 minutes, 2013) Free
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April 30, Saturday
Art and Craft
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
This documentary exposes the life of Mark Landis, one of the most prolific art forgers in US history. His impressive body of work spans 30 years, covering a wide range of painting styles and periods that includes everything from Picasso to Walt Disney. “It adds fuel to the argument that the art market is a rigged game manipulated by curators and gallerists spouting mumbo-jumbo”––Stephen Holden, New York Times. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Sam Cullman, Jennifer Grausman, Mark Becker, USA, 89 minutes, 2014) Free
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May 7, Saturday
Timbuktu
3:00 and 8:00 PM, Dana Auditorium
Not far from Timbuktu, Kidane lives peacefully in the dunes with his family. In town, the people suffer under a Jihadist regime of terror determined to control their faith. Everything changes when Kidane accidentally kills the fisherman who slaughtered his beloved cow. “Each scene is breathtaking, such as the unforgettable soccer game played with no ball”––Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post. In French and Arabic with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Abderrahmane Sissako, France, Mauritania, 97 minutes, 2014) Free
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