t
They've Got Knut
Germany, 2003 (107 min.)
Dir. Stefan Krohmer
Cast Valerie Koch, Ingo Haeb
Politics and family dynamics mix in this family drama, brought to you by the country that still takes politics seriously. The return of Knut, an activist, to the house of his sister, Nadia, brings longstanding issues to the surface. This being a German film, you will probably hear some painfully bad dance music.
Pacific Place Fri June 13 11:30 am
Brdwy Perf Hall Sat June 14 6:30 pm
Three Marias
Brazil/Italy, 2001 (90 min.)
Dir. Aluzio Abranches
The Italians have such a thing for revenge. Why they gotta get all hot-blooded and shit? Why does a woman gotta send out her three daughters to find three guys to kill three other guys? Can't we all just get along?
Harvard Exit Thurs May 29 7:00 pm
Harvard Exit Mon June 2 4:45 pm
* Tibet: Cry of the * Snow Lion
USA, 2002 (100 min.)
Dir. Tom Peosay
Cast Narrated by Martin Sheen Quick and simple: Tibet is going threw some heavy shit. If you are aware of this fact, then I have no idea how this documentary might strike you. I can only speak for the ignorant, who would become less so if they watched Tibet: Cry of the Snow Tiger. There is so much sorrow in this world. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
Pacific Place Sat June 7 1:45 pm
Brdwy Perf Hall Sun June 8 6:30 pm
Time of the Wolf
Canada, 2003 (87 min.)
Dir. Rod Pridy
Cast Burt Reynolds, Marthe Keller
With Reynolds in a film you almost can't go wrong. It's really that simple. He's so simultaneously silly and serious, so toupeed yet tough, that whatever shortcoming a film may have, you can still get warm every time he appears on the screen. Not to mention Keller, who I haven't seen since Black Sunday.
Pacific Place Sat June 14 11:30 am
To Be and To Have
France, 2002 (104 min.)
Dir. Nicolas Philibert
Cast Georges Lopez, his students
This is exactly the movie you should see if you want to brush up on your basic French language skills. Over the course of one semester, the movie follows a rural grade-school class and its popular teacher. By the end you remember all too well what grade school is like and you're ready for summer vacation. (Andy Spletzer)
Harvard Exit Sun May 25 6:30 pm
Pacific Place Tues May 27 4:45 pm
Together
China, 2002 (116 min.)
Dir. Chen Kaige
Chen told me at the Toronto film fest that he was concerned this film was too "optimistic," but he wanted to make a positive movie about relationships in this conflict-ridden world. He need not have worried. The story of a violin prodigy and his bumpkin father in the big city wonderfully hits all the right big-hearted notes. (SHANNON GEE)
Pacific Place Fri May 30 9:30 pm
Egyptian Sun June 1 4:00 pm
Too Young to Die
South Korea, 2002 (67 min.)
Dir. Park Jin-Pyo
A film that assumes far too many things: One, the idea that the elderly have an infant's capacity for cuteness; two, that a pair of elderly persons finding romantic love is cute; and three (the most presumptuous of the lot), that lengthy, single-shot, real-time sex scenes between two 70-year-olds won't turn stomachs. Strike three. (ZAC PENNINGTON)
Harvard Exit Sat May 31 11:30 am
Brdwy Perf Hall Wed June 4 9:30 pm
Touching Wild Horses
Canada, 2002 (92 min.)
Dir. Eleanor Lindo
Cast Jane Seymour, Mark Rendall
How does a boy have a good childhood? Two words: Jane Seymour. When I was a boy, she was the hottest thing since molten lava. And though she's quite a bit older now, well, so am I, so it's all the same. There's also a lot of horses in this film.
Pacific Place Sat May 31 11:30 am
Traces of the DragoN: Jackie Chan and His Lost Family
Hong Kong, 2002 (96 min.)
Dir. Mabel Cheung
Jackie Chan has all kinds of family he never knew about, and they have interesting stories to tell. Some of them were involved in the Chinese Civil War. Some of them are not famous at all. And all of them can take on 12 guys at once and kick all their asses. Must be in the genes.
Egyptian Fri June 13 1:45 pm
Egyptian Sun June 15 9:30 pm
Tribal Journey: Celebrating Our Ancestors
USA, 2002 (66 min.)
Dir. Scott Macklin
Every year, a bunch of guys and their leathery-looking girlfriends get together and convoy their Harleys to a little town in Colorado (or maybe it's California) called Sturgis, where they celebrate how they all ride choppers and wear chaps. That's what this film is like, only it's about native tribes and their canoes.
Egyptian Sun May 25 4:00 pm
The Trilogy (1): On the Run
France/Belgium, 2002 (117 min.)
Dir. Lucas Belvaux
Peter Jackson may have shot three movies all at the same time, but Belvaux takes the idea one step further by shooting one story and cutting it into three different genre movies. He does so by focusing on different characters and storylines. This one is the "thriller" about a terrorist who escapes from prison. (Andy Spletzer)
Pacific Place Sun June 8 4:00 pm
Pacific Place Mon June 9 4:45 pm
The Trilogy (2): An Amazing Couple
France/Belgium, 2002 (100 min.)
