Program Archive: The 1997 New Directors / New Films Festival March 21 - April 6, 1997 WHEN THE CAT'S AWAY Young and hip, Chlo? has a cool job as a makeup artist, but her boss is out to lunch. Her love life isn't happening, and since she can't even get her gay roommate to watch her cat while she goes on vacation, she leaves her precious Gris-Gris in the care of an eccentric old woman. When she returns, she finds the cat has disappeared. Aided by a cadre of senior citizens, who attack the problem of the missing cat with an enthusiasm not seen since D-Day, Chlo? encounters myriad denizens of the area that she would never have otherwise met. With the help of an exuberant cast, many of whom are non-professionals, director C?dric Klapisch lets his camera wander in unexpected directions as we discover how disparate human elements of a neighborhood come together to form a community. 95 minutes. France, 1996. A Sony Pictures Classics Release. 21A. Fri. March 21 at 6:00 PM 22B. Sat. March 22 at 3:30 PM

WHEN THE CAT'S AWAY LOVE SERENADE

LOVE SERENADE Winner of the Camera d'Or (best first film) prize at Cannes, writer/director Shirley Barrett's devilishly quirky black comedy is the story of two sisters, each of whom develops an obsessive and no-holds-barred crush on the new man in town. He is a brooding, thrice divorced radio personality with a predilection for steamy 70s soul, young women, and water sports. Full of candy-colored interiors and supernatural transformations, LOVE SERENADE reveals a unique and exciting new talent. A Miramax Films Release. 101 minutes. Australia, 1996. Preceded by PACT, directed by Scott Patterson. . . some best laid plans go seriously awry! 10 minutes. Australia, 1996. 21B. Fri. March 21 at 9:00 PM 22A. Sat. March 22 at 12:30 PM CHRONICLE OF A DISAPPEARANCE Unique and formally exquisite, Elia Suleiman's first feature combines meditative diary and playful political allegory in a two-part portrait of day-to-day life amongst the Palestinian middle classes in Israel. In the first, "Nazareth Personal Diary," Suleiman presents a series of impressionistic, lyrical vignettes of his family and community. Mesmerizing, often very funny, in these ineffable privileged moments the people onscreen seem to be waiting for something that never comes. Suleiman appears as a version of himself in the second part, "Jerusalem Political Diary," a mischievously experimental narrative depicting the often-surreal cultural and political disembodiment and powerlessness of a younger, more politically aware generation of Palestinians. 88 minutes. A Palestinian production, 1996. An International Film Circuit Release. 22C. Sat. March 22 at 6:30 PM 23B. Sun. March 23 at 4:30 PM THE APARTMENT A whirlwind mystery, a crazy love story set in the world's most romantic city, and a plot full of surprises only begin to describe THE APARTMENT, the tantalizing first feature by writer-director Gilles Mimouni. Borrowing Hitchcockian themes of identity and obsession, Mimouni, with an exuberant camera, a lush score and an immensely attractive cast, spins one of the most dense yet elegant fictions in years. A young dynamo on his way to both a business deal and a marriage is diverted suddenly and thoroughly; the detour takes him to an apartment in which nothing is quite like it seems.114 minutes. France, 1996. 22D. Sat. March 22 at 9:00 PM 23A. Sun. March 23 at 1:30 PM THE EIGHTEENTH On May 18, 1993, the day Denmark votes on whether or not to join the European Union, a number of idiosyncratic individuals accidently cross paths, in encounters that change their lives forever. Neurotic Jens and taciturn Pernille unwittingly cause a hit-and-run accident involving little Sara, the daughter of jazz singer Ulla who -- also unwittingly -- saves Jens's life. Hip businessman Michael, an ardent pro-Unionist, bumps into Ulla outside the voting booth and inadvertently casts a nay-vote. Sundry cops and call-girls weave even more color into this tapestry of seemingly random intersections and design -- an auspicious and audacious debut for director Anders R��now-Klarlund. 96 minutes. Denmark, 1996. 23C. Sun. March 23 at 6:00 PM 25B. Tues. March 25 at 9:15 PM

