D.C. Film Society to Get Sneak Peek at Studio Pics

Fall 2001 Coming Attractions Trailer Program
Food, giveaways and more!

From a Bruce Willis action flick, to another season of Rollerball, to an amazing story of how the Navajos helped win World War II, the studios have lined up some blockbusters for the fall and winter movie season. Once again, the Washington DC Film Society will give you the first opportunity for a sneak preview with its fall 2001 edition of "Coming Attractions Trailer Program" on Monday, November 5.

The ever-popular film critic team of Joe Barber and Bill Henry will be on hand to lead a discussion on the techniques used in these previews to get you out of the house and pay those ridiculous prices for popcorn.

Once again, there will be cool studio promotional giveaways to take home, and this time, thanks to Chipotle, there will be plenty of free food to munch on while you digest the movie offerings. By all means, enjoy the program, your giveaways, and your burritos! It?s all included in the price of $5 for members and $8 for non-members.

For further information, visit our website or call the hotline at (202) 554-3263 x8.

The trailers include: The Royal Tenenbaums, The Rookie, Beauty and the Beast, The Count of Monte Cristo, Monsters, Inc., Out Cold, Harry Potter, Ocean's Eleven, Eight Legged Freaks, A Walk to Remember, Black Hawk Down, The One, and Forty Days and Forty Nights.

Monday, November 5
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Loews Cineplex Wisconsin Theater
4000 Wisconsin Ave., NW
$5 for Members/$8 for Guests and Non-Members

Next Cinema Lounge Meeting

On Monday, November 8, the Cinema Lounge will talk about kid's films. No longer just for kids, we'll discuss the way children's movies have changed over the years.

As always, Cinema Lounge meets the second Monday of every month at Borders Books, 5333 Wisconsin Ave. NW, at 7:30 p.m. in the Café Espresso on the 2nd floor.

Marlene Dietrich Centennial Celebration of Films

In conjunction with its exhibit "Marlene Dietrich--A Legend in Photographs," the Goethe Institut-Washington has organized a series of films starring Marlene Dietrich which began late last September with The Blue Angel. In November, the series continues with three films at Films on the Hill.

On November 9 at 7:30 p.m. is a silent film The Woman That Men Yearn For (1929) which will have live piano accompaniment by Ray Brubacher. This was Marlene's first starring role and she plays a sinister seductress who bewitches a newly married man on a train. Marlene proves herself to be a fully fledged vamp long before she met Josef von Sternberg. Also about this time, she was beginning to be compared with Greta Garbo. Although Marlene appeared in 17 silent films, she wouldn't admit it; however, her silent films are nothing to be ashamed of, as The Woman That Men Yearn For proves.

On November 10 at 7:30 p.m. is Marlene's first British film, Knight Without Armour (1937) for which she was paid the enormous sum of $450,000 for, as Life Magazine said, "taking two baths, revealing her lovely legs ... makes her the highest paid woman in the world." Knight Without Armour is a lavish thriller set during the time of the Russian Revolution. During the making of this film in England, she was approached by Hitler's agents who offered her almost a blank check to return to Germany. She angrily refused and applied for U.S. citizenship which was granted in 1939.

The two films mentioned above are rarely if ever shown, but the next, Dishonored (1931) is better known to American audiences. Dishonored was Marlene's second American film and her third collaboration with Josef von Sternberg. Marlene plays a World War I spy similar to Mata Hari and the following year, Garbo's film Mata Hari was released.

