$3 donation appreciated, Tuesdays, 7:30pm in the Little Theatre (Ayres 106)
Director: Sarah Pike, 898-6341, spike@csuchico.edu

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SEP. 4

Children of the Revolution (Australia 1996) 99 mins. *
Directed by Peter Duncan
Introduced by Troy Jollimore, Philosophy

Children of the Revolution is a 1996 Australian comedy depicting Joseph Stalin and his son's somewhat deterministic path into revolution in modern-day Australia. Joseph Stalin (F. Murray Abraham) spent his last night in the arms of the Australian Joan (Judy Davis). The story describes how their "love-child" brought Australia to the brink of civil war. The film also stars Geoffrey Rush and Sam Neill.

SEP. 11

The Color Wheel (USA, 2012) 83 min.
Directed by Alex Ross Perry
Introduced by Sarah Pike, Religious Studies

The Color Wheel opened this year to critical acclaim for 27-year old independent filmmaker Perry. It had its premiere at the Sarasota Film Festival and went on to the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, where it caught the attention of European critics. The film tells the story of JR, an increasingly transient aspiring news anchor who forces her disappointing brother Colin to embark on a road trip. Problem is these grown-up kids do not get along and are too obnoxious to know better. Chaos and calamity are not too far behind her Honda Accord. Resting uncomfortably somewhere between the solipsistic, unrepressed id of the late Jerry Lewis and the confrontational, pseudo-sexual self-loathing of Philip Roth, The Color Wheel is a familial comedy of disappointment and forgiveness.

SEP. 18

Battle of Algiers (Italy and Algeria, 1966) 121 min. *
Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo
Introduced by Peter Hogue, Emeritus, English

Battle of Algiers is based on occurrences during the Algerian war (1954–62) against the French government in North Africa. The film has been critically celebrated and often taken, by insurgent groups and states alike, as an important commentary on urban guerilla warfare. It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for three Academy Awards. The film produced considerable political controversy in France and was banned there for five years. In 2003, the film again made the news when an official at the Pentagon screened the film as a useful illustration of the problems faced in Iraq.

SEP. 25

The Year My Parents Went On Vacation (O Ano em que Meus Pais sairam de Férias) (Brazil, 2006) 104 min.
Directed by Cao Hamburger
Introduced by Quirino de Brito, Foreign Languages and Literatures

The story revolves around a 12-year-old boy who is hurriedly dropped off at his grandfather’s house in Sao Paulo so his parents can take a "vacation." Unbeknownst to his parents, the patriarch had passed away that day. Being left to fend for himself, some Jewish neighbors take him under their wing. The remainder of the film is a story of how the boy learns about life, the World Cup, a dictatorship, Jewish culture, and in the end, how to become a man years before his time.

OCT. 2

Easy Rider (USA, 1969) 94 min. *
Directed by Dennis Hopper
Introduced by Jason Tannen, Art and Art History

Easy Rider is a 1969 American road movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. It tells the story of two bikers (played by Fonda and Hopper) who travel through the American Southwest and South. The success of Easy Rider helped spark the New Hollywood phase of filmmaking during the early 1970s. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame lead singer and guitarist of the Byrds, Roger McGuinn, made the music for the film. Easy Rider was added to the Library of Congress National Registry in 1998. It explores the societal landscape, issues, and tensions in the United States during the 1960s, such as the rise and fall of the counterculture, drug use, and communal lifestyles.

OCT. 9

Senso (Italy, 1954) 117 min. *
Directed by Luchino Visconti
Introduced by Fulvio Orsitto, Foreign Languages and Literature

Senso deals with Italy’s biggest “revolution,” the period that led to unification (aka as Risorgimento) in 1861. A 1954 melodrama and adaptation of Camillo Boito’s Italian novella I, with Alida Valli as Livia and Farley Granger as Lieutenant Franz Mahler. Both Franco Zeffirelli and Francesco Rosi, later well-known film directors in their own right, worked as Visconti's Assistant Directors. Senso is set in Italy around 1866, when the Italian-Austrian war over unification (Risorgimento) was coming to its end. G. R. Aldo’s cinematography for the film received the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists' award. Visconti was nominated for the Golden Lion award and at the 1954 Venice Film Festival.

OCT. 16

The Long Day Closes (UK, 1992) 82 min.
Directed by Terence Davies
Introduced by Sarah Pike, Religious Studies

The Long Day Closes is set in Liverpool in the mid-1950s and focuses on the concerns of a dreamy and lonely 11-year-old boy named Bud. With cinema as his main source of solace, he haunts the local movie-house. All the while, his family looms large in our peripheral vision as do the menacing bullies of his school, but Bud is the center of attention both from the camera's angle and from his doting family. With a gray background, the film fuses clips and audio from classic movies into Bud's dreary childhood and brings it to life. New York Times critic Stephen Holden calls the film “a phantasmagoric cinematic poem…beautifully photographed and edited” that “wants above all to reimagine the world as experienced through the eyes and ears of a sensitive boy on the verge of puberty. It celebrates the way a child's imagination can conjure up glorious possibilities amid dankness and squalor.”

