Selections from Mabee Library's Collection of Foreign Films in Four Parts

Part Three:


Character / Karakter (Dutch)
PN1997 .K37 2003

This dark drama from the Netherlands won the 1998 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Dreverhaven (Jan Decleir), the most ruthless and intimidating bailiff in Rotterdam, is brutally murdered, and a young attorney, Katadreuffe (Fedja Van Huet), is arrested in connection with the crime. Under questioning, the angry young lawyer reveals a hidden motive for the killing -- he is Dreverhaven's illegitimate son. Katadreuffe's mother, Joba (Betty Schuurman) had an affair with Dreverhaven but refused to marry him, preferring to raise her son on her own, despite her difficult economic circumstances. Eventually, Joba takes in a boarder, Jan Maan (Hans Kesting), and Jan becomes something of a father figure to the boy, urging him to improve himself and pursue new opportunities in business. As a young man, Katadreuffe takes Jan's advice to heart and obtains a bank loan to open a cigar shop. The shop soon fails, and Katadreuffe must negotiate terms with the bank to pay off his debt. The young man discovers that the bank is managed by Dreverhaven and learns that his father has no desire to help him. While obtaining legal advice on his problems with the bank, Katadreuffe becomes interested in the study of law, and after a great deal of struggle, he makes his way through law school and obtains a low-level position with a prominent legal firm. However, his father often appears along the way, berating Katadreuffe and convincing him that he's doomed for failure, until the young man becomes convinced that Dreverhaven controls his entire life and wants nothing more than to destroy him. Karakter was based on a novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk that was a major bestseller in the Netherlands. ~Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Age of Beauty / Belle Epoque (Spain)
PN1997 .B36424 2003

After striking responsive chord at the Berlin Film Festival, Fernando Trueba's Belle Epoque (aka Age of Beauty) went on to win 9 Spanish Goya awards and an Academy Award for "Best Foreign Film." Set in pre-Franco Spain, film stars Jorge Sanz as Fernando, a carefree, pacifistic army deserter. Wandering about the countryside, Fernando is welcomed into home of the wealthy Don Manolo (Fernando Fernan Gomez). Far from upset by the boy's AWOL status, Manolo is delighted because he shares Fernando's political philosophies. What follows is sheer heaven for the peaceloving lad, who sits smilingly on the sidelines as Manolo's four voluptuous daughters (Adrian Gil, Maribel Verdu, Miriam Diaz-Aroca, and Penelope Cruz) literally fight for his attentions. ~Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Criminal Life of Archibaldo De La Cruz / Ensayo de un Crimen (Spain)
PN1997 .E64 1993

This Mexican-filmed black comedy (distributed in the U.S. seven years after its initial 1955 release date) is one of the minor but no less characteristic works of director Luis Buñuel. The film begins with Archibaldo (Ernesto Alonso) being triggered by a music box into a lengthy reminiscence of his childhood. It was an average, everyday incident, one that undoubtedly has occurred to us all: Archibaldo was caught dressing up in his mother's clothes by his governess, who was then instantly killed by a revolutionary's bullet before she could tell on him. The experience proved to be Archibaldo's "first rush," and he spends the rest of his life trying to re-create the sexual euphoria of that moment -- by murdering attractive women. Buñuel's characteristic perverse black humor then adds a twist, which prevents Archibaldo from fulfilling his desires. Perverse, but darkly funny, Ensayo de un Crimen is a slyly shocking delight. ~Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Earth / Zemlia (Ukraine)
PN1997 .Z435 1991

Earth (AKA Zemlya) is the third of Soviet director Alexander Dovzhenko's "Ukraine tetralogy" (Zvenigora (1928), Arsenal (1929), and Ivan (1932) are the other films in the series). The story tells of a group of farmers in a Ukrainian village, who unite to purchase a tractor. The leader of the peasants is later killed by a kulak, or landowner, who dislikes any form of united front that might pose a threat to his long-established authority. The events fade into memory, but the long-ranging effects of the peasant "revolt"--like the Earth itself--last forever. ~Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Frida (Mexico)
PN1997 .F75 1997

Frida Kahlo was more than a mere Mexican artist. Crippled, Kahlo used her art to speak for other physically afflicted souls. She also was a controversial political figure, commiserating with the likes of Leon Trotsky and Diego Rivera. Directed by Paul Leduc and photographed by cinematographer Angel Goded, Frida features the artist portrayed by Ofelia Medina. In 2002, Kahlo's story would again be told in another film called Frida, with Salma Hayek in the lead role. ~Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Born in '45 / Jahrgang 45 (Germany)
PN1997 .J25 2000

