Spring
2002 (1)
Smell of Camphor,
Fragrence of Jasmine
7 and 9pm -- Wednesday • January 30
In 1978, Bahman Farmanara was one of
the brightest young lights of Iranian cinema,
the director of two internationally acclaimed features -- "House of
Ghamar Khanoom" and "Prince Ehtajab"
-- and head of his own film studio. But the
following year's Islamic Revolution cut his career short just as he had
finished his third feature, "Tall Shadows of the
Wind." Its release was halted, Farmanara
was barred from making further films, and he soon fled to Canada.
He eventually returned to Iran, and now, at age 59, the loosening
political grip there has finally allowed him to direct
-- and star in -- "Smell of Camphor,
Fragrance of Jasmine," an absorbing, if melancholy, drama
that is his first film in more than two decades. He
more or less plays himself: an overweight,
chain-smoking, long frustrated director with serious heart
problems who obsessively feels the presence of death not far around
the corner, but can't get past the injury done his life
and career by the zealots of Tehran. The
film also communicates, with great clarity and precision,
the specific dilemma of Farmanara's own "futile" existence: the
quiet horror of the artist who is denied the aching
personal need and basic human right of self-expression.
(Excerpt by William Arnold, Seattle Post Intelligencer.)(Iran;
2000; Farsi w/ English subtitles; Color; 93 min.; NR)
Waking Life
7 and 9:15pm -- Thursday & Friday •
January 31 & February 1
One of the year's most innovative films, and
a head trip in the best sense of the phrase,
Richard Linklater's Waking Life smartly and sweetly takes us where
we've never been. It's one of the coolest movies possible and a real
breakthrough in movie animation. "Waking Life"
is about a young man who seems to be floating
from one dream to another in a hallucinatory cartoon landscape.
This young guy appears on screen at first staring dreamily out a
window as his bus pulls into the ever-changing city.
Then he disembarks, has a few weird encounters
in the bus station and gets picked up by a gabby guy in
a captain's cap who has customized his convertible so it resembles a
motorboat. When the cartoon Wiley leaves the car, he
is apparently struck down in the street by
another car, after which he quickly wakes up out of what
was apparently all a dream. That's the first of this visionary movie's
many enigmatic new beginnings. Wiley will wake up repeatedly
during the course of Waking Life, a movie
that breaks what I think must be the record for
dreams within dreams in a single movie. The film is truly special, truly
different - a wondrous talky roundelay about and for
people who love life. Watching it feels like
a dream that never ends, and, in this case, you don't especially
want it to. (USA; 2001; English; Color; 99 min.; Rated R ) --
Michael Wilmington, Metromix
the independent
Saturday (7 & 9pm) & Sunday (3
& 7pm)• February 2 & 3
This mockumentary is about a Cormanesque B-movie
director named Morty Fineman, a guy who made
400+ films, from the navy sex health ed video The Simplex
Complex (based on Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal ) to such titles
as Christ for the Defense (Jesus as a lawyer). THE INDEPENDENT
gives us the history of Fineman (Jerry Stiller),
while following him around in the present,
where he cannot finance a single film, has the bank about to buy
all his films at $8 the pound, cannot get any attention
from producers, and just saw his latest film
get lost while completing it. He gets his daughter Paloma
(Janeane Garofalo) to step in as his producer and managerS Along the
way we get fake interviews with Roger Corman, Ted Demme,
Ron Howard, and many other directors.
In the cast we get in small roles or in interviews as
well the likes of Johnny Rotten, Ben Stiller
(in the ultimate "Free Willy" parody)
and many more. Quite frankly, I haven't laughed this hard in a long
time. This movie actually knows how to satirize Hollywood,
independent filmmaking, people who watch
cult films, and B-movie making, while creating a
character that we root for. (Excerpt by Parca Mortem, South by Southwest
review.) USA, 2000, in English, Color, 95 mins., Rated
R.
Aria
7 & 9pm -- Wednesday • February 6
For this unique classical music feature, ten
leading directors were given the freedom
to make short films setting a special vision of their own to music.
