“Ethics, Aesthetics, & Identity: Private Lives and Public Acts”
As a part
of this series we offer a tribute to Gregory Peck, whose career richly
reflected Hollywood’s nascent postwar engagement with issues
of prejudice and intolerance. His award winning films, such as To Kill
a Mockingbird and Gentleman’s Agreement, asked their audiences
to do their ethical “duty,” to put off discrimination,
be it public or hidden, in rural retreat or the realms of the wealthy
or urbane. The series also highlights three films from Iran. Children
of Heaven is a heart-warming film about those small crises and choices
children make which demonstrate the human capacity for care and forgiveness.
Secret Ballot is a new film which casts a wry, almost absurdist eye
on the evolution of democracy and agency in Iran. The Cannes film festival
winner, Taste of Cherry, is a moving meditation on suicide, existence,
and redemption.
We will also screen three films which directly negotiate the interrelationship
between aesthetics and ethics. The Turandot Project, our one documentary, charts
the intercultural collaboration of conductor Zubin Metha and Chinese film director
Zhang Yimou in the staging of a Puccini opera in the Forbidden City. Vertical
Ray of the Sun, from the director of the Scent of Green Papaya, is a cinematographic
tour de force as it charts family tragedies and relationships. The director’s
cut of Cinema Paradiso is a fitting and moving exploration of the negotiation
of a private memory and public aesthetic.
We close the fall season with 100% Arabica, a lighthearted look at questions
of power and culture within in a community of Algerians living in Paris. Often
described as a take on Footloose, with a Rai musician in the Kevin Bacon role
and the local cleric in the John Lithgow role, it’s both a “neighborhood
party” and a comment on music’s ability to challenge authority.
Golden Palm Winner, Cannes Film Festival
September 16 –Cline Library, 7:00pm
Taste of Cherry (Ta'm e guilass )
(Abbas Kiarostami, 1997, Iran, 95 minutes)
A sublime and deceptively simple parable about life's possibilities,
the film follows Mr. Badii, a weary and increasingly desperate middleaged
man who has decided to end his life. Driving through the hilly outskirts
of Tehran, in search of someone who will bury him if he succeeds or
rescue him if he fails, he meets an assortment of different characters:
Afghans, Kurds, Turks, prisoners of the desert, a soldier, a seminary
student, and a museum employee, each with their own reason to turn
down the job: fear, religious scruples and the humanist's revulsion
at a life willfully squandered. A haunting film of piercing intensity,
Taste of Cherry is told with Kiarostami's incomparable sense of poetry
and lyricism. Best Foreign Film, National Society of Film Critics and
the Boston Film Critics Circle. "Sublimely spiritual! A meditative
affirmation of life!, " Interview Magazine. "A humanist
masterpiece!," Film Comment. “Comes as close to defining
the sublime nature of living... as a filmmaker is ever likely to do!," Newsday.
(Farsi; English subtitles.) Unrated
“Clearly the work of a master poet”
San Francisco Examiner
September 23—Cline Library, 7:00 pm
Vertical Ray of the Sun (Mua He Chieu Thang Dung)
(Anh Hung Tran, 2000, Vietnam/France, 112 minutes)
"The Vertical Ray of the Sun is a wholly enveloping experience. Gentle,
ravishingly beautiful and awash in everyday sensuality, it so intoxicates you
with the elegance and refinement of its filmmaking that even noticing, let
alone caring, whether it has a plot starts to seem beside the point. Written
and directed by Tran Anh Hung, Vertical Ray does in fact have a story line,
one that investigates love, marriage and faithfulness as they play out in the
romantic lives of three Vietnamese sisters, but no one will come out of this
film compelled to deconstruct the narrative. The lure of Vertical Ray is its
sophisticated blending of delicate music, restrained acting and a seemingly
casual but immaculate use of breathtaking color…Vertical Ray opens on
the anniversary of the mother's death and ends a month later on the anniversary
of the father's. During that time, everyone finds their relationships tested…. “One
should live where one's soul is in harmony," photographer Quoc says, adding: ‘Harmony
can be a great consolation.’ Vertical Ray of the Sun demonstrates how
great an asset it can be as well,” Los Angeles Times. (Vietnamese;
English subtitles) Rated R.
