Welcome to the 2003–2004 University of Wisconsin-Parkside Foreign Film Series featuring some of the world's best cinema. For ticketing information or an order form, call the Union Information Center at (262) 595-2345. Admittance is by season subscription only, prorated tickets will be available. Showings are offered at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday in the Union Cinema Theater. For more information on getting to campus, download our Campus and Region maps. |
Rabbit Proof Fence |
Rabbit-Proof Fence In 1931 Australia, it is the official policy of the government that all "half-caste" aborigine children are to be taken from their families and raised in orphanages where they can be civilized with the intention of marrying them to a white person or grooming them to be a domestic servant. In the small village of Jigalong, three half-caste children are taken from their mothers to live in the orphanage at Moore River, more than 1,200 miles away from their home. When an opportunity presents itself, they escape. Pursued by an aborigine tracker and facing a seemingly impossible trek, they nevertheless press on, finding the rabbit-proof fence that stretches north-south across nearly all of the Australian continent and following it as a means to return to Jigalong. There is a great deal of craft evident in the way "Rabbit-Proof Fence" was put together. Under the hands of some directors, a film like this could easily turn into a travelogue; as developed by Noyce, it is an exploration of the heart and soul. This is one of 2002's most memorable imports. Australia, 2002; Director: Phillip Noyce; English; 94 minutes More on Rabbit Proof Fence: Nowhere In Africa This impressively scaled German film is based on a popular autobiographical novel by Stefanie Zweig and excellently directed by Oscar nominee Caroline Link. In 1938 Germany, Jettel Rendlich abandons her well-to-do Jewish family to join her ailing lawyer husband, Walter, on his farm in Kenya, accompanied by their young daughter, Regina. At first, the Rendlich clan struggle with their new landscape, but as news of anti-Semitism at home continues and the local way of life becomes more familiar, they begin to identify fiercely with Africa as their home. Terrific performances all around, especially from young Kurka, who avoids the usual traps of child-acting to contribute a characterization of unusual depth. Germany, 2002; Director: Caroline Link; English/German/Swahili; 141 minutes More on Nowhere in Africa: http://reviews.imdb.com/Reviews/331/33191 Nine Queens A polished and vastly entertaining caper film that puts the sting back into the con. Fabian Bielinsky, in his award-winning feature debut, smoothly amuses the audience with a deftly elaborate shell game. Juan is a small-time crook who gets caught conning a convenience store clerk. Marcos, a bigtime swindler, steps in to "arrest" him--with the hope of recruiting him for a bigger job. Soon Marcos' sister, Valeria, contacts him from a luxury hotel where Juan and Marcos team up for a ruse to obtain a counterfeit collection of some extremely rare stamps known as the Nine Queens. Since they have a buyer already in mind, their plan seems airtight--until other scam artists and derailed strategies send their promising racket into comic episodes of misadventure; Argentina, 2000; Director: Fabian Bielinsky; Spanish; 114 minutes More on Nine Queens: Mad Love This is a sexy, peculiar and always entertaining costume drama set in Renaissance Spain, and the fact that it's based on true events somehow makes it all the more compelling. It tells the story of the Castilian queen Joan, who has come down to us through history as "Joan the Mad." In a political match, Joan must marry Archduke Philip of Hapsburg, a man she has never laid eyes on. What happens when Philip the Handsome and Joan the Mad get married? Fasten your seat belts. The bad part comes when the intensity of Philip's ardor has cooled, and hers hasn't. In a year's time, Joan, who is so sexually combustible that she has orgasms as she breast-feeds, is physically addicted to her husband. She's obsessed with the idea that he may be seeing other women. After all, he's not called Philip the Monk. Against the background of this troubled marriage, “Mad Love” covers almost a decade of eventful Flemish and Castilian politics; Spain, 2002; Director: Aranda; Spanish; 115 minutes More on Mad Love: Russian Ark Alexander Sokurov's “Russian Ark” is a technical and artistic masterpiece. All of it takes place in or just outside the legendary Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and its entire 96 minutes was made in one single tracking shot, the camera effortlessly and seamlessly gliding through 33 rooms. We watch as an unseen narrator and a 19th-century marquis roam the Hermitage's spacious galleries and halls, time traveling through centuries of history. Along the way, they encounter a variety of figures: the current director of the Hermitage, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Nicholas I, and Nicholas II, sitting down to dinner with his doomed wife and children. It involved months of rehearsals, nearly 900 actors, who knows how many extras, three live orchestras and a small army of technicians. The result is a magnificent feast for the eyes and brain; Russia, 2002; Director: Alexander Sokurov; Russian; 96 minutes More on Russian Ark: Read My Lips Carla is a hearing-impaired 35 year-old woman who works as a secretary in a property development company. Her life is ruled by routine - she never goes out and is always available to baby-sit for her friends. One day, when her bosses decide she needs an assistant, she takes on an unskilled but charismatic 25-year-old man. Paul is an ex-con, fresh out of jail, with no place to live. In return for helping her with her career goals, Paul persuades Carla to use her lip-reading abilities to aid him in casing an apartment he intends to rob. The acting in this film is at the highest possible level. The chemistry and sexual tension between these two, largely sublimated and never vocalized, simmers just beneath the surface as the realist (Paul) and the romantic (Carla) adjust their expectations to meet in the middle; France, 