antiplex

coming up at boston's independent moviehouses - the brattle, harvard film archive, mfa and coolidge

Directed by Ousmane Sembene Senegal 1968, 35mm, color, 90 min. With Makhouredia Gueye, Ynousse N’diaye, Isseu Niang Wolof with English subtitles Sembene’s first comedy, his first film in color, and first work in Wolof - the language spoken by most of the population of Senegal - Mandabi is the deceptively simple story of a man whose initial good fortune leads to encounters with an intimidating barrage of Third World bureaucracy. The film, which consists of a series of comic mishaps involving Dieng’s futile attempts to get an identity card so he can cash his check, takes the viewer on a journey with corrupt government officials and impoverished members of Dakar’s proletariat. Mandabi was seen as a betrayal by many in the newly independent Senegal. The fact that the film was a comedy did not spare Sembene’s film from attacks in the press. one day only

Directed by Sam Peckinpah. With Jason Robards, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson US 1966, video, color, 60 min. Labeled as refractory after the fiasco of Major Dundee, Peckinpah found himself in a difficult spot, blackballed by the studios and abruptly fired from The Cincinnati Kid after only a few days. Peckinpah retreated to his first passion—writing—turning out scripts for both film and television. Among these was his nuanced adaptation of Katherine Anne Porter’s short story “Noon Wine,” which earned the approval of the notoriously difficult Porter, and Peckinpah's assignment to direct the telefilm version of this story of a farmer estranged from his community and family by his steadfast defense of a falsely accused hired hand. One of Peckinpah’s most restrained and haunting variations of his favored theme of violence as a necessary evil, Noon Wine was a success, opening the door for Peckinpah’s return to filmmaking. one day only find/upload a trailer

Directed by Sam Peckinpah. With Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson US 1972, 35mm, color, 122 min. The Getaway was Peckinpah’s bid to make a conventional genre film-- one in which the forward motion of the plot is never interrupted by melancholy ruminations, extended flashbacks (or flash forwards) or complex montage sequences. Among the film's exceptional qualities are its relentless, restless pace and its wonderful pairing of matinee idol Steve McQueen as the crook and the gorgeous Ali MacGraw as his partner. Based on a novel by pulp master Jim Thompson and scripted by future auteur Walter Hill, The Getaway is a tough noir tale that reveals Peckinpah's talent for lean, propulsive filmmaking is equal to that of his mentor Don Siegel. one day only

Directed by Ousmane Sembene Senegal 1974, 35mm, color, 123 min. With Thierno Leye, Seune Samb, Miriam Niang Wolof and French with English subtitles Zeroing in on the myth of African independence and on the capitulation to white colonial policies by newly empowered black African leaders, this savage and funny satire deals with a self-satisfied, half-Westernized black businessman who is suddenly struck down by the xala: a curse that renders its victim impotent. While he desperately chases after witch doctors and soothsayers in search of a cure, the character’s condition becomes a mirror of the impotence of young African nations that are over-dependent on white technology and bureaucratic structures. one day only

Directed by Ousmane Sembene and Thierno Faty Sow Senegal 1987, 35mm, color, 152 min. With Iprahima Sane, Sijiri Bakaba Wolof and French with English subtitles In 1944, the French army massacred several units of West African conscripts recently returned from the battlefields of Europe. Sembene, who had been drafted into the French army that same year, knew of this event and in 1998 used it as the basis for his sixth feature film. What was essentially a demand by African veterans that they be paid the same wages as their French counterparts led to an attack on soldiers who had only recently been fighting the Nazis in Italy and Germany. In 1944, the French colonial authorities viewed returning African veterans as second class citizens and because the colonial administration was financially bankrupt, found it convenient to refuse their demands. The resulting mutiny by the veterans of Camp Thiaroye led to a full scale artillery attack on the camp. one day only

Directed by Ousmane Sembene Senegal 1977, 35mm, color, 120 min. With Tabara N’diaye, Ismaila Diagne, Moustapha Yade Wolof with English subtitles Banned in Senegal on an absurd technicality, Ceddo, Sembene’s most ambitious film, uses the story of a beautiful princess’s kidnapping to examine the confrontation between opposing cultural forces: Muslim expansion, Christianity, and the slave trade. The “Ceddo” - or feudal class of common people - cling desperately to their customs and their fetishistic religion amidst the impending changes. Nominally set in the nineteenth century, Ceddo ranges far and wide to include philosophy, fantasy, militant politics, and a couple of electrifying leaps across the centuries to evoke the whole of the African experience. one day only