OCT. 23

La Marseillaise: A Chronicle of Certain Events Relative to the Fall of The Monarchy (France, 1938) 135 min. *
Directed by Jean Renoir
Introduced by Laird Easton, History

Renoir, the son of Auguste Renoir the great French impressionist painter, is often described as one of the greatest film directors of all time. At the time he made this film, political instability and class conflict, as well as the threat of a rearmed Nazi Germany, threatened to bring France to the brink of collapse. Renoir hoped that his new film about the French Revolution would rejuvenate national pride and unity, just as revolutionary France had rallied in 1792 to repel invading armies of Austria and Prussia. Renoir was interested in using history accurately, and the film is based on considerable historical research. As Renoir himself remarked:  "It's the only film in my career in which I applied myself to what's known as research documentation… I wrote very little dialogue…I found three quarters of it amongst the documents.”

OCT. 30

Egg (Yumurta) (Turkey/Greece, 2007) 97 min.
Directed by Semih Kaplanoğlu
Introduced by Laura Nice, Humanities

Egg is an award-winning drama and the first installment of the Yusuf Trilogy, named after the lead character of the trilogy, which also includes Milk and Honey, filmed and released in reverse chronological order. It was shown in competition at the 60th Cannes Film Festival and won numerous awards at other international film festivals. The poet Yusuf learns about the death of his mother Zehra and goes back to his hometown. He confronts his guilt about leaving and memories made vivid by the house and town, its inhabitants, and the spaces filled with ghosts. In his mother's house, he finds his cousin Ayla who explains Zehra's pledge to sacrifice a lamb after her death and tells Yusuf that he has to carry out his mother's wishes.

NOV. 6

Waste Land (Brazil 2010) 90 min.

Directed by Lucy Walker, João Jardim and Karen Harley.

Introduced by Quirino DeBrito, Foreign Languages and Literatures.

This special screening is co-sponsored by FOCUS Film Festival.

Filmed over nearly three years, Waste Land follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores”—self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Director Lucy Walker (Devil’s Playground, Blindsight and Countdown to Zero) and co-directors João Jardim and Karen Harley have great access to the entire process and, in the end, offer stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit. Waste Land has won numerous awards at film festivals all over the world, including the audience award for Best World Cinema Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.

NOV. 13

Children of Glory (Hungary 2006) 123 min. *

Directed by Krisztina Goda.

Introduced by Matt Robertson, History.

Children of Glory, one of Hungary’s highest grossing films, commemorates Hungary's Revolution of 1956 and the “Blood in the Water” water polo match between Hungary and the USSR at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Taking place in Budapest and at the Melbourne Olympic Games in October and November of that year, the film takes viewers into the passion and sadness of one of the most dramatic popular revolts of the twentieth century. During the same year that Soviet tanks were violently suppressing the Revolution within Hungary, the Hungarian water polo team was winning over the Soviets in the Olympic pool in Melbourne, in what is sometimes described as the bloodiest water polo match in history. While telling the story of 1956 in part through fictional lead characters, the film-makers simultaneously recreated many of the key public events of the Revolution, including the huge demonstrations and the fighting in the streets of Budapest.

NOV. 27

Moonlighting (U.K. 1982) 97 min. *

Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski.

Introduced by Jason Tannen, Art and Art History.

Moonlighting, Jerzy Skolimowski’s sad-angry-sardonic comedy, is set in the early 1980s at the time of the Solidarity protests in Poland. It stars Jeremy Irons as Nowak, a Polish builder leading a team working illegally in London. They agree to renovate their cheapskate boss’ dilapidated house in exchange for a place to stay. The foreman (Jeremy Irons) is the only one who speaks English, which puts him in charge of budget, provisions, and nosy neighbors. Work is rough and the air outside is late-December dismal. A phone booth provides the sole link home; Irons marvels at the technology with wry paranoia ("If our conversation was taped, it must be a good recording"). He learns of the military takeover and, in order to keep the project going, hides the news from his comrades, shielding them from grainy TV images of tanks in Warsaw, tearing up letters, and ripping tell-tale Solidarity posters. The film won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival and the New York Times called Moonlighting "immensely rewarding" and one "of the best films ever made about exile.”

DEC. 4

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (USA 1988) 171 min. *

Directed by Philip Kaufman.

Introduced by Troy Jollimore, Philosophy.

Philip Kaufman's film adaptation of Czech author Milan Kundera's 1984 best-selling novel is a beguiling movie about sex, love, and rebellion. Its lead characters caper through Prague Spring, Czechoslovakia’s 1968 version of the Summer of Love, and then try to withstand the effects of Soviet occupation. As they drop verbal bombshells about the murderous duplicity of politics and the uglification of the universe, they never lose their ardor or originality. Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Tomas, a Prague surgeon, while Juliette Binoche plays Tereza, the waiflike beauty whom he marries. Even though he's supposedly committed, Tomas continues his womanizing, notably with his mistress Sabina (Lena Olin). According to film scholar Annette Insdorf, “Not every great motion picture continues to yield new aspects of stylistic enchantment and thematic depth after a dozen viewings, but The Unbearable Lightness of Being is certainly one of them. Despite its approximately three-hour length, not a single frame is gratuitous. Every moment contributes to a vision that comprehends political history (and its representation), perception (and its limitations), personal freedom (and its price), as well as cinematic storytelling.”