BOLSHE VITA BLACK AND WHITE AND RED ALL OVER THREE FRIENDS

LITTLE ANGEL "Little Angel" is the nickname of Ramona Schneider, a lonely, hypersensitive dreamer employed in a Berlin lipstick factory. Then, in a bizarre coincidence, she's suddenly kissed by the roguish, enigmatic Andrzej (who bootlegs cigarettes on the black market) and the door opens to romance and a love she's never before experienced. With a truly superb performance by Susan Lothar, writer-director Helke Misselwitz uses a distinctive visual design to plumb the effects of longing, isolation, an unexpected glimpse of happiness, and the darker side of life on a woman's feelings, thoughts, and vulnerability. 88 minutes. Germany, 1996. Preceded by SNAKE FEED. A poignant look at the everyday lives of Irene and Rick, two people struggling with family, marginal employment and drugs. Written and directed by Debra Granik. 23 minutes. USA, 1996. 23D. Sun. March 23 at 8:30 PM 25A. Tues. March 25 at 6:00 PM LOVE AND OTHER CATASTROPHES Alice and Mia are film students seeking a third roommate to share their new apartment. Mia's girlfriend wants to move in, but Mia fears commitment. However she is in hot pursuit of her favorite lecturer and becomes embroiled in a bureaucratatic nightmare trying to switch to his course. Alice is also seeking a romantic relationship while she struggles to finish her thesis, "Doris Day as Feminist Warrior." Emma-Kate Croghan directed this highly enjoyable screwball comedy when she was just 23. Events take place within 24 hours among a group of college students, played by a fresh and engaging ensemble, who deal forthrightly with sex, love and the movies with fast and smart humor, as quotes from Jane Austen, Alfred Hitchcock and Quentin Tarantino abound. A Fox Searchlight Release. 80 minutes. Australia, 1996. Preceded by PUK NINI by Fanta Regina Nacro. Artful revenge is visited on a self-absorbed womanizer by the women he misuses. 30 minutes. Burkina Faso, 1995. 26A. Weds. March 26 at 6:00 PM 27B. Thurs. March 27 at 9:00 PM BOLSHE VITA Ibolya Fekete's debut feature captures with humor and affection the urgent desperation and euphoria of the hectic period of 1989/90 when the Communist empire was crumbling and Hungary opened up its Western borders. To the bright lights of Budapest come a flood of refugees of war, poverty and politics who will do anything to survive and find a place for themselves in some safe, brave new world. Our "heroes" are two goofy Russian musicians, an engineer, and two fun-seeking girlfriends who gather at a down-at-the-heels rock pub, the eponymous Bolshe Vita. They hustle, make love and music, and wander the streets as the new mafia of a new chaos closes in. Fekete deftly inserts documentary footage as she paints a vivid picture of these turbulent, bizarre and dangerous moments of recent history. 97 minutes. Hungary, 1995. 26B. Weds. March 26 at 9:00 PM 27A. Thurs. March 27 at 6:00 PM BLACK & WHITE & RED ALL OVER Six friends get together to talk, argue, watch TV, get high, but mainly just to hang out, holed up in an apartment that begins to feel less like a real place than a refuge from everywhere else. A stylistic tour-de-force co-scripted and directed by DeMane Davis, Harry McCoy and Khari Streeter, BLACK & WHITE... offers a refreshingly complex vision of young African-Americans trying to figure out their next moves while increasingly aware that the final buzzer could sound at any moment. 97 minutes. USA, 1996. Preceded by PASS, a heavy metal haiku of sex-pop American culture. Directed by Kate Haug. 9 minutes. USA, 1996. 28A. Fri. March 28 at 6:00 PM 29B. Sat. March 29 at 3:00 PM IN THE COMPANY OF MEN Two junior execs en route to a project in a midwestern city confide in each other their various frustrations with women. In an attempt to get even, they devise a heinous scheme to simultaneously hit on a vulnerable woman, entice her to fall in love, then drop her, hence avenging themselves on every female who ever did them dirt. All goes according to plan -- but it soon becomes clear that there is more at stake here than meets the eye. With an intense, stripped-down minimalist style, first-time director/writer Neil LaBute has fashioned a modern morality tale for the male animal in corporate America. 93 minutes. USA, 1996. Preceded by MEMORIAL DAY. An accident on a remote road draws a group of strangers together and then pulls them apart during a national holiday in middle America. Directed by Daniel Carey. 23 minutes. USA, 1996. 28B. Fri. March 28 at 9:00 PM 29A. Sat. March 29 at 12:00 NOON THREE FRIENDS Kong, Cho, and Kim, three highschool mates, do not get into college. In South Korea, where the social options are limited, there seems little to do but wait for military conscription. Kong lives to gorge; Cho wants to be a hairdresser like his mother; and Kim is a cartoonist who refuses an abusive apprenticeship. One of the very rare women Korean filmmakers, Yim Soon-Rye casts a caustic and caring eye on an uncertain generation caught between the traditional Confucian value of resignation and modern notions of choice, freedom and self-definition. With its gimlet humor and relaxed narrative THREE FRIENDS understands character so well that it is difficult to believe this is Yim's debut feature. 93 minutes. South Korea, 1996. 29C. Sat. March 29 at 6:00 PM 30B. Sun. March 30 at 3:00 PM THE ASPHALT KINGS A raucous and amazingly irreverent look at contemporary Cairo, THE ASPHALT KING centers on Sayed, a swaggering cabdriver and (to his mind) born womanizer. Embroiled in a torrid affair with a buxom neighbor, Sayed pays his best friend Ringo to keep the neighbor's barber husband busy -- but the husband, as well as Ringo, Sayed's mother, father, sister and grandfather, have their own amorous intrigues brewing. Director Oussama Fawzi has been hailed as the brightest young director to have recently emerged in Egyptian cinema. 95 minutes. Egypt, 1996. 29D. Sat. March 29 at 9:00 PM 30A. Sun. March 30 at 12:00 NOON

