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| June 2007 |
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Archive
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Vol.
1, No. 3
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Pan's
Labyrinth, directed by Guillermo del Toro
(in Spanish with English subtitles)
During the Spanish Civil War, when the forces of
Franco are systematically eliminating the Republicans,
young Ofelia journeys with her mother to the distant
countryside to join her stepfather, a sadistic captain in
Franco's army. There, in her new home, Ofelia enters not
only the horrors of the war but also an exquisite fantasy
world of mazes, fauns, monsters, and three challenges, which
she faces with courage and tenacity. Is this all in
Ofelia's imagination, or is there truly a fantasy world
in the stone labyrinth in the garden?
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Sansho the
Bailiff, directed
by Kenji Mizoguchi
(in Japanese with English subtiltes)
This classic Japanese film, made in 1954, has been
newly released on DVD and made availble to viewers at long
last. Based on a story by Ogai Mori and that, in turn,
on a folk legend, the film focuses on a family's travails
through years of tragedy. In 11th-century Japan, a
woman searches for her exiled husband. She is separated
from her children, who fall into slavery through the
cruelty of Sansho, the ruthless bailiff. Poignant and
powerful in image and word.
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Army of
Shadows,
directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
(in French with English subtitles)
Described as "a sublime thriller," this film centers on a
French Resistance fighter during World War II,
who escapes from a German prison, only to find
himself further immersed in the dark intrigue of the
Resistance movement, with its hard decisions, betrayals,
and revenge. Melville, himself a member of the French
Resistance as well as a Jew; knew firsthand the imminent
dangers that awaited him around any corner during that
turbulent time. This film had never before
been released in America and only recently was shown
in select theatres. Take advantage of this DVD as a
singular opportunity to see World War II from a new angle.
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Volver, directed by Pedro Almdóvar
(in Spanish with English subtitles)
What might seem like a story of a murder turns instead into
a mystical glance at the formidable strength of women.
Raimunda lives in Madrid, caring for her beloved teenage
daughter Paula and putting up with her ne'er-do-well
husband Paco. When Paco makes sexual advances to Paula,
the daughter kills him. Now it is up to Raimunda to put
matters right and hold the family together in this time of
strife. Penelope Cruz stars in this oddly uplifting
film about the importance of family and the need,
sometimes, to return to the place of one's origins while
on the journey through life.
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The Syrian
Bride,
directed by Eran Riklis
(in Arabic with English subtitles)
A day of joy is nothing like that at all for a young
Druze woman in the Golan Heights. Mona has come to the
border between her land and Syria to meet her Syrian
groom in a prearranged marriage. With the troubles ever
present between Israel and Syria, Mona knows that to step
across the border now means never being allowed to
return. Meanwhile, her eclectic family have gathered to
see her off, each with his or her own issues and problems to
add to the sorrow and humor of the day.
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The Burmese
Harp,
directed by Kon Ichikawa
(in Japanese with English subtitles)
What begins as a disguise leads to a new reality. A
soldier in the Japanese army in Burma at the end of
World War II is separated from
his company. After he dresses in the
robes of a Buddhist monk and begins a journey to rejoin his
comrades, he gradually assumes more than the robes as
part of his persona, undertaking the task of burying the
countless abandoned bodies of the dead in the aftermath of the
carnage of war. His actions not only speak of a kind of
penance for the horrors of combat but also grow to
a broader act of grief for the evils of war.
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