© University of Wisconsin-Parkside • 900 Wood Road • PO Box 2000 Kenosha, WI 53141-2000
262-595-2345 • Questions or Comments? Contact UW-Parkside
Mission & Vision
Films are shown in the Student Center Cinema
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Sunday |
This film is based on true events that took place in Tibhirine, Algeria, in 1996. When a rise in fundamentalist violence leads to the slaughter of some Christian construction workers in a nearby district, local Christian monks are warned that their safety might be in danger. After a confrontation with terrorist leader Ali Fayattia, the monks have to decide whether to stand their ground or to abandon their community and return to France. The script is excellent, raising some thought-provoking questions about tolerance and the nature of extremism, as well as the meaning and importance of faith in a world beset with fundamentalist violence. 2010 Cannes Film Festival: Prize of the Ecumenical Jury; 2010 USA National Board of Review: Best Foreign Language Film. (France/Algeria 2010) Dir: Xavier Beauvois. Arabic and French languages. 122 min. review
Made in Dagenham is a feminist fairy tale based on actual events. Its heroine, Rita (Sally Hawkins), a spunky everyday factory worker in 1968, becomes the spokeswoman for 187 female machinists at the Ford Motor Company in the London suburb of Dagenham. She leads them in a successful battle to win pay nearly equal to that of the plant's 55,000 men. Dagenham soars because of the effervescent charm of Hawkins, who melds soft-spoken winsomeness with steely reserve. Punctuated by sprightly late-1960s hits, the movie recaptures the youthful optimism that buoyed '60s British movies in the post-kitchen-sink era. This is a modest, heartfelt film about a modest, heartfelt woman who found her voice - and helped make history. (UK/ Netherlands 2010) Dir: Nigel Cole. English language. 113 min. review
This is a masterful study of the subtle empowerment - and moral compass - of an indefatigable older woman. Poetry's first third gently observes the activities of its heroine, Mija, who has just been diagnosed with dementia. Though most of her hours are spent cleaning up after others, she enrolls in a poetry class. As she desperately awaits inspiration from the muses, Mija learns of her grandsons's role in a despicable act committed against one of his female classmates; the words flow after she decides her charge must suffer the consequences of his actions. Poetry stands out as both a quietly scathing condemnation of male violence and an ode to the strength of a senescent woman all too frequently dismissed. 2011 Asian Film Awards: Best Director; 2010 Cannes Film Festival: Best Screenplay. (South Korea 2010) Dir: Lee Chang-dong. Korean language. 139 min. review
This classic film, written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, tells the story of an aging medical professor who reassesses his life while journeying to his former university to receive an honorary degree. Borg travels with his estranged daughter-in-law Marianne and revisits many of the landmarks of his past, conjuring up memories of his family and of his onetime sweetheart Sara. This classic remains one of Bergman's most accessible films and one of the most influential European art movies of its generation. Its intense focus on one man's thoughts, regrets, and memories sets the tone for innumerable psychological character studies in its wake. 1960 USA Golden Globes: Best Foreign Film; 1959 USA National Board of Review: Best Actor and Best Foreign Film. (Sweden 1957) Dir: Ingmar Bergman. Swedish and Latin languages. 91 min. review
Based on a short sketch of a script by Jacques Tati, this is both a modest homage to its writer and a melancholy look at a lost world. Chomet's film is a story about two paths that cross. An outdated, aging magician, forced to wander from country to country in search of a stage to perform his act meets a young girl at the start of her life's journey. Alice plays at being a woman without realizing the day to stop pretending is fast approaching. She doesn't know yet that she loves The Illusionist like she would a father; he already knows that he loves her as he would a daughter. This animated treasure tugs at your heartstrings as it weaves a tale of the hope of youth and the dark romance of a man coming to terms with his own disappearance. 2010 European Film Awards: Best Animated Film; 2010 New York Film Critics Circle Awards: Best Animated Film. (Belgium/France 2009) Dir: Sylvain Chomet. English and French languages. 80 min. review
