January - February Films

All films FREE and Tuesdays at 8:00PM


Tuesday, Jan 27 8:00PM
DIVORZIO ALL'ITALIANA (1961)
A dark comedy about one Baron Fefé Cefalù, a Sicilian nobleman bored of life and of wife Rosalia. He falls in love with young and beautiful cousin Angela, who spends summers in the same palace. Since divorce is illegal in Italy in the 1960s, he conspires to murder his wife, knowing that sentence would be very light if he proved that he committed murder for a matter of honour, i.e. when he found the wife together with another man. Therefore, he starts finding a lover for Rosalia, using Carmelo Patané, a painter well-known by her.

Feb. 3: F For Fake (1974)

Orson Welles' brilliant, multi-layered, free-form cinematic essay on fakery focuses on the notorious art forger Elmyr de Hory and his biographer, Clifford Irving, who also wrote the celebrated fraudulent Howard Hughes autobiography, then touches on the reclusive Hughes and Welles' own career (which started with a faked resume and a phony Martian invasion). More than simply about fakery, Welles uses this theme as a means to discuss authorship, authenticity and the nature of expertise. “If a faker can fool an expert” Welles' magician narrator asks, “who is the expert, and who is the faker?” On the way, Welles plays a few tricks of his own on the audience.

Feb. 10: Ran (1985)

Akira Kurosawa's extravagant retelling of King Lear is set in 16th century Japan and tells the story of the Great Lord Hidetora Ichimonji, who at the age of seventy, after years of consolidating his empire and ruthlessly exterminating all opposition, decides to abdicate and divide his domain amongst his three sons. The youngest defies the pledge of obedience and is banished. He warns his father: “You have spilled an ocean of blood. You showed no mercy, no pity. We too are children of this age, weaned on strife and chaos ...” When inter-filial squabbling erupts, the tragic engine of this film starts firing on all cylinders as Hidetora is dropped into a nightmarish hell of civil war and madness as his comeuppance for a lifetime of inflicting misery comes due, along the way receiving an earful of choice dialogue from his former court jester. One of the most stirring tragedies ever put to film.

Feb. 17: Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Times are tough in a Chicago real-estate office; the down and out salesmen are given a strong incentive by an overbearing, vicious boss to succeed in a sales contest. The prizes? First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize? “Third prize is you're fired!” There is no room for losers in this dramatically masculine world; only "closers" will get the good sales leads. The pressure to succeed results in a robbery which has unforeseen consequences for all involved. Written by playwright David Mamet.