Directed by Ousmane Sembene Senegal 1971, 35mm, color, 101 min. With Ibou Camara, Ousrnane Camara, Joseph Diatta Diola and French with English subtitles Sembene's third film launched his international reputation, reaching an audience far beyond Senegal’s Diola community, to whom he had directly addressed the film. Emitai takes place in the period at the end of the World War II, as West African veterans are returning to their homes in the French colonies. General De Gaulle, the hero of the trench resistance, is now the leader of the newly liberated France, yet forced conscriptions and massacres of Diola villages continue, some of them led by former members of France’s Vichy government. With Emitai, Sembene realized his statement “film should be a school of history.” When the film was released in 1971, it was immediately banned in Senegal, and throughout Africa. one day only

Directed by Ousmane Sembene Senegal 2000, 35mm, color, 118 min. With Venus Seye, Mame Ndoumbé Diop, Tabara N’diaye Wolof and French with English subtitles Faat-Kiné, the manager of a sparkling new gas station, drives an elegant car, lunches with fashionably dressed friends, and worries about her children passing their high school finals. But Sembene contextualizes his heroine’s thoroughly modern triumphs and anxieties within the complex culture and politics of Dakar, with its contrastive architecture of shantytowns and high-rises, streets crowded with cattle and Mercedes, and women whose lives have been shaped as much by tribal custom and male prejudice as by their twenty-first century aspirations. As it examines the changing roles of women in Senegalese society, Faat-Kiné opens onto a new chapter in the career of this legendary director. one day only

Directed by Sam Peckinpah. William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan US 1969, 35mm, color, 145 min. Peckinpah’s classic tale of aging desperados determined, against all odds, to forge one last stand, gives new meaning to Hemingway’s dictum of “grace under pressure.” The Wild Bunch gained instant notoriety for its extended sequences of orgiastic violence, with less attention paid to the technical and artistic genius behind them— Peckinpah’s combination of distinct camera setups and the complex, lyrical montage and slow motion camerawork that extended the pioneering work of Kurosawa and Arthur Penn, two directors Peckinpah greatly admired. The film is riveting not only for its violence but also for its vision of a forgotten generation of obsolete warriors, not unlike the wandering ronin so prominent in the films of Kurosawa and Kobayashi. The extraordinary cast of weathered tough guys, helmed by William Holden and Robert Ryan, seem an almost Shakespearian embodiment of the studio system’s decline, a gang of vanquished matinee kings complete with the hoary Edmund O’Brien as one day only find/upload a trailer

Directed by Dominique Abel Spain/France 2003, video, color, 105 min. Spanish with English subtitles Flamenco dancing is the lifeblood of the Gitanos, Spanish gypsies who have lived in exile for centuries. In looking for the roots of the so-called “New Flamenco,” director Dominique Abel journeys to Tres Mil Viviendas, a rundown housing project where the spirit of music and dance invigorates this multiracial community. one day only

Directed by Julio Medem Spain 2003, video, color, 110 min. Spanish, Basque, English and French with English subtitles In the wake of the 2004 Madrid train bombings, the cause of the Basque people rose to national prominence as the Spanish government assumed the ETA (a militant Basque separatist group) was responsible. Completed before the attacks, this documentary examines the state of Basque culture in contemporary Spain as they continue to fight for independence.  Using extensive interview footage, Julio Medem offers a comprehensive portrait of this controversial movement.   one day only

Directed by Adán Aliaga Spain 2005, video, color, 80 min. Spanish with English subtitles Adán Aliaga’s moving documentary chronicles the lives of suburban Spaniards living under threat of displacement. Six-year-old Marina plays to the camera, ignoring the chiding of her aged grandmother, Marita who reflects on the history of her crumbling house where she has lived for over fifty-three years. As her neighborhood is targeted for redevelopment, she is forced to come to terms with her past. one day only

