It’s finals week, and if you’re anything like me, that means full-on mental disintegration complete with writing long essays in a single sitting only to wake up and find that it was a dream and that your essay remains unwritten; visits from the phantoms of Marx and Freud; and running, just running as fast as you can, out of this dead-end town once and for all. Also crying. (These are the sorts of things people do, right?) Well, just because you have a semester-defining stretch of work coming up, it doesn’t mean that you need to lead a completely joyless existence. Wesleyan’s very own Goldsmith Family Cinema offers lovely and charming experiences all in a relatively short temporal span that can get you back to your essays or problem sets in what will feel like no time at all. You will be spending significant portions of time procrastinating, so why not get off Facebook, have a good time, and get back to your work (or tweeting, whatever) genuinely refreshed. You can do this by watching these movies:
CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS
2011. France / Germany.
Dir. Werner Herzog. With: Werner Herzog, Cave Paintings 8pm. Wednesday, December 7. $5.
What better way to get away from the hustle and bustle of finals week then by taking a trip deep inside one of Earth’s most safely hidden wonders. The Chauvet caves in Southern France hold the earliest known examples of pictorial art in the world, but are off limits to the public for the sake of preservation. Luckily for us, the French gave legendary filmmaker Herzog (“Aguirre,” “Grizzly Man,” “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans”) permission and funding to document them on film, resulting in this playful and philosophical reflection on art and humanity. The opportunity to see this remarkable confluence of natural, ancient, and contemporary wonders is well worth the time away from finals.
BLOOD DIAMOND
2006. USA.
Dir. Edward Zwick. With: Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou 8pm. Thursday, December 8. FREE
The practices behind diamond mining in Africa are mercilessly put on display in this propulsive political thriller from Edward Zwick. Beninese actor Hounsou gained widespread acclaim for his breakout performance in the film, which also features Jennifer Connelly (from “Labyrinth”) and this guy Leonardo DiCaprio, who might just be the (second) BIGGEST MOVIE STAR IN THE WORLD. WesAmnesty will hang around afterwards to talk about diamonds, pretty diamonds, fancy diamonds, and diamonds that say, “I love you.” (Right?)
STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN
1982. USA.
Dir. Nicolas Meyer. With: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy 8pm. Friday, December 9. $5
After a long week of finals work, it’s time to boldly go where no man has gone before. Blast off from Olin to a rollicking cosmic adventure that features Kirk and Spock facing off against a genetically modified Ricardo Montalban. How could you resist “the absolute acme of Shatnerian overacting.” Spoiler: KAAAAAAAAAAAAHHNN! (note: It’s even fun to type)
CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH
2009. China.
Dir. Chuan Lu. With: Ye Liu, Yuanyuan Gao 8pm. Saturday, December 10. FREE
At the end of the week, we have a contemporary combat classic. Chuan Lu’s gorgeous black and white epic tells the story of the Japanese assault on the ancient capital of Nanking with a sharp eye for savage detail and fleeting glimpses of humanity. This film has set the reviewers on fire and is garnering its director comparisons to Scorsese and Kubrick for his ability to render the harshest moral terrains in a manner that is utterly cinematic.