FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date:
April 8, 2003
SPRINGFIELD – The
University of Illinois at Springfield will present Euro Film Festival 2003 --
four films from recent decades that reflect social and cinematic trends in
European filmmaking -- on Thursday and Friday, April 24 and 25. All films are
free and open to the public and will be shown in Brookens Auditorium, located
on the lower level of Brookens Library on the UIS campus.
The series begins on Thursday with two
semi-autobiographical films written and directed by François Truffaut, one of
the primary directors of France’s New Wave cinema in the late 1950s. Like much of Truffaut’s work, these films
are pointedly satirical, but the satire is generally forgiving and never cruel.
At 4 p.m. Les Quatre cents coups (The 400
Blows) introduces 14-year-old actor Jean-Pierre Léaud as Antoine Doinel, a
troubled, irresponsible, yet irrepressible and charming young man. As the story
unfolds, we see that while some of Doinel’s problems can be blamed on society,
they are clearly more than a little his own fault as well. [1959. Cast includes
Claire Maurier, Albert Rémy, and Guy Decomble. French with English subtitles.]
At 7 p.m. Doinel’s story continues in Domicile
conjugal (Bed and Board). Now grown from a 13-year-old sent to
reform school for petty theft into a self-employed flower-dyer, Doinel is
married and lives in a small apartment with his wife. After his business fails,
he takes a job with a shipbuilder, has an affair with the daughter of a
Japanese client, and separates from his wife. No
-more-
matter
what trouble he gets himself into, Doinel’s impulsiveness and irresponsibility
are tempered by his wit and charm. [1970. Cast includes Claude Jade, Daniel
Ceccaldi, and Claire Duhamel. French with English subtitles.]
Friday’s films begin at 4 p.m. with Sommarnattens
leende (Smiles of a Summer Night), written and directed by Ingmar
Bergman. The first of Bergman’s masterpieces, this film is a classic comedy of
manners and very unlike his later work full of mysticism, symbolism, and
tortured psyches. This time Bergman plays on the comic themes of youth
challenging age and the impetuosity of young love. [1955. Cast includes Ulla Jacobsson,
Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson, and Gunnar Björnstrand. Swedish with English
subtitles.]
The series concludes with the 7 p.m. screening of the
Russian film Burnt by the Sun. Although this is a film about the dangers
of being denounced during the Stalin regime, most of the drama stems from
relationships between the characters. The setting is the country house of
Colonel Sergei Petrovich Kotov, his young wife, and their daughter. Kotov is a
hero of the Revolution, a patriot and a gentleman with a profound sense of
humor who wears his authority comfortably and humbly. But when Cousin Mitya, a
flashy young visitor from Moscow, arrives an ominous cloud settles over the
previously happy home. Gradually it becomes clear that this sense of foreboding
is well founded. [1994. Directed by Nikita Mikhalkov. Written by Mikhalkov with
Rustam Ibragimbekov. Cast includes Mikhalkov, Oleg Menshikov, and Ingeborga
Dapkunaite. Russian with English subtitles.]
The Euro Film Festival, offered in conjunction with
the UIS English program’s Verbal Arts Festival, is sponsored by the English,
Liberal Studies, and Individual Options programs and the Office of Student
Life. For more information, contact Rosina Neginsky at (217) 206-7431 or Lula
Lester at (217) 206-6962, or go to http://uisacad.uis.edu/~bwall1/filmfest/2003/index.htm.
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