FOREIGN FILM SERIES
2008-2009
Schedule and Description of movies
The movies that we will be presenting are foreign films shown in a foreign language with subtitles. Some of the movies deal with more than one culture. Some deal with important historical, demographical, and human events such as immigration, exile, spirituality, unemployment, intolerance, precarity, military violence, solitude, and tolerance around the world and humor. Finally, all movies were carefully chosen because they all are:
- Movies having had a wide success around the world
- Movies that will be of interest to most UAB students
- Movies that promote and enforce diversity awareness
- Movies that foster and promote tolerance
- Movies that foster and promote freedom of expression through art
- Movies that foster and promote compassion
- Movies that will enforce language and culture learning
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All Films 8:00pm on a Tuesday of each month beginning in August
Free admission | Hulsey Recital Hall
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August 26 –Cuban– Viva Cuba
Viva Cuba (Cuba, 2005, Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti and Iraida Malberti Cabrera, Directors) -- This award-winning film explores the bond of friendship, as the close relationship between two children living in Cuba is threatened by the class differences between their families. –In Spanish with English subtitles.
Sept 16 –French– Private Fears in Public Places
Private Fears in Public Places (France, 2007, Alain Resnais, Director)— Nominated for eight César awards in its native France, Private Fears in Public Places is an intelligent, adult look at loneliness in the twenty-first century. The film examines the interrelated lives of six main characters who are trying desperately but failing at making real, long-lasting connections. Charlotte (a bewitching Sabine Azéma) is a Bible-reading real estate agent who takes care of Lionel's (Pierre Arditi) vile, ailing father at night. Thierry (André Dussollier), a coworker of Charlotte's, is showing apartments to Nicole (Laura Morante) and Dan (Lambert Wilson), an engaged couple who can't agree on anything. And Gaëlle (Isabelle Carré), who lives with Thierry, her older brother, is looking for love through the personal ads but instead keeps coming home alone. In French with English subtitles.
Sept 30 –Egyptian– The Yacoubian Building
The Yacoubian Building (Egypt, 2006 Marwan Ahmed, Director) - The complex, corrupt, and beautiful stories of the residents of central Cairo who live in the crumbling, once-decadent Yacoubian Building are interwoven in this roman à clef, which paints a merciless and haunting picture of Egypt. This film (Omaret yakobean) was an official selection of the Berlin International Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival.
Oct 14 –Mexican– The Violin
The Violin (Mexico, 2005, Francisco Vargas, Director) –Mexican director Francisco Vargas Quevedo presents the story of Don Plutarco, an elderly farmer and violinist; the aged patriarch of a musical family who has fashioned an ingenious way of smuggling ammunition beneath the noses of government troops. Shot simply and starkly in Black & White this mood-driven character exploration of familial love, duty, conflict and innocence is set in rural Mexico during the peasant revolts of the 1970s. El Violin is a captivating and beautifully presented tale with a strong sense of social justice. This movie has received 24 awards around the world. –In Spanish with English subtitles.
Nov 18 –Japanese– Who’s Camus Anyway
In celebration of International Education Week. Who’s Camus Anyway (Japan, 2005, Mitsuo Yanagimachi, Director) –The story is set on the campus of a university in Tokyo. Students from the literature department's "film workshop" are about to start shooting their movie The Bored Murderer, part of their course curriculum. Everyone is in a rush to prepare for the shoot, but the lead actor drops out suddenly, and the team is forced to search for a replacement at the last minute. Matsukawa, the director, and Hisada, the first assistant, and other members of the team have their own personal problems with life and love, and the story unfolds "just like in the movies". –In Japanese with English subtitles.
Jan 27 –Chinese– Lost in Beijing
Celebration of UAB Community Week. Lost in Beijing (China, 2007, Yu Li, Director) -- Banned in its native China, Lost in Beijing offers a revealing look at the country's increasingly consumer-driven society. When a massage parlor owner, Dong (Tony Leung Ka Fai) forces himself on one of his employees (Fan Bingbing), it leads to a blackmail scheme that changes all of their lives.--In Chinese (Mandarin) with English subtitles.
Feb 17 –Senegalese– Guelwaar
In celebration Black History Month. Guelwaar (Senegal, 1992, Ousmane Sembene, Director) –The burial of a Christian political activist in a Muslim cemetary forces a conflict imbued with religious fervor. A satiric portrayal of religion and politics in Africa, sometimes humorous, sometimes deadly serious.
–In French and Wolof with English subtitles.
March 17 –Italian– The Way We Laughed
The Way We Laughed (Italy, 2001, Gianni Amelio, Director) -- A working class illiterate, Giovanni (Enrico Lo Verso), takes in his younger brother Pietro (Francesco Giuffrida). Sicilians displaced in late 1950s Turin, Italy, they struggle to get by with Giovanni working odd jobs while he pressures Pietro to keep with his studies. An economic shift in Italy sends the two brothers along decidedly different paths. The moralistic Giovanni finds himself profiting from the boom through ill-gotten gains while the irresponsible Pietro sticks with his schooling and becomes a respected teacher. Their roles now completely reversed, Pietro proves himself a responsible adult by covering for the corrupt actions of his brother. Writer-director Gianni Amelio (L’America) presents this six-part saga about the economic influence on family roles and values. Each part is titled with a one-word theme such as "Blood" or "Money." These sections comprise one day in each of the story's six years, using subtleties of character and plot to relate the account of the two brothers. A work rich in emotion, The Way We Laughed deftly weaves the tales of individuals, family, and a nation into one cohesive narrative.--In Italian with English subtitles.
April 7 –Spanish– Talk to Her
Talk to Her (Spain, 2002, Pedro Almodovar, Director) –The curtain before the stage, decorated with salmon colored roses and golden tassels, opens to present a Pina Bausch dance spectacle, "Café Müller". Among the spectators, two men are sitting together by chance, they don't know each other. They are Benigno, a young nurse, and Marco, a forty-something writer. On the stage, filled with wooden chairs and tables, two women, their eyes closed and their arms stretched, are moving to the compasses of "The Fairy Queen" by Henry Purcell. The life of these four characters flows in all directions, past, present and future, leading all of them to an unexpected destiny. Talk to Her is a story about the friendship of two men, about loneliness and the long convalescence of the wounds provoked by passion. It is also a film about the joy of narration and about the word as a weapon against solitude, disease, death and madness. In Spanish with English subtitles.
Each synopsis comes from the Internet Movie Database IMDb (http://www.imdb.com)