Originally banned in 1966, director Jürgen Böttcher's sexually frank tale of love and disillusionment among two newlyweds attempting to navigate the treacherous world of marriage was never officially released in his homeland until after reunification in 1990. Trapped together in a tiny flat and stifled by their newfound lack of privacy and personal freedom, recently-married couple Albert and Lisa soon decide to divorce. As Albert drifts aimlessly through Berlin and Lisa attempts to cope with the failure of the marriage, all hope for the pair seems lost until the prospect for a reunion begins to emerge. ~Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Jacob the Liar / Jakob der Lügner (Germany)
PN1997 .J29 1999

The screenplay for this wartime tragi-comedy was written by Jurek Becker, a Jewish survivor of the concentration camps and the Warsaw Ghetto. When he could not get the script produced, he transformed it into a worldwide best-selling novel. This movie was produced about ten years after the screenplay was originally written. The story concerns a ghetto character, Jacob (Vlastimil Brodsky) who tells the others huddled there that the Russians are winning the war against the Germans and are advancing on Warsaw. How does he know? He says he has a radio hidden away, which, if true, could earn him immediate execution. In fact, there is no such radio, and his prediction (for such it is) is years ahead of events. When the Germans begin executing residents and shipping the rest to concentration camps, his lie is shown for what it is. Indeed, his best friend commits suicide as soon as he learns the truth. However, for a little while, Jacob the Liar kept hope alive in a hopeless situation. ~Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Beyond Silence / Jenseits der Stille (Germany)
PN1997 .J43 1999

A young woman struggles with her unusual relationship with her mother and father in this drama from Germany. Laura (Tatjana Trieb) is a bright young girl whose parents, Martin (Howie Seago) and Kai (Emmanuelle Laborit), are deaf and dumb. Living in a small town in Germany, where International Sign Language has long been frowned upon due to local superstitions, Martin and Kai have a great deal of difficulty communicating with others. However, Laura knows sign language as well as her parents, and she frequently acts as an interpreter between her parents and others, often missing school as a result (though when translating for her mother at a parent-teacher conference, Laura cleverly twists a poor evaluation in her favor). Laura is given a clarinet by her Aunt Clarissa (Sybille Canonica), but this inflames an old sibling rivalry in Martin, and he makes it clear to Laura that he does not approve of her study of music, a subject he cannot understand or take part in. Laura begins learning the instrument despite her father's wishes, and she soon develops a keen talent. Years later, teenaged Laura (now played by Sylvie Testud) is a gifted musician and is encouraged by her clarinet teacher to attend a conservatory in Berlin, where a scholarship can be arranged. Despite Martin's objections, Laura goes to Berlin with Kai's blessings. While studying in Berlin, Laura meets Tom (Hansa Czpionka), a young man who teaches hearing impaired children, and she finds herself enjoying both romance and independence for the first time. Sadly, Laura's good fortune goes south when tragedy strikes at home. Jenseits der Stille, released in the United States as Beyond Silence, received a 1997 Academy Award nomination as Best Foreign Language film. ~Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Germany in Autumn / Deutschland im Herbst (Germany)
PN1997 .D49 1996

This provocative film anthology contains nine short fiction and documentary films believed to have had great influence on the development of New German Cinema. Each of the five was directed by a different German filmmaker and are set during the politically tempestuous summer of 1977 in West Germany when terrorism ran rampant. Filmmakers include Fassbinder, Boll, Schlondorff, Sinkel, Kluge (who narrates) and more. ~Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Last Supper / La Ultima Cena (Cuba)
PN1997 .U43 1989

As indicated by the title, the Cuban The Last Supper (La Ultima Cena) has pronounced religious overtones--but not necessarily reverent ones. Based on a purportedly true incident, the film stars Nelson Allegra as an 18th century Cuban landowner. Allegra sees nothing wrong or unusual about keeping slaves, but he does worry about his status in The Next World. To this end, Allegra begins instructing his slaves in the edicts of Christianity, inviting a dozen of them to restage the Last Supper. Not even at the end does the hypocrisy of religiosity combined with forced servitude become obvious to the well-meaning Allegra. ~Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Selections from Mabee Library's Collection of Foreign Films in Four Parts

Part Two:


The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser (Germany)
PN1997 .M97 1993

Visionary New German Cinema director Werner Herzog's U.S. breakthrough, Jeder Fur Sich Und Gott Gegen Alle or The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser (1975) is a poignant, visually exquisite allegory of how civilization breeds despair. Based on a true story similar to the case in François Truffaut's The Wild Child (1970), Herzog's rendering of isolated, pre-verbal foundling Kaspar Hauser's release into the world as an adult reveals the perverse effects of "rational" thought and culture on natural, soulful innocence. While the painterly landscapes and lustrous dream images of deserts, mountains, lakes, and a golden, wind-swept field underline the beauty and wonder of the natural world outside his cellar, the limits imposed by language and the absurd urge to codify all experience become a "hard fall" to earth for the instinctually insightful and inadvertently threatening Kaspar. Along with Herzog's odd angles and compositions, former mental patient Bruno S.'s ethereal, evocatively affectless performance as Kaspar makes him both endearing and strange, emphasizing his impossible place in 19th century society. Enhancing Herzog's burgeoning reputation as an intense iconoclast after Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival and became an international success. ~Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

