Greetings,

Please join us Wednesday night at 6:30 in CLO 110 for our final film presentation of the semester.

Steve Lombardo, co-director of the International Film Series, will be presenting Los Lunes Al Sol (Mondays in the Sun) to conclude April’s theme of Hard Times and the semester as a whole.

Stick around after the film for light refreshments and discussion. Feel free to stay and meet with each other as well.

We are still working out some details about summer activities, but keep watching out for updates as we will post them whenever news arrives.

Also, if you haven’t already, please join our group on Facebook, a great place to discuss with other members about the film series and movies in general.

Thanks,

Joshua Travis

–
The International Film Series at Purdue University Calumet
webs.calumet.purdue.edu/ifs

Directors:
Steve Lombardo (FLL)) – lombardo@calumet.purdue.edu
Prof. Andy Miller (ENGL) – millerja@calumet.purdue.edu

Student Coordinator:
Joshua Travis – auhsojsivart@yahoo.com

Please take a few moments to answer some questions about the Film Series in order to improve it in the future.

Thursday, April 2 – 6:30pm – YJean Chambers Hall (SUL 353)

El Norte (The North) – Mexico, 1983 – Dir. Gregory Nava

El Norte tells the story of a Guatemalan brother and sister who flee persecution at home and journey north the length of Mexico with a dream of finding a new home in the United States. El Norte tells their story with astonishing visual beauty, with unashamed melodrama, with anger leavened by hope. It is a Grapes of Wrath for our time. The filmmakers tell harrowing stories of cash payoffs at gunpoint, and how Nava’s parents slipped out of the country carrying some of the dailies. But the film never reflects that backstage ordeal; it chooses, indeed, to paint its story not in the grim grays of neorealism, but with the palette of Mexico, filled with color and fantasy. (Roger Ebert – RogerEbert.SunTimes.com)

Wednesday, April 8 – 6:30pm – CLO 110

Human Resources - France, 1999  – Dir. Laurent Canten

“Human Resources” usually refers to the department that deals with employee relations, but taken literally it also means dealing with the resources that make us human. This powerful French film, directed by Laurent Cantent clearly means to use the name ironically. Frank (Jalil Lespert) comes home from a business college to work a summer internship in the management office with the same company that employs his father (Jean-Claude Vallod) who is a factory worker there. Right from the start, Human Resources sets up the contentious scenario of father versus son, with a credit to the intelligence of the script. (Matt Langdon – FilmCritic.com)

Thursday, April 16 – 6:30pm – YJean Chambers Hall (SUL 353)

Modern Times - USA, 1936 – Dir. Charles Chaplin

This social protest film is Charlie Chaplin’s final stand against the synchronized sound film – and it is also his last full-length “silent film” – although it must be noted that it is a quasi-silent film. Set in the 1930s during the Great Depression era, the film’s main concerns (and those of the oppressed Tramp) echo those of millions of people at the time – unemployment, poverty, and hunger. It has a number of wonderfully inventive and memorable routines and scenes that proclaim the frustrating struggle by working man against the dehumanizing effects of the machine in the Industrial Age. (Tim Dirks – FilmSite.org)

Wednesday, April 29 – 6:30pm – CLO 110

Mondays in the Sun - Spain, 2002 – Dir. Fernando Leon de Aranoa

Mondays in the Sun is a well-crafted drama, a social commentary not without biting. Co-written and directed by Fernando León de Aranoa, it focuses on a group of men in a seaside Spanish town who have been out of work for more than three years, ever since the shipyard shut down. Though there are moments where the reasons for this labor changeover are touched upon, the larger concern is how the unemployment has affected the men and their own sense of self-worth. Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem heads up the cast as the rough-edged Santa, a frustrated bear of a man who is finding the humiliation of redundancy a little hard to take. (Jamie S. Rich – dvdtalk.com)

ALL FILMS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

ALL FILMS ARE PRESENTED BY FACULTY MEMBERS WITH AN ACADEMIC DISCUSSION TO FOLLOW.

Wednesday, March 4 – 6:30pm – CLO 110

A Ma Soeur! (Fat Girl) – France, 2001- 81 minutes – Dir. Catherine Breillat

It’s a muted, quietly composed, and well observed coming-of-age tale that begins with a playful conversation about how best to lose one’s virginity-whether to a lover or a stranger. In A Ma Soeur! the obsession works because it’s both balanced by other, non-sexual observations and delivered through metaphor more than shock. In other words, A Ma Soeur! speaks about more than just sex, and when it does speak about sex, it does so through clever and effective use of film technique. (Pacze Moj)

Wednesday, March 11 – 6:30pm – CLO 110

Y aura-t-il de la neige a Noel? (Will is Snow for Christmas?) - France, 1996 – 90 minutes – Dir. Sandrine Veysset

Can there be snow at Christmas in the south of France for seven children who toil the earth? Sandrine Veysset’s first film, a large piece of her past, is a hymn to the seasons, a melancholy Christmas carol. The children, driven by a bullying father (Daniel Duval), protected by a loving mother (Dominique Reymond), never complain or hope for much, but perhaps, as they uproot carrots and turnips, they dream of being orphaned, left in their own world to have the fun of a lawless life. Instead, like creatures in fairy tales, they are held captive by their parents’ lawlessness. The children of this modern fable are filmed as a unit. Veysset never singles them out or sentimentalizes them: They are simply the children, with wide-open eyes. (Joan Dupont)

Thursday, March 26 – 6:30pm – YJean Chambers Hall (SUL 353)

Vendredi Soir (Friday Night)- France, 2002 – 90 minutes – Dir. Claire Denis

Both an unconventional love story and a piercing study of urban dislocation, this chance encounter on a chilly Parisian night manages to say a good deal about modern society with the minimum of dialogue. Whether in the snarled traffic that compounds Valerie Lemrcier’s doubts about committing to her partner or the spartan hotel room where her tentative relationship with hitcher Vincent London develops into liberating passion, director Clair Denis and cinematographer Agnes Godard capture character and emotion with the utmost discretion. But it’s the immpressionistic use of hazy lights and jumbled sounds to re-create the trappings and pitfalls of city life that most impress.

ALL FILMS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

ALL FILMS ARE PRESENTED BY FACULTY MEMBERS WITH AN ACADEMIC DISCUSSION TO FOLLOW.

Take a look at our poster for March’s films. It was designed by Freshman CGT Major Vicky (Zhaowei) Chen, a regular attender of the Film Series.