Crunch time is here, friends: finals are around the corner, the autumn leaves are gone, another chapter is turning in our young lives, blah blah blah. If you find yourself getting stressed over homework, just remember that Iraq is burning, genocide continues unabated in Darfur, and kids a few blocks away from our dorms go to school hungry every day. Why the long face in the normally cozy confines of the Film Series column? Because all this is strangely relevant to the movies. Whether facing the trivial minutiae of finals stress or contemplating the soul-sucking misery wrought by great and powerful nations, art and entertainment exist not only as pleasant diversions but also vital forms of refuge. We need the visceral experience of losing ourselves in projected beams of light and this week’s films are nothing if not visceral. Whether jolting you into a state of child-like terror or reminding you of the simple joy of laughter, these films can help you refresh and reboot before getting back to the three R’s or pinning down the elusive cure-all for global welfare.
“The Descent”
(U.K., D: Neil Marshall, 2005)
Friday, Dec. 1, 8 p.m. $4
Get your freak-out on with what is widely considered the scariest movie released in the past year. The story of six British girls on an ill-fated trip through the Appalachian Mountains, “The Descent” is filled with pulverizing, nerve-frying shocks and pulses with skin-tingling claustrophobia. Here’s betting you can’t keep your eyes open through the whole terrifying thing.
“Ninotchka”
(U.S., D: Ernst Lubitsch, 1939)
Saturday, Dec. 2, 8 p.m. FREE!
They don’t make ’em like “Ninotchka” anymore. A warm-hearted tale of jewelry theft and East-West romance set among Soviet emissaries in Paris, the film glows with an old-school, almost otherwordly charm. Title star Greta Garbo was the screen goddess of the 1920’s through 1940’s. No contemporary actress approximates her mix of incandescent star power and magnetic ability to communicate emotion. Director Ernst Lubitsch was a voice of such singular wit he deserves consideration as the greatest comedic visionary ever to grace Hollywood. To watch his films is to revel in what it means to derive joy from laughter, and “Ninotchka” stands tall among his greatest.
“The Proposition”
(Australia/U.K., D: John Hillcoat, 2005)
Wednesday, Dec. 6, 8 p.m. $4
Nick Cave wrote a Western, y’all. The Bad Seed himself is the creative force behind an explosive story of brotherhood and redemption set in the Australian outback. “Memento” star Guy Pearce plays an outlaw who must track down one brother in order to spare the life of another in the custody of the frontier police. British force-of-nature Ray Winstone cements his status as one of the world’s most gifted actors as Pearce’s copper nemesis, his relationship with his wife (Emily Watson) lending the film a delicate humanity beneath its violence. The conclusion is exhausting and exhilarating; the film disturbing yet hugely entertaining. Lose yourself in its brutal beauty.
“Even Dwarves Started Small”
(Germany, D: Werner Herzog, 1970)
Thursday, Dec. 7, 8 p.m. FREE!
The life and times of German director Werner Herzog:
-1974: Herzog walks on foot from Munich to Paris (in a literal straight line through fields and forests) to visit, and pledge solidarity with, ailing friend and influential film historian Lotte Eisner.
-1971: During shooting of his conquistador/jungle madness epic “Aguirre: The Wrath of God,” Herzog threatens star Klaus Kinski that he will unload eight bullets into his head and then shoot himself if Kinski decides to abandon the chaotic shoot. With all secure on set, Herzog then poses as a veterinarian and steals a truckload of 400 monkeys at a Peruvian airport. He uses them in the film, then sets the monkeys free and disrupts the local ecosystem.
-1970: Herzog makes “Even Dwarves Started Small,” the greatest tale of captive dwarf revolt ever put on film. As a pledge of solidarity with a cast member run over by a truck, Herzog dives into a giant cactus. He later explains this event with typical bravado: “I don’t like cowards.”
Flash-forward to Dec. 7, 2006, c. 8 p.m.: Herzog’s mind-blowing commitment to movie madness knocks your socks off as you watch “Even Dwarves Started Small.” Your life will never be the same.
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