Marlene Dietrich was one of the most photographed women in the world. She could suggest a stunning variety of presences--women of elegance, maturity, passion, innocence, resignation, simplicity or superiority--presences that endure to this day, thanks to motion and still pictures. When she arrived in the U.S. in 1930, she was virtually unknown; however, within weeks she was in such demand to be photographed that appointments were made six months in advance. The seven films she made with Josef von Sternberg are lyrical, exotic romances with elaborate decor. During the time she worked with von Sternberg, she became a thorough professional and perfectionist, expert in makeup, lighting, clothes, and film editing. All seven of the Dietrich/von Sternberg films are represented in the series and it is these films that have lastingly defined her public image. During the war, she made anti-Nazi broadcasts in German, took part in war-bond drives and entertained troops and war prisoners in North Africa and Europe. After the war, she was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. Government civilian honor. She began her cabaret performances in 1954 and entertained in the world's greatest cities. In her films as well as her cabaret performances, she artfully projected cool sophistication, self-mockery and infinite experience. She was an international symbol of glamor and sex for half a century. Marlene died at the age of 90 in Paris.

The films will conclude in December at Films on the Hill, the National Gallery of Art and the Library of Congress. For more information, see the Goethe-Institut website or the Films on the Hill website.

The photographic exhibit at the Goethe-Institut runs through December 14.

An Interview with Jean-Pierre Jeunet

By Jim McCaskill
Edinburgh, Scotland. This interview with Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director of Amelie, took place at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in August 1001. Amelie was the Opening film.

The first thing you notice about Jean-Pierre Jeunet is his wicked sense of humor. "What do you want to know? I'll speak to my lawyer. If you have a question, think of me as mentally retarded." Retarded he isn't. Already showing an impressive and wide-ranging style in his first three feature films, Delicatessen (1991), The City of Lost Children (1995), Alien Resurrection (1997), Jeunet continues this with the unabashedly joyful and run away French hit film Amelie.

Why a film like Amelie after a string of dark films? "I am a collector of happy stories and wanted to put a smile on the audience." "When Fox offered me Alien, I was already working on Amelie. When I went to Hollywood I did not speak English and said exactly what they wanted to hear. My life changed. I could not say no to such a huge proposition. For a film this large I had to be very strong and put expectations very high. I was very free in Hollywood as they hired me and my fantasy." "Friends later said 'Go back to France and make a better film that Alien III. Alien III was a piece of shit.' As I craved freedom and wanted to find my city, Paris." "As I had been working on Amelie for years and had plenty of of ideas for scenes, situation, characters. The trouble was finding the common denominator in that. I could not put my finger on what the film was about." "After Alien it just dropped like ripe fruit. Guillaume Laurant and I started writing."

Audrey Tautou adds so much to the film that it seems strange that the part was not written for her. "Emily Watson was originally cast. In fact, Amelie is a corruption of Emily. I loved her in Breaking the Waves and did some tests of her in French. We wrote an English version for her. Ultimately she did not want to leave London for 5 months. I have no regrets casting Tautou. Saw her poster for Venus Beauty Shop. Saw her big eyes and big hair and knew this girl was for me. I sat in on the casting and knew Tautou was Amelie.

Lists are important in Amelie. "I have always made lists, lists of events, ideas for film scenes. I even steal from myself. The love scene in Delicatessen was used again here.

"I did not know this guy (Yann Tierson) in the beginning. I was riding with a friend who put on a CD of his and called him immediately. Tierson wrote 10 pieces in two weeks. Everything worked.

Certain people seem to be in all your films. "When you have actors like Dominique Pinon you want them all the time. Had to beg him to come to LA for Alien. Everything is easy for him. If the character Joseph is funny it is because of Dominique.

Jeunet is a modest man. Remember that sense of humor. When asked how work was split in his partnership with Guillaume Laurant he says, "I did everything." Modest. Jeunet goes on to say, "Guillaume supervised the artistic work." "We have worked together before and I know what he likes and dislikes. He does not like a love story. He does not drive. He hates the sun. Not for Hollywood."

"At first I scouted locations in Paris. Parking lots and sidewalks can make all cities look alike. Wanted the picture to have the feel of the 40s or 50s. I changed everything to look like it did when I first came to Paris when I was 20. It was romantic then; now you see dog shit on the sidewalks. I prefer fantasy. "Filming in digital process allowed me to manipulate the color. You can modify everything and have that golden light.

