45th Annual Film Festival

Sept. 5
Vagabond
(Sans toit ni loi)
(France, 1985)

Directed by Agnes Varda. This is an unforgettable portrait of the life and death of a young woman who has become a vagrant and beggar in the rural French countryside.

Sept. 12
Hate (La Haine)
(France, 1995)

Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. This unblinkingly powerful drama is the searing portrait of a trio of alienated youths from different ethnic backgrounds, living in a poor Paris suburb.

Sept. 14
The Dreamlife of Angles
(La Vie revee des anges)
(France, 1998)

Directed by Erick Zonca. This is a poignant, riveting story of two young working class women who become roommates and share the joys and heartbreaks of friendship.

Sept. 26
Daybreak (Le Jour se leve)
(France, 1939)

Directed by Marcel Carne. Jean Gabin gives a flawless performance as a sensitive man who commits a crime of passion. An award-winning, remarkable cinematic achievement.

Oct. 3
Diabolique
(Les Diaboliques)
(France, 1955)

Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. This famous, influential thriller about a murder plot, has lots of surprises as its suspense builds to an explosive climax. A masterpiece of steadily escalating terror.

Oct. 10
Jules and Jim
(Jules et Jim)
(France, 1961)

Directed by Francois Truffaut. This is a memorable tale of three people in love, and how the years affect their interrelationships. An innovative film of rare beauty and charm.

Oct. 17
Masculine-Feminine
(Masculin feminin)
(France, 1966)

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Here Godard explores adolescence, sexuality, and political protest in the dynamic context of the Sixties’ “generation of Marx and Coca-Cola.”

Oct. 31
La Cage aux folles
(France, 1979)

Directed by Edouard Molinaro. An aging gay couple must pass as straight for a night. What results is a hilarious comedy and a touching, sensitive story.

Nov. 14
Le Trou (The Hole)
(France, 1960)

Directed by Jacques Becker. This beautifully detailed, based-on-fact thriller about an attempted prison break features outstanding performances by non-professionals in real locations.

Nov. 28
Colonel Chabert
(France, 1994)

Directed by Yves Angelo. Believed to be dead, Gerard Depardieu brilliantly portrays a Napoleonic war hero who is determined to re-establish his name.

Feb. 20, 2007
Love (Szerelem)
(Hungary, 1971)

The filmmaker Karoly Makk created this skillful blend of politics and drama. It is the story of a political prisoner’s sick mother, played by the famed Lili Darvis, and his wife, played by Mari Torocsik, both of whom await his return from jail. These actresses were runners-up for the 1973 Best Actress award from the National Society of Film Critics. The film won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes and was among the best films listed by both Time magazine and The New York Times.

March 6, 2007
The Battle of the Rails
(La Bataille du Rail)
(France, 1945)

Directed by Rene Clement, this remarkable and courageous film was completed during the final months of World War II under extremely dangerous conditions. Using a cast of non-professionals, Clement followed railway workers who resisted the Nazis on many fronts. Shot in a gritty, semi-documentary style, it has been compared to Roberto Rossellini’s neorealist masterpiece Open City but, due to poor distribution it remained in obscurity until it was recently rediscovered and restored.

March 20
Distant Journey
(Daleka cesta)
(Czechoslovakia, 1949)

Banned for decades, this rediscovered classic is one of the first films to deal with the Holocaust. It follows the struggles of Dr. Hannah Kaufman and her family from the time of the Nazi Occupation of Prague to her experiences in the transit camp of Theresienstadt (modern Terezin). Director Alfred Radok skillfully weaves together documentary-style footage with expressionist dramatic sequences to convey both the reality of history and the nightmare of its impact.

April 3
Conflagration (Enjo)
(Japan, 1958)

This stark drama, based on a true story, is about a student with a tumultuous background who tries to become a monk at a cherished temple. His innocence does not prepare him for the pervasive corruption he finds there and, in a desperate act, he makes a plea for fiery purity. Directed by Kon Ichikawa, the film is especially remarkable for its breathtaking visual style with overlapping planes and textures that film author Donald Ritchie termed “beyond comparison—even for Japan.”