2001; Director: Jacques Audiard; French; 115 minutes More on Read My Lips: Spirited Away This is the best animated film of recent years, the latest work by Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese master who is a god to the Disney animators. “Spirited Away” is told through the eyes of Chihiro, a 10-year-old girl. As the story opens, she's on a trip with her parents, and her father unwisely takes the family to explore a mysterious tunnel in the woods. On the other side is what he speculates is an old theme park; but the food stalls still seem to be functioning, and as Chihiro's parents settle down for a free meal, she wanders away and comes upon the film's version of wonderland, which is a towering bathhouse. Miyazaki's drawing style, which descends from the classical Japanese graphic artists, is a pleasure to regard, with its subtle use of colors, clear lines, rich detail and its realistic depiction of fantastical elements. He suggests not just the appearances of his characters, but their natures. Apart from the stories and dialogue, “Spirited Away” is a pleasure to regard just for itself; Japan, 2001; Director: Hayao Miyazaki; Japanese; 124 minutes More on Spirited Away: Werner Herzog's “Invincible” tells the astonishing story of a Jewish strongman in Nazi Germany, a man who in his simple goodness believes he can be the "new Samson" and protect his people. He is a blacksmith in Poland in 1932 when discovered by a talent scout, and soon becomes the headliner in the Palace of the Occult in Berlin, which is run by the sinister Hanussen, a man who dreams of becoming Minister of the Occult in a Nazi government. “Invincible” is based, Herzog says, on the true story of Breitbart, whose great strength contradicted the Nazi myth of Aryan superiority. This is the first feature in 10 years from Herzog, one of the great visionaries among directors. He strains to break the bonds of film structure in order to surprise us in unexpected ways. The film exercises the power that fable has for the believing. Herzog has gotten outside the constraints and conventions of ordinary narrative, and addresses us where our credulity keeps its secrets; Germany, 2002; Director: Werner Herzog; English; 135 minutes More on Invincible: Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) More on Atanarjuat: Mostly Martha Audiences will most likely savor this film for much the same reason they responded to “Babette's Feast:” gourmet food so painstakingly prepared and stunningly photographed that a moviegoer's memory might even seem to carry aromas. But writer/director Sandra Nettelbeck's refreshingly schmaltz-free story is really about the heart rather than the taste buds. A master chef in a classy restaurant, Martha is so obsessed with the job that her boss insists she see a therapist. When her sister is killed in an accident, Martha must take care of the young niece she barely knows. Lina is a bright but sorrowful eight-year-old who finds refuge from grief by refusing to eat--complete anathema to her aunt's belief system. At work, these developments coincide with the hiring of an Italian souschef named Mario, a gentle, gregarious soul who manages to charm Lina. This being a tale that provides food for thought, a reluctant mother must balance tentative nurturing with fabulous nourishment; Germany, 2002; Director: Sandra Nettelbeck; German; 105 minutes More on Mostly Martha: Talk To Her More on Talk to Her: The Man Without A Past This charmingly deadpan comedy stays within an old-school groove. Amnesiac working-class Joe M has been nearly beaten to death by street thugs. Taken in by the locals, he goes through the motions of rediscovering himself. Surprisingly free of soul-searching, the movie instead takes an interest in M's budding friendships with his neighbors, a capitalist pig landlord you've gotta learn to love, a big-hearted Salvation Army employee and, of course, the cute dog. By the time a few Salvation Army side characters form a rockabilly band and start jamming away, “The Man Without a Past” has earned amusing points without ever seeming to strain for them; Finland, 2002; Director: Aki Kaurismaki; Finnish; 97 minutes More on The Man Without A Past: Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Paulo Lins, “City of God” is a thrilling drama about the rise and fall of gangsters and drug dealers in Rio de Janeiro's slums. That many of them are children, ranging in age from 9 to 14, is just one of the many shocking aspects of this movie, which, like “The Sopranos,” manages to strike notes of black comedy amidst the horror. Turning on a dime from drama to humor is never easy, and rare in the movies, but director Fernando Meirelles displays so much technical control that he pulls off virtually anything he sets his mind to. Uncompromising in its realism--many of the actors were nonprofessionals, recruited from Rio's slums--and offering no quarter to anyone, including the cops, who are all depicted as uncaring and corrupt, “City of God” is, nonetheless, exhilarating movie-making; Brazil, 2001; Director: Fernando Meirelles, 130 minutes More on City of God: 8 Women This film offers as much delicious enjoyment to the viewer as it obviously did to the cast and crew when they were assembling it. Part satire, part comedy, part musical, and part murder mystery, this motion picture criss-crosses genre lines at will, offering just about every kind of pleasure imaginable, guilty or otherwise. The eight women of the title are Gaby (Catherine Deneuve); her daughters, Catherine and Suzon; her mother; her sister, Augustine, her sister-in-law, Pierrette; and her two maids, Louise and Chanel. These characters are trapped together in a house during a snowstorm with one dead body and cut phone lines. Tensions run high with each woman suspecting the others of being the killer. Secrets, some silly and some shocking, are revealed. Suzon begins acting like Hercule Poirot, and everyone else takes an occasional break to lapse into song and dance. This is the most satisfying of and unquestionably one of the most enjoyable films of 2002; France, 2002; Director: Francois Ozon; French; 103 minutes More on 8 Women: |
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