The big story about this film being such a big hit in France is that it was turned down by Cannes. "We hesitated to present it to Cannes. There you feel like a rabbit on the first day of hunting season. We released it in Spring and it became a hit and everyone was mad at Cannes for not taking it."


About the music in Amelie
The romantic and joyful music of Yann Tiersen makes an important contribution to the Jean-Pierre Jeunet film Amelie. His first album, "La Valse Des Mostres" (1995) features initiates this style by shifting from the piano to violin, from accordion to melodica. "Rue Des Cascades" (1998) was his second album extends this lyrical realm. But it was his third album, "La Phare" (1998), brought him to prominence.

Amelie is not the first film that has featured Tiersen's music. Eric Zonka used one of his tracks for the soundtrack of The Dreamlife of Angels. Andre Techine also used Tiersen's music in Alice et Martin, as did Christine Carriere for Qui Plume La Lune?

The Second Annual South Asian Literary Festival

The 2001 South Asian Literary Festival, Spectrum of Words, will be held on November 9-11 at the Wyndham City Center conveniently located near the Foggy Bottom metro stop. This is an exciting festival for the entire metro DC community to meet the South Asian writers and film makers to celebrate their accomplishments, share their experience and encourage the aspiring ones. Some of this year's participants are Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Sister of My Heart), Shashi Tharoor (India: From Midnight to the Millennium), Amitav Ghosh (The Glass Palace), Nisha Ganatra (Chutney Popcorn), and Dev Benegal (English, August). Early Bird registration has begun. Visit the website.

The 12th Washington Jewish Film Festival

The 12th Washington Jewish Film Festival: An Exhibition of International Cinema opens with the DC Premiere of the evocative German-Swiss film Gripsholm on Thursday, November 29 at 7 pm at the historic Lincoln Theatre, followed by a reception at the theatre. Special Guest German Director Xavier Koller will be in attendance. The evening is co-sponsored by the Embassy of Switzerland; the Goethe-Institut Washington; and in cooperation with the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Festival is presented by the DCJCC's Morris Cafritz Center for the Arts and co-sponsored by the Embassy of Israel and Washington Jewish Week.

Xavier Koller's sensuous film Gripsholm, plunges the viewer into the decadent, hedonistic world of Berlin cabaret. Thanks to his cheeky chanson lyrics, Kurt, an aggressive journalist and ironic Jewish author, has become something of a star in the revue scene. In what seems to be an endless summer, Kurt and his girlfriend, Lydia, travel to Gripsholm Castle in Sweden where, prompted by his publisher, Kurt is hoping to find the inspiration to create a "lightweight summer story". Two friends--passionate flier Karlchen and seductive cabaret singer Billie--soon join the lovers at their idyllic holiday retreat. However, Karlchen's political stance provokes plenty of arguments, while Billie's presence leads to many an erotic disruption. As summer gives way to melancholy fall, political events threaten to engulf Kurt's world. Based upon the semi-autobiographical novel Schloss Gripsholm by brilliant and prolific author Kurt Tucholsky, Gripsholm is a richly hewn piece that immerses the viewer in the time just before the second World War.

The Festival closes at the Lincoln Theatre on Sunday, December 9 at 7 pm with the charming French comedy Once We Grow Up, with special guest Director Renaud Cohen in attendance. Simon is at his wits end, trying to juggle his job as a writer, his girlfriend with whom he's trying to have a child, his colorful friends, dodgy parents, not to mention his grandma who has taken to wandering the Paris streets. Add Claire, his alluring pregnant neighbor who has been abandoned by her husband, and you have the ingredients for a witch's brew of comedy and romance. With Matthieu Demy (Jeanne Et Le Garçon Formidable) and Amira Casars (Would I Lie to You?, 2000 WJFF). Music (performed by Nefrit El-Or) and a wine reception will follow at the Lincoln Theatre.