The Shop on Main Street / Obchod na Korze (Czechoslovakia)
PN1997 .O23 1965

On its initial release, The Shop on Main Street contained several ingredients that would make it an instant classic: it was a heartfelt drama about the effect of the Holocaust on two humble individuals, and a film made by Czechs who were dealing with a totalitarian regime of their own. The film can't help but be affecting, but it has lost some of its luster with the subsequent release of more complex studies of some of the same issues, namely Lacombe, Lucien, The Conformist, and Divided We Fall. And at 125 minutes, this simple story of a peasant who comes to understand belatedly the complicity he shares in the persecution of the Jews in his village, seems over-extended. Tono's fretting in the button shop as the roll of names is called in the town square outside seems to go on forever, and there's a crucial dramatic inconsistency: He should feel relieved when the name of his elderly friend, Rosalie Lautmann, isn't called. However, the film shouldn't be casually dismissed; both lead performers are superb, especially Ida Kaminska as Rosalie, and there is one bravura piece of camerawork, when Tono retreats to the back rooms of the shop and the camera prowls around each room until it "finds" him and he bolts to another room, where the process is repeated. ~Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Double Suicide / Shinji Ten No Amijima (Japan)
PN1997 .S474 2000

A landmark of modernist cinema, Double Suicide brilliantly recasts traditional bunraku conventions to a cinematic form that is visually stunning and emotionally riveting. Using his trademark graphic sensibility, director Masahiro Shinoda never allows viewers to forget that they're watching an adaptation of a play. Just as the black clad puppeteers are visible during traditional bunraku performances, so are they seen throughout this film as they hand props to the actors, move sets, and -- as if agents of fate -- guide the characters to their inevitable bloody end. The sets turn and break down like a kabuki stage while the walls and floors, blow-ups of voluptuous Edo-period woodblock and abstract calligraphy, threaten to overwhelm the characters completely. Both through Monzaemon Chikamatsu's narrative and Shinoda's deconstructed style, the film seems to push the two doomed lovers toward their destiny while tragically hinting at a world beyond this fate. Shima Iwashita delivers the finest and most honored performance of her long and illustrious career as both the courtesan Koharu and self-sacrificing wife Osan. A masterful example of modernist filmmaking on every level, Double Suicide pulls off a rare feat: a film that wears its self-conscious theatricality on its sleeve while still creating a drama that is emotionally compelling. ~Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Solaris (Russian)
PN1997 .S628 1991

Conceived partly as the anti-2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris (1972) weaves a hypnotic fable about love, humanity, and memory out of its science fiction premise. Reinstating the detritus of everyday existence absent from 2001's future vision, Tarkovsky's tracking shots and long takes reveal the space station's claustrophobia and decay; the beautiful early images of nature further underline the ugly, dehumanizing effects of technology. Shifts between color and black-and-white, an enticingly old-fashioned space station library, and the evocatively ambiguous ending interweave past and present, as pragmatist Kelvin's re-acquaintance with his dead wife, Khari, suggests the dramatic stakes of trying to erase the past . Regardless of the political message that could be inferred regarding the Soviet bureaucracy, Solaris was the rare Tarkovsky film that avoided extensive mandated edits and received a relatively normal U.S.S.R. release; it was, however, cut by 35 minutes by the American distributor in 1976. Restored to its original length in 1990, Solaris has garnered more and more fans for its cerebral yet rapturous inquiry into what it means to be human. ~Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

The Spirit of the Beehive / El Espiritu de la Colmena (Spain)
PN1997 .E73 1988

Widely regarded as a masterpiece of Spanish cinema, this allegorical tale is set in a remote village in the 1940s. The life in the village is calm and uneventful -- an allegory of Spanish life after General Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War. While their father (Fernando Fernán Gómez) studies bees in his beehive and their mother (Teresa Gimpera) writes letters to a non-existent correspondent, two young girls, Ana (Ana Torrent) and Isabel (Isabel Telleria), go to see James Whale's Frankenstein at a local cinema. Though they can hardly understand the concept, both girls are deeply impressed with the moment when a little girl gives a flower to the monster. Isabel, the older sister, tells Ana that the monster actually exists as a spirit that you can't see unless you know how to approach him. Ana starts wandering around the countryside in search of the kind creature. Instead, she meets an army deserter, who is hiding in a barn. The film received critical accolades for its subtle and masterful use of cinematic language and the expressive performance of the young Ana Torrent. ~Yuri German, All Movie Guide