Dir. Lucas Belvaux
Second in the trilogy, this is the "romantic comedy." A marriage is tested because the husband is a hypochondriac. What makes it interesting is how it plays against the first film, emphasizing the humor by shifting the focus away from the violence, suffering, and politics. (Andy Spletzer)
Pacific Place Sun June 8 6:30 pm
Pacific Place Tues June 10 4:45 pm
The Trilogy (3): After Life
France/Belgium, 2002 (124 min.)
Dir. Lucas Belvaux
You've seen the first two, so now you've got to see this one. You've invested too much time not to. It's the "melodrama," about a hotshot detective who's got to cover up his wife's morphine addiction. Cue the melodramatic music and melodramatic acting styles! (Andy Spletzer)
Pacific Place Sun June 8 9:30 pm
Pacific Place Wed June 11 4:45 pm
The Truce
Mexico, 2002 (115 min.)
Dir. Alfonso Rosas Priego
There's no fact so universal as this: Old guys love to have sex with young girls. And young girls often equate age with wisdom. This coupling is known as the May-December romance, though it's really more like April-October. May-December would involve missing teeth and a training bra. Which is not only gross, it's also illegal.
Egyptian Sat June 14 6:30 pm
Cinerama Sun June 15 4:00 pm
The Turning Gate
South Korea, 2002 (115 min.)
Dir. Hong Sang-Soo
This film, about a man who runs into women who rock his world, shows off the unique expression that certain men give when they're flummoxed by las chicas. They don't look mad, they don't look confused, they just look like little boys, trying to figure out which way is up.
Pacific Place Fri May 30 6:30 pm
Pacific Place Sun June 1 11:30 am
U
* Under Another * Sky
Algeria/France, 2002 (78 min.)
Dir. Gaël Morel
The question of colonialism, and what happens when the colonized return home, provides the backdrop for the story of Samy, a petty drug runner who gets sent from France back to Algeria after being busted. His family harbors secrets and lies, but one thing's out in the open: They hate the French.
Harvard Exit Fri May 23 4:00 pm
Harvard Exit Mon May 26 6:30 pm
Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election
USA, 2002
Dir. Richard Ray Perez, Joan Sekler
The 537 votes that helped coronate an immoral slimeball, and the surrounding circumstances of this disregard for justice, is the subject of this film. And though this sort of thing happens in every election, among both parties, it's hard to get over. Just writing a capsule about it upsets me.
Egyptian Mon June 2 7:00 pm
v
Vagabond
Hungary, 2002 (99 min.)
Dir. Gyorgy Szomjas
This utterly brilliant, utterly beautiful film is set in modern Budapest, a city that is going through tremendous social changes, as it becomes increasingly connected with other capitols, economies, and realities around the world. But inside this developing international and regional urban center, the tradition of folk music and dancing persists. This is what the movie is about: A group of people, from all levels of society, who are keeping the folk traditions alive, and not in any boring nationalistic, nostalgic, stagnant sense, but out of a vital sense of the affirmative humanity of these traditional practices. The editing, the direction, the acting, the dreamy atmosphere--everything in this musical movie is simply wonderful. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
Harvard Exit Mon May 26 1:45 pm
Harvard Exit Wed May 28 9:30 pm
Valentín
Netherlands/Argentina, 2002 (86 min.)
Dir. Alejandro Agresti
OPENING NIGHT. Short, sugar-sweet, and slight, this autobiographical tale of growing up lonely in '60s Buenos Aires features an owl-eyed, certifiably adorable nine-year-old who shares--in nonstop overvoice--his precocious observations about life and love. As his selfish dad, ailing gram, and absentee mom drop out as potential family, this wise child, whose head's just a wee bit too big for his spindly bod, takes matters into his own hands. A cuddly Opening Night movie for children and undemanding adults. (Kathleen Murphy)
Paramount Theatre Thurs May 22 7:30 pm
Vengeance!
Hong Kong/China, 1970 (103 min.)
Dir. Zhang Che
This here's a bloody mess of a movie with all kinds of hyperactive cutting (both filmic and physical), and it's from 1970, when movies got better than ever--cf. mossy film stock, crazy soundtrack music, and back then they knew how to use an exclamation point.
Harvard Exit Sun June 1 11:30 am
Vertical Frontier
USA, 2003 (90 min.)
Dir. Kristi Denton Cohen
Cast Tom Brokaw
The irrepressible human spirit sparks against the monstrous, smug face of a mountain. This documentary explores that peculiar "because it was there" mindset through gorgeous archival footage and tells the story of why someone would cut off his own arm with a pocketknife. Sort of.
Brdwy Perf Hall MonJun 2 9:30 pm
Egyptian Sun June 8 2:00 pm
w
War
Russia, 2002 (120 min.)