This year's Festival will be presented at the following venues: the DCJCC's Aaron and Cecile Goldman Theater, The Lincoln Theatre, 4000 Wisconsin Avenue 6 Cinemas, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Below are some of the highlights of the 39 features, documentaries and shorts, from 22 countries, to be presented in 5 venues (including evenings, weekends and weekday matinees), spanning this 10-day Festival.

Enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of the Mediterranean, in Jeanine Meerapfel's visually stunning Anna's Summer, starring the exquisite Angela Molina. Ms. Meerapfel will introduce her film on Wednesday and Thursday, Dec 5th and 6th. See the late show starring the Divine Ms. M in the outrageous Bette Midler: Dirty Girl in A Bathtub--A Video Clip Presentation by Andrew Ingall. Based upon an A.B. Yehoshua story, Facing The Forest is a crisp film-noir that unleashes a deluge of paranoia from the outset. A search for identity drives the docs A Family Secret and Matrilineal. Waiting for the Messiah is a delightful romantic comedy directed by Daniel Burman, one of the rising stars of Argentine cinema. Director Elida Schogt uses photographs saved by her family as they fled Europe during WWII in The Walnut Tree. Director Sandi Simcha Dubowski's taboo-shattering, Sundance Film Fest winner, Trembling Before G-d, is a measured and powerful documentary that, for the first time, brings to light the subject of homosexuality within the Orthodox Jewish community. Sandi Simcha Dubowski, Director and Rabbi Steve Greenberg, the first openly gay Orthodox Rabbi will attend this special screening. A tragic love song leads to heart-break among the ménage à trois in the romantic drama Gloomy Sunday. The Komediant is a unique, bittersweet epic about the history of Yiddish theater and the Burstein family. Elsa Zylberstein stars in the stirring French drama Louba's Ghosts. Award-winning filmmaker Jacky Comforty introduces his documentary The Optimists: The Story of the Rescue of the Jews of Bulgaria, presented at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Two Shorts Programs bring us laughter, tears, anguish, ecstasy and ambivalence. The award-winning Promises documents the lives of Israeli and Palestinian children during a period of relative calm from 1997 - 2000. Directors Tamar Rogoff and Daisy Wright will introduce their remarkable doc Summer in Ivye which brings together dancers, actors, musicians and townspeople as they try to recreate a performance that surrealistically echoed life in the once vibrant Jewish town of Belarus before WWII. Visit with acclaimed artist/actor Israel Becker in Ruth Walk's The Balcony, and meet the subject of Nina Baker Feinberg's doc Isa Kremer: The People's Diva, a fabulous performer who, in the face of totalitarianism and despotism, sang proudly in Yiddish the world over. Special Guest Director Yael Katzir introduces Company Jasmine, a superb in-the-trenches doc that for five months follows 50 female cadets in training for the prestigious Israeli Women Field Officers School. Jeff Goldblum and Greta Scacchi star in One of the Hollywood Ten, the true story of Jewish director Herbert Biberman's struggle to continue making films in the face of Cold War paranoia and blacklisting of the 1940s and 50s. Director Steve Suissa's autobiographical film Taking Wing stars the ruggedly handsome Clement Sibony as Stan Keller, a scrappy Parisian Al Pacino-esque youth determined to become an actor. Director Seth Kramer and Miles Lerman, Chairman Emeritus, US Holocaust Memorial Museum and former member of a Jewish partisan unit, will lead a dialogue following the screening of Resistance: Untold Stories of Jewish Partisans, the story of thousands of Jewish men and women in the lands which are now Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia who were saved by their fellow Jews. Assi Dayan stars in Time of Favor. The recipient of six Israeli Academy Awards including Best Picture, this is a gripping film about a plot hatched that will inflame tensions in the holy city of Jerusalem. Meet Uncle Chatzkel, great uncle of Australian filmmaker Rod Freeman. Still living in his native Lithuania after more than 95 years, Uncle Chatzkel has lived a remarkable life, having survived exile and the Bolshevik Revolution, the Nazi invasion, the Holocaust and the anti-Semitism of the Communist post-war era and break-up. In Still (Stille), Director Wendy Oberlander uses archival footage and montages of faces to look back to the world of assimilated European Jews during the 1930's. One of the last films produced in Europe before the Holocaust, The Vow captures authentic scenes of Jewish shtetl life, traditional folk melodies and Yiddish love songs, while telling the classic tale of love, fate and mysticism as adapted from the ancient folk tale the Dybbuk.