Burnt by the Sun / Utomlennye Solntsem (Russia)
PN1997 .U84 1995

By the early '90s, it was finally possible for filmmakers working in the former Soviet Union to deal honestly with the horrors of the 1930s, when Stalin and his regime "reassessed" the contributions of many heroes of the Revolution, resulting in mass imprisonments and death for many millions. Nikita Mikhalkov's brilliant film about those dark days is ironically set at a sunny summer retreat where Serguei Petrovich Kotov (Mikhalkov), an officer who has been honored for his contributions to the success of the state, and his family are enjoying an idyllic summer's day. The film's deliberate pacing for a full half-hour (we might think we're watching the Russian equivalent of Renoir's Partie De Campagne) lulls the viewer into a false sense of serenity. When Dimitri, an old lover of Kotov's young wife and now a government official, arrives, Mikhalkov allows our suspicion that Dimitri's visit isn't merely personal to accumulate slowly. The film flirts with sentimentality, especially in casting Mikhalkov's real-life daughter as Kotov's irresistibly cute little girl, but after all, the filmmaker's goal is to show the toll that a repressive political regime can exact on the lives of individual citizens. ~Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

The Young and the Damned / Los Olvidados (Mexico)
PN1997 .O58 1996

Luis Buñuel was little more than a footnote in motion picture history for his two early surrealist films with Salvador Dali, Un Chien Andalou and l'Age d'or, when Los Olvidados boldly affirmed his status as a major international director. A brutal and unflinching look at the ugly circumstances of life for juvenile delinquents and runaways in Mexico City, Los Olvidados seems like the model for many "socially responsible" films about financially and spiritually underprivileged youth that appeared in the 1950s and 1960s, as it also looks back toward the Italian neo-Realism that had begun in the second half of the 1940s. But this is unmistakably the work of Buñuel, the arch cynic and surrealist, and if he casts a relatively kind eye on several of his young protagonists -- most notably the tragic Pedro (Alfonso Mejia), cast off from his family with nowhere to turn -- his view of the adult world is jaundiced beyond redemption (significantly, the most sinister and least sympathetic of the film's delinquents, Jaibo (Roberto Cobo), is also the oldest). In Buñuel's universe, mothers turn their backs on their sons and sleep with their friends, blind beggars play sexual games with young girls, wealthy men proposition young boys, and cripples are so venomous that one feels little or no sympathy for them when they're attacked. The film's sole compassionate adult, the warden of a juvenile home, is decent and caring but ineffectual, an easily surmounted obstacle to the corruption of the outside world. Punctuated by beautifully troubling dream sequences, Los Olvidados was first released in the United States as The Young and The Damned, and the title was apt, though Buñuel makes abundantly clear that if these young men have been condemned to hell, it is one that the adult world (and, implicitly, ourselves) have helped to build and maintain. ~Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Volga, Volga (Soviet Union)
PN1997 .V662 1996

First released in 1938, Volga Volga is typical of the escapist musical comedies churned out by Russian filmmaker Gregori Alexandrov. As usual, the film's star is Alexandrov's talented wife Lubov Orlova, here playing a blonde physical culturalist named Strelka. The hero is Byvalov (Igor Hinsky), an intinerant musical-instrument manufacturer who dreams of forming his own orchestra. The storyline leads hapharzardly to a climactic boat race on the Volga, during which Stelka and Byvalov pledge eternal love to one another. Most critics noted that director Alexandrov's principal inspiration seemed to be Mack Sennett's Keystone comedies. ~Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears / Moskva Sljesam Nje Jerit (Russia)
PN1997 .M77 2004

Moscow of the late '50s is the initial setting for this movie of three young girls out for love -- the upwardly mobile Lyuda (Irina Muravyova), the secure Tonya (Raisa Ryazanova) and the head-over-heels Katya (Vera Alentova). The film re-engages the trio 20 years later, focusing on their varied life changes. Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears received the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1980. ~John Bush, All Movie Guide

The Promise / Das Versprechen (Germany)
PN1997 .V478 1995

Two star-crossed lovers, separated by the Berlin wall for thirty years are reunited. The major events in their separate lives become the focus in this German political drama. The story begins in August 1961 as the Wall is being built. In Eastern Berlin a group of young adults plans their escape. Included in the group are Konrad and Sophie who has an aunt on the other side. It is the aunt who will sponsor the escapees. Escape will be the only way Konrad and Sophie will be able to stay together. Konrad is involved in a mishap en route and must remain in East Berlin. In 1968, the lovers at last get a chance to briefly meet in Prague. There they express their frustration and pain. At least there, in Prague they can find occasional happiness. Suddenly Russian tanks appear and destroy their new dream. 1980 comes. Sophie and Konrad have since married other people. Their next meeting is bittersweet as they look back upon their promise which was broken by circumstance, and by the decisions each lover had to make. ~Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Selections from Mabee Library's Collection of Foreign Films in Four Parts

Part One...


