Like teen-pop sensations, so the landmarks of spring recede into the obscure corners of our memory. First WesFest goes by, then 4/20, then Spring Fling, and before you know it you’ve left Middletown for some summer job or internship and the 2010-11 academic year is just a collection of hazy memories and course credits. Yes, the inexorable machinations of time are accelerating, pulling us all closer to the frantic rush of finals and the gaping maw of death.
There is a place; however, where time is not consigned to the unreliable cognitive processes we call memory or the tepid dustbin of history. Indeed, in the Goldsmith Family Cinema the precious moments of our lives are crystallized on delicate moments of celluloid. Come slow things down for awhile with a classic Hitchcock thriller, a high-octane revenge flick from Seoul, a Scottish period drama, or an unclassifiable cinematic rumination of memory and the passing the time.
The Birds
1968. USA.
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. With Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor. 119 min.
Wednesday, April 20, $5.
This 4/20, come to the Goldsmith to lean back, chill out, and enjoy the horrifying sensation of being attacked by BIRDS!
Sans Soleil
1983. France.
Dir. Chris Marker. With Arielle Dombasle. 100 min.
Thursday, April 21, FREE.
Chris Marker (“La Jetée”), one of cinema’s most resolutely original directors, traverses time and space in this kaleidoscopic cult classic. Whisking the viewer around the world, from Japan to Iceland to Guinea-Bissau, Marker uses the camera to probe into questions of culture, memory, and perception. Alternately referred to as a documentary, a travelogue, and an essay-film, “Sans Soleil” defies classification as Marker perpetually reinvents non-fiction cinema on his own terms.
Oldboy
2003. South Korea.
Dir. Chan-Wook Park.
With Min-sik Choi. 120 min.
Friday, April 22, $5.
Standing at the heart of Park Chan-Wook’s acclaimed “Vengeance Trilogy,” this violent neo-noir helped South Korea’s rapidly rising national cinema capture the world’s attention. After spending fifteen years in captivity without the slightest knowledge why, Oh Dae-Su takes to the rain slicked streets of Seoul in a search for revenge. Balancing modern Asian cinema’s proficiency for stylized brutality with a nearly Greek sense of peripeteia, “Oldboy” is one of the finest thrillers of the last decade. Enthusiastic cinephile Kim Jong-il fumes with envy.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
1969. UK.
Dir. Roland Neame.
With Maggie Smith. 116 min.
Saturday, April 23, FREE.
Before she won the role of Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, Maggie Smith won an Oscar for her nuanced portrayal of an eccentric teacher in 1930s Scotland. Based on Muriel Spark’s classic novel, “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” is a thoughtful lesson on Romanticism, aging, and politics. Indulge your inner anglophile with this richly textured character study.
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