Floating Weeds (Japan)

Yasujiro Ozu, 119 min, UK:PG


An exquisitely restrained film about a failing acting troupe that travels to a small town and engenders a conflict of generations in a Japanese family.


The film was chosen and will be introduced by Joel Katzav. Arrive at 8:50pm for 9:00pm start.

Rhapsody in August (Japan)

Akira Kurosawa, 98 minutes, UK:U

On August 9th, 1945, the Nuclear devastation of Hiroshima was dealt upon the people of Nagasaki, Japan, as well.

Kurosawa chooses not the Samurai past but a more modern setting for this unusual story of a family reunion: remembering what happened in Nagasaki and reflecting on human nature.

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Arrive at 8:50pm for 9:00pm start.

To Be or Not To Be (Poland)

Ernst Lubitsch, 1942, 99 min

In occupied Poland during WWII, a troupe of ham stage actors match wits with the Nazis. A spy has information which would be very damaging to the Polish resistance and they must prevent it's being delivered to the Germans.

Screwball comedy should always be like this...

The film will be introduced by Fabian.

Arrive at 8:50pm for 9:00pm start.

Hiroshima Mon Amour (France, Japan)

Alain Resnai, 1959, 90 minutes, UK:PG

On the morning of August 6th, 1945, the people in Hiroshima, Japan, became the first on earth to be subject to the devastation of a Nuclear bomb.

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

This classic film is a love story set in Hiroshima, and perhaps also a subtle meditation on remembering and forgetting.

Arrive at 8:50pm for 9:00pm start.

Chungking Express (Hong Kong)

Wong Kar Wai, 1994, 98 minutes, UK:12

Two stories, two lovelorn cops, two unusual women: one a big-time heroin dealer in deep trouble with her bosses after the cargo disappears, the other a mischievous bartender who inadvertently gets hold of the keys to his apartment, all shot in a breathless kaleidoscope of colour and hand-held camerawork to create a mesmerising portrait of Hong Kong in the 1990s.

All About My Mother (Spain)

Pedro Almodovar, 1999, 97 minutes, UK: 15

A mother, her son, an autograph, an actress: an accident...

Thus begins an Almodovar masterpiece; unravelling a delicate web of friendship between a single mother, a transexual man, and a pregnant nun!

Arrive around 8:30pm for 9:00pm start.

As always, Almodovar's lense follows people with proclivities and professions that lie just beyond the pale of social respectability. Correcting distortions of unaided vision, it reveals people: sometimes crazy, sometimes sensible, sometimes likable, sometimes not -- But always human, in a way we had not thought.

What's Up Doc? (US)

Peter Bogdonavich, 1972, 94 minutes, UK: G

Two researchers have come to San Francisco to compete for a research grant in Music. One seems a bit distracted, and that was before he meets her... A strange woman seems to have devoted her life to confusing and embarassing him. At the same time a woman has her jewels stolen and a government whistle blower arrives with his stolen top secret papers. All, of course have the same style and color overnight bag.

This film belongs to the genre of screwball comedy that was a cultural phenomenon in US film-making...

Screening starts at 9:00pm, after introduction by Fabian Lampart (arrive early for it)

An Andalousian Dog .. + .. Age of Gold (French)

Luis Buñuel, 1929, 16min .... + .... 1930, 60min ................

+

The transgression to Wednesdays continue with TWO transgressive (surreal) films by Luis Buñuel, co written with Salvador Dalí.

Contempt (French)

Jean-Luc Godard, 1963, 103 min, UK: 15

With this film we trangress our habit of films on Fridays... it's on a Wednesday!

A film about film and about the unravelling of a marriage, where neither one -- Camille (Brigitte Bardot) or Paul (Michel Piccoli) -- seems able to quite understand, or help, the reasons for their relationship falling apart.

2046 (Hong Kong)

Won Kar-Wai, 2004, 129 minutes, UK:12A

With this film I will begin informal ad hoc extensions to the Friday Films series that started in February. This Film will start @ 9:30pm.

Reviewers agree on at least one thing about this film. "It's not for everyone". And yes, that it is a sequel to Won Kar-Wai's previous movie "In the mood for love". Well... also, that it may still be somehow about unrequited love.

For a flavour of the range of reactions to this film, I will cite from two reviews; one positive and one negative.


