Fall Arts Preview: Film Listings

Friday, Sep. 30—Monday, Oct. 10. Harvard Film Archive. Tickets $8; students and seniors $6. Tickets at the Harvard Film Archive.

Although no less eminent than Yasujiro Ozu or Akira Kurosawa in the canon of Japanese cinema, director Mikio Naruse has remained largely unknown to mainstream Western audiences.

To bring attention to this “forgotten” director, the Harvard Film Archive, in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts Film Program, has launched a centennial tribute to this Japanese auteur, featuring a 19-film retrospective.

These selected films, created between 1930 and 1967, are paradigmatic of Naruse’s directorial style. Each features the trials of a female protagonist while examining working class conflicts and cultural frictions produced by the clash between tradition and modern Japanese culture.

Unique among this series is 1935’s “Wife, Be Like a Rose,” differentiated from Naruse’s other works by its light tone and comedic conclusion. In contrast, the majority of his other pictures are characterized by a harshly austere, nearly nihilistic, neorealist perspective, heightened by Naruse’s minimalist style in which his central characters find only defeat.

However, as in one of his more recognized films, “When a Woman Ascends the Stairs”—a tale of an aging bar madam facing certain moral compromise and marking one of his many collaborations with actress Hideko Takamine—his heroines are proud and willful, only too aware of the reality of their situations and yet desperate to continue struggling.

ONE TO WATCH: “Floating Clouds.” Based on a novel by female writer Fumiko Hayashi, often considered as Naruse’s muse, the film is recognized as one of Japan’s greatest tales of obsessive love, a story of woman bound by circumstance and self-delusion, determined to pursue a romance to its tragic conclusion.

—Isabel J. Boero

LBGT Film Festival

Wednesday, Sep. 21—Wednesday, Nov. 30 Harvard Film Archive or Quincy House Junior Common Room as listed. Free and open to the public.

Over the next few months, Harvard students can see a series of movies with one sentiment in common: they all seek to promote understanding of different lifestyles. The Harvard Film Archive (HFA), in conjunction with a number of other awareness organizations—including the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance—is presenting the LBGT (Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgendered) Film Series.

The series, which began two weeks ago with “The Celluloid Closet” (1996, dirs. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman) and “Midnight Cowboy” (1969, dir. John Schlesinger), is largely the brainchild of History and Literature tutor Timothy P. McCarthy ‘93, who is the BGLTS Advisor in Quincy House and curator of the 2005 LBGT Film Series.

The idea for the film series was born partially out of a course on the history of gay life that McCarthy is planning to teach in the spring. He plans to incorporate movies as entertaining as John Waters’ “Hairspray” (1988) and as serious as the Oscar-winning “Boys Don’t Cry” (1999, dir. Kimberly Pierce).

“Students can use film to understand post-Stonewall history and queer culture in America,” McCarthy says, referring to the now-famous 1969 police raid on a gay club which ignited the modern gay rights movement. Secondly, McCarthy expressed a desire to make LBGT issues more visible on campus. “The university should be place where these issues are debated and discussed.”

McCarthy has stressed the positive reaction from both Harvard students as well as the community of Cambridge. McCarthy noted that nearly half of the audience at last Wednesday’s screening was from outside Harvard.

The series runs through December, and McCarthy already has other plans, including some events scheduled for October 11, which is National Coming Out Day.

ONE TO WATCH: McCarthy particularly recommends “The Times of Harvey Milk” (1984), a documentary directed by Rob Epstein about the first openly gay U.S. politician and his assassination.

—J. Samuel Abbott

Film Listings

Friday, Sep. 30—Sunday, Oct. 2. Mutant Action: The Films of Alex de la Iglesia. Rare U.S. screenings Alex de la Iglesia’s best films—several of which are produced by Pedro Almodovar—an unknown, but virtuosic, European director whose dark comedies (such as last year’s “El Crimen Perfecto”) transcend genre and defy social convention. Brattle Theater. $9. Tickets available at theater or www.brattlefilm.org.

Monday, Oct. 3—Wednesday, Oct. 19. Greta Garbo Centennial Celebration.

A series of some of Greta Garbo’s most popular and most glamorous films, including timeless classics “Ninotchka” and “Grand Hotel.” Brattle Theater. $9. Tickets available at theater or www.brattlefilm.org.

Tuesday, Oct. 11—Tuesday, Nov. 29. In The Trenches: Filming World War I. Filmic representations of World War I ranging from buddy stories to jingoistic and pacificist revisionism. The series includes Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory” and Howard Hughes’ “Hell’s Angels.” Tickets $8; students and seniors $6. Tickets at the Harvard Film Archive.

Friday, Oct. 14—Sunday, Oct. 16. Fourth Annual Boston Latino International Film Festival. The Boston Latino International Film Festival (BLIFF) focuses on alternative films with social content from Latin America and Spain, and on films dealing with Latino issues in the United States. Tickets $8; students and seniors $6. Tickets at the Harvard Film Archive.

Tuesday, Oct. 24—Sunday, Oct. 30. On the Set with French Cinema: Bruno Dumont. On the Set with French Cinema is an annual program through which illustrious French directors share their filmmaking experiences with American audiences. This year marks the Boston-area debut of the program, which will celebrate the work of Bruno Dumont, including 2003’s celebrated “Twentynine Palms.” Tickets $8; students and seniors $6. Tickets at the Harvard Film Archive.

—Kristina M. Moore