Z (France)
PN1997 .Z2 2002

Turning the events preceding the 1960s military junta in Greece into a kinetic political thriller, Costa-Gavras' Z (1969) is a cinematically compelling argument against state repression. In a story based on the assassination of pacifist Gregoris Lambrakis, Greek expatriate Costa-Gavras' French New Wave techniques create visual energy and documentary immediacy while humanizing the Lambrakis analogue (Yves Montand) and his wife (Irene Papas). Cinematographer Raoul Coutard's moving camera and location shooting pump up suspense as key witnesses are pursued by mysterious thugs; newsreel-style crowd scenes become threateningly chaotic, emphasizing the government's collusion in the assassination. The couple's flash-cut memories of their married life emphasize the personal loss inflicted in the name of "democracy." Despite the film's basis in fact, Costa-Gavras neither identifies the country nor gives names to the main characters, turning the story into a universal warning against the rise of totalitarianism. An international hit (though banned in Greece), and all the more relevant amid late-'60s cultural upheavals in the U.S. and France, Z won awards as Best Film of the Year from both the National and New York film critics groups and became the first film nominated for Oscars as both Best Picture and Best Foreign-Language Film. It won the latter, along with Best Editing. ~Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Babette's Feast / Babettes Gæstebud (Denmark)
PN1997 .B18 2001

The sophisticated and subtle screenplay for Babette's Feast, adapted by director Gabriel Axel, is based on a story written by Isak Dinesen, the writer memorably played by Meryl Streep in the biopic Out of Africa. In the film's first half, the emotional detachment of the pious characters is mirrored in the directorial approach, which allows the narrator to explain the matters before us, keeping us at a distance. When the feast begins, the narrator steps aside, Axel's direction becomes more evocative, and our participation becomes more active. Axel plays things low-key: his camera doesn't swoop or dance, but lingers lovingly over every aspect of the meal. The soundtrack includes some beautiful period music, but Axel mostly allows the sounds of the meal to become the symphony of the feast. Made out of humility and love, the feast is Babette's supreme artistic expression, and her hedonistic present encourages the feasters to look a little more closely at their own lives, as the magical and voluptuous feast dramatically counterpoints their puritanical existence. Babette's offering is a ritual sacrifice, intended to encourage the austere characters with the possibility that their material nourishment may provide spiritual sustenance as well. The film also contains a cultural context, as the political revolutions in 19th century Europe lead to Babette's displacement and the resultant cultural blending of Babette's southern European Catholic sensuality with sober northern European Protestantism. Their pact, to say nothing about the magnificence of the feast, ironically reveals the ineffable truth that Babette's artistic expression of love cannot be properly praised with words. Like the guests' spiritual values, it exists on a higher plane, where simple acts of generosity can erase personal prejudices. The film leaves us with a haunting echo of the roads not taken, as the characters must ponder the paths they have chosen and ask themselves: have they made the most of their gifts? Babette's Feast won several major awards, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and the British BAFTA Award for Best Film of 1987. ~Dan Jardine, All Movie Guide

Hidden Fortress / Kakushi Toride No San Akunin (Japan)
PN1997 .K345 2001

Kurosawa's light adventure is probably best known as one of the primary inspirations for George Lucas' Star Wars (1977), but it's a masterful entertainment in its own right. Toshiro Mifune stars as a famous general who uses a couple of clownish peasants to help him transport a gold shipment and a volatile young princess through enemy territory. The film was the pioneering effort of the Japanese film industry in the use of the widescreen ratio, and, in a sense, Kurosawa's brilliantly supple deployment of the process is the star of the film. Especially in the early sequences in the prison and the quarry, the director achieves extraordinary effects of mass and scale as he suggests the smallness of the squabbling peasants and the stature of General Rokurota. He also uses the available space to spread the characters as far as he can, expressing the common distrust that is, at times, the only emotion these four very differently motivated characters share. Kurosawa has often suggested to his actors that they imagine themselves as various animals in an effort to elicit a more overtly physical performance, and that seems to be the case here, as the slightly exaggerated ensemble acting style enhances the humor of a film that is sometimes reminiscent of an early silent. Mifune, a virtuoso of physical acting, did all his own stunts, the most impressive being a horse-mounted pursuit while swinging a sword. Like Star Wars, the film has something of the quality of a fairy tale, one which can be appreciated both by children and adults. ~Michael Costello, All Movie Guide