Each director selected an aria from grand opera, which in some cases
is only heard in the background occasionally behind
the dialog and in others provides the sole
soundtrack for the mini-film. The imaginative stories range
from simple mood pieces to the very sexy and even violent. Nicolas
Roeg - to music from Verdi's A Masked Ball - chose to
set up a complex costume drama with Theresa
Russell in drag as king of an Eastern European country
on whom an assassination attempt is made. Godard uses an aria from
Lully's Armide. Altman puts together one of the big
crowd scenes he likes so much, this one at
an 18th century Paris Opera matinee given for the patients at
a hospital for the insane. One of the most gorgeous sections, both
musically and visually, is Bruce Beresford's love duet
with Peter Birch and a nude Elizabeth Hurley
to a famous aria from Korngold's Die Tote Stadt. The hilarious
comedy winner of the ten shorts is Julien Temple's film to music
from Rigoletto. UK; 1987; English; Color; 90 min; Rated
R. -- John Sunier
Taboo
7 & 9:15pm -- Thursday & Friday
€ February 7 & 8
The recruiting of a skilled but effeminate
young warrior creates a cancer of impulsive
desires, rumors and jealousy that eats away at an esteemed 19th
Century samurai militia in Nagisa Oshima's new psychosexual
drama, Taboo. The men of this tight-knit
unit all come to either admire the young enlistee for
his talent with a sword or, unexpectedly, lust for his soft features and
coy social demeanor - or more frequently both. The eventual
result is upheaval in the camp, as the boy
becomes the object of lust, scorn and gossip
while taking various lovers, fending off others and at the same time
trying to adhere to his duty as a samurai. The film's
characters are largely fascinating and enigmatic,
especially the boy – who absentmindedly toys with the
affections and fury of his admirers – and a lieutenant who seems to
be the only person in the camp keeping his
perspective. (The lieutenant is played by
"Beat" Takeshi Kitano, the actor-writer-director whose poetically
violent gangster films have made him a Japanese cinema
icon.) Oshima creates a vivid yet vaporous
atmosphere of both honor and artifice. (Japan/France/UK;
1999; Japanese w/English Subtitles; Color; 100 min; NR)--
Rob Blackwelder, SPLICEDWIRE
Stockpile
Saturday (7 & 9:15pm) & Sunday
(3 & 7pm)• February 9 & 10
An uncommonly potent take on a subject of
major global importance, Stephen Trombley's
STOCKPILE is a bracingly smart/funny/scary history of the U.S.-U.S.S.R.
nuclear arms race, the scientists behind it and its enduring legacy
of thousands of stockpiled, past-their-prime nuclear weapons. Chock-full
of scientific minutiae, never-before-seen archival footage and
crackling gallows humor, STOCKPILE opens a bold dialogue
on nuclear disarmament without adhering to
any perceived standards of political correctness.
It looks with equal amounts of reverence and terror at mankind's
mastery of nuclear fission and fusion. By enormous good fortune,
Trombley and his crew obtained permission to shoot inside
the famed nuclear laboratory at Los Alamos,
N.M., and to interview its past and present employees.
But even more stunningly, a pre-Putin Russian government granted
Trombley the same access to Arzamas-16, the secret "nuclear
city" that is the Russian equivalent
of Los Alamos, and which to this day has never been identified
on a Russian map. Narrated by Martin Sheen. (Netherlands/Switzerland/USA;
2001; English; Color; 102 min.; NR)-- Excerpt by Scott
Foundas, Variety.
Lola
7 & 9 pm -- Wednesday • February
13
Free-flowing debut feature from French director
Jacques Demy who, with his wife, director
Agnes Varda, flourished during the New Wave. Because of its abundance
of sweeping camera movement (superbly engineered by Raoul Coutard),
the film has often been called a musical without music. Demy is
best known stateside for his wondrous musical The Umbrellas
of Cherbourg, but some consider this, his
debut feature, to be his best work. (Demy would later
go to Hollywood and make a real musical with Gene Kelly.) Anouk Aimee
plays the title role, a cabaret singer who awaits the
return of Harden, her husband who has been
away for seven years. In the meantime she has a few affairs,
her strongest affections going to childhood friend Michel. Michel
has dreams of settling down with Aimee, but those are shattered
when Harden returns and sweeps Aimee away
in his glaring white Cadillac. The picture is filled
with cinematic allusions (a fondness of French New Wave directors) to
Robert Bresson, Gary Cooper, Max Ophuls (especially
his camerawork), and Josef von Sternberg.
Demy received a helping hand from Jean-Luc Godard, who offered
his talents as a production consultant.(France, 1961, In French w/
English subtitles; b&w, 90 min.)