THE FATHER ENGLISH, AUGUST

RAINCLOUDS OVER WUSHAN (IN EXPECTATION) In a small waterfront town Mai Qiang, a shy signal operator on the river, leads a pretty monotonous life. His swinging friend is convinced Mai just needs a woman to light up his life. Meanwhile, Chen Qing, a single mother who works as a receptionist in a seedy hotel, is soon to marry. Chen's boss, now deprived of her sexual favors, tells the police that Mai has raped Chen. In his first feature film, director Zhang Ming, with a great eye for detail and an intricate blend of sights and sounds, creates a series of intimate portraits of the lives of ordinary people, for whom something extraordinary, like love, is only wishful thinking. A film of quiet yet intense power. 96 minutes. People's Republic of China, 1996. Preceded by AMOS FORTUNE ROAD. Personal and public history collide when a teacher and her student, carpooling daily along a rural New England road, become fascinated by a roadside historical marker. Directed by Matthew Buckingham. 20 minutes. USA, 1996. 30C. Sun. March 30 at 6:00 PM 31B. Mon. March 31 at 9:00 PM THE FATHER The ever-surprising Iranian cinema reveals yet another impressive new talent with Majid Majidi's THE FATHER. After months away working, a young man returns home to discover that his whole world has changed: in his absence, his recently widowed mother has re-married. The harsh, dramatic landscapes form a perfect backdrop for characters caught between their own barely expressible desires and their rigid sense of familial duty, as director Majidi transforms this deceptively simple tale into an epic of youthful rebellion. 96 minutes. Iran, 1996. Preceded by STRING OF LIFE. Momir Matovic's STRING OF LIFE is an amazing look at one family's attempt to stay together, despite enormous physical risks. 15 minutes. Republic of Montenegro, 1996. 30D. Sun. March 30 at 9:00 PM 31A. Mon. March 31 at 6:00 PM AL LEJA. Ryad Chaia's powerful debut feature is the story of Leja, a young woman living in a remote Druze village in the 1940s. Left alone after her husband leaves home to seek work abroad, Leja becomes interested in the newly arrived schoolteacher; their plans to escape, however, bring on the wrath of her family and community. Sumptuously photographed and told with the authority and simple elegance of a folktale, AL-LEJA achieves a haunting, lyrical quality as the human drama becomes linked to natural cycles of birth, death and regeneration. 84 minutes. Syria, 1995. Preceded by SOCORRO NOBRE. A moving portrait of the unusual relationship between an exiled Polish sculptor in Brazil and a female inmate in a penitentiary in Bahia. Directed by Walter Salles. 23 minutes. Brazil, 1996. 1A. Tues. April 1 at 6:00 PM 2B. Weds. April 2 at 9:00 PM AH-CHUNG Travelling around Taiwan the Ba Chia Chiang, a male religious troupe, performs for the gods, working themselves into a frenzy as they whip and wound themselves. A dutiful young man, Ah-Chung, living with his fractured family on the edge of Taipei, is persuaded by his mother to join the sect, believing proper worship might bring the family good luck. In his second feature film writer-director Chang Tso-chi, mixing footage of the startling Ba Chia Chiang rites with the drama of domestic combat, has made a film that is both remarkably moving and utterly original. 97 minutes. Taiwan, 1996. 1B. Tues. April 1 at 9:00 PM 2A. Weds. April 2 at 6:00 PM SICK: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BOB FLANAGAN, SUPERMASOCHIST Kirby Dick's portrait of the poet-performance artist is certainly one of the most audacious and original documentaries ever made. Flanagan, who produced several new pieces for the film, was born with cystic fibrosis and explains, with engaging humor, how his obsession with masochism -- controlled, self-inflicted pain -- has helped him to deal with his uncontrollable suffering. His philosophy forces us to look at sado-masochism and eroticism with fresh eyes, although some of the more explicit scenes of genital self-mutilation may impel us to close them. These scenes are indeed difficult to watch, but in each case we are given fair warning -- the filmmaker's obvious respect and affection for Flanagan make SICK unusually moving and perceptive. Not for the faint-hearted, but not to be missed. 90 minutes. USA, 1996. 3A. Thurs. April 3 at 6:00 PM 5D. Sat. April 5 at 10:00 PM