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Faat-Kine (Senegal)
PN1997 .F3 2000

A movie brimming with wisdom and energy, Faat-Kine offers a knowing appraisal of the state of the Senegalese nation as well as a delightful portrait of the country's middle-class. Directed by Ousmane Sembene, considered by many critics to be the dean of African cinema, Faat-Kine features a winning performance by Venus Seye as the movie's heroine, a single mother who leads a happy, successful life despite the numerous setbacks she has encountered. More than anything else, the movie is a platform for Sembene's message of personal responsibility and social uplift. In offering a plot that follows the pedestrian affairs of daily life, Sembene connects his grand pronouncements on Senegalese society to the familiar. Reflecting his desire to communicate his politics clearly, Sembene's camerawork is admirably simple and economical, refusing to call attention to itself. The result is a movie of high social ambition that remains accessible and unpretentious throughout. Though Faat-Kine verges occasionally into didacticism, the movie never loses its equanimity and is never less than likable. Anchored by an appealing central performance and Sembene's sagacity, Faat-Kine is of a rare breed: a message movie that oozes good humor. ~Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide

Oblomov (Russia)
PN1997 .N47 1998

Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov takes a break from emulating his beloved Chekhov to film the classic Ivan Goncharov novel Oblomov. The title character (played by Oleg Tabakov) is a 19th century Russian civil servant and landlord who chooses to go to bed one day--and never get up. Preferring to sleep his way through life rather than confront it, Oblomov is shaken from his slumbers by the arrival of a childhood friend Shtoltz. A series of flashbacks show why it is that this friend's presence gets Oblomov out of his 'jammies and back on his feet. Also known as A Few Days in the Life of I. I. Oblomov, this sprightly film is an excellent early example of the work of the director who would win a 1994 Oscar for his Burnt by the Sun. ~Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Secrets of the Heart / Secretos Del Corazón (Spain)
PN1997 .S322 2000

A young boy's fascination with the deaths of several people close to him spark his growth from boyhood in this Spanish drama from writer-director Montxo Armendáriz. The hometown of nine-year-old Javi (Andoni Erburu and his brother Juan (Alvaro Nagone) is a rural farming village in the early 1960s. Their father, they are told, accidentally killed himself while cleaning his gun, and the room where the death occurred has been declared off limits to the boys. Juan tells his younger brother that ghostly sounds can be heard in the room, but when Javi sneaks in and hears the unearthly moans, it's really the sound of their mother making love with their uncle Tio (Carmelo Gomez). Javi's friend Carlos (Inigo Garces) has also suffered the loss of a parent, his mother, who committed suicide. Javi and Carlos sneak into a haunted house, also rumored to be a site where spectral sounds can be heard, and they overhear something in the basement. His adventures inspire Javi to question the deaths of his father and Carlos' mother, leading to a revelation. Secretos del Corazon (1997) was the winner of four Goya Awards, as well as an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. ~Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

L'Enfant Noir (Guinea)
PN1997 .E63 1995

This unique French-Guinean drama is adapted from the 1953 autobiographical novel by Guinean author Camara Laye and features in its cast actual members of the author's family. It is set in French-ruled Guinea and centers on the adolescent Baba who lives with his family on the banks of the Niger River. But for Baba's tendency to get in trouble with his mother, Kouda, for hanging out with his friends after dark, he and his family are close and very happy. Wanting for his son to have a better life, Baba's father, Madou, decides to send the youth to boarding school; Baba is nervous about the prospect, but dutifully goes to the coastal city, Conakry where he is alternately exhilarated and bewildered by city life. The prospect of learning French and other lessons is at first daunting, but with the help of his middle-class uncle Moussa and his family, Baba learns to adjust. After experiencing the highs and lows of his new life for a year, Baba finally returns to his village a mature young man. ~Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Official History / La Historia Oficial (Argentina)
PN1997 .H576 2004

This is an emotionally gripping, fictional look at a couple torn apart by the infamous Argentine campaign of killings and torture that sent thousands of accused terrorists to unmarked graves in the mid-and late-'70s. Alicia (Norma Aleandro) and Roberto (Hector Alterio) adopted a little girl (Analia Castro) during this period of governmental terror in Argentina. Alicia has always wondered about the parents of their little girl, a topic her husband has forced her into forgetting as a condition of the adoption -- he alone knows the full story. Thanks to censorship, Alicia -- like others -- is not fully aware of how much killing has gone on until her students at school start complaining that their textbook histories were written by murderers. Add to this a long conversation with a friend who had been in exile after she was tortured by the government, and Alicia starts to do some serious political and personal research on her own. The results reveal the identity of the little girl's dead parents and reveal that Alicia's husband has had a nasty hand in the government repression and dirty dealings with foreign businesses. She also learns the identity of the girl's grandmother. Her next decision will determine what to do with this information. ~Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The Bicycle Thief / Ladri di Biciclette (Italy)
PN1997 .L27 1998

