World Film Series
The World Film Series is offered to the Wofford community in support of the College’s goals of developing intellectual curiosity and aesthetic sensitivity. Often these films are incorporated into course syllabi to enhance classroom learning and to increase cultural awareness. The Series is funded through the Wofford College Cultural Affairs Committee and the Department of Foreign Languages.
The films will be shown in widescreen DVD or VHS format, with perhaps an occasional film in 35mm. Students are admitted free to all showings. For any films shown in 35mm, there is a $2.00 admission charge for non-students. There is no charge for films in DVD or VHS format. All films are in the original language, with English subtitles when appropriate. The films are presented in the Teaching Theater of the F.W. Olin Building (Olin 101). All films are shown
Wednesdays at
3:30 p.m. and
7:30 p.m., on the dates indicated.
Some films may not be appropriate for younger viewers.
2007-2008 Schedule
Sept. 12
Indigenes (Days of Glory)
Algeria, 2006. Director: Rachid Bouchareb. (120 minutes)
For the North African troops fighting for France during the Second World War, their experience in uniform becomes a painful lesson in just how little regard their colonial rulers have for their humanity. As one company ofsoldiers pushes north through Europe, its members continue to find themselves denied the basic rights taken for granted by their French counterparts.
Sept. 26
Volver
Spain, 2007. Director: Pedro Almóvar.
Three generations of women survive the east wind, fire, insanity, superstition and even death by means of goodness, lies and boundless vitality. They are Raimunda (Pénelope Cruz), who is married to an unemployed labourer and has a teenage daughter (Yohana Cobo); Sole (Lola Dueñas), her sister, who makes a living as a hairdresser; and the mother of both (Carmen Maura), who died in a fire along with her husband. This character appears first to her sister (Chus Lampreave) and then to Sole, although the people with whom she has some unresolved matters are Raimunda and her neighbour in the village, Agustina (Blanca Portillo). Volver is not a surrealistic comedy although it may seem so at times. The living and the dead coexist without any discord, causing situations that are either hilarious or filled with a deep, genuine emotion. Nominated for an Academy Award. 121 minutes.
Oct. 10
Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others)
Germany, 2006. Director: Florian Henckel von Donnnersmarck.
In East Berlin in 1984, the secret police organization, Stasi, conducts extensive surveillance operations against any East German citizen suspected of opposing the Communist regime. When Captain Gerd Weisler begins monitoringthe daily life of the playwright Georg Dreyman, he finds himself increasingly unwilling to betray his subject'sprivate moments to his superiors. Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film. 137 minutes.
Oct. 24
Pavilion of Women
China, 2001. Director: Ho Yim.
China, 1938: Intelligent and well-read, Madam Wu is the envy of all who know her. The Wu family is the richest and most powerful family in her town. Servants tend to her every need, her house and clothes are gorgeous, and she is as beautiful and serene as a traditional wife could want to be. Yet as the town celebrates her 40th birthday, Madame Wu scandalizes the gathering by announcing she will arrange for a much younger woman to be her husband's concubine, thereby ending her conjugal relationship with him. Her decision throws the family--one of the oldest in China--into an uproar, but she manages the transition as she does everything else in the extended family of over sixty relatives. Alone in her own quarters, she enjoys her new-found freedom and reads books denied her in the past. When her son begins English lessons, she too starts learning from the free-thinking missionary named Brother Andre, who changes her life when he falls in love with her. 116 minutes.
Nov. 7
La Doublure (The Valet)
France, 2006. Director: Francis Veber.
When billionaire Pierre Levasseur is snapped by a papparazzo with Elena, his dazzling, supermodel mistress, he tries to avoid a catastrophic divorce by coming up with an outragreous lie. He asserts to his wife that a third person, a passerby, François Pignon, who is also on the photograph, was in fact with Elena. She's Pignon's girlfriend, not his. Pignon is a parking valet. He's a very ordinary fellow. Levasseur, to back up his lie, has to convince the overly beautiful Elena to go live with Pignon. Elena, shacked up with Pignon, is a bird of paradise in an apartment in the sticks. It's also a load of comic situations for The Valet. 85 minutes.
Nov. 28
Dí Buen Día a Papá (Say Good Morning to Dad)
Cuba/Bolivia, 2005. Director: Fernando Vargas Villazón.
On October 9, 1967, the revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara was killed by Bolivian soldiers. "Dí Buen Día a Papá" is both the code phrase used to order Che's execution and the Spanish title of this fascinating film. It depicts the lives of three women from Che's death to the exhumation of his remains in 1997. 111 minutes.
Feb. 13
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Germany/France/Spain (in English), 2007. Director: Tom Tykwer.
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born in the stench of eighteenth century Paris, develops a superior olfactory sense, which he uses to create the world's finest perfumes. His work, however, takes a dark turn as he tries to preserve scents in the search for the ultimate perfume. Based on the best-selling novel by Patrick Süskind. 147 minutes.
Feb. 27
The Curse of the Golden Flower
China, 2006. Director: Yimou Zhang.
A period high drama that concerns the volatile balance of power between the King and the Queen and his three sons, which entails betrayal, deceit and passion--pitting the King against Queen and father against sons. 114 minutes.
March 12
Bamako
Switzerland, 2006. Director: Abderrahmane Sissako.
Set in the courtyard of a mud walled house in Bamako, the capital city of Mali, the intimate personal story of an African couple on the verge of breaking up si told alongside very public political proceedings. African civil society is taking action against the World Bank and the IMF whom they directly blame for Africa's woes. 115 minutes.
March 26
El Inmigrante
USA/Mexico, 2005. Directors: Dave Eckenrode and John Eckenrode.
El Inmigrante is a documentary film that examines the Mexican and American border crisis by telling the story of Eusebio de Haro, a young Mexican migrant who was shot and killed during one of his journeys north. The film presents a distinct humanitarian focus in which story and character take precedent over policy and empiricism. Toward this end “El Inmigrante” examines the perspectives of a diverse cast of players in this border narrative. The cast includes the de Haro family; the community of Brackettville, Texas–where Eusebio was shot; members of vigilante border militias in Arizona; the horseback border patrol in El Paso; and migrants en route to an uncertain future in the United States. 90 minutes.
April 30
The World
China,
2004. Director: Jia Zhangke.
Acclaimed Chinese director Jia Zhangke casts a compassionate eye on the daily loves, friendships and desperate dreams of the twenty-somethings from China’s remote Provinces who come to live and work at Beijing’s World Park. A bizarre cross-cultural pollination of Las Vegas and Epcot Center, World Park features lavish shows performed amid scaled-down replicas of the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, St. Mark’s Square, the Pyramids and even the Twin Towers. From the sensational opening tracking shot of a young dancer’s backstage quest for a Band-Aid to poetic flourishes of animation and clever use of text-messaging, Jia pushes past the kitsch potential of this surreal setting—a real-life Beijing tourist destination. 139 minutes.