Beyond the Frontier: American Westerns Revised (May 13 - June 3)

This series features four American films that use the traditional Western as a point of departure and add new twists to the classic genre. These revisionist films incorporate customary themes of the Western genre, such as journeys of self-discovery, frontier battles, and struggles with the law.  Elements such as cynicism, anti-heroes, and ambiguity began appearing sporadically in Westerns in the early 1950s, but because of the growing counterculture of the 1960s, tensions caused by the Vietnam War and to bolster dropping movie attendance, Hollywood needed innovative films to draw audiences into the theaters. Boundaries and tastes were changing, becoming less conservative and traditional as new waves of young filmmakers were entering Hollywood production. By the mid-1960s the previous strict censorship codes were replaced with the rating system, which provided filmmakers with more freedom to display inventive ideas. Revisionist Westerns present a realistic, non-sanitized depiction of the roles of women, Native Americans, children, Civil War soldiers and veterans, slaves and frontier townspeople that traditional films often glamorized or stereotyped. The films in this series have made a significant contribution to the expansion of a classic genre, while celebrating the endless possibilities of the medium of film as an art form and instrument for reflection on society.

May 13: The Wild Bunch, Director: Sam Peckinpah, USA, 1969, 134 minutes

A few months before World War I, an aging band of outlaws led by Pike Bishop rob a Texas bank intent on using the money to retire. When the robbery goes wrong, the gang is forced to flee to Mexico with Bishop's reformed ex-partner, Deke Thornton, in hot pursuit. With nothing to show for the failed robbery, Bishop's gang agrees to steal a shipment of guns for General "Mapache" Juerta, to restore their fortunes. With Thornton closing in, and their association with the evil Juerta trying their conscience, Bishop and co. prepare for their lawless past to catch up with them.

May 20: McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Director: Robert Altman, USA, 1971, 120 minutes

 Set in winter in the Old West. Charismatic but dumb John McCabe arrives in a young Pacific Northwest town to set up a whorehouse/tavern. The shrewd Mrs. Miller, a professional madam, arrives soon after construction begins. She offers to use her experience to help McCabe run his business, while sharing in the profits. The whorehouse thrives and McCabe and Mrs. Miller draw closer, despite their conflicting intelligences and philosophies. Soon, however, the mining deposits in the town attract the attention of a major corporation, which wants to buy out McCabe along with the rest. He refuses, and his decision has major repercussions for him, Mrs. Miller, and the town.

May 27, Dead Man, Director: Jim Jarmusch, USA, 1995, 121 minutes

Dead Man is the story of a young man's journey, both physically and spiritually, into very unfamiliar terrain. William Blake travels to the extreme western frontiers of America sometime in the 2nd half of the 19th century. Lost and badly wounded, he encounters a very odd, outcast Native American, named "Nobody," who believes Blake is actually the dead English poet of the same name. The story, with Nobody's help, leads William Blake through situations that are in turn comical and violent. Contrary to his nature, circumstances transform Blake into a hunted outlaw, a killer, and a man whose physical existence is slowly slipping away. Thrown into a world that is cruel and chaotic, his eyes are opened to the fragility that defines the realm of the living. It is as though he passes through the surface of a mirror, and emerges into a previously-unknown world that exists on the other side.

June 3: Ride With the Devil, Director: Ang Lee, USA, 1999, 138 minutes

Jake Roedel and Jack Bull Chiles are friends in Missouri when the Civil War starts. Women and Blacks have few rights. Jack Bull's dad is killed by Union soldiers, so the young men join the Bushwhackers, irregulars loyal to the South. One is a Black man, Daniel Holt, beholden to the man who bought his freedom. They skirmish then spend long hours hiding. Sue Lee, a young widow, brings them food. She and Jack Bull become lovers, and when he's grievously wounded, Jake escorts her south to a safe farm. The Bushwhackers, led by men set on revenge, make a raid into Kansas. At 19, Jake is ill at ease with war. As his friends die one after another, he must decide where honor lies.

Global Lens 2010;  June 10 – August 12

Once again, the museum will screen the popular Global Lens series from the Global Film Initiative.  These films, specially selected from developing countries not typically known for their film industry, represent a slice of life from countries such as Vietnam, Peru, Algeria and Serbia.  We invite you to explore these cultures and attend the entire Global Lens 2010 series.

June 10: Adrift (Choi Voi), Director: Bui Thac Chuyen, Vietnam, 2009, Vietnamese, with subtitles in English, 110 minutes

Soon after her wedding, newlywed Duyen’s excitement begins to fade as she realizes her young husband is not only sexually naïve, but overly occupied by his job and doting mother. As her marriage goes unconsummated and her emotional isolation grows, she reaches out to her closest girlfriend, Cam, who secretly desires her, but pushes her into the arms of a dangerous and provocative suitor. The resulting sexual awakening and infidelity puts Duyen in a precarious love triangle, challenging her notions of conventional relationships and also the stability of her new family. Saturated with erotic tension, director Bui Thac Chuyen’s sensuous and absorbing second feature traces the emotional and psychological landscapes of lust and desire, weaving an atmospheric tale of love and life in modern Hanoi.

