Film & Media Culture

(Morten Tyldum, UK, 2014, 114 minutes) 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.

The Hirschfield International Film Series presents, The Assassin. Legendary Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien wowed this year’s Cannes Film Festival (where he won Best Director) with his awe-inspiring The Assassin, his first film in eight years. In ninth-century China, an exiled assassin must choose between love or duty when she receives orders to kill a man from her past. In Mandarin with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series in association with The Vermont International Film Foundation. (Taiwan, 104 minutes, 2015) Free

(Berman/Pulcini, USA, 2015, 113 minutes) 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.

A transgender working girl tears through Tinseltown on Christmas Eve, searching for her pimp boyfriend. This microbudget odyssey through the subcultures of Los Angeles was shot with three smartphones. “A groundbreaking film that leaves you in stitches while quietly breaking your heart”––Peter Travers, Rolling Stone. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Sean Baker, USA, 2015, 88 minutes) Free

Adapted from Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s novel, Sunset Song tells the story of an Aberdeenshire farm girl Chris Guthrie as she searches for her independence, against the odds, just before the First World War. “The most English of directors has done a Scottish classic proud”––Ian Freer, Empire. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Terence Davies, UK, 2015, 135 minutes) Free

Paris, 1971. Feminist militant Carole falls in love with Delphine, daughter of Limousin farmers. When Delphine’s father has a stroke, she must go back home to help run the family farm, and soon Carole follows. The two stars “have a natural chemistry that’s not only credible but actually infectious”––Boyd van Heoij, Hollywood Reporter. In French with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Department of French. (Catherine Corsini, France, 2015, 105 minutes) Free

In the horror of 1944 Auschwitz, a prisoner forced to burn the corpses of his own people finds moral survival by trying to salvage the body of a boy he takes for his son. “No matter how many Holocaust films you’ve seen, you’ve not seen one like this”––Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times. In Polish and German with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Holocaust Film Fund. (László Nemes, Hungary, 2015, 107 minutes) Free

A film director arrives in town a day early, meets a fledgling artist, and they start to fall for each other. Then, quite unexpectedly, the story begins again, but now things appear somewhat different. “No director working today can carry out this kind of heavyweight emotional excavation with such feather-light flicks of his trowel”––Robbie Collin, The Telegraph. In Korean with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Sang-soo Hong, South Korea, 2016, 121 minutes) Free

Jewish singer Nelly Lenz has survived the Nazi concentration camps, but she is disfigured and has undergone facial surgery. Back in what is left of Berlin, she searches for her musician husband Johnny in the ruins of the city. “Christian Petzold and Nina Hoss are one of the best director-actor duos working in movies today”––Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter. In German with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Holocaust Film Fund. (Christian Petzold, Germany/Poland, 2014, 98 minutes) Free

After the death of their estranged father, three 20-something siblings invite their 14 year old half-sister to live with them at their grandmother’s house. “The film is quiet, understated, gentle, and presented with wonderful freshness and clarity”––Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian. In Japanese with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Hirschfield International Film Series. (Hirokazu Koreeda, Japan, 2015, 128 minutes) Free