UNLESS NOTED OTHERWISE: All
screenings are Wednesday evenings in Liberal Arts, Bldg 18, rm.
135, at 7 PM. The films are shown in the original language
with English subtitles. Films are for NAU language students. Most
films are un-rated but many contain adult situations & language.
Also check out the The Humanities,
Arts, and Religion film series.
S= Spanish / G= German / J= Japanese / N= Navajo / F= French / R=
Russian
E= English / ES=English subtitles. If known, ratings indicated by
PG, R, etc.
Most films are un-rated but many contain adult situations or themes & language.
Modern Languages Film Series Fall 2007
For more info contact:
Astrid Klocke (Series Coordinator) 523-6789
Maria Audretsch (Arabic) 523-6910
Inez Nez (Navajo) 523-6319
Erika Hess (French) 523-6676
Bernd Conrad (German) 523-4792
Chie Okubo (Japanese & Chinese) 523-8957
Anne Slobodchikoff (Russian) 523-6223
Robert Neustadt (Spanish) 523-2411
NA=Navajo, SP=Spanish, FR=French, GE=German, RU=Russian, JA=Japanese, CH=Chinese, EN=English, ES=English subtitles, B/W= black & white, Dir= director, min=minutes
NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES
Spring 2008 FILM SERIES
January 30
Das Leben der Anderen (The
Lives of Others)
Germany, 2006. Dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.
Five years before its downfall, the former East-German government ensured
its claim to power with a ruthless system of control and surveillance.
Party-loyalist Captain Gerd Wiesler hopes to boost his career when
given the job of collecting evidence against the playwright Georg Dreyman
and his girlfriend, the celebrated theater actress Christa-Maria Sieland.
Posing a stark, difficult question — how does a good man act
in circumstances that seem to rule out the very possibility of decent
behavior? — this Oscar (best foreign film 2007) winning movie
illuminates not only a shadowy period in recent German history, but
also the moral no man’s land where base impulses and high principles
converge.
German with English subtitles. 137 minutes.
February 6
A Visit to the Sun
Centron Educational Films, 1972
A timeless Navajo epic is retold as an authentic Navajo artists uses
his talent to bring to life the characters of an oral history only
told in the wintertime. The heroic twins make a journey to their
father, the Sun, to ask for his assistance in obliterating the many
monsters that plague the Twins’ homeland.
Original Filmstrip converted to DVD, English narration, 175 minutes.
February 13
Hula Girl
Japan, 2006. Dir. Sang-il Lee
In 1965 the planned closing of a coal mine in Iwaki will put 2,000
people out of work with devastating effects on the community. The mining
company plans to build the Hawaiian Center to promote tourism. Dance
teacher Madoka is especially hired from Tokyo. None of the girls can
dance, Madoka isn't all that interested in teaching, and many of the
townspeople are less than happy about this newfangled hula business.
The whole idea seems destined for failure, but when Madoka sees the
girls' fighting spirit, she becomes determined to teach them how to
hula.
Japanese with English subtitles, 108 minutes.
February 20
Mar adentro (The Sea Inside)
2004, Dir. Alejandro Amenábar
Based on the real-life story of Ramón Sampedro (played by Javier
Bardem), a Spanish ship mechanic left quadriplegic after a diving accident.
He fought a 28-year campaign in support of euthanasia and his right
to end his own life. The Sea Inside won the 2004 Oscar for
Best Foreign Language Film, the 2004 Golden Globe for Best Foreign
Language Film, and 14 Goya Awards including awards for Best Film, Best
Director, Best Lead Actor, Best Lead Actress, Best Supporting Actor,
Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Screenplay.
2nd Annual French Tournées Festival at
Cline Library
Saturday, February 23, 3:00 p.m.
Fauteuil d'orchestre (Avenue Montaigne)
France, 2006
Jessica is a beautiful and naive girl from the south-east of France.
She is extremely close to her grandmother who continuously repeats
the same story: when she was young she managed to move up in the world
while working as a cleaning lady in a popular luxury hotel in Paris.
One day, Jessica decides to go to Paris and finds a job at a cafe frequented
by the "tout Paris". Indeed, it is located on Avenue Montaigne,
in the wealthy section of Paris. Her customers include an array of
artistic figures. A famous soap-opera actress, Catherine Versen, tries
to seduce a major Hollywood director, Sobinski, in the hope of getting
the part that she believes will radically change her carreer. Jacques
Grunberg, an art lover, is about to sell a lifetime's worth of artworks
at an auction. Jean-François Lefort, an illustrious classical
pianist, is in the midst of a career crisis and refuses to play in
the posh concert halls that have invited him. A social and financial
gap separates Jessica from each of the others, but her innocence compensates
for all the differences and serves to create a rewarding and profound
link between the waitress and her clients.