Though not the first Italian Neo-Realist film seen outside of Italy (or even Vittorio De Sica's first Neo-Realist work), The Bicycle Thief (1948) is considered the seminal film of the movement, alongside Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City (1945). Following the guiding Neo-Realist precept of drawing stories from the daily life of post-war Italy, De Sica and writer Cesare Zavattini carefully interweave a wider view of Italian culture with a portrait of the bond between a father and son, revealing the impact of poverty and bureaucratic absurdities on one of many struggling families. Shooting on location with non-professional actors in the two leads (well-coached by actor De Sica), De Sica's mobile camera transforms moments of Antonio's odyssey into poetic images of isolation and despair, while never losing sight of the gritty hardships of quotidian experience. An even greater international sensation than his first Neo-Realist film (Shoeshine (1946)), The Bicycle Thief earned a special Oscar for Best Foreign Film and became a signature work for a movement that also included Bitter Rice (1948), Luchino Visconti's La Terra Trema (1948), and De Sica's Umberto D. (1952). Inspiring filmmakers across the world as an alternative to expensive Hollywood fantasy, The Bicycle Thief revealed the potential power of combining local concerns with an unflinching cinematic style. ~Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

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Macario (Mexico)
PN1997 .M253 1998

B. Traven, the reclusive author of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, used an old Mexican folk tale as the basis for his novel The Third Guest. The book was in turn adapted for film as Macario. Ignacio Tarso plays a poverty-stricken peasant who goes on a hunger strike, hoping that someone will take pity on him and give him a turkey dinner. Torres' wife Pina Pellecier steals a turkey, and just as Torres is about to wolf down his food, he is visited by Death (Enrique Lucerio). The grim reaper offers to bestow magical powers upon Torres in exchange for part of the meal. Torres is gifted with the ability to restore health to sick people, but he is permitted to utilize this gift only upon persons of Death's choosing. At first, Torres is lauded as a hero, but before long he is being shunned as an instrument of Satan. Torres' last-ditch effort to redeem himself causes him to renege on his bargain with Death--and you know what that means. ~Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mabee Library's Collection of Sci-Fi Classics

Here are a few films from Mabee Library's science-fiction collection. Stop by the library to check them out or to find others!


2001: A Space Odyssey
PN1997 .T96 1994

A mind-bending sci-fi symphony, Stanley Kubrick's landmark 1968 epic pushed the limits of narrative and special effects toward a meditation on technology and humanity. Based on Arthur C. Clarke's story The Sentinel, Kubrick and Clarke's screenplay is structured in four movements. At the Dawn of Man, a group of hominids encounters a mysterious black monolith alien to their surroundings. To the strains of Strauss' Thus Spoke Zarathustra, a hominid discovers the first weapon, using a bone to kill prey. As the hominid tosses the bone in the air, Kubrick cuts to a 21st century spacecraft hovering over the Earth, skipping ahead millions of years in technological development only to imply that man hasn't advanced very far at all psychologically. U.S. scientist Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) travels to the moon to check out the discovery of a strange object on the moon's surface: a black monolith. As Floyd touches the mass, however, a piercing sound emitted by the object stops his fellow investigators in their path. Cutting ahead 18 months, impassive astronauts David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) head toward Jupiter on the space ship Discovery, their only company three hibernating astronauts and the vocal, man-made HAL 9000 computer running the entire ship. When the all-too-human HAL malfunctions, however, he tries to murder the astronauts to cover his error, forcing Bowman to defend himself the only way he can. Free of HAL, and finally informed of the voyage's purpose by a recording from Floyd, Bowman journeys to "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite," through the psychedelic slit-scan star-gate to an 18th century room, and the completion of the monolith's evolutionary mission. With assistance from special effects expert Douglas Trumbull, Kubrick spent over two years meticulously creating the most "realistic" depictions of outer space ever seen, greatly advancing cinematic technology for a story expressing grave doubts about technology itself. Despite some initial critical reservations that it was too long and too dull, 2001 became one of the most popular films of 1968, underlining the generation gap between young moviegoers who wanted to see something new and challenging and oldsters who "didn't get it." Provocatively billed as "the ultimate trip," 2001 quickly caught on with a counterculture youth audience open to a contemplative (i.e. chemically enhanced) viewing experience of a film suggesting that the way to enlightenment was to free one's mind of the U.S. military-industrial-technological complex. ~Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