Tickets for the Film Festival will go on sale November 18th (priority ticket purchasing for DCJCC members and Film Fest Funders on November 15th and 16th ). The 24-page Festival Catalog will be inserted in the Friday, November 16th edition of The Washington Post (on top of the weekend section with the circulars) and in the Thursday, November 15th edition of The Washington Jewish Week. The catalog can also be downloaded from the web site, and can be picked up at the DCJCC and other Festival venues. For more information, please visit the Festival web site at www.wjff.org or call 202-777-3248. To order tickets call: 1-800-494-8497 or www.boxofficetickets.com.

Calendar of Events

FILMS

The American Film Institute
The European Union Film Festival continues in November; films include The Holdup (Austria, Florian Flicker, 2000) on November 9 at 6:30pm and November 11 at 1:00pm; Flickering Lights (Denmark, Anders Thomas Jensen, 2000) on November 2 at 6:30pm, November 4 at 4:45pm, and November 5 at 6:30pm; Classic (Finland, Kari Väänänen, 2001) on November 9 at 10:00pm and November 11 at 9:00pm; Amélie (France, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2000) on November 2 at 8:30pm and November 3 at 8:15pm; Mortal Transfer (France, Jean-Jacques Beineix, 2000) on November 7 at 8:15 and November 8 at 8:15pm; The State I Am In (Germany, Christian Petrold, 2000) on November 3 at 6:15pm and November 4 at 2:45pm; Disco Pigs (Ireland, Kristen Sheridan, 2000) on November 3 at 2:00pm and November 4 at 1:00pm and 9:00pm; How Harry Became a Tree (Ireland, Goran Paskaljevic, 2001) on November 9 at 8:15pm and November 10 at 5:30pm; The Hundred Steps (Italy, Marco Tullio Giordana, 2000) on November 1 at 8:15pm; Ties and Ropes (Luxembourg, Herman Van Eyken, 2000) on November 6 at 6:30pm and November 10 at 2:00pm; Amnesia (Netherlands, Martin Koolhoven, 2001) on November 1 at 6:30pm; Rent a Friend (Netherlands, Eddy Terstall, 2000) on November 7 at 6:30; November 10 at 3:45pm and November 11 at 2:45pm; Camarate (Portugal, Luis Filipe Rocha, 2000) on November 3 at 3:45pm and November 6 at 8:15pm; Leo (Spain, José Luis Borau, 2000) on November 8 at 6:30pm and November 11 at 4:30pm; A Song for Martin (Sweden, Bille August, 2001) on November 10 at 7:30pm and November 11 at 6:15pm; and My Kingdom (United Kingdom, Don Boyd, 2001) on November 4 at 6:45pm and November 5 at 8:30pm.

Freer Gallery of Art
During November and December, the Freer will show 10 films by Japanese director Kon Ichikawa: Fires on the Plain (1959) on November 2 at 7:00pm, Odd Obsession (1959) on November 4 at 2:00pm, Her Brother (1960) on November 9 at 7:00pm, Money Talks (1964) on November 11 at 2:00pm, Punishment Room (1956) on November 16 at 7:00pm, Bonchi (1960) on November 18 at 2:00pm, and A Billionaire (1954) on November 30 at 7:00pm. More Kon Ichikawa films are shown at the Gallery, see below.