MOEBIUS SHALL WE DANCE

SOUS SOL It's 1967, and 11-year-old Rene has rejected the adult world, having mistaken his parents' lovemaking for a murder scene. Burdened with this and a growing number of other guilty secrets, Rene becomes jealous, vengefully destructive, and obsessively curious about sex as his immediate world changes around him. Pierre Gang conjures up precious details of place and character in his accomplished and insightful first feature. The performances, especially Louise Portal as the mother and the unforced naturalness of Richard Moffat's Rene, magically capture the rite of passage into sexual maturity. In French. 90 minutes. Canada, 1996. Preceded by DIDACTIC ENCOUNTER. In today's electronic age the highest voltage can still come from hearing the simplest truth. Directed by Alexandra S. Brodsky. 10 minutes. USA, 1996. 3B. Thurs. April 3 at 9:00 PM 6A. Sun. April 6 at 12:30 PM SUNDAY This psychological whodunit begins as a case of mistaken identity -- maybe. We follow an engaging assortment of the middle-aged, the middle class and the homeless, struggling through a winter Sunday of fantasy, deceit and misunderstanding. Director and co-writer Jonathan Nossiter has created an elliptical, beautifully layered, richly shot film of disquieting grace and humanity, a modern "Brief Encounter" infused with all the strangeness and improbable lyricism of Queens. SUNDAY's radiant power especially derives from the full-blooded performances of the two leads, David Suchet's heartbreaking Oliver/Matthew (with not a trace of detective Poirot) and Lisa Harrow's multi-faceted Madeleine. 93 minutes. USA, 1996. 4A. Fri. April 4 at 6:00 PM 6B. Sun. April 6 at 3:30 PM MOEBIUS MOEBIUS was directed by Gustavo Mosquera. Structured like a Moebius strip, this Borgesian parable questions reality and the notion of existence. A topologist investigates the disappearance of a train with 30 passengers inside the closed labyrinth of tunnels under Buenos Aires. This gripping, subversive film challenges and invigorates viewers with its braintwisting originality. The issue of "disappeared" political dissidents clearly continues to preoccupy Argentina. 88 minutes. Argentina, 1996. Preceded by CALENDAR THE SIAMESE. Lewis Klahr imaginatively expands his signature cutout animation style in this impressive narrative debut. A remarkable cast of downtown luminaries shine in this tale of a musician who considers selling a slice of his liver on the black market. 30 minutes. USA, 1997. 4B. Fri. April 4 at 9:00 PM 5A. Sat. April 5 at 1:00 PM ENGLISH, AUGUST Dev Benegal's assured debut feature is the witty and wryly comic story of a watershed year in the life of a young and reluctant civil servant, Agastya (August) Sen, despatched to Madna -- the hottest small town in the country. A stranger in his own land, the urban, well-to-do August, who thinks and speaks in English, is thrown into the "real" India and experiences a roller-coaster ride of culture shock, confusion and hyperactive sexuality. August survives by spending most of his time daydreaming, smoking pot and negotiating with a colorful cast of eccentric characters. Benegal handles cultural diaspora, petty bureaucracy and the reality of modern India with wicked, irreverent humor. 106 minutes. India, 1995. 5B. Sat. April 5 at 4:00 PM 6C. Sun. April 6 at 6:00 PM SHALL WE DANCE? In a country where even married couples do not hold hands in public, ballroom dancing has long been regarded as corrupt. Until now. With one graceful swoop, writer-director Masayuki Suo has made a film that thoroughly captivated Japan, turned a vice into social virtue, and its American premiere at Sundance sent audiences out cheering. A revealing and affectionate portrait of a society where work severely circumscribes life, SHALL WE DANCE? is about the liberating power of dance and what happens to one commuter who gets off before his stop. A Miramax Films Release. 118 minutes. Japan, 1996. 5C. Sat. April 5 at 7:00 PM 6D. Sun. April 6 at 9:00 PM All foreign language films are subtitled in English.