Another Year is about the unequal distribution of happiness. Why do some people - like Tom and Gerri, the post-'60s 60-something couple at the center of this episodic story - seem to have an inexhaustible, even superabundant supply, while others seem unable to acquire even the smallest portion? Is happiness earned by meritorious works or granted by the obscure operations of grace? These may sound like silly, abstract questions, but they could hardly be more serious or more relevant. Another Year is a joy, albeit one suffused with melancholy - a visually rich, musical, unmannered slice of life that magnifies experience rather than miniaturizing it. 2011 London Critics Circle Film Awards: Best Actress of the Year; 2010 USA National Board of Review: Best Actress. (UK 2010) Dir: Mike Leigh. English language. 129 min. review
Soul Kitchen centers on the life of Zinos, a likable but hopelessly disorganized restauranteur. When his girlfriend Nadine moves to Shanghai, a lovesick Zinos decides to fly after her, leaving his restaurant in the hands of his unreliable ex-con brother, Illias. Both decisions turn out disastrously: Illias gambles away the restaurant to a shady real estate agent, and Zinos finds Nadine with a new lover. But if the brothers can stop arguing and get it together, the Soul Kitchen might still have one last chance at staying in business. Akin perfectly captures the antic pace, eccentric personalities, and fickle fortunes of the restaurant game, and his vision of the Soul Kitchen as an all-night bacchanal is irresistible. 2009 Venice Film Festival, Young Cinema Award: Best Film. (Germany 2010) Dir: Fatih Akin. German language. 99 min. review
Considered by many to be one of Kurosawa's best films, not to mention one of the greatest of world cinema, Ikiru is a moving and deeply affecting account of Watanabe, an ordinary man struggling to find meaning in his existence during the waning days of his own death from terminal cancer. Coined from the Japanese word meaning "to live," Ikiru is a masterful study of what one man's life means to those around him and to the rest of the world. 1954 Berlin International Film Festival: Special Prize of the Senate of Berlin. (Japan 1953) Dir: Akira Kurosawa. Japanese language. 143 min review
I Am Love tells the story of the wealthy Recchi family of Milan. The patriarch has surprised the family by willing shared ownership of his industrial company to both his son, Tancredi, and his grandson, Edoardo Jr. Meanwhile, Edoardo Jr. has other plans, dreaming of opening a restaurant with a talented chef friend, Antonio. At the heart of the family is Tancredi's wife, Emma, a Russian immigrant who has adopted the culture of Milan, and whose existence is shaken when she enters a passionate love affair with her son's friend Antonio. Guadagnino's visually ravishing third feature positively makes the senses soar, with Pulitzer-winning composer John Adams score, visually stunning high-couture clothes, and beautifully plated food that virtually tempts our palate. 2010 Dublin International Film Festival, Dublin Film Critics Award: Best Female Performance. (Italy 2009) Dir: Luca Guadagnino. Italian language. 120 min. review
Post office manager Philippe and his wife Julie love the South of France but when he's found out trying to cheat his way to a posting to the Riviera, he is sent to the dreaded Nord Pas de Calais region for two years - the French equivalent of being exiled to Siberia. Philippe soon finds to his surprise that he's adapting well and enjoying his new environment. He's reluctant to tell the pessimistic Julie, feeding her horror stories she'd expect. But then Julie decides to be the tangibly supportive wife and move north to be with him. The film's premise juggles the preconceptions, prejudices and unique differences between the north and the south of France as it explores the colloquialisms, the peculiarities and characteristics of the locals. This is a sweet and funny film which is so honest don't be surprised if you also shed a little tear. (France 2009) Dir: Dany Boon. French language. 106 min. review
This classic film follows a young father's increasingly desperate search through the maze of the streets of Rome for the man who stole his bicycle, the source of his livelihood. More significantly, this is a film about how a father appears in the eyes of a brave and loving son. As father and son scour the city looking for his bicycle, their journey becomes an odyssey of post-war Italian poverty, and the camera constantly reminds us that Ricci is just one of thousands in the same predicament. 1950 USA Academy Awards, Honorary Award: Outstanding Foreign Language Film; 1950 Golden Globes: Best Foreign Film. (Italy 1948) Dir: Vittorio De Sica. Italian language. 93 min. review
This is a mind-bending and mesmerizing thriller that takes its time unlocking one mystery only to uncover another. Reporter Mikael is, in venerable noir fashion, hired by an aging rich man to conduct an investigation. The old man is head of the Vangers, a family of powerful industrialists, and he is obsessed with the murder of a niece 40 years earlier. Mikael is joined by a leather-clad young woman with many tattoos and piercings who is, handily, a brilliant computer hacker. She's under the guardianship of a slimy lawyer. She's also hellishly angry at the world. The film has a distinctively Scandinavian sensibility and ensemble cast of ordinary-looking characters that make it all the more chillingly believable; it is a stylish and suspenseful mystery thriller with unrelenting action sequences. 2011 BAFTA Awards: Best Film not in the English Language. (Denmark 2009) Dir: Niels Arden Oplev. Swedish language. 152 min. review