National Gallery of Art
The Gallery shares the Kon Ichikawa film series with the Freer. In November, the following films by Kon Ichikawa are shown: The Burmese Harp (1956) on November 3 at 2:00pm, Conflagration (1958) on November 3 at 4:15pm, The Heart (1955) on November 10 at 2:30pm, Nihonbashi (1956) on November 11 at 4:00pm, Mr. Pu (1953) on November 18 at 4:30pm, along with Men of Tohoku (1957), The Outcast (1962) on November 14 at 1:00pm. The series continues in December. Also in November is The Big Animal (Jerzy Stuhr, 2000) on November 23 at 2:30pm which was previously shown last April at the DC Film Festival, Downtown 81 (Edo Bertoglio and Glenn O'Brien, 1981/2000) on November 24 and 25 at 4:00pm, The Art of Norton Simon (Charles Guggenheim and Davis Guggenheim, 2000) on November 4 at 5:00pm with the filmmakers in person, and films about Henry Moore: Henry Moore: Man of Form and Museum Without Walls: Henry Moore in New York on November 7, 8, 9 and 10 at 12:30pm; A Never-Ending Discovery: Moore in China on November 21, 22, 23, and 25 at 12:30; and Henry Moore on November 28, 29, and 30 at 12:30pm. More films about Henry Moore continue in December.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Barking Dogs Never Bite (Korea, Bong Joon-ho, 2001) is on November 1 and 2 at 8:00pm. Tony Powell's "Digital Visions", a program of short films combining dance and film is on November 8 and 9 at 8:00pm.

National Museum of Women in the Arts
Carlota Joaquina, Brazilian Princess (Carla Camurati, 1995) is a surrealistic historical satire shown on November 14 at 7:00pm.


Pickford Theater
Films include Japanese films such as Onimaru (Yoshishige Yoshida, 1988) on November 1 at 6:30pm, Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954) on November 1 at 6:00pm and a program of Japanese animation (1925-1945) on November 8 at 7:00pm. Other films include a program of World War II Shorts and Documentaries on November 5 at 7:00pm, Margaret Mead--An Observer Observed (Alan Berliner, 1996) on November 16 at 7:00pm and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah, 1974) on November 9 at 7:00pm.


Films on the Hill
Three Marlene Dietrich films are in November: The Woman That Men Yearn For (Kurt Bernhardt, 1929) is a silent film accompanied on piano by Ray Brubacher on November 9 at 7:30pm. Knight Without Armour (Jacques Feyder, 1937) and based on the book by James Hilton is on November 10 at 7:30pm and Dishonored (Josef von Sternberg, 1931) is on November 16 at 7:30pm. See the article about Marlene Dietrich above. For Veterans' Day is The Road Back (James Whale, 1937), on November 12 at 7:00pm. This film is the rarely-seen sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front and based on the book by that same author, Erich Maria Remarque. On November 21 at 7:00pm is a George Sanders double feature: They Came to Blow Up America (Edward Ludwig, 1943) and Action in Arabia (Léonide Moguy, 1944), both of which are based on historical incidents.


U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
On November 1 at 7:00pm is Babitsky's War, an award-winning documentary profiling journalist Andrei Babitsky.


District of Columbia Jewish Community Center
A documentary by local filmmaker Esther McBride, The Old Days: Jewish Life in Washington, D.C. (2001) is on November 6 at 6:30pm and 8:00pm. Introduced by Alan M. Kraut, author of The Huddled Masses: The Immigrant in American Society, 1880-1921. Sophie Litman Shapiro who appears in the film and Esther McBride lead a discussion after the screening.

JUST ADDED! Florentene, Part III (Arik Rothstein, 1999, video) has been rescheduled to November 5 at 7:00pm. This was an audience favorite at the 1998 Washington Jewish Film Festival and follows a group of Generation X-ers who live in a Tel Aviv neighborhood.

Previous Storyboards

October, 2001
September, 2001
August, 2001
July, 2001
June, 2001
May, 2001
April, 2001
March, 2001
February, 2001
January, 2001
December,2000
November, 2000