spring foreign film schedule

[fran7371@uidaho.edu (John Francis)]

Here is a note from Kris Day abut the foreign and alternative films she has
scheduled from showing at the SUB.   These look like excellent films, are
the community is very fortunate to get them;  they are the only source of
foreign and alternative/non-mainstream-Hollywood films, now the Micro has
died.   Without community support this film series could wither away too,
so I hope all film lovers will make an effort to attend some.   Spread the
word.



>From: Kris Day <kday@sub.uidaho.edu>
>To: "'fran7371@uidaho.edu'" <fran7371@uidaho.edu>
>Subject: spring foreign film schedule


 I am excited about the films we have booked this semester, and I
>hope that people in the community will agree.  For anyone who is familiar
>with foreign and alternative films, it seems our schedule is a small list of
>the top films of 1998.  I thought you might appreciate receiving the
>schedule and please feel free to share this with others.
>
>Karakter (Character) -January 20
>Academy Award Winner 1998 - Best Foreign Language Film
>Jakob (Fedja van Huet), the illegitimate offspring of two strong natures,
>strives to overcome his lowly origins, while his unacknowledged father (Jan
>Decleir) pops up like a recurring Oedipal nightmare to thwart the young
>man's ambition.  Jakob is the very image of the modern self-made man, but it
>is his father, for better or worse, who gives him his character.  Director:
>Mike van Diem. 1997.  Holland.
>
>Western - January 27
>Cannes Film Festival Winner - Grand Jury Prize
>This breezy road movie mixes friendship, romance, and haunting scenery with
>an imaginative reconception of the frontier spirit.  Western suggests that
>post-Cold War, EEC-unified Europe has the potential to become the new
>melting pot, the next frontier.  Poirier's film contains a passionately
>Utopian vision of a brave new world, uncertain, disoriented, but filled with
>unprecedented and unpredictable possibilities.  Director:  Manuel Poirier.
>1998.  France.
>
>Happiness - February 3
>Golden Globe Nominee - Best Screenplay, Motion Picture, Cannes Film Festival
>Winner - International Critic Prize
>Todd Solondz's controversial and critically acclaimed pitch black comic
>satire about the search for happiness in a New Jersey suburb not only pushes
>the envelope, it rips it open.  The lives of three sisters, their parents,
>friends, and neighbors intersect in this brilliant comedy of missed
>connections. Director:  Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse).  1998.
>USA.
>
>American History X - February 10
>Derek (Edward Norton) becomes the leader of a white supremacist group after
>his father is violently murdered by a black gang member.  After spending
>time in prison, Derek no longer wants to be a part of the hate and violence
>that his neo-Nazi group cultivates, and tries to separate himself and his
>younger brother Danny (Edward Furlong) from the urban racism.  Director:
>Tony Kaye. 1998.  USA.
>
>Priyatel pokojnika (A Friend of the Deceased) - February 17
>European Film Award
>Anatoli (Aleksandr Lazarev), an academic unemployable in the new world of
>Ukrainian capitalism, watches his wife drift away and his contacts with
>reality diminish.  He arranges for a hit man to take his life, but changes
>his mind when he meets an affectionate prostitute.  Unable to call off the
>hit, he must hire another killer to kill the hitman first, but as we know,
>life is never that easy.  Director:  Vyacheslav Kristofovich. 1998.  Russia.
>
>Gods and Monsters - March 10
>Golden Globe Nominee - Best Motion Picture, Drama; Performance by an Actor,
>Drama; Performance by a Supporting Actress
>One of the year's most moving love stories is an extrapolation from real
>events in the life of James Whale, the openly gay British director who
>created the 1931 "Frankenstein" and died an apparent suicide in his
>Hollywood pool in 1957.  This acclaimed adaptation of Christopher Bram's
>novel, "Father of Frankenstein" stars Ian McKellen in an extraordinary
>performance as Whale, Lynn Redgrave as his housekeeper, and Brendan Fraser
>as the lawn boy on who he develops a fixation.  Director:  Bill Condon.
>1998. USA.
>
>Academy of Motion Pictures - March 24
>Every year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences produces a
>compilation film of the Award-winning films from their last Student Academy
>Awards competition.  This film will feature students' works from across the
>U.S. and world.
>
>Festen (The Celebration) - April 7
>Golden Globe Nominee - Best Foreign Language Film
>The 60th birthday party of the patriarch (Henning Moritzen) of a Danish
>family is destined to have many surprises as son Christian (Ulrich Thomsen)
>is preparing to unveil some very dark secrets.  What starts as a party,
>turns into a black-tie psyche-bashing blowout with latter-day Shakespearean
>overtones.  Every family has a secret, and this family is no different.
>Filmed in accordance to the strict rules of Dogma 95, this film is inventive
>and pure - filmmaking at its best!  Director:  Thomas Vinterberg
>(uncredited). 1998.  Denmark.
>
>Central do Brasil (Central Station) - April 21
>Berlin Film Festival Winner - Best Picture and Best Actress; Golden Globe
>Nominee - Best Foreign Language Film
>Dora (Fernanda Montenegro) is a former school teacher who makes a living by
>writing letters for illiterate people passing through Rio de Janeiro's main
>train station, Central do Brasil. Among her clients are Ana (Sôia Lira) and
>her nine-year-old son Josué (Vinicius de Oliveira), who has a fierce desire
>to meet his father, whom he has never seen.  When Josué's mother tragically
>dies, Dora commits to returning Josué to his father in Brazil's remote
>Northeast.  The journey becomes a quest for their own identities: one boy's
>search for his father; one woman's search for her heart, and a nation's
>yearning for its roots.
>
>Several changes in our program this semester too.  We will only be showing
>the films on Wednesday evenings, but most films will have two showings, at
>7:00 pm and 9:30 pm.  Also we have had to raise the price one dollar to $3
>for students, $4 for non-students.  We, of course, are not making any money
>on these films, but we need to try to decrease our losses (and increase our
>audience!).  Printed schedules will be available on Tuesday after the MLK
>holiday, so if you would like I can mail you several copies.
>
>Please let me know what you think about the schedule - hope to see you at
>some of the films!
>
>Kris
>Kristine Day
>Coordinator for Student Activities
>University of Idaho
>709 Deakin Ave.
>Moscow, ID  83844-4251
>(208) 885-2237
>(208) 885-5543 FAX
>

John Francis
311 East 6th St., #2
Moscow, ID 83843
(208) 883-0105       fran7371@uidaho.edu