French with English subtitles, 100 minutes
Saturday, February 23, 5:00 p.m.
Chats perchés (The Case of the Grinning Cat)
France, 2004, Documentary
In his newest film, French cinema-essayist Chris Marker reflects on
art, culture and politics at the start of the new millennium. In November
2001, he became intrigued by the sudden appearance of grinning yellow
cat paintings on Paris buildings and public surfaces, and began to
document the mysterious materializations of this charming feline. Purportedly
looking to solve the mystery of this unknown artist, dubbed M. Chat,
the filmmaker uses it instead as a springboard to examine the city's
changing social climate -- from the pro-American feelings generated
shortly after Sept. 11, to the anti-Bush and Iraq War demonstrations
that have become so prevalent. He also looks at the demonstrations
that took place during the 2002 French election that saw right-wing
centrist Jacques Chirac defeat right-wing extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Eventually, the creator of the grinning cats is revealed to be an art
collective known as Mr. Cat whose members are shown painting a massive
representation of their mascot on the plaza in front of the Pompidou
Center. Marker concludes with thoughts on the vital importance of such
expressions of art and imagination in our public lies, echoing the
May’68 slogan that “La poésie est dans la rue” (“Poetry
is in the streets”).
French with English subtitles, 58 minutes
Saturday, February 23, 7:00 p.m.
Paris, Je t'aime
France, 2006
Paris, je t'aime is a patchwork of eighteen short films by different
directors. Each one had to tell a story located in one of Paris' “arrondissements” in
less than five minutes and on a relatively tight budget. This atypical
collective film bears the hallmark of major international filmmakers
and the names of stellar actors such as Natalie Portman, Gena Rowlands,
Elijah Wood, Ben Gazzara and Catherine Deneuve. Among the many witty
and serendipitous narratives that make up this portrayal of Paris,
a young foreign worker moves from her own domestic situation into her
employer's bourgeois environs; an American starlet finds escape as
she is shooting a movie, a man is torn between his wife and his lover,
a father grapples with his complex relationship with his daughter.
Paris, je t'aime offers an interesting perspective on how foreign directors
see Paris. Although they are all different in style, the films find
a unity in thetheme that they explore. They all tell a story about
the sometimes fragile relationships that bind people who have recently
met or who have known each other well.
French with English subtitles, 116 minutes
Sunday, February 24, 1:00 p.m.
Le Petit Lieutenant
France, 2005
Antoine, a young, inexperienced detective, is selected for an elite
Paris plainclothes unit, leaving behind his wife, a schoolteacher in
the country. He is as gung-ho as they come, and eager to learn everything
he needs to know to be a good cop. Antoine socializes with his new
comrades. All seem to be heavy drinkers, with the exception of the
unit commander, Caroline, a former alcoholic who has just returned
from a long stint on desk duty. Antoine looks up to his partners: Louis,
a cynical man, and Solo, a rigorous cop who faces racism due to his
Moroccan origin. Under the tough leadership of Caroline, the unit investigates
the death of a Polish immigrant and eventually learns that the victim
was last seen with a couple of Russians. When a second victim is rescued
from the waters of the canal a few days later, the case takes on a
new urgency. As Antoine tries to fit in and learn the job, Caroline
forms an almost maternal bond with the young cop. Her attachment to
him is shattered when he is stabbed by one of the Russians. Antoine
dies from the incident and Caroline starts drinking again. While trying
to overcome Antoine’s death, the unit is quickly closing in on
his murderer.
French with English subtitles, 110 minutes
Sunday, February 24, 3:00 p.m.
Les Amants réguliers (Regular Lovers)
France, 2005
Regular Lovers takes place in 1968, a key year in French cultural and
social history. François, a young idealist man who wants to
change society, joins the students’ revolt movement. When order
and authority return to the city and François understands that
the fight is over, he hides away in a luxurious mansion where a young
community leads a bohemian life, made up of art and inactivity. One
night, he meets Lilie and a poetic, fragile relationship begins between
the two of them. Regular Lovers is not a sensational historical fresco
of the events that took places in 1968. Rather, the director, who was
twenty at the time, gives a unique perspective of what he remembers
from this period . His approach focuses on the notion of time, and
it could be summed up by the expression “to give time to time”.
As the camera rolls, the director lets the actors reveal their characters’ secrets.
