Free Friday Foreign Films
All films are shown at the Guntersville Public Library,
1240 O’Brig Ave. in Guntersville, Alabama.
For more information: (256) 571-7595 or,
In the
Mood for Love
Friday, Feb. 12, 2010 @ 7 p.m.
Winner of numerous awards including Best Actor at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, In the Mood for Love confirmed that Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai is a major figure in world cinema. As passionate as it is politely discreet, his film takes place in 1962 Hong Kong, where neighboring apartment dwellers Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) and Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung) discover that their oft-absent spouses are having an affair. This realization parallels their own mutual attraction, but fidelity and decency ensure that their intimate bond remains unspoken though deeply understood. With a stealthy, eavesdropping camera style and a screenplay created through spontaneous on-set inspiration, Wong Kar-wai crafts an intricate, finely tuned platonic romance, enhancing its ambience with a kaleidoscope of color (most notably in Cheung's dazzling wardrobe of cheongsam dresses) and careful attention to character detail. Deservedly placed on many critics' top 10 lists, this elegant film should not be missed. --Jeff Shannon, www.amazon.com Won the César Award for Best Foreign Film at the 2001 César Awards in France. Directed by Kar Wai Wong, 2000, Hong Kong, 98 minutes. In Cantonese with English subtitles. Rated PG.
Italy's
funnyman Roberto Benigni accomplishes the impossible in this World War II
comedy: he shapes a simultaneously hilarious and haunting comedy out of the
tragedy of the Holocaust. An international sensation and the most successful
foreign language film in U.S. history, the picture earned director-cowriter-star
Benigni Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor. He plays the
Jewish country boy Guido, a madcap romantic in Mussolini's Italy who wins the
heart of his sweetheart and raises a darling son in the shadow of fascism. When
the Nazis ship the men off to a concentration camp in the waning days of the
war, Guido is determined to shelter his son from the evils around them and
convinces him they're in an elaborate contest to win a tank. Guido tirelessly
maintains the ruse with comic ingenuity, even as the horrors escalate and the
camp's population continues to dwindle--all the more impetus to keep his son
safe, secure, and, most of all, hidden. Benigni walks a fine line mining comedy
from tragedy and his efforts are pure fantasy--he accomplishes feats no man
could realistically pull off. Yet for all its wacky humor and inventive gags,
Life Is Beautiful is a moving and poignant tale of one father's sacrifice to
save not just his young son's life but his innocence in the face of one of the
most evil acts ever perpetrated by the human race. --Sean Axmaker,
www.amazon.com.
Won the 1999 Oscar for Best Foreign
Language Film. Directed by Roberto Benigni, 1997, Italy, 116 minutes. In
Italian with English subtitles. Rated PG-13. 
