summer 2007 series

While Hollywood films are distributed worldwide, a very small number of foreign countries have films commercially distributed in the U.S. In fact, only a small portion of foreign films made each year eventually make their way to U.S. screens, and usually a very few screens at that. And this discrepancy has absolutely nothing to do with quality. Ithacans are lucky, though, because Cornell Cinema boasts one of those few screens and makes a point of showing quality world cinema that was not deemed commercial enough for a full-fledged theatrical release.

So, this summer, in addition to offering another chance to see two of the most highly visible foreign films of 2006, Mexico's Pan's Labyrinth and Germany's The Lives of Others, the latter taking home the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, we are very pleased to be presenting three foreign language films you've probably never heard of, but should absolutely come to see.

To call L'Iceberg quirky is an understatement. The story of Fiona, a Belgian woman who becomes obsessed with all things cold, particularly icebergs, after being accidentally locked in a walk-in restaurant freezer, the film offers something so entirely different you won't know what hit you. “The movie is structured as a series of brazenly metaphoric slapstick tableaus, with little music and less dialogue. Relying on static wide shots that pin the characters to their color-coded environments (a style choice that links the film to the work of Buster Keaton, Jacques Tati, Jim Jarmusch and other deadpan fabulists), L'Iceberg treats Fiona's journey as a mythic quest. Its simultaneously silly and grave tone finds humor in the characters' delusions and obsessions while celebrating their uniqueness.” (New York Times)

Our next selection, Red Road, directed by Andrea Arnold, whose short film Wasp won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short in 2004, made a splash on the international film festival circuit when it premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, winning the prestigious Prix du Jury, and yet it's only received a limited release here in the States. An atmospheric thriller that follows a surveillance camera operator working in a crime-ridden neighborhood in Glasgow who in turn starts to track an ex-convict she's clearly surprised to see out of prison. Only at the end of the film do we discover the tragedy that links their pasts. The film is the first of three to be produced as part of a joint UK/Danish project initiated by Lars von Trier, mister Dogma himself. The project will consist of three films set in Scotland all using the same nine actors playing the same characters, however each film will be written and directed by three different filmmakers. We can't wait to see the next two installments.

The deadpan style of Jim Jarmusch meets Aki Kaurismaki's wry sensibility in Whisky, a perversely funny story set in Montevideo, Uruguay. The film was Uruguay's entry to the 2005 Academy Award competition but was not one of the five lucky films to be nominated. According to Phil Hall, writing in Film Threat, it was no surprise, given “the Academy's long-standing aversion to Latin American cinema.” He goes on to write, “whatever production wins the Foreign-Language Film Oscar [this year, 2005] does not deserve the prize. Whisky is global cinema at its best. This is a truly great film.”

We couldn't agree more. We think you will too.

Images from (top to bottom): L'Iceberg, Red Road, Whisky