The director also establishes the link between past and present by
choosing his own son, Louis, for the role of the main character. The
scene between the young man and his grandfather is one of the most
moving moments of the film: a magical sense of intimacy and humor that
only Garrel’s cinema can offer.
French with English subtitles, 178 minutes
February 27
Osama
Afghanistan, 2003, Dir. Siddiq
Barmak
A 12-year-old Afghan girl and her mother lose their jobs when the Taliban
close the hospital where they work. The Taliban have also forbidden
women to leave their houses without a male "legal companion." With
her husband and brother dead, killed in battle, there is no one left
to support the family. Without being able to leave the house, the mother
is left with nowhere to turn. Feeling that she has no other choice,
she disguises her daughter as a boy. Now called 'Osama,' the girl embarks
on a terrifying and confusing journey as she tries to keep the Taliban
from finding out her true identity. Inspired by a true story, Osama is
the first entirely Afghan film shot since the fall of the Taliban.
Pashto with English subtitles.
March 5
Still Life (SanXia Haoren)
China. 2006. Dir. Jia Zhang Ke
Still Life interweaves the story of a coalminer, Han Sanming, who
travels thousands of miles to the Three Gorges town Fengjie to look for his
ex-wife and a nurse fetching her husband who has been working at the river
without sending a single word home. While the film does not let these two characters
cross paths, together they reflect changes in people's lives brought by the
Three Gorges Dam, which flooded villages near the Yangtze River and led to
the emergence of some new settlements.
Mandarin with English subtitles, 108 minutes
March 12
A Thousand Roads
National Museum of the American Indian. Dir. Chris Eyre
A Thousand Roads follows the fictional lives of four contemporary Native
Americans as they confront the crises that arise in their modern lives. Their
story is told in the present lands of the Andean highlands, northernmost
Alaska, the Navajo Nation, and the “concrete canyons” of
Manhattan.
English, 40 minutes
March 26
Goodbye, Lenin
Germany, 2004. Dir. Wolfgang Becker.
In the comic German movie ''Goodbye, Lenin,'' Katrin Sass, right, plays
an East German woman who goes into a coma just before the fall of the
Berlin Wall in 1989. She wakes up eight months later to an apartment
recreated by her son Alex to appear exactly as it was in the old days.
However, Alex has a big problem on his hands: His mother's heart is
so weak that any shock might kill her. And what could be more shocking
than the fall of the Berlin Wall and the triumph of capitalism in her
beloved East Germany? To save his mother, Alex transforms the family
apartment into an island of the past, a kind of socialist-era museum
where his mother is lovingly duped into believing that nothing has
changed. His sister and selected neighbors are recruited to maintain
the elaborate ruse-- and keep her believing that Lenin really did win
after all! (The movie spawned ''Ostalgie'' in Germany, a cult
of nostalgia for remnants of East Germany. The set for the apartment,
in East Berlin, is now rented out for "Ostalgie" parties.)
German with English subtitles. 118 minutes.
April 2
A Cruel Romance
Russia, 1984. Dir. Eldar Ryazanov
Beautiful Larisa Ogudalova is under great pressure from her family
to marry for money and
position, in other words to advance her family's interests. She has
other ideas that run counter to her family's wishes and society's conventions.
The story is based on a novel by famous 19th-century Russian author
Alexander Ostrovsky. Starring Alisa Freindlich, Larisa Guzeeva, Nikita
Mikhalkov, Andrey Magkov.
Russian with English subtitles, 145 minutes.
April 9
Caribe
Costa Rica, 2004. Dir. Esteban Ramirez
A steamy melodrama about an ordinary man torn by personal and political
intrigue. Living in an idyllic fishing village, Vicente (Jorge Perugorria)
embarks upon a torrid affair while deciding whether to sell his valuable
beachfront property to an American oil company.
Spanish with English subtitles, 92 minutes.
April 16
Brave Story
Japan. Dir. Koichi Chigira
When eleven-year-old Wataru is told he can change his destiny by entering
a magic gateway into another world, he jumps at the chance to get his
family back. But on his quest to find the Tower of Fortune and be granted
any wish, he must conjure up all his bravery to battle a world of demons,
his own friends and ultimately himself.
Animated. Japanese with English subtitles, 112 minutes
April 23
A Drift on the Nile
1971, Dir. Hussein Kamal
In this film we meet a group of hedonistic middle-aged friends, who
gather each night on a luxurious houseboat for dancing, love-making
and smoking hashish. When a young news-reporter visits a houseboat
to write a story on a group, she is outraged to learn of the tragic
depths of their social alienation. Based on the novel of the Nobel
Laureate Nagib Mahfouz.
Arabic with English/French subtitles