In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I give you some sound words from Boris Grushenko, played by Woody Allen, in “Love and Death:”
“To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering, one must not love. But, then one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer, to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love, to be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy, therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you’re getting this down.”
“Marie Antoinette”
(USA, D: Sophia Coppola, 2006)
Friday, Feb. 9, 8 p.m. $4
Like the young Queen portrayed in her film, Coppola herself is a highly contested figure who has benefited from both lineage and privilege. It is thus interesting to note the sympathy and charm Coppola has bestowed on one of the most historically hated women in history (played here by Kirsten Dunst). A mouth-watering experience of pure indulgence, this film takes the delicacies of couture and the frivolities of leisure and makes them into a poetic pop reverie. The sumptuousness and pure beauty of life at Versailles can only be fully appreciated on the big screen. So come feast your eyes as Coppola serves a slice of Marie Antoinette’s life and, of course, cake.
“Love And Death”
(USA, D: Woody Allen, 1975.)
Saturday, Feb. 10, 8 p.m. FREE
A suicidal nihilist searches for existential purpose in 19th century czarist Russia. Is this a Dostoevsky classic or a Bergman masterpiece?
Think again. It’s Woody Allen at his best as he combines sex between cousins, Napoleon Bonaparte, and the grim reaper to create a film whose philosophical pontifications will simultaneously make you brood over life and wet your pants from laughter.
“Breathless”
(France, D: Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
Wednesday, Feb. 14, 8 p.m. $4
There is no better way to celebrate (or for most people avoid) Valentine’s Day than a trip to the movies. Written with the help of Truffaut, “Breathless” is Godard’s first film and marked the full force of the French New Wave, a trend in 1960s France cinema to play with classical film form and break from a culturally conservative paradigm. Following Jean-Paul Belmondo as man on the run, this film plays with style and narrative, and looks so good doing it. A film that Roger Ebert claims is the beginning of modern film as we know it.
“My Beautiful Laundrette”
(United Kingdom, D: Stephen Frears, 1985)
Thursday, Feb 15, 8 p.m. FREE
This film focuses on Pakistani Omar (Gordon Warnecke), who has just inherited a rundown Laundromat, and working-class punk Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis) who fall for each other. A benchmark in New Queer Cinema, “Laundrette” deals with racism, class struggle, and homosexuality in London in the 1980s.
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