Foreign Film Series
Starting its fifth season, the Foreign Film Series provides the Cedarville community an opportunity to view interesting and challenging films from around the world and to peer into often unfamiliar cultures through the eyes of the cultures themselves.
Bon Voyage
France/Farce
Tuesday, September 9th, 7:30 p.m., CBTS 104
» View IMDB Entry
» Rotten Tomatoes (77% fresh)
At the start of World War II, the fate of the free world hangs in the balance at the posh Hotel Splendide in Bordeaux. Cabinet members, journalists, physicists, and spies of all persuasions gather in order to escape the Nazi occupation of Paris. High society socialites hobnob with jailbirds. Murderous intrigues, scientific secrets and double-dealings flourish.
Isabelle Adjani, Gérard Depardieu, Virginie Ledoyen, Yvan Attal, Grégori Derangè, Peter Coyote
Directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau
Sony Pictures Classics, Rated PG-13, 114 minutes
"Are you ready for a World War II, romantic, murder-in-Act-One, escape-from-the-Nazis, French farce? If so, "Bon Voyage" pretty much fills the bill."
--Brandon Judell, New York Theatre Wire
"This is a nonstop, peripatetic, neo Hitchcockian farce imaginatively directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau, immeasurably aided by wonderful music by Gabriel Yared. "
--Tony Medley, tonymedley.com
"It melds lush period visuals, winning acting and the presence of some true screen legends into an engagingly watchable film."
--Matt Welsh, Dallis Morning News
"A genre piece full of great actors and fabulous scenery, a rousing, full-blooded entertainment that uses serious themes and events mostly for pure pleasure. "
--Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
Persepolis
Iran/Animated Drama
Tuesday, October 7th, 7:30 p.m., CBTS 104
» View IMDB Entry
» Rotten Tomatoes (97% fresh)
Persepolis is the poignant story of a young girl in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It is through the eyes of precocious and outspoken nine-year-old Marjane that we see a people’s hopes dashed as extremists take power—forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousands. Clever and fearless, she outsmarts the “social guardians” and discovers punk. Yet when her uncle is senselessly executed and as bombs fall around Tehran in the Iran/Iraq war, the daily fear that permeates life in Iran is palpable.
As she grows older, Marjane’s boldness causes her parents to worry over her continued safety. And so, at age fourteen, they make the difficult decision to send her to school in Austria. Vulnerable and alone in a strange land, she endures the typical ordeals of a teenager. Over time, she gains acceptance, and even experiences love, but after high school she finds herself alone and horribly homesick.
Though it means putting on the veil and living in a tyrannical society, Marjane decides to return to Iran to be close to her family. After a difficult period of adjustment, she enters art school and marries, all the while continuing to speak out against the hypocrisy she witnesses. At age 24, she realizes that while she is deeply Iranian, she cannot live in Iran. She then makes the heartbreaking decision to leave her homeland for France, optimistic about her future, shaped indelibly by her past.
Based on the graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi
Directed by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi
Sony Picture Classics, Rated PG-13, 95 minutes
"More than just the first film in recent memory to be considered a must-see, Persepolis begs for a second viewing, if only to chart the way it so delicately weaves together the different stages of Marjane's life."
--John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press
"The story's greatest value lies in its elegant twining of the universal and the obscure: Satrapi's coming-of-age should be familiar to all, but along with it come startling glimpses of everyday life under the heavy hand of a Muslim theocracy."
--J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader
"It might seem that her story is too large for one 98-minute film, but Persepolis tells it carefully, lovingly and with great style. It is infinitely more interesting than the witless coming-of-age Western girls we meet in animated films."
--Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"With its powerful fusion of the whimsical, satirical and emotional, Persepolis may well be the most original, inventive and moving film of the year."
--Claudia Puig, USA Today
"Any stragglers still unconvinced that animation can be an exciting medium for both adults and kids will run out of arguments in the face of Persepolis."
--Lisa Neeselson, Variety
Water
India/Drama
Thursday, November 6th, 7:30 p.m., CBTS 104
» View IMDB Entry
» Rotten Tomatoes (91% fresh)
From the courageous and provocative filmmaker Deep Mehta comes Water, the compelling story of India’s “widow houses,” where women of all ages are taken to live (even today) apart from society following the deaths of their husbands. The film follows three widows who dared to stand up for themselves in the liberating time of Mahatma Gandhi.
Seven years in the makin, Water was nearly undone by fierce political controversy when the films India-based production triggered violent protests by Hindu sects and was forced to shut down and remount the production years later, under a shroud of secrecy in neighboring Sri Lanka.
“After making Water, I feel I could retire. That is how satisfied I am,” Mehta said at the film’s debut.
Lisa Ray, John Abraham
Directed by Deepa Mehta
Fox Searchlight Pictures, Rated PG-13, 117 minutes
"Ebbs and flows with devastating truths and profound insights into the hypocrisy of extremism in any religion."
--Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Below its surface, Water isn't about religion, politics or even India. It's about timeless and universal divides between people, when humanity is eclipsed by self-serving subjugation."
--Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle
"Mehta has concocted a potent mix of politics, historical conflict, religion and philosophical questioning. "
--Susan Walker, Toronto Star
"Reminds us that Mehta is a filmmaker of courage -- she refused to abandon this film even after fundamentalist protestors shut down the production in India -- and singular style, telling stories that have never been told on screen."
--Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press
"Quite possibly the best picture of the year thus far, with no fewer than three of the most luminous female performances I have ever seen onscreen."
--Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
"It is superb and strange at once, a discreet and self-disciplined attack dog of a movie."
--Stephen Hunter, Washington Post