A Matter of Taste
7 & 9 pm -- Thursday & Friday •
February 14 & 15
Difficult to describe, not easily forgotten,
"A Matter of Taste" lingers long
after higher-profile films have come and gone. An elegant study of
devious mind games and emotional perversion, it makes
the strangest of psychological dynamics plausible
and involving. "Taste" is only the second
feature for director Bernard Rapp, a top French television
journalist. Co-written by Rapp with fine
screenwriter Gilles Taurand ("Dry Cleaning," Andre
Techine's "The Wild Reeds," among others), the film was nominated
for five Cesars, the French Oscars, including
best picture, best actor and best screenplay.
Rapp's background does not include extensive work with actors,
but it is the strong and complementary performances
of his two leads, the veteran Bernard Giraudeau
and the younger Jean-Pierre Lorit (featured in Claude
Sautet's "Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud" and Krzysztof Kieslowski's
"Red") that energize this depiction
of a provocative relationship. (Excerpt by Kenneth
Turan, LA Times.)(France; 1999; French w/ English subtitles; Color;
90 min.; NR)
Little
Otik
Saturday (7 & 9:30pm) & Sunday
(3 & 7pm)• Feb. 16 & 17
Updating a popular children's fable, leading
Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer's latest
is a compelling and highly contemporary social satire. Inventively
combining live action with characteristically macabre stop-motion
animation, Svankmajer's fourth feature, after Alice, Faust, and
Conspirators of Pleasure, may also be his best. Infertile
parents Bozena and Karel Horák seemingly
find a humorous solution to their malaise when an unwitting
Karel digs up a tree stump which physically resembles a young baby.
After some brief cosmetics, Karel presents it to his inconsolable
wife, hoping it may provide temporary comfort. However,
his wife Bozena takes the gift too much to
heart, faking the symptoms of pregnancy and mollycoddling
the monstrous 'child' they christen Otík, until it develops a
life and hunger all of its own. Otík's insatiable
appetite arouses the interest of Alzbětka,
the Horáks' precocious young neighbour who, though aware
of the old Otesánek folk tale concerning a gluttonous, cannibalistic
freak of nature, is desperate for a friend to call her
own. The director describes the film as touching
on one of the most basic myths of civilization:
the myth of Adam and Eve and the tampering with the natural order,
for which the protagonists must pay a terrible price. (Czech Republic,
2000, In Czech w/ English subtitles, Color, 127 mins., NR) -- Jason
Wood
Band
of Outsiders
7 & 9 pm -- Wednesday • February
20
In the thirty-five years since its American
release, Jean-Luc Godard's lyrical gangster
romance "Band of Outsiders" has been as difficult to
revisit as it is impossible to forget. Starting today,
the first part of that equation is going
to change. Rialto Pictures, masters of the quality re-release,
have struck a new 35-millimeter print of this rarely screened film
and added fresh subtitles in the bargain. Now it's possible not only to
understand why "Outsiders" has so many passionate
advocates (Quentin Tarantino named his production
company "A Band Apart" after the French title),
but also to actually feel where that passion comes from.For this is
not one of those classic films we appreciate rather
than enjoy, not something we understand on
an intellectual level as important in its time but
have difficulty connecting to in the here and now. The wonderful thing
about "Band of Outsiders" is that the daring
elements that jazzed audiences then have
the same power to intoxicate all these years later. (France; 1964;
French w/ English subtitles; color; 95 min.; NR) --
Excerpt by Kenneth Turan, LA Times
Fat
Girl
7 & 9pm -- Thursday & Friday •
February 21 & 22
Possibly the most emotionally intense 83 minutes
currently available to local moviegoers,
Catherine Breillat's polarizing Fat Girl is a female coming-of-age
film that radically redefines its sentimental genre. Having disposed
of romance in her absurdist melodrama of the same name, France's
foremost provocatrice returns to her favorite subject,
and that of her strongest films, A Very Young
Girl and 36 Fillette, namely the construction of
female adolescent sexuality… However disruptive, the gothic horror of
the finale has been carefully set up from
the movie's opening scene. (This is a fiction
in which a number of characters are granted their wishes.) Steeped
in unconscious aggression as it is, the climax is also
readable as Anaďs's fantasy, but this
possibility doubles back on itself. "Don't believe me if you
don't want to" are the fat girl's final words as the image freezes on
her stubborn glare. A work of bold irrationality and
highly questionable taste, Fat Girl is as
fascinating as it is discomfiting and as intelligent as
it is primal. From first shot to last, France's foremost bad girl has
made an extremely good movieand maybe even a great one.