June 17: Becloud (Vaho), Director: Alejandro Gerber Bicecci, Mexico, 2009, Spanish, with subtitles in English, 110 minutes

 On a dry lakebed in 1964, a trucker and his companion find a baby boy at the dry breast of its dead mother. Years later the trucker operates an ice factory in a poor urban district with his son, José, who dreams of one day striking out on his own. Neighbor Felipe, meanwhile, works at an Internet café and another neighbor, Andrés, lives with his alcoholic father but spends his free time studying Mexico’s pre-Columbian golden age. All three share a defining incident from their childhood, linking the destinies of their entire neighborhood to the lakebed and baby from years earlier. In this shrewd and well-acted story, director Alejandro Gerber Bicecci turns a tangled neighborhood tale into an enthralling mix of history, memory and atonement, creating an unexpected parable of modern Mexico itself.

June 24: Gods (Dioses), Director: Josué Méndez, Peru, 2008, Spanish, with subtitles in English, 91 minutes

 In director Josué Méndez’s stylishly composed second feature, Elisa—the soon-to-be-wife of a wealthy industrialist—is eager to shed her working-class background in favor of the opulence of her fiance’s elite lifestyle. To her dismay, she soon realizes her hopes to slip into magazine-ready images of domestic splendor must also include her future stepchildren: Diego, who is hounded by his overbearing father and reluctantly preparing to enter the family business, and Andrea, Diego’s party-girl sister and the object of both his desire and disgust. As Elisa embraces her new life of lavish parties and beachfront estates, Diego and Andrea rebel against their upper-class upbringing, setting the stage for an ironic contrast of fate and ambition in this biting satire on upper-crust wealth and privilege.

July 1: Leo’s Room, (El Cuarto De Leo), Director: Enrique Buchichio, Uruguay, 2009, Spanish, with subtitles in English, 92 minutes

In the heart of Montevideo, the affable but secretly troubled Leo wraps himself in the comfort of his small rented room, unmotivated to finish his college thesis or find a job, and content with infrequent visits from his girlfriend. After their six-month relationship ends, Leo begins to break out of his shell by cruising the Internet for a new companion, enlisting the aid of a sympathetic therapist along the way. However, it isn’t until he has a chance reunion with a classmate that he is forced to consider the true meaning of his reclusive lifestyle, and a future outside the metaphoric safety of his room. Featuring an affecting soundtrack and an equally endearing cast of characters, director Enrique Buchichio’s affirming drama is a unique vision of isolation and coming-of-age set against a modern tale of romance and friendship.

July 8: Masquerades, Director: Lyes Salem; Algeria, 2008, Arabic, with subtitles in English, 92 minutes

After working for much of his life as a gardener in his dusty Algerian village, Mounir dreams of improving his family’s fortune and gaining a measure of respect by marrying off his narcoleptic sister, Rym, to a “real gentleman.” However, Rym has other plans—she dreams of marrying Mounir’s best friend, Khliffa, who has secretly courted her for years. When Mounir lashes out at village gossip with a fib that he has promised Rym to a wealthy outsider, she comes out of her sleepy stupor to embrace the rumor and press her real betrothed into action. Beautifully brought to life by a memorable cast—including director Lyes Salem as the cocky but compassionate bumbler Mounir—this heartfelt comedy suggests that when dreams become reality, it’s time to wake up.

July 15: My Tehran for Sale, Director: Granaz Moussavi, Iran, 2009, Farsi and English, with subtitles in English, 97 minutes

In this riveting, insider’s perspective on life in Iran’s capital city, Marzieh—a terminally ill actress—wearily relates her desperate quest for political asylum through a series of interviews with an unsympathetic government official. Beginning with details of her doomed relationship with an Iranian-born Australian and their plan to relocate to Adelaide, she recounts her struggle to work as an actress under Iran’s current regime, her hope for a future ultimately dashed by the devastating discovery of her illness, and her need to “escape” the only home she has ever known. Set against the backdrop of Tehran’s thriving arts culture, and framed through a series of artful and dramatic flashback sequences, poet-turned-filmmaker Granaz Moussavi boldly registers the trials of a modern woman struggling to flourish in Iran’s contemporary political climate.

July 22: Ocean of an Old Man, Director: Rajesh Shera, India, 2008, Hindi, with subtitles in English, 84 minutes

In the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and amid the stunning natural beauty of India’s Andaman and Nicobar islands, an elderly British teacher struggles to run a small primary school despite the loss of many of the islands’ children to the recent tragedy. Ignoring the overwhelming grief that washes over the islands, he continues to teach his few remaining students until a government official delivers a relocation order to all residents, causing him to embark on a heartbreaking search for his missing students, convinced they must still be alive. Blending exquisite vistas with the ubiquitous sound of the ocean to convey the precarious balance between human life and the inexorable forces of nature, Rajesh Shera’s debut feature quietly unfolds as a delicate meditation on grief and loss.

