Harpur Film Spring 2008

This is England: February 8th and 10th
Inspired by Meadows' own early indoctrination into skinhead culture, the film follows the travails of 12-year-old Shaun (Thomas Turgoose), a scrappy, undersized lad who's recently lost his father in the Falklands conflict. Bullied at school, Shaun is impudent and largely friendless until a gang of minor hoodlums, led by the charming Woody (Joe Gilgun), takes him under its wing. (LA Times) Combo strikes a pose of belligerent, bigoted nationalism to mask his own insecurities, but his alpha-male diatribes score a direct hit on the feeble leadership structure of Woody's group, exposing fissures and shattering allegiances. And it does a serious number on Shaun, still reeling from the aftermath of a political situation he vaguely attributes to foreign trouble. If Shaun found a father in Woody, Combo presents something better: a führer. (The Village Voice)

President’s Last Bang: February 15th and 17th
On the night of Oct. 26, 1979, President Park Chung Hee, whose authoritarian rule had lasted for most of two decades, was shot to death by the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. Though the assassination came in the wake of student protests and pro-democracy agitation, the killer's political motives have remained a bit opaque. It is hard for an outsider to parse Mr. Im's intentions in revisiting this traumatic moment in his nation's authoritarian past. The mood of his film, which provoked some controversy when it was released in Korea (where it was nonetheless a hit) is neither angry nor nostalgic, but clinical and perhaps also a bit cynical. Nobody wins in this bloody game, and heroism and villainy coexist along a narrow spectrum of behavior. And yet this kind of cynicism also feels like the prerogative of a democratic sensibility, which can peer into the highest sanctum of power and see the same messy, ignoble human behavior that exists everywhere else. (NY Times)

Days of Glory: February 22nd and 24th
"Days of Glory," the Algerian candidate for the best foreign film Oscar, tells the story of the North African Muslims who fought with the French against the Nazis. In a sense, they were fighting one set of invaders on behalf of another set, to evict the German butchers for the sake of the French imperialists. The tension between France and North Africa -- often played out externally and sometimes played out internally, within a single soul -- is the real source of drama. Though what happens and even how things happen are of only mild interest, the emotion behind the action is often surprising and fascinating. For example, the soldiers evince a genuine love for France (even if they've never seen it). Their frustration is not that they've been colonized. Rather, their frustration is that the French refuse to see them as French. France refuses to love them back. (San Francisco Chronicle)

10 Canoes: February 29th and March 2nd
This work of imagination begins with a group of Aboriginal tribesmen setting out on an annual goose-hunting expedition, fashioning canoes from bark and sleeping in makeshift camps perched high in the trees. Along the way, an elder member of the tribe, Minygululu, regales his restless young companion, Dayindi—who happens to covet one of Minygululu's three wives—with a cautionary tale about another young man smitten by similar desires and the hard-gotten wisdom of being careful what you wish for. If the moral of Ten Canoes is familiar, the getting there is anything but. To watch this movie (shot in breathtaking widescreen by cinematographer Ian Jones) is to enter into a whole new language of symbols and meaning, the likes of which I have rarely encountered in cinema outside of the African tribal films of Ousmane Sembene. And yet, as in Sembene's work, we are never lost, for as much as anything else, Ten Canoes is a celebration of the art of storytelling, and of the power of stories to transcend all barriers of space, time, and language. (Village Voice)

Away From Her: March 7th and 9th
A less-attuned writer might have betrayed Munro—who is as severe with her characters as she is sympathetic to their clueless thrashings—by turning Alzheimer's into a metaphor for life, complete with eleventh-hour uplift. Here, Fiona's illness, with its attendant confusion, loneliness, and fitful oblivion, is real and specific, funny, and utterly heartbreaking. With unobtrusive skill, Polley weaves the couple's suffering into a great love story that begins with Grant's terrified denial and ends—perhaps—with (Page 1 cont.) unconditional devotion. Munro has never been an enthusiast for earth-mother wisdom, but she is slyly fond of female practicality; helped along by two women who have his number—a friendly but brutally candid nurse (Kristen Thomson) and Aubrey's pragmatic wife (Olympia Dukakis)—Grant comes to understand that, one way or another, he has always been "away from her." (Village Voice)

Linda, Linda, Linda: March 14th and 16th
On the surface a simple story of four Japanese high school girls who form a band to perform a clutch of cover versions at their school’s annual arts festival, the film is a distilled Japanese encoding of how one can ‘become song’. Linda Linda Linda is a naturalistic document defined through its slow momentum, withdrawn performances, and understated cinematography. Yet it brims with the quietly alluring pastoral beauty at which Japenese cinema excels. Over a shot of clouds drifting past a full-bodied tree, we hear the four clicks of drumsticks signaling the start of yet another rehearsal of the title song. Like the temperature, like air, like a tree, the girls’ fusion is a matter of atmosphere. Linda Linda Linda - simultaneously a song and a film - perfectly captures how the girls become song. (Film Comment)

Half Moon: April 4th and 6th
After the fall of Saddam Hussein, Mamo (Ismail Ghaffari), a famed Kurdish musician living in Iran, gathers his many sons for a trip across the border to Iraqi Kurdistan and a long-planned celebratory concert. Fateful and funny, haunting and magical, “Half Moon” balances delicately between the harsh realities of its location and the mystical power of Mamo’s visions. Shooting mainly in Iranian Kurdistan, the cinematographers Nigel Bluck and Crighton Bone find an unearthly beauty amid the gambling frenzy of a cockfight and the silent ranks of exiled female singers lining the rooftops of a mountain village. As the end of the journey draws near, the line between the natural and the supernatural becomes increasingly difficult to discern. (NY Times)

Manufactured Landscapes: April 11th and 13th
Following along, Baichwal deftly uses the moving image to reinforce the spirit of Burtynsky's still pictures, expanding the discourse by providing valuable context. Moving through a platoon of factory workers, Baichwal and d.p. Peter Mettler come to rest on Burtynsky setting up a complex crane shot. The shutter clicks to show his final composition, then Baichwal's camera pulls back to reveal the image hanging on a gallery wall, where Western museum-goers examine the details.The gesture serves as an invitation to consider the deeper philosophical implications of Burtynsky's work. Much as director Nikolaus Geyrhalter does in food-industry docu "Our Daily Bread," photog encourages auds to interact with these static tableaux and draw their own conclusions. (Variety)

The Harpur Film Society seeks to bring to campus a range of significant films that in most cases would not be available to local audiences. Our program is international in scope, emphasizing recent foreign and independent American films. All foreign films are shown in their original languages, with English subtitles. Film notes, with screen credits and some information about the film's background, are distributed at each screening.

Membership: Film Society membership this semester is $22 for the general public and $20 for students and senior citizens. Membership includes admission to all eight of the semester's screenings. When subscribing, please choose either the Friday or the Sunday program. Membership tickets can be purchased by mail or in person in at the Cinema Department office in SW-203B.

Single Tickets: Seats not sold by subscription will be available at the door from 7:00 pm on the evening of the screening. Single tickets cost $4.00.

Questions? Call the Cinema Department at 777-4998 or email Del Umbers at bh11878@binghamton.edu