(France/Italy/Spain; 2001; French & Italian
w/English subtitels; Color; 93 min.; NR) -- J. Hoberman,
The Village Voice.
Under
the Sun
Saturday (7 & 9:30pm) & Sunday
(3 & 7pm) • February 23 & 24
Under the Sun is a lush and sensuous film about love, trust, time, and the
quiet depth of loneliness. Set in the strikingly beautiful,
sun-drenched rural countryside of Sweden,
the story finds Olof, a lonely, secretly illiterate
egg farmer, taking out a help wanted ad. "Lonely farmer, 39, own
car. Seeks young lady housekeeper. Photograph appreciated."
Having lived alone since the death of his
mother, Olof is looking for more than just a live-in
maid. He finds the beautiful and elegant Ellen, who has a few secrets
of her own. Of particular note is the way seasoned actor Rolf Lassgard
portrays Olof. He is shyness infused with a calm dignity. Veteran
director Colin Nutley, who uses the actors' talents,
the story, and the scenery to full advantage,
expertly crafts one of this year's most sensuous films.
It's an engaging love story with well-written and compelling characters,
a lyric pace, and an exquisite beauty that will envelop you slowly,
like a peaceful fog. (UK; 1992; English; Color; 77 min; NR) --
CINEQUEST San Jose Film Festival
Bay of Angels
7 & 9pm -- Wednesday € February
27
"I didn't think women like you existed
anymore." A couple of hours at a casino
at the behest of copain Paul Guers begins as just a Saturday diversion
for uptight bank clerk Claude Mann, but after he wins, his vacation
gets diverted to Nice's Baie des Anges and a seat at the roulette
table next to a platinum blonde Jeanne Moreau. And as
they rollercoaster from scrounging for change
to hotel suites, cars, and couture, and back again,
amid reds, blacks, pairs, impairs, manques, passes, transversales ŕ
cheval, carrés and 35-1 shots, it seems life
itself ("Here or Paris, it's all the
same. You have to be somewhere.") is just a game of chance for
Moreau - who's already shed husband, child, and wealth
for the table. Demy's long-unseen second
film is a triumph of style, from Jean Rabier's mobile camerawork
amid sunsplashed Riviera location shooting, to Moreau, resplendently
Bette Davisish in white lacy bustier (Moreau at the costume meeting:
"Well, if that makes Jacques happy..."), to her entrance flashing
across a succession of mirrors in the penultimate shot.
(France; 1963; French w/ English subtitles;
B&W; 79 min.; NR) -- Excerpt from the Film Forum in
New York.
The Endurance:
Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
7 & 9 pm -- Thursday & Friday •
February 28 & March 1
In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton, having lost
his bid to be the first explorer to reach
the South Pole, set sail with a crew of 28 men to be the first to
cross the Antarctic continent. His three-masted sailing
vessel was named after his family motto,
'By endurance we conquer.' In 1999, producer/director
George Butler mounted an expedition to retrace Shackleton's
two year struggle of extraordinary courageousness. Among Shackleton's
many wise decisions was to bring along Australian photographer
Frank Hurley, who documented their journey in both still
photographs and moving film, which he editted
into the 1919 documentary "South." What Butler has
done is to recreate the entire amazing story, beginning with descendents
of Shackleton's crew recalling the tales they were told
and filling out personalities of the men
who responded to Shackleton's newspaper ad. While he
uses Hurley's footage and photos, Butler's documentary is a far richer,
more emotional work. New footage and unobtrusive recreations
continue Shackleton's determination to save
his men after ten months trapped in the ice
pack which crushed their ship. (USA; 2001; English; Color; 93 min.; NR)
-- Excerpt by Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews
Adanggaman
Saturday (7 & 9pm) & Sunday (3
& 7pm) • March 2 & 3
Set in the late 17th century, on the Western
coast of Africa, ADANGGAMAN is a provocative
retelling of the African slave experience, based on historical
facts. A rebellious young man, who refuses to marry
his parents' choice of a bride, flees his
village one evening, only to return to find his father and girlfriend
slain, his village destroyed and his mother captured by a tribe
of Amazon warriors. His efforts to free his mother lead
to the kingdom of Adanggaman, where captives
are held before sale to European slave traders. Ivory
Coast-born Roger Gnoan M'bala has a 30-year career in film, but
ADANGGAMAN is his most controversial work to date: a
tribute to the memory of Africa's martyrs
that does not hesitate to blame those who willingly contributed
to the enslavement of their own people. (France/Switzerlan/Ivory
Coast/Burkini Faso/Italy; 2000; Bambara & French
w/ English subtitles; Color; 90 min.; NR)
-- Excerpted from the Film Forum in New York.
