47th Annual Film Festival

7 p.m.
Tuesday, September 8
Nanook of the North (1922)

Cornell Auditorium in Plaster Hall
Directed by Robert Flaherty
One of the earliest attempts to use cinema to take audiences into the life of a culture unfamiliar to many, Flaherty’s classic film tells the story of an Inuit hunter’s struggle to survive in Canada’s Hudson Bay region. It was, upon its release, a tremendous critical and commercial success.

7 p.m.
Tuesday, September 22
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner

(2002)

Cornell Auditorium in Plaster Hall
Directed by Zacharias Kunuk

The first full-length Inuit feature film, this epic follows the adventures of Atanarjuat, a young man known for his swiftness, who has to use all his resources to fight for the woman he loves, his life and his community, which has been cursed by an unknown shaman. The film moves deeply into mythic realms and was immediately hailed by many as a masterpiece.

7 p.m.
Tuesday, September 29
Black Robe

(1991)

Cornell Auditorium in Plaster Hall
Directed by Bruce Beresford

A young Jesuit priest, nicknamed “Black Robe” by his Algonquin Indian guides, is ordered to travel into the wilderness of 17th-century Canada to convert the Huron Indians. His harrowing journey leads to new understanding of himself, his faith and
the spirit of the land and people he seeks to convert.

7 p.m.
Tuesday, October 6
Kamouraska

(1974)

Cornell Auditorium (Plaster Hall)

Directed by FClaude Jutra
Noted French-Canadian director Claude Jutra ’s adaptation of the novel by a major novelist and poet, Anne Hébert, set in a remote region of early 19th-century Québec. The 1974 film centers on a woman’s memories of her life and relationships with three men, especially her oppressive marriage to one man and her passion for another.

7 p.m.
Thursday, October 8
32 Short Films About Glen Gould

(1993)

Cornell Auditorium (Plaster Hall)
Directed by François Girard

This innovative pseudo-documentary explores the life and art of the legendary Canadian pianist, Glenn Gould, sensitively and resourcefully portrayed by Colm Feore, from at least 32 intriguing perspectives. The soundtrack is filled with Gould playing Bach, Beethoven, Sibelius, Wagner, and Hindemith.

7 p.m.
Tuesday, October 13
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

(1974)

Cornell Auditorium (Plaster Hall)
Director Ted Kotcheff

Director Ted Kotcheff’s adaptation of the most widely known comic novel by the acclaimed Montréal writer Mordecai Richler, portrays the career of a young man on the make who will stop at nothing to acquire a large parcel of land in Québec’s Laurentian mountains. Starring Richard Dreyfuss in his first major role.

7 p.m.
Thursday, October 22
Jesus of Montréal (1989)

Cornell Auditorium (Plaster Hall)
Directed by Denys Arcand

As a band of actors undertake to modernize a Passion Play at a famous Montréal shrine, the roles they assume intriguingly begin to possess them, blurring the boundaries between their real lives and their lives onstage.

7 p.m.
Tuesday, November 3
Bon Cop, Bad Cop

(2006)

Cornell Auditorium (Plaster Hall)

Directed by Erik Canuel

When a corpse is found literally straddling the Ontario-Québec border, a fastidious Toronto police officer and his freewheeling French-speaking counterpart are forced to work together to track down a serial killer. In addition to being a compelling actionadventure film full of dark humor, the movie illuminates cultural differences and similarities in a constantly engaging way.

7 p.m.
Tuesday, November 10
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)

Cornell Auditorium (Plaster Hall)

Directed by Atom Egoyan
Outstanding, internationally acclaimed director Atom Egoyan’s haunting adaptation of the novel by Russell Banks traces an opportunistic lawyer’s investigation of a tragic school bus accident as it moves deeper and deeper into the lives and secrets of a small town. Starring Ian Holm and a cast of outstanding Canadian actors.

7 p.m.
Tuesday, November 17
Away from Her

(2007)

Cornell Auditorium (Plaster Hall)
Director Sarah Polley

Based on a short story by prize-winning Canadian author Alice Munro, director Sarah Polley’s film sensitively explores the gradually deepening and disturbing impact of Alzheimer’s disease on a couple who have been married for almost 50 years. The film features exquisite performances by Julie Christie and Gordon Pinset.

7 p.m.
Tuesday, March 2
Yesterday Girl

(Abschied von gestern)

(Germany, 1966)

Cornell Auditorium (Plaster Hall)
Alexander Kluge, one of the founders of the “Young German Cinema” movement, wrote and directed this film about an unruly heroine who gets into conflict with West German society after her escape from East Germany. Trying to break away from the hostility and misunderstanding of her parent’s generation, she discovers that conservatism and scarred memories thrive on both sides of the wall. “…Yesterday Girl summed up the aspirations of a generation….” (Olaf Moller, Sight and Sound). A nominee for the Golden Lion and winner of a Special Jury Prize at the 1966 Venice Festival.

7 p.m.
Tuesday, March 16
Hall
All My Good Countrymen (Vsichni dobri rodaci) (Czechosolvakia, 1968)

Cornell Auditorium (Plaster Hall)
Directed by Vojtech Jasny. This is one of the least-known wonders of the enormously creative Czech New Wave. A group of unforgettable characters in a small Moravian village endure major trauma following the socialization of Czechoslovakia. Completed barely before the Soviet invasion in 1968, it was immediately banned and never shown. Despite this, the film won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Festival and is praised as a work of great lyricism, humor and originality. Labeled “… a masterpiece …” (The New York Times). “The film and the milieu it so precisely evokes are not so much nostalgic as they are powerfully remembered and irrevocably lost….(it) reflects the curdled fury of a former true believer” (J. Hoberman, The Village Voice).

7 p.m.
Tuesday, March 30
Mother Joan of the Angels

(Matka Joanna od Aniolów)

(Poland, 1961)

Cornell Auditorium (Plaster Hall)
Directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz

This based-on-fact drama is set in a 17th-century Polish convent, where a priest investigates demonic possession among nuns. But he finds himself the object of the erotic cravings of the Mother Superior. Full of brilliant symbolism, director Jerzy Kawalerowicz weaves a powerful allegory of good vs. evil, chastity vs. eroticism. “A strange and absorbing film…the best of the new wave of Polish films to be seen here.” (Hollis Alpert, Saturday Review). Awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival.

7 p.m.
Tuesday, April 13
Electra, My Love (Szerelmem, Elektra) (Hungary, 1974)

Cornell Auditorium (Plaster Hall)
Miklos Jancso, one of the great political filmmakers, relocates the classic myth of Electra to a desolate Hungarian plain. The heroine partakes in an ancient ritual while awaiting her brother’s return before avenging their father’s murder. The film is shot as a visual epic, with elaborate camera movements that are Jancso’s famous signature. Labeled “Stunning” (Variety) and “Dazzling” (Sight and Sound). Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.