CINEMA
TROPICAL
HEROD’S LAW
MEXICO 2000 DIRECTOR: LUIS ESTRADA One of the most controversial films in recent Mexican
history, Estrada’s dark comic satire created a sensation
when it opened in its home country. Juan Vargas, an idealistic
junkyard supervisor, becomes the mayor of a small town—after
the last three have been lynched. In his new post, Juan quickly
learns that the system works according to Herod's Law—"Do
unto others what you can get away with’—and his
good intentions of bringing modernity and social justice to
the town rapidly disappear. His use of bribery, blackmail,
and even murder to consolidate his power constitutes a pointed
criticism of Mexico's longstanding tradition of corruption.
A blunt, open attack on the then ruling PRI (Institutional
Revolutionary Party), the government’s attempt to sabotage
the film’s release only helped make it an award-winning
hit. “[An] incisive, highly entertaining political farce.”—BOSTON
GLOBE. (123 mns.)
TICKET
TO JERUSALEM
PALESTINIAN 2002 DIRECTOR: RASHID MASHARAWI Jaber lives with wife Sana in the Palestinian refugee
camp near Ramallah, north of Jerusalem. A kind, gentle man,
he ekes out a living as a traveling projectionist, and is
serious in his efforts to bring movies and burdensome equipment
to his audiences of refugee children and adults. Everyday
obstacles, such as checkpoints and permits, have put his perseverance
to the test. However, when a female schoolteacher asks him
to organize a screening in Jerusalem’s old city, Jaber’s
determination to follow-through begins to erode Sana’s
patience. In Arabic with English subtitles. (85 mins.)
Shown last May in our GLOBAL LENS series, today’s screening
is 2 for 1 admission thanks to the NEW YORK TIMES Arts &
Leisure Weekend. Film courtesy of the Global Film Initiative.
This year’s 10-film GLOBAL LENS series of new works
from developing countries is April 1–21.
PICKPOCKET
FRANCE 1959 DIRECTOR: ROBERT BRESSONFor many Bresson’s masterpiece, PICKPOCKET famously
echoes the dark salvation of Dostoevsky’s CRIME AND
PUNISHMENT. Michael, a petty thief turned master pickpocket,
haunts the racetrack and busy Paris Metro, dispassionately
drawn to his own depravity. Bresson’s ability to isolate
his characters from the world they inhabit is masterfully
realized in this, his first film shot in Paris. The chaos
of hands, wallets, watches, the empty gazes of strangers follow
Michael toward "what may be the most moving, startling,
simple gesture in all of cinema… In a watershed year
of French cinema, 1959, merely the most contemporary film
ever made."—Pacific Film Archive. (75 mins.)
| January
20-22 the Film Center and Lighthouse Cinema will
host Babette Mangolte, whose film THE MODELS OF
PICKPOCKET, a documentary on the actors in Bresson’s
film, will screen January 21. In conjunction with
these screenings, Mangolte will present a cinematography
workshop at the Northwest Film Center School of
Film on January 22. |
|
LIGHTHOUSE
CINEMA AND THE FILM CENTER PRESENT:
THE SKY ON LOCATION
US 1982 DIRECTOR: BABETTE MANGOLTE“My film explores the landscape of the American
West as if we were looking at it from the perspective of the
first emigrants discovering an unknown territory. The landscape
is not seen in its postcardish grandeur as captured in the
photographs of Ansel Adams, nor through its shapes as in paintings
by Cézanne or Constable, but rather the film captures
the mood of the landscape as in a Turner painting. The film
attempts to construct a geography of the land from North to
South, East to West and season to season through colors instead
of maps.”—Babette Mangolte. (78 mins.).
Tonight’s screening is
at Lighthouse Cinema, 425 SE 3rd Avenue, suite 400.
THE
FILM CENTER AND LIGHTHOUSE CINEMA PRESENT:
THE MODELS OF PICKPOCKET
FRANCE/US 2003 DIRECTOR: BABETTE MANGOLTE Austere, wrenching, and inimitable, the films of Robert
Bresson are a touchstone for cinephiles, and many regard PICKPOCKET
(see January 12) as his greatest work. Babette Mangolte’s
fascinating documentary tracks down the film’s principals,
including Martin Lassalle, the Raskolnikov-like protagonist,
whom she discovered in Mexico City. The actors—all nonprofessionals
at the time—describe perfectionist Bresson’s grueling
methods, by which the performers were stripped of all artifice
and became “models” for the director’s ideas.
Filmmaker Mangolte—an acclaimed cinematographer for
Chantal Akerman, Yvonne Rainer, Sally Potter, and others—has
given us startling insight into a guarded artist’s creative
process. "The most beautiful of her works I'm familiar
with, one that deserves to be called a poetic personal essay
as well as a documentary. . . Mangolte seems to imply that
it's possible to confuse Bresson's films with life because
they're made up of its very substance."—Jonathan
Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER. (89 mins.)
FATHER
AND SON
RUSSIA 2003 DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER SOKUROV A companion piece to his MOTHER AND SON (1997), Sokurov’s
(RUSSIAN ARK) intense study explores the bond between a Russian
father and his teenage, soldier son. In a dreamy rooftop apartment
overlooking the sea, the pair wrestle, lift weights and pore
over old photos of lost loved ones as deep family currents—religious,
mythological and sexual—ebb and flow amid hallucinatory,
fairy-tale symbolism. Bathed in a nostalgic golden light,
Sokurov creates an air of timelessness in which an intimate
relationship frays with Oedipal inevitability. Sokurov's apprenticeship
under legendary Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky is apparent
in both the film's pacing and spiritual intent. International
Critic’s Prize, Cannes Film Festival. (83 mins.)
Reed College Professor Evengii Bershtein
will introduce the film with a short talk. Cosponsored by
the Portland Center for Cultural Studies at Portland State
University, this is the first in a series of Film and Lecture
events featuring faculty members from area colleges and universities.
MONSTER
ROAD
US 2004 DIRECTOR: BRETT INGRAM Over the last 30 years clay animator Bruce Bickford
has shied away from commerce to focus on very personal body
of work created in his basement studio near Seattle. Bickford’s
animated world is one of terrible beauty, a psychedelic riot
of endlessly transmogrifying shapes that recall Hieronymous
Bosch. A Vietnam veteran, Bickford lives with his father,
a former ICBM engineer now stricken with Alzheimer's disease.
From early on Bickford’s intense visions reflected fear
of nuclear annihilation (a fallout shelter on nearby Monster
Road served as inspiration) and civilization run-amuck through
war and violence, concerns which have gradually given way
to a gentler reflection on the body’s natural decay
rather than mankind’s. Brett Ingram’s affectionate
portrait includes clips from many of Bickford's largely unseen
films, as well as from his legendary collaborations with Frank
Zappa—BABY SNAKES (1979) and THE AMAZING MISTER BICKFORD
(1987). (80 mins.) Bruce Bickford in attendance.
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