Last
Wave
7 & 9:15pm -- Wednesday • March
6
Two years ago here at the IFS, and by popular
request, we screened Peter Weir's THE LAST
WAVE. Unfortunately, the years had been very unkind to the print,
with visible scratches and jarring jump-cuts marring the big-screen
experience. The good news was that the distributor,
Kit Parker, had plans to release new prints
in the future. The bad news was that Kit Parker, a 30+ veteran
in the film distribution business, would shock many exhibitors by
calling it quits around the summer of 2001. There seemed
to be little hope for cinephiles hoping to
savor a new print of Weir's enigmatic story about an
Australian lawyer (Richard Chamberlain) who agrees to represent four
aboriginal youths only to stumble into something much
larger and apocalyptical. Thankfully, Cowboy
Booking has come to the rescue and picked up
where Kit Parker left off. Cinephiles should make a special note of this
one-time opportunity to enjoy THE LAST WAVE, as it is
meant to be seen, with this beautiful new
print.(Australia; 1977; English; Color; 106 min.; Rated PG)
Intimacy
7 & 9:30pm -- Thursday & Friday
• March 7 & 8
Patrice Chereau1s controversial new flesh-fest
had its UK premiere in Cambridge
and the shrill outcry preceding it has focused on the graphic sex
scenes involving its two leads. But the sex in Intimacy
is central to the film, and not emptily pornographic.
Where it does shock, is in its bruising portrait
of a sexual relationship, and the unflinching trawl through raw
emotion and suffering in search redemption that ranks
up there with Pasolini. Intimacy combines
Hanif Kureishi1s semi-autobiographical novella of
the same name with his short story ŒNightlight1, and sees Claire (Kerry
Fox) visit Jay (Mark Rylance) at his flat every Wednesday
for silent anonymous sex. Jay then decides
he wants to find out more about her, and embarks
on a destructive path that leads to the discovery that she is an
aspiring actress and wife of a taxi driver (Timothy
Spall superb as the emotionally clueless
husband). Set in the capital, this feels very much like Kureishi1s
London, and has strong echoes of ŒSammy and Rosie Get Laid1, with
a fitting soundtrack that includes David Bowie and the
Clash1s ŒLondon Calling1. ŒIntimacy1
is a rare breed: a film that treats sex seriously. So a word
of warning: if you1re looking for cheap thrills, don1t bother, because
you'll get a rude awakening. (France/UK/Germany/Spain;
2000; English; Color; 119 min.; NR) –
Julian Weigall
Downtown
81
Saturday (7 & 9pm) & Sunday (3
& 7pm)• March 9 & 10
(To be preceded by Guy Maddin's short THE
HEART OF THE WORLD, 6 mins., US) Jam-packed
with riveting performances by some of the hottest underground Gotham
bands of the early '80s, DOWNTOWN 81 is an extraordinary real-life
snapshot of hip, arty, clubland Manhattan in the post-punk
era. The film, shot nearly 20 years ago,
brings viewers right inside the pulsating heart of late
night Lower East Side New York in the No Wave period. Painter-graffiti-artist-musician
Basquiat was 19 at the time, caught just months
before he was transformed into a major figure in the world of modern
art. (The painter, who died at the age of 27 in 1988,
is also the subject of the 1996 BASQUIAT
The DOWNTOWN 81 filmmakers pulled together a rough cut of the
picture shortly after lensing, but financial problems scuttled the
project shortly thereafter. Post-production began again
in 1999 after producer Maripol Fauque discovered
lost footage. Much work was done to clean up
the sound of musical recordings, and the film was blown up from its
original 16mm to 35mm. US, (originally filmed 1981,
completed 2000, English, Color, 75 mins.,
NR) -- Excerpt by Brendan Kelly, Variety.