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Alien
PN1997 .A32 1997

Combining science fiction with horror, Swiss artist H.R. Giger's alien design and Carlo Rambaldi's visual effects creepily meld technology with corporeality, creating a claustrophobic environment that is coldly mechanical yet horribly anthropomorphized, like the metallic monster itself. Director Ridley Scott keeps the alien out of full view, hiding it in the dark or camouflaging it in the workings of the Nostromo. Signs of '70s cultural upheaval permeate Alien's future world, from the relationship between corporate capitalism and rapacious monstrosity to the heterogeneous crew and Ripley's forceful horror heroine. The intense frights and gross-outs, however, are credited with making Alien one of the biggest hits of 1979 (it premiered on the two-year anniversary of Star Wars); Giger, Rambaldi, et al. won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Alien went on to spawn three genre-bending sequels (and reconditioned Ripleys): exceptional '80s actioner Aliens (1986), dark prison drama Alien 3 (1992), and exotically grotesque Alien Resurrection (1997). With its atmospheric isolation, implacable monster, and whiff of social conscience, Alien stands as one of the more thoughtful yet utterly terrifying horror films of the 1970s. ~Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

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Blade Runner
PN1997 .B562 1999

Critics and audiences didn't care for it in 1982, but Ridley Scott's Blade Runner has since risen from cult object to classic of postmodern science fiction. A dystopian view of the future as a decaying, nostalgia-ridden junk culture, it features enormous neon billboards, ad blimps, and soaring Mayan temple-esque skyscrapers, evoking an infernal consumer society divided between those divinely living in the clouds and the multi-cultural exploited masses inhabiting the permanently dank streets. Only the robot "skin job" replicants understand the value of life and freedom. As Deckard's search for the replicants becomes a philosophical rumination on man, machine, and life, Blade Runner's striking production design and visual effects (supervised by FX maestro Douglas Trumbull) underline the cost to humanity of technology-obsessed late capitalism. Blade Runner's increasing stature merited the 10th anniversary release of the "Director's Cut," which rendered the film even more evocatively ambiguous by adding a brief unicorn dream and eliminating the studio-mandated voice-over narration and tacked-on "happy" ending. ~Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

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The Day the Earth Stood Still
PN1997 .D39 1998

At a time when science fiction on film had yet to work itself out of its bug-eyed monsters period, The Day the Earth Stood Still was a dramatic step forward for the genre. Intelligently written and directed, well-crafted, and boasting a top-notch cast in good form, it was a class act all the way, as well as one of the first Hollywood films to take the idea of extra-terrestrial visitors seriously (if not as a practical reality, at least as an interesting metaphor). Klaatu, as played by Michael Rennie, was that rare alien invader who wanted to save us from ourselves, and Rennie gives the character an intelligence, compassion, and strength that make him seem a lot more human than many of the Earthlings he encounters, while Sam Jaffe, Patricia Neal, and Billy Gray manage to prove that not all the Earth people are violent, brain-dead slobs. Director Robert Wise and his crew create an admirable sense of tension and awestruck wonder in the wake of Klaatu's arrival (many later films with higher budgets failed to capture the magic of the spaceship landing in Washington D.C. or the towering mystery of Klaatu's robot assistant Gort), and, at a time when Cold War paranoia was at its height, The Day the Earth Stood Still carried a strong pro-disarmament message that was quite brave for its day. The film's message remains pertinent today, and, as entertainment, its intelligence, warmth, and solid filmcraft make it an enduring classic of its kind. ~Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers
PN1997 .I58 1988

Though it was an inexpensive production for B-movie studio Allied Artists, Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) is a class-A 1950s science fiction allegory about the fragility of inner passion. With Siegel's matter-of-fact approach and "ordinary" small town setting and characters, the story about human possession by unexplained alien pods becomes all the more frightening; though the pods are from elsewhere, the "monsters" assume human faces. While the pods have often been seen as a Cold War sci-fi metaphor for Communist infiltration of American society, they are an equally compelling symbol of soul-deadening 1950s suburban conformity. Siegel himself liked to assert that the Hollywood studios were filled with pods; and when Allied Artists saw Siegel's bleak ending, they demanded a prologue and epilogue that added an element of hope. The "Siegel version" of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, however, was seen in Europe and "underground" American screenings, before the 1979 reissue officially deleted the studio-mandated additions. Though it has been remade twice, in 1978 by Philip Kaufman and 1994 by Abel Ferrara, Siegel's tightly constructed, black-and-white version remains the best adaptation of the Jack Finney story. The movie also features a cameo appearance by Siegel assistant Sam Peckinpah. ~Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

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