July 29: Ordinary People, Director: Vladimir Perisic, Serbia, 2009, Serbian, with subtitles in English, 79 minutes

In a seemingly average day, a busload of young soldiers is sent to a remote location in the countryside and given a macabre task: the execution of a number of civilians. Dzoni, a green recruit, initially objects, but as he moves from one killing to the next, he is swept up by the spectre of military authority, and quickly becomes desensitized by the apparently routine nature of his task. As he nears the end of his assignment, the quiet horror of the day slowly begins to affect him, forcing a painful reconciliation with his actions. Set in an unspecified time of conflict in the Balkans, director Vladimir Perisic’s highly attuned and unsentimental lens captures the psychological toll of war on its participants, and the universal struggle of all soldiers to reconcile morality with action.

August 5: The Shaft (Dixia De Tiankong), Director: Zhang Chi, China, 2008, Chinese, with subtitles in English, 98 minutes

In a poor mining town in western China, the stories of a father and his two children intersect and intertwine, illuminating complicated relationships hidden beneath the community’s hardened exterior. Accused of an affair with her manager, the attractive daughter of the household finds herself spurned by her boyfriend and forced to accept an arranged marriage. Her brother dreams of being a singer, but after an unforeseen stint in prison, reluctantly heads into the mines like his father, who spends his days searching for the wife who left him many years ago. Writer-director Zhang Chi’s wise and poetic debut delicately expresses the turmoil of emotion and expectation wrought by a calloused and difficult existence.

August 12: Shirley Adams, Director: Oliver Hermanus, South Africa, 2009, English and Afrikaans, with subtitles in English, 92 minutes

In this deeply affecting portrait of ordinary courage in present-day South Africa, a single mother—Shirley Adams—struggles to care for her paraplegic teenage son, Donovan, in a depressed district on the outskirts of Cape Town. Wearied but resolute, she desperately clings to him as he withdraws from the world following a suicide attempt, and is hopeful when his spirits are momentarily lifted by the appearance of Tamsin, a pretty but overeager social worker. But when the relationship between Donovan and Tamsin sours, his fragile emotional health declines, and Shirley's faith and perseverance are put to the ultimate test. First-time director Oliver Hermanus's observant camera holds close to its subjects, capturing the claustrophobia, intimacy and hushed anguish surrounding the tender daily routines of a mother and her child.

Cinephilia: Post-War Auteur Essentials August 19 - September 9

Featuring four 1950s art-house classics containing beautiful cinematography and a balance of subtlety, action, humor, sentiment, and tragedy, these films present stories of the emotional and physical experiences of family and children. The term auteur, meaning “author,” gained popularity after the 1940s with the influence of French and English language film critics, notably those from the cinema review magazine Cahiers du cinema.  Eventually applied to film theory and scholarship, it is most widely recognized as a term used to distinguish excellent filmmakers who display a distinctively recognizable voice throughout their work. Film culture in postwar Europe embraced the role of the director as the auteur responsible for the overall look and meaning of the film, and the ability to infuse one’s personal worldview into the piece. While all films differ in style, genre, and nation, they are all lasting testaments to the power of cinema’s universal language.  Each auteur has an innovative, influential and recognizable style that has enabled their creative visions to remain distinct, transcending the collaborative and industrial nature of filmmaking. 

August 19: Tokyo Story, Director: Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1953, 136 minutes

An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their children and are confronted by indifference, ingratitude and selfishness. When the parents are packed off to a resort by their impatient children, the film deepens into an unbearably moving meditation on mortality

August 26: La Strada, Director: Federico Fellini, Italy, 1954, 108 minutes

In La Strada (meaning “The Road”) Gelsomina is sold by her very poor mother to Zampanò, an itinerant strongman. She follows him on the road ("la strada") and helps him during his shows. Zampanò ill-treats her. She meets "The Fool", a funambulist. She feels like going with him, but he puts confusion in her mind by pointing out that perhaps Zampanò is in fact in love with her.

September 2: The Man Who Knew Too Much, Director: Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1956, 120 minutes

Dr. Ben McKenna, his wife Jo and their son Hank are on a touring holiday of Africa when they meet the mysterious Louis Bernard on a bus. The next day Bernard is murdered in the local marketplace, but before he dies he manages to reveal details of an assassination about to take place in London. Fearing that their plot will be revealed, the assassins kidnap Hank in order to keep the McKenna's silent. Ben and Jo go to London and take matters into their own hands in this remake of Hitchcock’s 1934 version. 

September 9: The 400 Blows, Director: Francois Truffaut, France, 1959, 99 minutes