German Film Festival

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 4, 2008
Harrison Kash (417) 625-9614

 

JOPLIN, MO (SNS) -Tthe German Film Festival, slated for Missouri Southern State University during the fall 2008 semester will include acclaimed classic and contemporary films. The films are being featured as part of activities surrounding the "Germany Semester" which will also include lectures, live musical performances and other events.

 

No admission is charged. The films are open to the public.

Films for the German Film Festival and the International Film Festival, which will resume after the beginning of the new year, are as follows:

Thursday, August, 28, 9 p.m., Dormitory Courtyard
Run Lola Run (Lola rennt) (1998)
Directed by Tom Tykwer. A tension packed suspense film which follows what happens when the title character hears that her boyfriend’s life is threatened if he cannot deliver mislaid drug money. “… (a) fabulously kinetic German movie…it pulsates with its own originality” (Desson Howe, Washington Post)

Thursday, September 11, 2:30 p.m., Webster Hall Auditorium
Goodbye, Lenin! (2003)
Directed by Wolfgang Becker. Before the fall of the Berlin wall, a young dissident’s pro-Communist mother slips into a coma and awakens to a world that has changed beyond recognition. Knowing the shock might kill her, he tries to keep the change a secret. A lively and poignant satire.

Thursday, September 11, 7 p.m., Webster Hall Auditorium
The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) (2006)
Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. In 1984 East Germany, the Stasi secret police try to create files of every citizen, especially opponents of the ruling party. A Stasi operative, conducting surveillance of a writer and his lover, becomes absorbed by their lives. Winner of the Best Foreign Film Academy Award.

Tuesday, September 23, 7 p.m., Cornell Auditorium
Metropolis (1927)
Directed by Fritz Lang. This is a new restoration of one of the most famous of all silent films and science fiction films. Set in a futuristic city whose populace is segregated between the idle ruling class and the dehumanized workers, it is still unsurpassed in special effects and pictorial composition.

Tuesday, October 7, 7 p.m., Cornell Auditorium
The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel) (1981)
Directed by Volker Schlondorff. This is an epic drama about the rise and fall of Nazi Germany as seen through the eyes of a young boy who ceases growing in order to ignore the horrors around him, venting his rage through a toy drum. Winner of the Best Foreign Film Academy Award.

Thursday, October 9, 9 p.m., Dormitory Courtyard
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari) (1919)
Directed by Robert Wiene. Called the ancestor of horror films, this famous work of German Expressionist cinema is the tale of a hypnotist who uses a somnambulist to murder people. The performances and extraordinary set design make it as powerful today as it was in 1919.

Thursday, October. 16, 7 p.m., Cornell Auditorium
East of War (Jenseits des Krieges)
Directed by Ruth Beckermann (1996). During an exhibition about World War II atrocities, former soldiers talk about their experiences with an immediacy and power to move rarely found in historical documents or portrayals. Winner of the Cinema du Reel Special Jury and Library Prize.

Tuesday, October 21, 7 p.m., Cornell Auditorium
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Angst essen Seele auf) (1974)
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. This moving romance between an aging cleaning lady and an inarticulate Arab mechanic is a perverse comedy and biting drama of racial prejudice. Awarded the International Critics Prize at Cannes and described by critic Archer Winston as “the surprise of the century.”

Tuesday, November 11, 7 p.m., Cornell Auditorium
Beyond Silence (Jenseits der Stille) (1996)
Directed by Carolyn Link. A young girl has to choose between communicating for her deaf-mute parents and a chance to become a musician. Winner for Best Picture honors at the 1997 Tokyo International Film Festival and for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1998 Academy Awards.

Tuesday, November 25, 7 p.m., Cornell Auditorium
Joyeux Noël (Happy Christmas) (2005)
Directed by Christian Carion. Based on a true story, this film recreates a miraculous Christmas Eve truce during World War I where German, French and Scottish troops venture into No Man’s Land to bury their dead, enjoy music and play games. Nominations include the Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA.

CONTINUING SERIES

Tuesday, February 24, 7 p.m., Cornell Auditorium
The Mad Adventures of “Rabbi” Jacob (Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob) (France, 1973)
This zany farce, directed by Gerard Oury and starring Louis de Funes, has moments of slapstick that is reminiscent of the very best silentscreen comedy. A racist, anti-Semitic businessman unwittingly stumbles upon a group of Arab terrorists and, in order to hide from them, he disguises himself as a rabbi and is mistaken for the beloved Rabbi Jacob, who hasn’t been in France for decades. Nominated for a best Foreign Film Golden Globe. “One of the funniest movies from any country” (Box-office magazine).

Tuesday, March 10, 7 p.m., Cornell Auditorium
...And Give My Love to the Swallows (…a pozdravuji vlastovky) (Czechoslovakia, 1972)
The acclaimed Czech New Wave filmmaker Jaromil Jires directed this true story of Maruska Kuderikova, a young Moravian girl who became a national hero when she joined the Czech Resistance during World War II and was arrested and executed during the Nazi occupation. Kuderikova chronicled her experience as a prisoner in her diary but was optimistic for the humanity of her captors and did not by any means hate them. Jires transformed her story into an uplifting tale of sacrifice for the sake of a better life and future. “A powerful and moving work” (International Film Guide).

Tuesday, March 24, 7 p.m., Cornell Auditorium
Bad Luck (Zezowate szczescie) (Poland, 1960)
Director Andrzej Munk’s acclaimed anti-heroism satire follows a hapless Polish everyman named Jan from 1930 to 1950, through some of the worst atrocities in history without compassion and ready to be used indiscriminately by anyone who offers him any form of reward. We watch him from his childhood to his first love and his unwilling involvement in politics during the Stalinist period, trying and failing to please those around him and finally deciding the safest place for him to live is prison.

Tuesday, April 7, 7 p.m., Cornell Auditorium
Christ Stopped at Eboli (Cristo si e fermato a Eboli) (Italy, 1979)
This award-winning drama, directed by Francesco Rosi, is based on a memoir by the writer, painter and physician Carlo Levi, of his experience in a remote village in southern Italy, to which he was exiled by Mussolini in 1935 for his anti-Fascist political activities. Gian Maria Volonte portrays Levi, who discovers the ignorance, oppressed state and indifference of the peasant settlers to social issues and to the unjustified invasion of Ethiopia. Rosi offers an authentic but moving story against a historical backdrop, stunningly photographed in rich detail.

The Film Society at Missouri Southern, founded in 1962, is a unique cultural organization which presents significant cinema from around the world. Since 2003, as an activity of themed-semesters, representative national films are shown.

 

The Society’s continuing offerings, which emphasize significant lesser-known films that were neglected or underrated, are shown in the spring of 2009. Included are cinema treasures that have been rediscovered, restored and transferred to DVD format. As in the past, program notes are distributed to promote greater perception and encourage film appreciation.

Film showings will be at three locations as indicated on the campus of Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Mo.. For more information call (417) 625-9614 or visit www.mssu.edu/film/filmhome.htm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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