Silence in Film

Thursday, April 3, 8pm
Vidas Secas
(Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1963, Brazil, 100 minutes, 35mm)
A crucial film in Brazil’s Cinema Novo, a movement that sought to create a distinctly Brazilian film grammar, Vidas Secas follows a family of migrant workers through the barren Northeast region of the country. There is little dialogue, and while the film’s starkly minimal style initially reminded critics of Italian Neorealist works, Vidas Secas is quite subjective: Through the camera, Pereira dos Santos expresses what his inarticulate characters cannot. This deeply compassionate film even embraces the animals in it: as director Pereira dos Santos said about the characters’ dog, she too has “her own universe, her own vision.” 

Friday, April 4, 8pm
Paradise Drift
(Martin Hansen, 2006, Netherlands, 13 minutes, BetaSP)
Martin Hansen’s short film (shot entirely with night vision technology) follows a group of villagers who leave their homes unexpectedly and begin a trek up a nearby mountain in the dead of night. Some unknown spectacle is taking place beyond the ridge, and the viewer becomes the witness.

Divine Intervention
(Elia Suleiman, 2002, Palestine, 92 minutes, 35mm)      
This story of love and its obstacles takes the Al-Ram checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem as a direct parallel. Two lovers meet there secretly, and, without acknowledging the barrier before them, silently observe the armed Israeli soldiers. Nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes in 2002, Suleiman’s film traverses the ground between a realist portrayal of the Palestinian neighborhood and a surrealist commentary on living in a liminal space with the perpetual threat of violence. Told through vignettes in which neighbors mutter darkly about each other and criminals give directions to tourists, this remarkable, strange, and often very funny film captures hints of beauty in a surprising place.     

Thursday, April 10, 8pm
3-Iron
(Ki-Duk Kim, 2004, South Korea, 90 minutes, 35mm)
Shot in only sixteen days, 3-Iron documents the life of Sun-hwa, a young silent drifter who breaks into empty homes and apartments and lives on what he finds there. His fate changes when he breaks into a luxurious suburban house and finds the delicate Tae-suk, who also prefers to remain completely silent. Bound by a mysterious, non-verbal understanding, he helps her escape her abusive husband. The sound editing is sharp and vivid, underscoring the peculiarity of their silence and the outrageously romantic proposition that director Ki-Duk Kim, who also wrote the film, devises: What is love if it is entirely without words?

Thursday, April 17, 8pm
Gerry
(Gus Van Sant, 2002, U.S., 103 Minutes, 35mm)
The first film in Gus Van Sant’s death trilogy, Gerry follows two men ­both named Gerry as they meander through a vast wasteland looking for “the thing.” Midway through their search they become hopelessly lost, give up on “the thing,” and try to get back to civilization. The film’s minimalist style and inventive use of color and sound track the psychological decline of the men as their ordeal worsens. Gerry’s disturbing climax depicts the ultimate progression into madness and anaesthesia.

Thursday, April 24, 8 pm
Last Days
(Gus Van Sant, 2005, U.S., 97 minutes, 35mm)
The concluding chapter in Gus Van Sant’s death trilogy, Last Days drifts through the haze of the final moments (possibly weeks, or days, or only hours) of a Kurt Cobain-like rock star. Set in and around a hidden sprawling stone mansion in the countryside, a young musician named Blake (Michael Pitt) isolates himself from the outside world, evading phone calls and a procession of bizarre visitors: a Yellow Pages salesman, two Mormon brothers, a detective played by Ricky Jay, and a concerned Kim Gordon. Blake wanders and rarely speaks, his guitar his only solace during his final hours. Hypnotic and mesmerizing, Last Days is a fascinating portrayal of a lost soul.

Thursday, May 1, 8 pm
Tropical Malady
(Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004, Thailand, 118 minutes, 35mm)
This internationally praised film by the young Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul doesn’t sacrifice the emotional for the experimental. Split between two parts, Tropical Malady starts as the almost wordless love story between two men, Keng (Banlop Lomnoi) and Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee), and morphs into a feverish folk story about a dangerous animal that lies waiting in the woods. Combining the sharp sounds of the jungle with the silence of the characters, Weerasethakul conjured up a deeply spiritual movie.

Thursday, May 8, 8 pm
Elephant
(Alan Clarke, 1989, UK, 39 minutes, BetaSP)
This 1989 short film depicts random acts of violence, all based on actual police reports, that have taken place in Northern Island. The inexorable pace, the disorientating lack of context, the sheer number of violent acts, and the growing realization that you the audience is the only witness make this documentary-like film an unforgettable and powerful experience.

Hukkle
(György Pálfi, 2003, Hungary, 78 minutes, 35mm)
A snake slithers through the grass; a mole burrows into the ground; an old man hiccups. These sounds and others create the bizarre milieu of Hukkle. The film shows a small, unassuming village and the seemingly mundane actions of its inhabitants, yet it gradually hints at a quiet murder plot beneath this uneventful surface. Striking in its detailed sound design, Hukkle imaginatively captures moments that would otherwise be missed.

Thursday, May 15, 8pm
Into Great Silence
(Philip Gröning, 2005, Germany, 169 minutes, 35mm)
Nestled deep in the French Alps, the Grande Chartreuse is considered one of the world's most ascetic monasteries. When German filmmaker Philip Gröning wrote to seek permission from the Carthusian order to make a documentary about them, they said they would get back to him. It was sixteen years before Gröning was invited to live in the monks' quarters. For six months Gröning filmed their daily prayers, tasks, rituals, and rare outdoor excursions. The resulting film, more meditation than documentary, dissolves the border between screen and audience: it is a total immersion into the hush of monastic life.

Friday, June 6, 9 pm
Goodbye, Dragon Inn
(Tsai Ming-liang, 2002, Taiwan, 84 minutes, 35mm)
“No one goes to the movies anymore, and no one remembers us anymore.” Goodbye, Dragon Inn is set in the last feature at a formerly grand, now leaky and dilapidated  Taipei cinema that’s closing down. The camera lingers on the few people in the cinema as they search for some kind of human connection; even the movie theater has a quiet pulse of its own. The sixth feature film by Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang, Goodbye, Dragon Inn is a masterful meditation on both the singular and collective experience of going to the movies.