From a positive review

2046 is a masterful period piece and profoundly moving meditation on unrequited love, loss and desire. Its narrative is complex and rambling, its effect verbose and grandiose. But its combination of emotional impact and sumptuous visual artistry lift it into lofty cinematic heights.

The central character from 'in the mood for love' is reprised as a deeply jaded modern Casanova in 1960's Hong kong. Love is intricately bound to loss for him and his Hong Kong exploits serve to inflict this view upon his amorous conquests. The period detail and nuance of character and acting are exceptional. The same themes from 'in the mood for love' are blown up onto a radically large, disjointed canvas encompassing mirror narratives and a science fiction future. Is some of the effectiveness of the earlier work lost in the process? Maybe so but the artistic imagination and emotional evocation of themes make up for this.

2046 is used to stand for that which is desired and simultaneously unattainable. A date too far in the future for the characters to live to. ..The viewer is left haunted and spellbound by the sumptuous visual realization of the lives of the characters in Hong Kong, and by the bravado and imagination of the science fiction story within a story. For someone unfamiliar with Wong Kar-wai's earlier work this could all seem like a bridge too far. But fans of 'in the mood for love' will recognize an accomplished master letting loose with all the tools and imagination in a considerable arsenal.

From a negative review

Overlong, pretentious, and overstuffed with voice-overs and affected quotes, Wong Kar-wai's 2046 looks beautiful and is indeed sensuous, but the film is ultimately so muddled that most viewers will find themselves becoming lost in some kind of vague storytelling fog. The actors are all handsomely costumed and the art direction is gorgeous, but the story is so convoluted and mysterious, that the film ends up totally being off putting and really quite boring.

In the claustrophobic world of 2046 the characters exist in a netherworld of dream and memory, holed up in tiny flats, narrow corridors, and small intimate restaurants. ...The Asian actresses are absolutely gorgeous, but they all look the same, so it took me an hour to figure out who was who, and by then, I'd lost the thread of the story. But the major problem with 2046 is that it's just too arty and self conscious for its own good...It all becomes rather tawdry and yawn inducing after a while.

I'm still not quite sure what exactly 2046 is supposed to be. It is the number of a hotel room which people have trouble leaving? Or is it a year in the future where part of the story is set? Or is it perhaps some kind of date? Or does it just exist in Chow's memories and writings? One thing is for sure, this movie moves so slowly that you'll swear that 2046 is also the number of minutes in the film's running length, by the end you'll feel like you have boarded Chow's train too, as you try to stay awake through this one.

The Schedule

The schedule now consists of ad hoc additions. You are welcome to let me know if you have suggestions or want to start a new series.

you can make yourself heard by clicking on the comments link on this blog.

The Way Home (Korea)

Lee Jeong-hyang, 2002, 88 minutes, PG
(Korean title is "Jiburo")

This film, introduced by Pam MacDonald, is extending our schedule of 4 Friday Films in February to 5 Friday Films, now ending in March. Pam has this to say about the film:

The clash of old and young and rural and urban emerge in this story of a spoiled, selfish young boy forced to spend the summer with his mute granny (Kim Eul-Bun), while his mother searches for work back in the city. Sang-Woo’s (Yu Seung-Ho)unbearable ingratitude is an extreme contrast to granny’s super-human patience, which eventually triumphs.

Because director Lee Jeong-hyang wanted to give this film a documentary feel, she insisted on using first- time actors, which she believed she would find only after she found the best location. On the suggestion of a friend, the remote mountain village of Jeetongma (population 8!) was chosen, and there indeed, Ms. Lee found her characters.

This movie, completely devoid of commercialism of any sort, was a surprising box-office hit in Korea, outselling the generally more popular Hollywood blockbusters and Korean action films, as well as receiving international acclaim. Part of its success may be attributed to the poignant revelation of a culture and lifestyle that is unknown even to many Koreans.

Moolaadé (Burkina Faso)

Ousmane Sembene, 2004, 120 min, UK:15

A masterpiece of visual story telling spun around the controversial practice of female circumcision in African culture.

Ousmane Sembene of Senegal is widely regarded as the father of African Cinema. The film is critical in its view of female circumcision. But Moolaadé is not a documentary. It is a story of diversity and dynamism in the fabric of ideas among the traditional and evolving cultural landscapes of African societies.