Dir. Aleksei Balabanov
What is it good for? For starters, throat-slitting, decapitation, finger-lopping--according to Balabanov's black-humored riff on the Russian-Chechen quagmire. An English actor and a discharged Russian soldier, once fellow POWs, reunite to rescue the Brit's fiancée and a wounded officer. Along the way, War--part Hollywood action flick, part heavy-handed parable/satire--serves up atrocity, corruption, homeland poverty, crime, and alcoholism--but can't deliver anything worth dying for. (Kathleen Murphy)
Egyptian Wed May 28 7:00 pm
Egyptian Thurs May 29 4:45 pm
* Wattstax: 2003 * Special Edition
USA, 1973 (103 min.)
Dir. Mel Stuart
Perhaps we will look back at a Woodstock '99 film and feel it had some political significance or was a source of cultural pride, but I have my doubts. This film captures the 1972 concert in Los Angeles commemorating the anniversary of the Watts riots seven years prior. Performances from the Staple Singers, Rufus Thomas, and Isaac Hayes are interspersed with lively commentary from Richard Pryor and the citizens of Watts (including Ted Lange) about being black in America. (Shannon Gee)
Egyptian Fri May 23 midnight
The Weather Underground
USA, 2003 (92 min.)
Dir. Sam Green, Bill Siegel
This documentary tells the tale of the Weathermen, a radical group of privileged college kids who opposed the Vietnam War. In the process of demonstrating (demonstrating what, besides students love to raise hell about something, anything, and war's as good as it gets?), they altered the American political landscape.
Egyptian Fri May 23 4:00 pm
Brdwy Perf Hall Tues May 27 9:30 pm
Westender
USA, 2003 (105 min.)
Dir. Brock Morse
Ne'er-do-well Asbrey loses a ring that links him to his past and determines it's a good idea he get it back. And if he can't track it down, he'll be sooo bummed. Unfortunately, he's gonna have to confront himself and all that stuff he ne'er did well, and that's gonna bum him out too. Life is hard.
Brdwy Perf Hall Fri June 13 9:30 pm
Brdwy Perf Hall Sun June 15 6:30 pm
* Whale Rider *
New Zealand/Germany, 2002 (105 min.)
Dir. Niki Caro
Audiences at Toronto and Sundance loved this film and so will you if you like triumphant tales of charismatic youngsters who defy the stoic immobility of old-fashioned patriarchs. I like it because it captures traditional Maori ceremonies and songs on film while also showing that New Zealand is not just a backdrop for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. (Shannon Gee)
Egyptian Sat May 31 6:30 pm
Egyptian Wed June 4 4:45 pm
When The Cat's Away
France, 1996 (95 min.)
Dir. Cedric Klapisch
Chloe goes on vacation and leaves her cat with an old lady, who loses it. Great. Timid Chloe overcomes her shyness by searching for the cat and befriending her helpful neighbors. The moral: Don't trust old people. (MATTHEW SOUTHWORTH)
Pacific Place Sat May 24 4:00 pm
Wild Dogs
Canada, 2002 (102 min.)
Dir. Thom Fitzgerald
Next time you're surfing for a late-night pseudo-girlfriend and you ask, "Where do they find these girls?" you can also say, "If I'd seen that SIFF movie, I'd know some of them came from Romania and were economic victims desperate to adapt to a free-market economy."
Pacific Place Fri June 13 6:30 pm
Pacific Place Sun June 15 11:30 am
Winged migration
France, 2001 (98 min.)
Dir. Jacques Cluzaud, Jacques Perrin
This companion piece to Perrin's Microcosmos (which put the "sex" back in "insects") is an unprecedentedly majestic perspective on the flight of birds, as seen from guess-who's-eye-view. There are no words to even suggest how incredible this film looks. (SEAN NELSON)
Harvard Exit Thurs June 12 4:45pm
Harvard Exit Sun June 15 4pm
y
Yes Nurse, No Nurse
Netherlands, 2002 (104 min.)
Dir. Pieter Kramer
Pastels, split-screens, and bags of campy dance numbers land in your lap like an ingratiating puppy in this tale of excitable rest-homers fighting the grumpy neighbor trying to harsh their mellow.
Cinerama Thurs June 12 6:30 pm
Egyptian Sun June 15 6:30 pm
YMCA Baseball Team
South Korea, 2002 (104 min.)
Dir. Hyeun-Seok Kim
The Japanese are keeping the South Korean baseball fanatics down in this movie about overcoming the odds.
Egyptian Tues June 3 7:00 pm
Egyptian Thurs June 5 4:45 pm
Yossi & Jagger
Israel, 2002 (65 min.)
Dir. Eytan Fox
A bittersweet gays-in-the-military romance gets a new twist as the military here is the Israeli army working at an isolated, snowy outpost. Although the same-sex affair is sentimental and sweet--complete with bad Israeli dance music--you don't have to be a cynic to know how this one ends. (JENNIFER MAERZ)
Harvard Exit Fri May 30 9:30 pm
