After a long, unforgettable calendar, the Film Series has but two movies left. I know, I know—where did the quarter go? Maybe you’ve spent it burrowed in the nooks and crannies of Olin, only emerging to take pilgrimages to the almighty snack-Mecca, Weshop. Maybe, as in the case our film major friends, you’ve spent it in the dark, bottomless vaccum of effort, time, and creativity known as the Steenbeck edit¬ing room. Or maybe you’ve been in front of the TV, fruitlessly surfing channels in search of anything other than the Tiger Woods press conference or the winter fuck¬ing Olympics. If you’ve had any sense at all, however, you’ve been at the film series, surf¬ing the sweet wave of cinema on the sunny beaches of the Goldsmith.
If you’ve missed out thus far, there’s still time to save yourself. Well, you’ve done yourself a serious disservice, there’s no doubt about that, but there remains a tiny glimmer of hope. There’s still one more calendar of the year, and it’s a truly revolutionary one at that. For you seniors, it’s your last chance to take advantage of the series before Mother Wes spits you out into the harsh, unemployment-ridden sidewalks of the real world. For everyone else, it’s a chance to continue that passionate love affair with film. Actually, for an extremely blessed few of you, it’s a chance to become one of the se¬lect stringpullers behind our mysterious movie marionette—yes, we are cur¬rently accepting Film Board applications for the 2010-2011 school year. Lest you’re too busy scrawling away on the apps, don’t forget to come to the last hurrah(s) of the quarter. Check them out:
FANTASTIC MR. FOX
2009. USA. Dir: Wes Anderson. With: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman. 87 min.
I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again, Fantastic Mr. Fox is this year’s Best Picture; the only thing keeping the Academy from including it among the ranks of The Hurt Locker and Up in the Air is that it’s about foxes! That are animated! Tonight, however, we will be honoring this perfectly wonderful tale of the dapper Mr. Fox and his chicken stealing ways in the Goldsmith, and I can’t possibly give this film enough praise. It’s filmed in a retro, stop-motion style that is a welcome change from the slickness of today’s 3-D ani¬mation, but make no mistake: this is no children’s movie, but a Wes Anderson picture through and through. The visionary director brings his characteristic quirky, self-conscious wit and whimsy to the animal world (apparently direct¬ing the whole production through e-mail and video chat). The result is an endlessly charming, subtly smart story of one debonair fox and his existential crisis.
THE MAN FROM LONDON
2007. Hungary. Dir: Béla Tarr. With: Miroslav Krobot, Tilda Swinton. 139 minutes.
Before you take off for Spring Break, we’ve got one last treat for you, a mesmeric film noir from acclaimed Hungarian director Béla Tarr. If you’re not up on your contemporary Eastern European art cinema, Tarr is consid¬ered by many cineastes to be among the most brilliant of today’s working directors for his unique aesthetic and brooding, philosophical vision. In The Man From London, Tarr takes the noir genre to a new level of darkness with a simple mystery story about a railway worker who suddenly finds himself in possession of a mysterious suitcase filled with English banknotes. Like in Tarr’s previous films, story comes second to form, and in The Man From London, the action is in the slow movements of the camera, which glides over the textured surface of a world made up of light and shadow. If watching a two-and-a-half hour long foreign art film sounds to you like watching paint dry, this one might not be for you. But if you can stomach it, don’t miss this rare opportunity to experience the bizarre pleasure and misery of Bela Tarr’s cinema.