FEB. 5

From the Quarters to Lincoln Heights (USA, 2010)
A special screening with director Mark Oliver.
Introduced by Robert Tinkler, History.

The documentary From the Quarters to Lincoln Heights has been featured at numerous film festivals and won Best Film on the Black Experience/Marginalized People XXV1 Black International Cinema Festival Berlin Germany. It tells the story of how African Americans came to root themselves in seemingly unlikely places—the small northern California towns of Weed, Mc Cloud, Mt. Shasta and Dunsmuir. Migrating from the southern US in the 1920s to work in some of the world¹s largest lumber mills, African Americans thrived in these multi-racial rural towns. This film will present this little known history revealing the early inter-racial relationships that existed in Northern California.

FEB. 19

Milk (Süt) (Turkey, 2009) 102 min.

Directed by Semih Kaplanoglu.

Introduced by Laura Nice, Humanities.

The Yusuf Trilogy, named after the lead character of the trilogy, which also includes Egg and Honey (shown earlier in the UFS) was filmed and released in reverse chronological order. In Milk a high school graduate, Yusuf could not pass the university entrance exam. Writing poetry is his greatest passion and some of his poems are being printed in various obscure literary journals. But neither these poems, nor the rapidly falling price of the milk they sell, are being of any benefit to Yusuf and his mother, Zehra’s lives. When Yusuf finds out about Zehra’s secret affair with the town’s stationmaster he gets disconcerted. Will he find the way to cope with his anxiety for the unknown future, the rapid change that he is going through and the pain of taking a step into adulthood and leaving his youth behind.

MAR. 5

Four Days in September (Brazil, 1997) 110 min. *

Directed by Bruno Barreto.

Introduced by Quirino de Brito, International Languages, Literatures and Cultures.

In 1969, the democratically elected government of Brazil was toppled and a military dictatorship took its place. The junta ruled through terror and intimidation, torturing political enemies, controlling the press, and severely curtailing freedoms. The film tells the true story of a group of Marxist radicals plotted to kidnap an American diplomat (Alan Arkin) to force the government to meet their demands. The film was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar. It is a thoughtful political drama with emotional depth, well-drawn characters, and excellent direction. Stuart Copeland provides the excellent score, along with ’60s-period bossa nova music.

MAR. 26

The Third Generation (Germany, 1979) 105 min. *

Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Introduced by Sarah Pike, Comparative Religion and Humanities.

Displaying a sense of humor that can most kindly be described as perverse, Fassbinder follows the exploits of a group of well-heeled German terrorists. An industrialist (Eddie Constantine from Godard’s Alphaville) has difficulty selling his security-related computer systems, so he conspires with the inspector general of the police to create and squash a terrorist cell of inept, superficial middle class leftists. While the film was praised by critics, several audiences engaged in their own cinema-attendance form of “radical politics”: in Hamburg, the film projectionist screening The Third Generation was beaten unconscious, and in Frankfort, angry audience members threw acid on the projection screen. Despite the controversy when this film was initially shown, after 1979 for all intents and purposes the film vanished: lack of television broadcast or other venues kept this film out of the public eye. And yet, it remained one of the films the director was most proud of up until his death.

APR. 9

Blowup (Italy and UK, 1967). 110 min. *

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni.

Introduced by Jason Tannen. Art and Art History.

A successful mod photographer in 1960s London whose world is bounded by fashion, pop music, marijuana, and easy sex, is suffering from ennui. Then he meets a mysterious beauty, and also notices something suspicious on one of his photographs of her taken in a park. The fact that he may have photographed a murder does not occur to him until he studies and then blows up his negatives. Antonioni’s thriller, a puzzling, existential, adroitly-assembled masterpiece, was nominated for numerous awards and won the Grand Prix at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival.

APR. 23

The Spirit of the Beehive (Spain, 1973) 97 min. *

Directed by Victor Erice.

Introduced by Sarah Pike, Comparative Religion and Humanities.

A sensitive seven-year-old girl living in a small village in 1940s rural Spain is traumatized after viewing James Whale’s black and white film classic “Frankenstein” (1931), and drifts into her own fantasy world. While the film conveys coded messages about Franco’s fascist regime, it’s also a poetic work about the imagination of children, and how it can lead them into mischief and sometimes rescue them from its consequences.

MAY 7

The Leopard (Italy, 1963) 3 hours. *

Directed by Luchino Visconti.

Introduced by Fulvio Orsitto.

Arguably Visconti’s best film and certainly the most personal of his historical epics, The Leopard chronicles the fortunes of Prince Fabrizio Salina and his family during the unification of Italy in the 1860s. Based on the acclaimed novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, published posthumously in 1958 and subsequently translated into all European languages, the picture opens as Salina (Burt Lancaster) learns that Garibaldi’s troops have embarked in Sicily. Filmed in glorious Techniscope and rich in period detail, the film is a remarkable cinematic achievement in all departments. It won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

*The Humanities Center's theme for this year is "Revolutions."