A mother's (Nawal) last wishes send twins Jeanne and Simon on a journey to the Middle East in search of their tangled roots. The captivating story is this picture's driving force and raison d'etre. It is one part mystery and one part expository. The investigation by the mother's children as they dig further into her past and discover a woman they did not know existed is fascinating. Their encounters with people that knew her often only raise more questions or confusion. To say that Incendies is an intense film would be a gross understatement. It is a disturbingly painful film that is difficult to shake off. Masterfully crafted by Villeneuve, it is filled with compelling and powerful performances that showcase humanity at its worst, but also - remarkably - at its best, even in the midst of great darkness. 2011 Vancouver Film Critics Circle: Best Canadian Film and Best Actress in a Canadian Film. (Canada 2010) Dir: Denis Villeneuve. French and Arabic languages. 130 min. review
Rome is all but empty in anticipation of the Ferragosto holiday, a chance at one last, long, lazy celebration before summer's end. Gianni isn't doing much celebrating this year, kept in town by tight finances and the need to care for his 93-year-old mother. Gianni's landlord offers to forgive Gianni's debts if he agrees to take care of the landlord's own elderly mother for a couple of days as well. The deal gets more complicated when the administrator drops off his equally aged aunt. Finally, Gianni's doctor asks for the same favor, leaving him in a hot, cramped apartment with four elderly women, each with demands and personality quirks all their own. There are observations about Italian men and their mothers, about the comic ironies of life and about the needs of old age - all of it filtered through a warm, humane consciousness. 2009 Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, Silver Ribbon: Best New Director. (Italy 2008) Dir: Gianni Di Gregorio. Italian language. 75 min. review
Imagine sixteen French pastry chefs gathered in Lyon for three intense days of mixing, piping and sculpting everything from delicate chocolates to six-foot sugar sculptures in hopes of being declared by President Nicolas Sarkozy one of the best. This is the prestigious Meilleurs Ouvriers de France competition. The blue, white and red striped collar worn on the jackets of the winners is more than the ultimate recognition for every pastry chef - it is a dream and an obsession. Kings of Pastry is about the craft, the teaching and learning, the collaborative work, the tedium, the heartbreak and emotional backbone it takes to make something lovely, even if that something is destined to disappear down a gullet in seconds - and even if the maker ends up a noble failure.(UK/Netherlands/France 2009) Dir: Chris Hegedus. French language. 87 min. review
Mother is a single parent devoted to her simple-minded twenty-seven-year-old son, Do-joon. One night, while walking home drunk, he encounters a school girl who he follows for a while before she disappears into a dark alley. The next morning, she is found dead in an abandoned building and Do-joon is accused of her murder. His mother refuses to believe her beloved son is guilty and immediately undertakes her own investigation to find the girl's killer. In her obsessive quest to clear her son's name, Mother steps into a world of unimaginable chaos and shocking revelations. The film progresses with remarkable clarity and visual wit, drawing surprise and suspense out of unexpected places. 2010 Asian Film Awards: Best Actress and Best Film. (South Korea 2009) Dir: Joon-ho Bong. Korean language. 128 min.
In a Better World - May 3-6
Anton is a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark and his work at an African refugee camp. In these two very different worlds, he and his family are faced with conflicts that lead them to difficult choices between revenge and forgiveness. Anton and his wife Marianne, who have two young sons, are separated and struggling with the possibility of divorce. The film follows the two young boys as their friendship winds up impacting both their lives and their families' lives. It is an artistically mature work with pitch perfect performances from the ensemble cast with stunning camerawork. 2011 USA Academy Awards: Best Foreign Language Film; 2011 USA Golden Globes: Best Foreign Language Film. (Denmark 2010) Dir: Susanne Bier. Danish and Swedish languages. 119 min. review
© University of Wisconsin-Parkside • 900 Wood Road • PO Box 2000 Kenosha, WI 53141-2000
262-595-2345 • Questions or Comments? Contact UW-Parkside
Mission & Vision