This week Cornell Cinema presents Bas Devos’ marvelous, humanist portrait, Ghost Tropic (pictured). An immigrant woman in Brussels falls asleep on the last train home after a shift at work, awakening at the end of the line with no choice but to make her way home on foot. "A compressed epic… This poetic Belgian feature manages to say a good deal about life, death, and the state of the globalized world." (Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader) A hopeful miniature; perfect for the lead up to the election.
If you’re of a certain age, you may be familiar with Blake Edwards’ queer classic Victor/Victoria, starring Julie Andrews as an out of work singer who masquerades as a man to snag a cabaret job performing in drag (it’s complicated). What you might not know is this was a remake of a 1933 film from Weimar Germany, Victor and Victoria. We’re proud to screen the original version of this film, newly restored! It’s a charming, outrageous gender-bending musical comedy, and a perfect end for our Pioneers of Queer Cinema series.
Finally, we’re taking RSVPs for two new films, opening Nov 6. Boccaccio ’70 is an omnibus film featuring four of Italy’s greatest auteurs (Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Vittorio de Sica, and Mario Monicelli) paired with some of Europe’s greatest stars (Sophia Loren, Romy Schneider, and Anita Ekberg)! We have a great introduction up on our website by Professor Karen Pinkus (Comp Lit/Romance Studies), who references the film in her new book Clocking Out: The Machinery of Life in 1960s Italian Cinema. Incidentally, you can get a 30% discount off the cover price of Clocking Out by using the code BOCC70 on the University of Minnesota Press website.
Also opening next week is Cane River, a genuinely lost film for almost forty years. Written, produced, and directed by Emmy Award-winning documentarian, Horace B. Jenkins, and crafted by an entirely African American cast and crew, Cane River is a racially-charged love story in Natchitoches Parish, a “free community of color” in Louisiana. It delves into the tensions within and between the Black and Creole communities, and is an absolute must-watch film, part of our Black Lives on Screen series.
Finally, Cornell Cinema wishes you a happy & safe Halloween!