A Tribute to Gregory Peck
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award Winner
September 30—Cline Library, 7:00 pm
Gentlemans Agreement
(Elia Kazan, 1947, US, 118 minutes)
“Phil Green is a freelance writer who has just moved to New York
with his mother and his son. He does not have to look very hard for
work, but the first job he gets nearly tears his life apart. He is
asked to write a story about anti-Semitism, but his editor doesn't
want it to be just the average story full of statistics and numbers,
he wants a new fresh angle. So, Green decides that his angle should
be to see what life is actually like as a Jew. Since he is new in town,
it is easy for him to do. He simply starts telling everyone that he
is Jewish, but once he has done so, it is obvious that his life completely
changes. He carries on this charade for eight weeks, but in that time,
he and his family are humiliated and driven to the brink of sanity
by the bigots and hypocrites of their world…. [A]nti-Semitism
ran rampant in post-World War II America. Ironically enough, at first
the big Hollywood studios avoided this subject like it was the plague….Finally,
Daryl F. Zanuck decided that enough was enough. We should be very thankful
that he did. Elia Kazan directed a truly beautiful film. ….It
hits very hard not only at the outspoken anti-Semite, but also at the
hypocrites that would not stand up for what they believed in--even
in the face of the horrible treatment of any people. Every member of
the cast is absolutely wonderful and they don't seem to flinch in the
face of the subject matter. Gregory Peck was not known for shying away
from difficult or challenging roles or films that would have been considered ‘controversial.’ He
truly is an inspiration.” SDI –Won Oscar for Best Director,
Elia Kazan; Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Celeste Holm; Best Picture,
Darryl F. Zanuck. Won Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture; Best Supporting
Actress, Celeste Holm; Best Director, Elia Kazan and Special Award,
Dean Stockwell, “For the Best Juvenile Actor.”
Absurdist Comedy about Democracy In Iran
October 7—Cline Library, 7:00 pm
Secret Ballot (Void Votes)
(Babak Payami, 2001, 123 Minutes)
“By turns whimsical and absurdist, Babek Payami's … [film
is akin to ] a shaggy-dog story conceived by Samuel Beckett and directed
by Jim Jarmusch. Almost every scene in the movie, which charts the
events of a single day, appears to be bathed in the melancholy glow
of late-afternoon sunlight. But the first image is a foreboding dawn,
as a transport plane drops what appears to be a bomb onto the desert
island of Kish in the Persian Gulf. Fortunately, the parachuted object
contains nothing more explosive -- and nothing less important -- than
a ballot box and paper ballots. An unnamed solider, cranky with boredom
while he and a comrade guard a deserted beach, is mildly annoyed by
this disruption of his routine. His annoyance escalates into outrage
when an election official arrives by speedboat, armed with an order
for his services as an escort. "This order is no good," the
solider complains. "It says an agent will come. Not a woman." But
the agent is indeed a woman, clad in a traditional black chador but
brimming with borderline-revolutionary attitudes. She's doing her best
to encourage voting in a land whose people have very little experience
with such democratic notions. And the soldier, regardless of whether
he likes it, must help her collect signed ballots from every eligible
voter on the island before 5 p.m…. Secret Ballot unfolds slowly
-- many long sequences take place in real time -- but the time is spent
wisely on revealing details and seriocomic insights. There are hints
of surrealism to some haunting images: An outside bed shared in shifts
by the guards, a traffic light in the middle of nowhere, a potential
voter who must be chased down and practically forced at gunpoint to
cast his ballot…. As the election agent goes about her Sisyphean
duties, and gradually develops a grudgingly respectful relationship
with the soldier, she achieves something not unlike heroic status.
Secret Ballot is ineffably amusing and affecting as it contemplates
the indefatigable optimism of a true believer,” San Francisco
Examiner. ( Farsi; English subtitles) The Political Film Society has
nominated Secret Ballot for an award as best film of 2002 promoting
democracy. London Film Festival , FIPRESCI Award. Newport International
Film Festival . Best Feature Film. Rotterdam International Film Festival,
Netpac Award. São Paulo International Film Festival, Special
Jury Award. Venice Film Festival , Netpac Award ; OCIC Award ; Pasinetti
Award, Best Film; Special Director's Award; UNICEF Award . Rated G.
