Films & Schedules - Friday, February 22, 2013

The second installment of Seidl’s controversial and unflinching Paradise trilogy follows the fanatically devout Anna Maria, who in her desperate search for “paradise” spends her summer vacation away from her job by doing missionary work: in this case, going door-to-door with a large statue of the Virgin Mary hoping to win converts. At home, she prays with a startling fervor, tinged with a taste for masochism. After a long separation, her husband Nabil—a tradition-minded Egyptian Muslim confined to a wheelchair—returns, and his pushy demands for his wife’s attention put her faith to the test. (113 mins.)

The second installment of Seidl’s controversial and unflinching Paradise trilogy follows the fanatically devout Anna Maria, who in her desperate search for “paradise” spends her summer vacation away from her job by doing missionary work: in this case, going door-to-door with a large statue of the Virgin Mary hoping to win converts. At home, she prays with a startling fervor, tinged with a taste for masochism. After a long separation, her husband Nabil—a tradition-minded Egyptian Muslim confined to a wheelchair—returns, and his pushy demands for his wife’s attention put her faith to the test. (113 mins.)

Selected Filmography: Dog Days (01), Jesus, You Know (03), Import Export (07)

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

In German and Arabic with English subtitles.

With the support of the Austrian Consulate General in Los Angeles.

FILM REVIEW

Interests: Narrative Feature, German Language.

Giordana’s engrossing tale of terrorism, conspiracy, and deceit is based on a devastating true story set within decades of Italian political violence and resistance. A bomb goes off at a Milan bank in December 1969, killing 17 and wounding dozens of others. Detective Luigi Calabresi heads up the investigation of the crime, which many in the government want to pin on the anarchist left. Unconvinced, Calabresi wants to investigate the shadowy organizations on the neo-fascist right, including possible CIA connections. But after a key suspect meets an untimely death, the clock starts ticking for Calabresi as a malevolent, Machiavellian labyrinth...

Giordana’s engrossing tale of terrorism, conspiracy, and deceit is based on a devastating true story set within decades of Italian political violence and resistance. A bomb goes off at a Milan bank in December 1969, killing 17 and wounding dozens of others. Detective Luigi Calabresi heads up the investigation of the crime, which many in the government want to pin on the anarchist left. Unconvinced, Calabresi wants to investigate the shadowy organizations on the neo-fascist right, including possible CIA connections. But after a key suspect meets an untimely death, the clock starts ticking for Calabresi as a malevolent, Machiavellian labyrinth of deceit by extremists, police, informants, and spies envelopes the investigation. (129 mins.)

Selected Filmography: One Hundred Steps (00), The Best of Youth (03), Sanguepazzo (08)

Sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute, San Francisco and the Italian Film Commission, Los Angeles.

FILM REVIEW

Interests: Narrative Feature, History.

Reygadas’s enigmatic, visually ravishing film presents the occurrences around Juan and Natalia, a wealthy couple living in a stunning house in the lush countryside with their two little children and their pack of dogs. Mundane domestic events are punctuated by a series of disparate, occasionally fantastical subplots within a tableau of overwhelming beauty haunted by mysterious sinister forces. “In this expressionistic Mexican film, magnificent dreamlike exteriors together with memories and dream sequences tell the story of one man’s ability to resist temptation and stop himself from sinning. The story is at times told from the perspective of Satan, showing us...

Reygadas’s enigmatic, visually ravishing film presents the occurrences around Juan and Natalia, a wealthy couple living in a stunning house in the lush countryside with their two little children and their pack of dogs. Mundane domestic events are punctuated by a series of disparate, occasionally fantastical subplots within a tableau of overwhelming beauty haunted by mysterious sinister forces. “In this expressionistic Mexican film, magnificent dreamlike exteriors together with memories and dream sequences tell the story of one man’s ability to resist temptation and stop himself from sinning. The story is at times told from the perspective of Satan, showing us the world through the Devil’s ambivalent eyes. The use of a nonlinear storyline gives way for emotions, hopes, and dreams of a family looking for redemption and the meaning of life.”—Stockholm Film Festival (115 mins.)

