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Cultural Imaginaries
For the spring 2012 semester, the Friday Night Film Series presents films that help us to think critically about culture.
Screening time and place for all dates: 7pm, Golden Auditorium
Programmed by: Marijeta Bozovic, The Colgate Film Society, Matthew Miller, Claudia Romanelli, Mary Simonson, Jennifer Stob and Ray Watkins
January 27
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010, 114 minutes)
Few modern motion pictures reach the level of mystique that Uncle Boonmee does. Shot on 16 mm film, the story's six reels incorporate vastly different cinematic styles as Apichatpong takes us on a sprawling exploratory journey of the title character's last days and memories. While filmmakers make the transition from film to digital, this portrait of a dying man allows us to contemplate a medium on the brink of death as well. Uncle Boonmee was the winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
February 3
And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956, 95 minutes)
What better cure for a bleak winter night than this lush, CinemaScope extravaganza set along the Mediterranean in Saint-Tropez, France. An unabashed vehicle for Brigitte Bardot as “sex kitten” (married to director Roger Vadim at the time), the film transformed her into a star overnight. It also hinted at a young generation’s rebellious attitudes toward sexuality, style, form, and the female body that would influence the French New Wave. Can we overlook its clear function as Bardot sexploitation to see a liberating and innovative experiment?
February 10
La Vie de Bohème (Aki Kaurismäki, 1992, 100 minutes)
Set in Paris (of course!) and loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera, this film is Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki’s whimsical and absurdist take on the life of heartbreaker artists, genial alcoholics, moody intellectuals and other beautiful losers.
February 17
My Joy (Sergei Loznitsa, 2010, 127 minutes)
My Joy follows a young truck driver through an increasingly nightmarish post-Soviet countryside, haunted by specters of violence and tragedy. Loznitsa, primarily a documentary filmmaker, works from a stark and simple narrative premise in an attempt to lie the truth.
February 24
Le Bonheur (Agnès Varda, 1965, 75 minutes)
Warm, idyllic images and beautiful Mozart melodies converge with an investigation of marriage as a social contract and male sexual privilege in Le Bonheur. Agnès Varda, a female director emerging from the French New Wave, explores the nature of love, infidelity, and happiness through the story of a man who refuses to choose between his wife and mistress. Some have indicted Le Bonheur as anti-feminist and an endorsement of male fantasy; others argue that it reflects the truth of life. You decide.
March 2
Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977, 81 minutes)
Written, directed, and produced by Charles Burnett on a shoestring budget of less than $10,000, Killer of Sheep tells the story of Stan, a slaughterhouse worker who must suspend his emotions in order to do his job and support his family. Depicting an urban African-American family living in the Watts district of Los Angeles and negotiating their racial identity in the early 1970s, this film was selected for preservation in the United States Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
March 23
Shoot the Piano Player (François Truffaut, 1960, 92 minutes)
François Truffaut’s second feature after 400 Blows, with cinematography by the great Raoul Coutard, this film follows the life of down and out piano player Charlie Koller, on his way even further down and further out. A tribute to Hollywood gangster and film noir genres, this film blurs any easy identification as tragedy, comedy, or thriller. One is never sure whether a gag, gun, clown, or thug lingers around the next corner in this fast-paced and unpredictable film
March 30
Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968, 165 minutes) Once Upon a Time in the West transforms the highly stylized spaghetti Western genre that Leone helped create into a celebration of the classic American Western. Featuring an all-star cast (Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale and Charles Bronson) and a superb soundtrack by Ennio Morricone, this epic influenced contemporary Western directors such as Sam Peckinpah, Don Siegel and Ted Post.
April 6
Basquiat (Julian Schnabel, 1996, 108 minutes)
Julian Schnabel’s directorial debut tells the story of a fellow artist: African-American graffitist and neo-expressionist painter, Jean-Michel Basquiat. The film is a stylized and mythologized tribute to the New York City art world of the 1980s.
April 13
Jerichow (Christian Petzold, 2008, 93 minutes)
Sexy, sophisticated and ironic, Truffaut's fourth film recounts an extramarital love affair against the modernist backdrop of France in the 1960s.
April 20 - *4pm screening
Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997, 155 minutes)
Set in 1977, when “disco was king, sex was safe, and pleasure was a business” Boogie Nights tells the story of what happens when Eddie Adams, a high school drop-out with one big asset, meets Jack Horner, an idealistic porn producer attempting to turn his work into an art form. As Eddie, also known as Dirk Diggler, rises through the ranks of the porn industry and deals with the aftermath of his meteoric rise, Paul Thomas Anderson’s camera captures the essence of two iconic decades in American history and the business that brought pleasure to them both.
April 27
Marseille (Angela Schanelec, 2004, 95 minutes)
An apartment exchange Berlin-Marseille opens the young photographer Sophie to new experiences and a recasting of her previous life. A slow and evocative travel narrative that never closes, Angela Schanelec's restrained and enigmatic Marseille probes the borders of Europe on the map, on the body and in the mind.