“Heart warming meditation about humanity”-- Culturedose
October 21—Cline Library, 7:00 pm
Children of Heaven (Bacheha-Ye aseman )
(Majid Majidi, Iran, 1997, 87 minutes)
``Children of Heaven is very nearly a perfect movie for children, and
of course that means adults will like it, too. It lacks the cynicism
and smart-mouth attitudes of so much American entertainment for kids
and glows with a kind of good-hearted purity… The theme of this
movie is so universal there is not a child who will not be wide-eyed
with interest and suspense. The film is about a boy who loses his sister's
shoes. He takes them to the cobbler for repairs, and on the way home,
when he stops to pick up vegetables for his mother, a blind trash collector
accidentally carries them away. Of course, the boy, named Ali, is afraid
to tell his parents. Of course, his sister, named Zahra, wants to know
how she is supposed to go to school without shoes. The children feverishly
write notes to each other, right under their parent's noses. The answer
is simple: Zahra will wear Ali's sneakers to school every morning,
and then run home so that Ali can put them on for his school in the
afternoon. But Zahra cannot always run fast enough, and Ali, who is
a good student, gets in trouble for being late to class. And there
is a heartbreaking scene where Zahra solemnly regards her own precious
lost shoes, now on the feet of the ragpicker's daughter. I submit that
this situation is scarier and more absorbing for children than a movie
about Godzilla or other manufactured entertainments. Even when you're
a kid, you know you're not likely to be squished by a giant lizard,
but losing something that has been entrusted to you? And getting in
trouble at school? That's big time. …Children of Heaven is about
a home without unhappiness. About a brother and sister who love one
another, instead of fighting. About situations any child can identify
with. In this film from Iran, I found a sweetness and innocence that
shames the land of Mutant Turtles, Power Rangers and violent video
games. Why do we teach our kids to see through things, before they
even learn to see them?”-- Roger Ebert. (Farsi; English subtitles)
Nominated, Oscar, Best Foreign Language Film; Fajr Film Festival, Won,
Crystal Simorgh , Best Feature Film; Montréal World Film Festival
, Won, FIPRESCI Award, Grand Prix des Amériques, Ecumenical
Jury Prize. Rated PG
Opera in The Forbidden City?
October 28—Cline Library, 7:00 pm
The Turandot Project
(Alan Miller, 2000, US/Germany/China/Italy, 87 minutes)
This film chronicles the creation of the extraordinary production of
Giacomo Puccini's opera, Turandot, beginning with performances in Florence,
Italy, in 1997, and culminating the next year in spectacular outdoor
presentations in the Forbidden City of Beijing. The award winning Chinese
filmmaker Zhang Yimou (Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern, Not One
Less) directed both productions, with internationally famous conductor
Zubin Mehta. The Turandot Project presents a glorious picture of the
most ambitious production of Turandot ever staged, with its backstage
dramas, its enormous technical problems, its passions and politics,
all enacted amid a complicated array of languages Chinese, Italian,
English, French and German. We meet an enormous array of performers
from the Western opera stars, chorus and orchestra, to the hundreds
of soldiers from the Chinese army that Zhang Yimou cast as extras and
ancient Chinese warriors. Zhang also engaged 2000 people from rural
China to sew and embroider 900 new costumes for the Beijing Turandot.
Ultimately, Zhang and Mehta's Turandot is an overwhelming success:
a union of Western opera with Eastern culture and tradition. And as
Mehta says at the dazzling finale, as we watch Turandot declaring her
love for Calaf before the entire assembly: "Everything came into
place in the end... there was not one glitch. Nobody thought we could
do it." Rated G
“Do Your Duty!”
November 4—Cline Library, 7:00 pm
To Kill a Mockingbird
(Robert Mulligan, US, 1962, 129 minutes)
Gregory Peck’s character, Atticus Finch, was recently awarded
the title of Best Film Hero of all time by the American Film Institute. “Atticus
Finch is a lawyer and widower, raising two small children, Scout and
her older brother Jem . Into their lives enters a visitor, Dill from
Meridian, Mississippi, come to spend two weeks with his Aunt Stephanie
(Alice Ghostley). Macomb is a town with nothing to do and if there
were, no money to spend on it. The stage is being set for a life shattering
episode that will not go quietly into that good night…. Into
this world of innocence, a shattering crescendo of complexity wraps
itself in the lives of the townspeople in the form of an alleged rape
of a white woman, Mayella Violet Ewell (Collin Wilcox) by a black man,
Tom Robinson (Brock Peters). Atticus Finch is called upon to act as
counsel for Robinson and in doing so, the stage has been set for a
dance with race relations and the exemplary lengths that are gone to
in order to allow justice to prevail in the face of malcontent….
To Kill A Mockingbird is beautifully haunting and having been made
in the 60's, at the height of the Civil Rights movement, it garners
our attention to stop and take the time to truly 'see' what the human
race is all about and what it can and should be, if taken over the
bumps in the road and onto a path of sincere honesty and purpose. No
special effects were needed, no huge Hollywood budget, no splashing
of a story that had a happy ending for everyone involved. It is an
open book into the realities of a world tilting temporarily off its
axis, and being brought back on track through the goodness that sits
in the hearts, minds and souls of mankind, if given half a chance,” The
Spinning Image. Won, Oscar, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Gregory Peck;
Best Art Direction; Best Writing . Golden Globes, Won, Best Film Promoting
International Understanding; Best Motion Picture Actor, Gregory Peck.