Directed by Fernando Trueba Spain/Portugal 2005, video, color, 125 min. Spanish and Portuguese with English subtitles Grammy award winning Brazilian musician Carlinhos Brown makes his home in Candeal, a marginal area in the heart of Salvador, Bahia. Directed by Fernando Trueba (Belle Epoque, Calle 54), the film is a stunning parable of how this notorious slum transformed itself into a model community through the power of music, buoyed by Brown's commitment to local youth. one day only

Tonight's screening is courtesy of the estate of Curtis Harrington. These films have been preserved by and come from the collection of the Academy Film Archive. A Fragment of Seeking one day only

Directed by Marta Arribas and Ana Pérez Spain 2006, video, b/w and color, 85 min. Spanish with English subtitles In the 1960s, some two million Spaniards left their homeland to go to work in European factories. Focusing on the journey of Josefina who left Spain at age eighteen to work in Nuremberg, Germany, this sensitive and thought-provoking documentary artfully weaves interviews and extraordinary historical footage to reveal a hidden part of European history. one day only

Directed by Curtis Harrington With Dennis Hopper, Linda Lawson, Gavin Muir US 1961, 35mm, b/w, 84 min. A hauntingly sincere fable of unrequited love, Harrington's feature debut is an unacknowledged masterpiece. In his first leading role, a startlingly young Dennis Hopper brings a fervent energy to his portrayal of Johnny, a sailor who is enamored with the bewitching Mora, a shimmering apparition of a woman gripped by a dark secret. One of the first wholly independent productions shot on the West Coast, Night Tide used locations in Venice, California to wonderful effect while also turning to studio veterans such as master film composer David Raskin (Laura), who gifted the film with a gorgeous score. One of the most essential postwar American independent films. one day only

Directed by Curtis Harrington With James Caan, Katharine Ross, Simone Signoret US 1967, 35mm, color, 100 min. Harrington channels Franju in his lavish, kinky tale of a swinging New York couple determined to live on the edge but unaware of the dangers invited by their reckless lifestyle. With James Caan and Katherine Ross wonderfully cast as the irresponsible couple and a sultry Simone Signoret as the mysterious neighbor who weaves her way into their lives, Games casts a dark and stylish web of intrigue and suspense. one day only

Tonight's screening is courtesy of the estate of Curtis Harrington. These films have been preserved by and come from the collection of the Academy Film Archive. A Fragment of Seeking one day only

Directed by Edward Yang. With Chen Xiangqi, Ni Shujun, David Wang Taiwan 1994, 35mm, color, 125 min. Mandarin with English subtitles Although Yang’s films are often punctuated by the director’s mordant wit, they predominantly offer far darker visions of alienation and discontent—with the important exception of this film, which marked Yang’s surprise transmutation from tragedian into comedian. A Confucian Confusion is a ribald comedy of misunderstanding and well-laid plans gone awry, set among a group of upwardly mobile yet directionless Taipei yuppies. Yang’s hilarious critique of materialist culture observes the ways in which wealth corrodes relationships and corrupts ideals, transforming art and love into numb transactions and distracting everyone from the world as it falls apart around them. one day only

Directed by Edward Yang. With Cora Miao, Li Liqun, Wang An Taiwan/Hong Kong 1986, 35mm, color, 109 min. Mandarin with English subtitles As the title indicates, this is the one of Yang’s films in which the air of menace, usually lurking at the edges of the frame, takes center stage. The film traces the intersecting fates of three couples in contemporary Taipei, all of whom are caught up in a torrent of violence either emotional or physical, or both. Two of the couples include relatively wealthy artists—one a novelist, the other a photographer—but the other consists of two young criminals, one a violent prostitute, the other her pimp. Standing apart from the three couples, but ultimately connected to all of them, is a policeman who is not so much an enforcer of the law as a witness of its seemingly unavoidable collapse. The harshness of the film’s plot, its elliptical nature and its sudden violence have all earned the film comparisons to Bresson. one day only

Directed by Edward Yang. With Lisa Yang, Zhang Zhen, Zhang Guozhu Taiwan 1991, 35mm, color, 237 min. Mandarin with English subtitles While Yi Yi brought Yang worldwide success, A Brighter Summer Day is more often pointed to as his great masterpiece, combining as it does the incisive eye and narrative complexity of Taipei Story and The Terrorizer with an epic scope that can truly be called novelistic. At the beginning of the 1960s, Taipei, though still semi-rural, struggles with a rapidly advancing modernity. Kids listen to Elvis Presley and join street gangs, while between the and the generation of their parents—displaced by the Chinese civil war and the Kuomintang's retreat to Taiwan—lies a tragic gap that only emotional excess and violence can fill. Young Si’er (Zhang Zhen) falls hard for Ming, a lovely, endearing and complex girl of “questionable” reputation who unfortunately “belongs” to the leader of a rival gang. More Carmen than Romeo and Juliet, the film offers a tender representation of ill-fated teenage love. At one point, a character refers to War one day only

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Directed by Edward Yang, Tao dechen, Ko I-Cheng, Zhang yi. With Lan Shengwen, Shi Anni, Zhang Yingzhen Taiwan 1982, 35mm, color, 106 min. Mandarin with English subtitles Made one year before the better-known omnibus film The Sandwich Man, In Our Time is the work that first announced the coming of the New Taiwan Cinema. Consisting of four segments, each set in different decades from the 1950s through the 1980s, and dealing with protagonists at different stages of life between childhood and young adulthood. Yang’s made his cinematic debut with the second segment, “Expectations,” the story of an adolescent girl in the 1960s whose life is given a jolt by the arrival of a slightly older male student as a lodger in her house. Taken as a whole, In Our Time announces the ambition of the New Taiwan Cinema: to eschew studio-bound escapism and melodrama in favor of a hard-hitting cinema grounded in everyday life. one day only

Directed by Edward Yang. With Virginie Ledoyen, Tang Congsheng, Ke Yuluen Taiwan 1996, 35mm, color, 121 min. English and Mandarin with English subtitles Mahjong fuses Yang’s patented ensemble pieces about urban discontentment to a dizzying, farcical plot driven by the witty verbosity of screwball comedy. The film depicts the comical union of a goofy gang of criminal misfits and a group of European expatriates adrift in Taipei-- both determined to track down the waylaid teenaged son of a millionaire businessman and collect the reward. Despite its comedy, Mahjong mines similar territory as the earlier Taipei Story and The Terrorizer, observing the ultimately irreconcilable misunderstandings that arise from conflicting generations, social classes and communities. one day only

Directed by Norman Mailer With Norman Mailer, Rip Torn, Beverly Bentley US 1970, 35mm, color, 110 min. Norman T. Kingsley (Mailer) is an experimental filmmaker/presidential candidate planning a soft-core remake of Buñuel’s Belle de Jour at a palatial Hamptons villa. Under the protection of an elite security force led by his brother (Torn), Kingsley barrels through the production and much of his cast (including three of Mailer’s ex-wives). This masterwork of American independent cinema culminates in an explosive confrontation between Torn and Mailer in which the line between fiction and nonfiction is bludgeoned with a hammer. one day only

Directed by Dick Fontaine, Appearing in Person US 1968, video, color, 60 min. one day only

Directed by Norman Mailer With Ryan O’Neal, Isabella Rossellini, Lawrence Tierney. US 1987, 35mm, color, 110 min. Mailer returned to directing after nearly twenty years for this adaptation of his best-selling novel. Ryan O’Neal portrays an alcoholic writer living in Provincetown whose life goes haywire when he discovers a decapitated head. Compared to Tarantino for his stylized mix of grotesque violence and rapid-fire dialogue, Mailer described this puzzler as “a murder mystery, a suspense tale, a film of horror, and a comedy of manners.” one day only

Directed by Dick Fontaine, Appearing in Person US 1968, video, color, 60 min. one day only

Directed by Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker US 1979, video, color, 88 min. In this fascinating verbal battle of the sexes, Mailer faces off with Germaine Greer in a famed 1971 debate on women’s liberation held at New York City’s Town Hall. Hours of raw footage of the event sat on Pennebaker’s shelf for several years before Hegedus edited it down to feature length creating an insightful documents of early 1970s gender politics. one day only

Directed by Norman Mailer With Ryan O’Neal, Isabella Rossellini, Lawrence Tierney. US 1987, 35mm, color, 110 min. Mailer returned to directing after nearly twenty years for this adaptation of his best-selling novel. Ryan O’Neal portrays an alcoholic writer living in Provincetown whose life goes haywire when he discovers a decapitated head. Compared to Tarantino for his stylized mix of grotesque violence and rapid-fire dialogue, Mailer described this puzzler as “a murder mystery, a suspense tale, a film of horror, and a comedy of manners.” one day only

Total running time: 99 min. A Divided World one day only

Total running time: 86 min. Geography of the Body one day only

Carriage Trade is arguably Sonbert’s magnum opus—in a literal sense, as this is Sonbert’s longest film, but also as the first full emergence of his montage-based style. His next two films, Rude Awakening and Divided Loyalties, show the filmmaker experimenting with varying subject and tone while exploring a similar editing strategy. Later, Sonbert would describe these three films as fitting together like the movements of a concerto: “first movement setting the scene and longest in time and investigation; the second movement a dark melancholy adagio; the third a breezy rondo to clear if not quite dispel the heavy air, gracious, with a let’s-get-on-with-life feeling.” Carriage Trade one day only

Amphetamine was Sonbert’s first film, a mini-epic of drugs and sex (in order both of importance and of appearance onscreen) that finds him squarely under the spell of Kenneth Anger and Andy Warhol, and similarly grounded in an innate and insightful understanding of form. Noblesse Oblige and Short Fuse are the two of Sonbert’s later films with the greatest emphasis on queer culture, with prominent place given to footage of the San Francisco riots that followed Dan White’s acquittal for the George Moscone and Harvey Milk assassinations, and ACT UP demonstrations, respectively. Sonbert expert Jon Gartenberg has described Whiplash as “an elegiac meditation on his own mortality.” Amphetamine one day only

Directed by Pedro Costa, Appearing in Person With Inês de Medeiros, Isaach De Bankolé, Edith Scob Portugal/France/Germany 1995, 35mm, color, 110 min. Portuguese with English subtitles As a volcano restlessly stirs on the Cape Verdean island of Fogo, a young Portuguese nurse agrees to transport an injured migrant worker home from Lisbon and deliver medical supplies to battle a cholera epidemic on the island. A work of rare beauty and poise, Casa de Lava is the first feature in which Costa focused on the people of Cape Verde who would populate most of his subsequent feature films. one day only

Sonbert’s early films offer fascinating insight into both his emergent cinema and the postwar New York art scene. “Several of [Sonbert’s] earliest films, made while a teenage denizen of the glitzy Warholian artworld, enact cool-eyed subcultural observations on the private rituals of budding Superstars.”—Paul Arthur Where Did Our Love Go? one day only

Directed by Pedro Costa, Appearing in Person With Jeanne Balibar Portugal/France 2005, video, color, 13 min. French with English subtitles A trio of musical performances transports an actress (Balibar) from her dressing room to center stage. one day only

Critic and scholar Fred Camper asked the (rhetorical) question that gives this program its title. Tuxedo Theatre marks the beginnings of Sonbert’s montage style; it is a kind of “dress rehearsal” for Carriage Trade. After the somewhat more formalist films of the 1970s, the subsequent decade saw Sonbert continuing to expand his ability to vary subject matter and tone within his trademark montage structure, a structure to which Sonbert would add music beginning with Friendly Witness, his first sound film in twenty years. The Tuxedo Theatre one day only

Directed by Pedro Costa, Appearing in Person With Vanda Duarte, Nuno Vas, Maria Lipkina Portugal/France/Denmark 1997, 35mm, color, 94 min. Portuguese with English subtitles The first in a trilogy of films which explores life in the shantytown of Las Fontainhas, Bones tackles the hardship of teenage pregnancy in this impoverished setting. A young mother struggles with her new responsibilities while the baby's equally naïve father exploits the child as a prop in order to beg for money on the streets of Lisbon. The film is noted for the introduction of Costa's muse, Vanda Duarte, who provides one of its brighter notes as the young mother's confidant. one day only

Directed by Pedro Costa, Appearing in Person With Vanda Duarte, Lena Duarte Portugal/Germany/Italy/Switzerland 2000, 35mm, color, 178 min. Portuguese with English subtitles Vanda Duarte plays herself in the second film in the Fontainhas trilogy. She stars with her sister Lena, portraying two drug-addicted women who spend their days smoking crack while their building is being demolished. Despite the harsh circumstances, Costa manages to infuse the film with humor and humanity as he watches the young women bicker with their mother about housekeeping. one day only

Directed by Pedro Costa Portugal 2007, 35mm, color, 16 min. Costa returns to the island of Fogo, the homeland of Colossal Youth's Ventura, where he previously filmed Casa de Lava. He considers the Tarrafal prison where political dissidents were tortured and killed for nearly forty years. one day only

Directed by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet With Gianni Buscarino, Angela Nugara. France 1999, 35mm, b/w, 66 min. Italian with English subtitles In their adaptation of Elio Vittorini's Conversazione in Sicilia, a politically charged novel banned by the Fascists in 1942, Jean-Marie Straub and the late Danièle Huillet focus on a series of dialogues between Vittorini's protagonist, an intellectual returning to his native Sicily after an extended absence, and the strangers, fellow train passengers, and former friends and family members he encounters. one day only find/upload a trailer

Directed by Jana Å evčíková, Appearing in Person Czech Republic 1992, 35mm, b/w, 63 min. Czech with English subtitles This portrait of Jakub Popovich provides an intriguing entry into the lives of the Ruthenians, a community based in Northern Romania and Western Bohemia which survived amidst fifty years of political upheaval and revolution. Ševčíková began filming two years before the ouster of Ceausescu in 1989 further emphasizing the plight of this marginalized community. one day only find/upload a trailer

Directed by Mariem Pérez, Carlitos Ruíz. With Luis Guzmán, Luis Gonzaga, Silvia Brito Puerto Rico 2007, color, 83 min. Spanish with English subtitles Tales of maddening infatuation—a surprising love triangle, an unfaithful marriage and a hostage situation—weave together artfully in the backyards of Puerto Rico. Passion trumps reason again and again in this melancholy comedy about the selfish search for love and connection. Paseo showing through oct 5

Directed by Mariem Pérez, Carlitos Ruíz. With Luis Guzmán, Luis Gonzaga, Silvia Brito Puerto Rico 2007, color, 83 min. Spanish with English subtitles Tales of maddening infatuation—a surprising love triangle, an unfaithful marriage and a hostage situation—weave together artfully in the backyards of Puerto Rico. Passion trumps reason again and again in this melancholy comedy about the selfish search for love and connection. Paseo showing through oct 5

Directed by Mariem Pérez, Carlitos Ruíz. With Luis Guzmán, Luis Gonzaga, Silvia Brito Puerto Rico 2007, color, 83 min. Spanish with English subtitles Tales of maddening infatuation—a surprising love triangle, an unfaithful marriage and a hostage situation—weave together artfully in the backyards of Puerto Rico. Passion trumps reason again and again in this melancholy comedy about the selfish search for love and connection. Paseo final showing

Directed by Radu Muntean With Paul Ipate, Adi Carauleanu, Dragos Bucur Romania 2006, 35mm, color, 95 min. Romanian with English subtitles With a crisp, witty script co-written by The Death of Mr. Lazarescu screenwriter Razvan Radulescu, The Paper Will Be Blue is based on the real story of a frustrated soldier who deserts and is tracked down by his unit on the night of Communist despot Nicolae Ceausescu’s overthrow in December, 1989. Shot in cinema-verité style, Muntean’s second feature makes vivid the confusion and radical uncertainty of the regime change while still finding moments of wry, unexpected humor in the eye of the storm that would define modern Romanian history. one day only

Directed by Catalin Mitulescu With Maria Dinulescu, Andi Vasluianu Romania 2004, 35mm, color, 15 min. Romanian with English subtitles An enigmatic episode in a seemingly average day of a disaffected Romanian business. Caught in Bucharest traffic and fragmentary conversations with his four year old daughter, his mind and eyes begin to wander. Mitueslcu’s haunting short was winner of the 2004 Palme d’Or for Short Films at Cannes. one day only