Ten (Iran)

Abbas Kiarostami, 2002, 92min, UK:12

Directed by renowned Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, the film allows the viewer to listen in on conversations with women whose voices are seldom heard.

While "Ten" is rooted in its particular Persian culture, the questions raised by the voices of the women have a global resonance. This is not Kiarostami’s best film, but it is quite recent. The camera work and format of the story – two static camera’s that watch the actors who spend all their time driving around in a car – have a creative simplicity that is as much a part of the film as the conversations that underpin it.

Munna Bhai MBBS (India)

Rajkumar Hirani, 2003, 155min, UK:PG

A recently acclaimed Bollywood comedy that many Indians have found rip-roaringly funny. The plot: a local Mafioso goes to medical school to restore the family honour and avenge an insult by the father of a would-be suitor!

The Indian Hindi Language film Industry centered around Bombay, thus dubbed Bollywood in English, is the largest film industry in the world. Beautiful settings, fast paced music and sensual dance routines are integral to this genre of films.

Munna Bhai MBBS has been included in the series for an authentic experience of Bollywood, and as a window in to popular construction of humor in Indian culture.

Beijing Bicycle (China)

Xiaoshuai Wang, 2001, 113min, PG13

A subtle film reflecting on the emerging contemporary life in urban China and the disorientations of social and economic change.

Beijing Bicycle, by the director Xiaoshuai Wang, is an example of the most recent wave of film-making in China. These films tend to have the gritty underground atmosphere of low budgets and handheld cameras (don't expect Hollywood!) -- using both style and content to generate a sense of subtly subverting state censorship.

This genre of film is also more individualistic and anti-romantic than the previous generation of Chinese films that were acclaimed in the 1990s. These changes and differences in the spectrum of Chinese films are perhaps a testimony to the diversity and dynamism of cultural sensibilities in contemporary China.

The Invitation

As a result of the interest that was generated by the series "Christianity and Film" that Wim Christiaens (now back in Belgium) and I did last summer, NOOC has kindly offered to host another series, which I am calling Film and Culture.

Anyone at NOOC (and their friends) is invited to join in the film event. You are also welcome (and encouraged!) to suggest and find other films so we can continue the exploration beyond this schedule either by making another schedule for later or more informally with viewings announced on the film corner of the notice boards, as we plan them.

All the films are on Fridays of February in the Common Room of the 117 Banbury Road site of North Oxford Overseas Centre (NOOC). Please be in your seats by 9:00pm.

You can use the comments feature of these postings to ask questions or leave your suggestions.

The Idea

The idea is to interact in an empathetic way with culture through the medium of film. So hopefully, we will be exposed to sensibilities and ways of being that we would not normally know of or understand.

At least some part of cultural understanding might be to recognize the diverse attitudes to moments and movements in time, different approaches to story telling, and the construction of humour. By choosing (a) local directors with different techniques of film making, I am hoping we will have a glimpse of these aspects of culture as well through the films we watch. I have tried to make the selection (b) culturally diverse (but with English subtitles!).

For convenience, I have also limited the choice to films that (c) can be rented from Amazon.co.uk, which means some very promising films can't make the list. The last arbitrary filtering process I have applied is to only select (d) very recent films -- made after 2000.



You have thoughts on the above or ideas for the future? click on comments and have your say.

Disclaimer!

My interest and engagement with film is as an amateur and this is very much an exploration. There is no guarantee that everyone will like every film. But, because it's an open event I have only selected film titles or directors that have received critical acclaim in their country or internationally. So, films are more likely to have wider appeal, but the choices are not as daring (and therefore, may not be as rewarding or disappointing) as they could have been :)

Remember, the titles given in the schedule are the approximate International English titles. If for some reason the film listed for viewing in a particular week is unavailable for renting that week, I will try to substitute it with a film that has similarities in form or content and make sure the change is announced on the film corner of the notice boards and on this blog.

See post below on "Thoughts from the Gallery" to make your recommendations for alternatives

Thoughts from the Gallery

Any suggestions, thoughts?

Please let me know, using the comments feature below, if you would like to suggest alternatives to the films listed in this series. You comments will be published and available for all to read.