Selected Filmography: Japón (02), Battle in Heaven (05), Silent Light (07)

Winner of the Best Director Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Sponsored by the Consulate of Mexico in Portland.

FILM REVIEW

Interests: Narrative Feature, Spanish Language.

One of the great social movements of the 20th century, environmentalism continues as an urgent force in the 21st. Kitchell’s passionate film charts the advent of the modern environmental movement, from the early conservation causes of John Muir to the formation of landmark organizations like the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, to the creation of events like Earth Day and the continuing evolution of public conversation about the growing threats of pollution, climate change, overharvesting, and their effects on both our ecology and society. An essential primer for anyone interested in a broad overview of a remarkable era of global activism...

One of the great social movements of the 20th century, environmentalism continues as an urgent force in the 21st. Kitchell’s passionate film charts the advent of the modern environmental movement, from the early conservation causes of John Muir to the formation of landmark organizations like the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, to the creation of events like Earth Day and the continuing evolution of public conversation about the growing threats of pollution, climate change, overharvesting, and their effects on both our ecology and society. An essential primer for anyone interested in a broad overview of a remarkable era of global activism or anyone who might agree with one advocate’s observation: “There’s no Hispanic air. There’s no African-American air. There’s air! And if you breathe air—and most people I know do breathe air—then I would consider you an environmentalist.” (114 mins.)

Selected Filmography: Berkeley in the Sixties (90)

Sponsored by Chipotle.

FILM REVIEW

Interests: Documentary.

On a hot summer day in a vacant Madrid during a period of social and political transition in Spain, Miguel, a feared and respected journalist, sets up a meeting in a café with Ángela, a young journalism student. He takes her to a friend’s studio. His intentions are clearly sexual; hers are less clear. Chance events force them together for more time than they would have chosen, and the pair, who represent polarized generations, are pitted in a witty, sensual, but unevenly matched duel involving age, intellect, ambition, and experience. The political and social context of the period provides the...

On a hot summer day in a vacant Madrid during a period of social and political transition in Spain, Miguel, a feared and respected journalist, sets up a meeting in a café with Ángela, a young journalism student. He takes her to a friend’s studio. His intentions are clearly sexual; hers are less clear. Chance events force them together for more time than they would have chosen, and the pair, who represent polarized generations, are pitted in a witty, sensual, but unevenly matched duel involving age, intellect, ambition, and experience. The political and social context of the period provides the background to the power shifts that continually take place between them over 24 hours. (104 mins.)

Selected Filmography: The Good Life (96), Soldiers of Salamina (03), Welcome Home (06)

Co-sponsored and organized by PRAGDA with support from the Embassy of Spain, Washington; American Airlines; and the Secretary of State for Culture-Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport.

FILM REVIEW

Interests: Narrative Feature, Spanish Language, History.

“I don’t want to be unfair,” says hangdog Athens police interrogation specialist Sotiris (Antonis Kafetzopoulos). But in his line of work, and in debt-crisis-gripped Greece, there is little incentive for fairness. After a payment to an informant backfires into a blackmail threat, Sotiris experiences a “disobedient” trigger finger, settling that score ... but the money goes missing. Surely cleaning lady Dora (Theodora Tzimou) must have seen it? Tsitos’s deadpan, absurdly comic crime story won the Best Director and Best Actor Prizes at the San Sebastian Film Festival and is this year’s Greek submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar....

“I don’t want to be unfair,” says hangdog Athens police interrogation specialist Sotiris (Antonis Kafetzopoulos). But in his line of work, and in debt-crisis-gripped Greece, there is little incentive for fairness. After a payment to an informant backfires into a blackmail threat, Sotiris experiences a “disobedient” trigger finger, settling that score ... but the money goes missing. Surely cleaning lady Dora (Theodora Tzimou) must have seen it? Tsitos’s deadpan, absurdly comic crime story won the Best Director and Best Actor Prizes at the San Sebastian Film Festival and is this year’s Greek submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. (118 mins.)

Filmography: My Sweet Home (01), Plato’s Academy (09)

Sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Oregon.

FILM REVIEW

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature.