Linda Rogers' Site

Cinema Ten78:
The Secret Cinema of Juan-Carlos Selznick
On 8 Wednesday nights fall 2012 Sep. 12 + 26  •  Oct. 17 + 24  • 
Nov. 7 + 14  •  Dec. 5 + 12
7:30 for a $3 suggested donation
All films are curated and hosted by Peter Hogue, English Department emeritus, CSU Chico.

$3 donation appreciated, Tuesdays, 7:30pm in the Little Theatre (Ayres 106)
Director: Sarah Pike, 898-6341, spike@csuchico.edu

September | October

SEP. 11

The Color Wheel (USA, 2012) 83 min.
Directed by Alex Ross Perry
Introduced by Sarah Pike, Religious Studies

The Color Wheel opened this year to critical acclaim for 27-year old independent filmmaker Perry. It had its premiere at the Sarasota Film Festival and went on to the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, where it caught the attention of European critics. The film tells the story of JR, an increasingly transient aspiring news anchor who forces her disappointing brother Colin to embark on a road trip. Problem is these grown-up kids do not get along and are too obnoxious to know better. Chaos and calamity are not too far behind her Honda Accord. Resting uncomfortably somewhere between the solipsistic, unrepressed id of the late Jerry Lewis and the confrontational, pseudo-sexual self-loathing of Philip Roth, The Color Wheel is a familial comedy of disappointment and forgiveness.

SEP. 18

Battle of Algiers (Italy and Algeria, 1966) 121 min. *
Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo
Introduced by Peter Hogue, Emeritus, English

Battle of Algiers is based on occurrences during the Algerian war (1954–62) against the French government in North Africa. The film has been critically celebrated and often taken, by insurgent groups and states alike, as an important commentary on urban guerilla warfare. It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for three Academy Awards. The film produced considerable political controversy in France and was banned there for five years. In 2003, the film again made the news when an official at the Pentagon screened the film as a useful illustration of the problems faced in Iraq.

SEP. 25

The Year My Parents Went On Vacation (O Ano em que Meus Pais sairam de Férias) (Brazil, 2006) 104 min.
Directed by Cao Hamburger
Introduced by Quirino de Brito, Foreign Languages and Literatures

The story revolves around a 12-year-old boy who is hurriedly dropped off at his grandfather’s house in Sao Paulo so his parents can take a "vacation." Unbeknownst to his parents, the patriarch had passed away that day. Being left to fend for himself, some Jewish neighbors take him under their wing. The remainder of the film is a story of how the boy learns about life, the World Cup, a dictatorship, Jewish culture, and in the end, how to become a man years before his time.

OCT. 2

Easy Rider (USA, 1969) 94 min. *
Directed by Dennis Hopper
Introduced by Jason Tannen, Art and Art History

Easy Rider is a 1969 American road movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. It tells the story of two bikers (played by Fonda and Hopper) who travel through the American Southwest and South. The success of Easy Rider helped spark the New Hollywood phase of filmmaking during the early 1970s. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame lead singer and guitarist of the Byrds, Roger McGuinn, made the music for the film. Easy Rider was added to the Library of Congress National Registry in 1998. It explores the societal landscape, issues, and tensions in the United States during the 1960s, such as the rise and fall of the counterculture, drug use, and communal lifestyles.

OCT. 9

Senso (Italy, 1954) 117 min. *
Directed by Luchino Visconti
Introduced by Fulvio Orsitto, Foreign Languages and Literature

Senso deals with Italy’s biggest “revolution,” the period that led to unification (aka as Risorgimento) in 1861. A 1954 melodrama and adaptation of Camillo Boito’s Italian novella I, with Alida Valli as Livia and Farley Granger as Lieutenant Franz Mahler. Both Franco Zeffirelli and Francesco Rosi, later well-known film directors in their own right, worked as Visconti's Assistant Directors. Senso is set in Italy around 1866, when the Italian-Austrian war over unification (Risorgimento) was coming to its end. G. R. Aldo’s cinematography for the film received the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists' award. Visconti was nominated for the Golden Lion award and at the 1954 Venice Film Festival.

OCT. 16

The Long Day Closes (UK, 1992) 82 min.
Directed by Terence Davies
Introduced by Sarah Pike, Religious Studies

The Long Day Closes is set in Liverpool in the mid-1950s and focuses on the concerns of a dreamy and lonely 11-year-old boy named Bud. With cinema as his main source of solace, he haunts the local movie-house. All the while, his family looms large in our peripheral vision as do the menacing bullies of his school, but Bud is the center of attention both from the camera's angle and from his doting family. With a gray background, the film fuses clips and audio from classic movies into Bud's dreary childhood and brings it to life. New York Times critic Stephen Holden calls the film “a phantasmagoric cinematic poem…beautifully photographed and edited” that “wants above all to reimagine the world as experienced through the eyes and ears of a sensitive boy on the verge of puberty. It celebrates the way a child's imagination can conjure up glorious possibilities amid dankness and squalor.”

OCT. 23

La Marseillaise: A Chronicle of Certain Events Relative to the Fall of The Monarchy (France, 1938) 135 min. *
Directed by Jean Renoir
Introduced by Laird Easton, History

Renoir, the son of Auguste Renoir the great French impressionist painter, is often described as one of the greatest film directors of all time. At the time he made this film, political instability and class conflict, as well as the threat of a rearmed Nazi Germany, threatened to bring France to the brink of collapse. Renoir hoped that his new film about the French Revolution would rejuvenate national pride and unity, just as revolutionary France had rallied in 1792 to repel invading armies of Austria and Prussia. Renoir was interested in using history accurately, and the film is based on considerable historical research. As Renoir himself remarked:  "It's the only film in my career in which I applied myself to what's known as research documentation… I wrote very little dialogue…I found three quarters of it amongst the documents.”

OCT. 30

Egg (Yumurta) (Turkey/Greece, 2007) 97 min.
Directed by Semih Kaplanoğlu
Introduced by Laura Nice, Humanities

Egg is an award-winning drama and the first installment of the Yusuf Trilogy, named after the lead character of the trilogy, which also includes Milk and Honey, filmed and released in reverse chronological order. It was shown in competition at the 60th Cannes Film Festival and won numerous awards at other international film festivals. The poet Yusuf learns about the death of his mother Zehra and goes back to his hometown. He confronts his guilt about leaving and memories made vivid by the house and town, its inhabitants, and the spaces filled with ghosts. In his mother's house, he finds his cousin Ayla who explains Zehra's pledge to sacrifice a lamb after her death and tells Yusuf that he has to carry out his mother's wishes.