CLC hosts spring semester International Film Series
Four international films will be presented for free on Friday nights this spring by the College of Lake County Center for International Education. The films begin at 7 p.m. in Room A162 (Anderson lecture hall) on the CLC Grayslake Campus, 19351 W. Washington St. The films have subtitles when necessary, include adult content and are not suitable for children.
The spring films are: “Le Quattro Volte” (Italy, 2010) on Feb. 1, “Poetry” (South Korea, 2010) on March 1, “Dogtooth” (Greece, 2009) on April 5 and: “Tuesday, After Christmas” (Romania, 2011) on May 3.
Feb. 1: “Le Quattro Volte” (Italy, 2010). “The Four Times,” like our previous selection “Cave of Forgotten Dreams,” hauntingly combines scientific, documentary perspectives with aesthetic, spiritual dimensions. Inspired by beliefs in the transmigration of souls, the film explores four stages — human, animal, vegetable and mineral — in depicting an elderly goatherd’s passage from ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Independent calls it “magnificent … the freshest and deepest film I’ve encountered in a while … one of those rare films that anyone can enjoy.”
March 1: “Poetry” (South Korea, 2010). Facing a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease while also learning that the grandson she’s raised is implicated in a young girl’s violent death, an aging maid enrolls in a poetry class to cope. Winner of the Best Screenplay award at the 2010 Cannes festival, “Poetry” examines the healing, often surprising relationships between our most personal creative acts and our more prosaic navigations of the imperfect lives before us. The New York Times writes: “The importance of seeing, seeing the world deeply, is at the heart of this quietly devastating, humanistic work.”
April 5: “Dogtooth” (Greece, 2009). Winner of the “Un Certain Regard” award at the 2009 Cannes festival and Oscar-nominated for Foreign Language film, “Dogtooth” observes a perverse situation with dark wit and coldly clinical logic. Three adolescents, raised (and kept) in a remote estate by their father, have no idea that his ideas and methods (or even his definitions of familiar words) are starkly different from what would be considered “normal.” Family tension ensues as their eyes are opened by circumstance. The Globe and Mail says it’s “accomplished and fascinating.” The Onion AV Club calls it “an exhilaratingly unpredictable experience.”
May 3: “Tuesday, After Christmas” (Romania, 2011). Married, middle-aged Paul has been having an affair with his young daughter’s dentist for months now, but finds himself increasingly pressured to decisively act. The Romanian New Wave’s recent acclaim continues with this humane rendering of ordinary conflicts portrayed with uncanny precision and generous humanity. NPR says the film “chronicles the emotional fallout from a classic love triangle, but it unfolds with the agonizing tension of a suspense film.”
For information on international films, contact Chris Cooling, CLC film instructor, at (847) 543-2623.