Free Screenings from January 11 to March 14, 2008
The River Cities Film Series (RCFS) is a non-profit organization that presents free foreign and domestic films representing some of the best examples of cinematographic art to the citizens of the Mid-Ohio Valley. Each film is preceded by a brief introduction and audience members are invited to stay afterwards for free refreshments and informal discussion.
Now in its ninth year, RCFS is funded in part by Washington State Community College (WSCC), Marietta College (MC), and The Eye MDs, George, Strickler, & Lazer PLLC. The group is composed of the colleges' faculty and administrators, as well as community members from Washington and Morgan counties.
Films are screened on Friday nights at 7:30 p.m.
| Washington State Community College Harvey Graham Auditorium 2nd Floor, Arts & Sciences Center, 710 Colegate Drive Parking is available in Washington State Community College’s lower lot. |
Marietta College McDonough Auditorium, located off of Putnam and Sixth streets Parking is available outside the auditorium. Additional parking is available at the Hermann Fine Arts Center on Butler Street. |
January at Washington State Community College
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La Vie En Rose Writer-director Olivier Dahan chronicles the joyful, tragic life of legendary French singer Edith Piaf. A diminutive woman with a powerful voice, Piaf's performances captivated a nation and created a soundtrack for the first half of the 20th century. Dahan captures his subject's fractured beauty in a film that Roger Ebert calls "one of the best biopics I've seen." Rated PG-13 for substance abuse, sexual content, brief nudity, language and thematic elements. In French, with English subtitles.
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The Iron Giant Before inventing The Incredibles and cooking up Ratatouille, animator Brad Bird told the story of a boy who befriends a 50-foot-tall robot in 1950s Maine. Based on a children's book by British poet Ted Hughes, the Los Angeles Times praises the film for its style and substance: "The Iron Giant remembers the wonder of being a child and understands how to convey that in a media-savvy age. Both a step back and a step forward from the trends of modern animation, it feels like a classic even though it's just out of the box." Rated PG for fantasy action and mild language.
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Talk to Me Don Cheadle stars in the true story of Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene, Jr., an ex-convict turned iconic radio personality who established himself on the Washington, DC, airwaves in the midst of social unrest during the late 1960s. Driven by Cheadle's riveting performance, Talk to Me "offers uplift without phoniness, history without undue didacticism and a fair number of funny, dirty jokes," declares the New York Times. Rated R for pervasive language and some sexual content.
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February at Marietta
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The Lives of Others Winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's debut thriller follows an East German secret policeman charged with wiretapping a playwright. The Lives of Others offers an unflinching look at the totalitarian excesses of postwar East Berlin. "It's hard to believe this is von Donnersmarck's first feature," notes Newsweek. "His storytelling gifts have the novelistic richness of a seasoned master." Rated R for some sexuality/nudity. In German, with English subtitles.
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Offside A group of Iranian girls dress as boys in an attempt to enter Tehran's soccer stadium for a big match. Challenging the rules of the Islamic Republic, writer-director Jafar Panahi was denied official permission to make the film so he worked under the guise of telling a less provocative story. The New York Times notes, "[T]he film's rich, pointed comedy arises from the sense that all of them, men and women alike, are trapped in an absurd, insoluble predicament." Rated PG for language throughout, and some thematic elements. In Persian, with English subtitles.
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Murderball A frank and fascinating documentary about quad rugby, a full-contact sport featuring teams of young men with spinal injuries competing in modified, Mad Max-style wheelchairs. The athletes offer an amazing story of survival, perseverance and the competitive spirit. "Don't fancy the idea of a dull-umentary about 'special' athletes—you know, the kind you congratulate yourself for supporting?" asks the Washington Post. "The guys featured in 'Murderball' would so kick your pity in the soft parts if they caught you thinking that. You don't have to try to love this movie. It'll knock you down on its own." Rated R for language and sexual content.
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Paprika In Satoshi Kon's mind-bending animated film for adults, an unknown assailant steals devices that allow therapists to enter their dreams, blurring the line between the conscious and unconscious. The New York Times praises Paprika as a "mind-twisting, eye-tickling wonder" while the New Yorker calls it "a Freudian-Jungian-Felliniesque sci-fi thriller" that is "a masterly example of Japanese anime." Rated R for violent and sexual images. In Japanese, with English subtitles.
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The Host A shrewd mix of action, comedy and social satire about the U.S. involvement in South Korea, co-writer-director Bong Joon-ho's The Host is a rare monster movie that's as smart as it is entertaining. A mutant squid monster, spawned by the toxic chemicals polluting the Han River, kidnaps a teenage girl and forces a dysfunctional family to bond together to scour the nearby sewers in the hope of rescuing the child. The New York Times describes The Host as "a loopy, feverishly imaginative genre hybrid . . . about the demons that haunt us from without and within." Rated R for creature violence and language. In Korean, with English subtitles.
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March at Washington State Community College
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Across the Universe Julie Taymor, the innovative director who brought The Lion King to Broadway, tackles the Beatles songbook in the story of a British dockworker named Jude who falls in love with sheltered Lucy in 1960s America. "Its 33 Beatles songs (two without words) have been re-recorded and sung by the actors," notes the New York Times. "Yet Across the Universe feels emotionally true both to the Beatles, whose music today seems to exist outside of time, and to the decade it remembers." Rated PG-13 for some drug content, nudity, sexuality, violence and language.
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2008 Audience Choice WinnerInto Great Silence Filmmaker Philip Groning spent six months living with the Carthusian monks in the French alps to document their prayers, rituals and rare outdoor excursions. Without a score, voiceover or archival footage, the film immerses the audience into the solitude and reflection of the monastic life. "'Into Great Silence' is a film of great spiritual intensity and haunting minimalism that enlarges your concepts of movies and of life. Like the monks of the Carthusian order, it distills something intoxicating through a style that's pure and rigorous," declares the Chicago Tribune. Not Rated; In French with minimal English subtitles.
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