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Honoring IFC
BAM pays tribute to innovative international distributor with premiere screenings
Juliette Binoche stars in Summer Hours (L’Heure d’été), one of the films playing at BAM’s IFC film series
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Honoring the efforts of film distributor IFC, BAMcinématek screens seven international films new to US audiences. IFC, distributing films for almost a decade, was responsible for Y Tu Mamá También, Fahrenheit 9/11, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Transamerica. This year, BAMcinématek selected two films, La Belle Personne and Frontier of Dawn, for weeklong premier runs. The other five films are one-time sneak previews.
Christophe Honoré’s La Belle Personne, March 6–12
Concerning the romantic entanglements of Parisian high school students (including a teacher), La Belle Personne is an adaptation of the 17th century novel The Princess of Clèves. Honoré’s cinematography is heartbreakingly beautiful, and the film is fittingly scored by Nick Drake.
Philippe Garrel’s Frontier of Dawn (Frontière de l’aube), March 6–12
After an affair ended in his lover’s suicide, photographer Francois moves on only to be haunted by the image of his dead partner. The theme stretches constructs of images in photography and film, and the black and white cinematography is lovely.
Hong-Jin Na’s The Chaser (Chugyeogja), March 6
This thriller was a hit in Korea, and the story is being remade in Hollywood. A pimp’s girls go missing, and he uses skills from his former career as a cop to discover there is a serial killer on the loose. When the investigation proves that the killer’s most recent victim is still alive, the chase begins.
Steve McQueen’s Hunger, March 6
Hunger is based on Bobby Sands’ 1981 hunger strike in a Northern Ireland prison. The Guardian says, “Steve McQueen’s explicit, but icily brilliant and superbly acted film…is a lacerating portrait of an agonized period of British and Irish history.” This is McQueen’s first feature-length movie.
Olivier Assayas’ Summer Hours (L’Heure d’été), March 7
In her French countryside home, a mother has assembled a museum-worthy art and furniture collection. But as she faces death, she must also face the fact that her children (the daughter played by Juliette Binoche) live in a world with no use for the heirlooms of childhood.
Gerardo Naranjo’s I’m Gonna Explode (Voy a explotar), March 7
In this offbeat teenage romance, Maru falls in love with Roman, who, fresh from getting kicked out of another high school, fakes his own hanging at his new school’s talent show. More kindred angry spirits than lovers, the two run away together, at first just to the roof of Roman’s father’s mansion. Only when the kids are forced to face the consequences of their actions is it clear that their rebellion was as much of a ruse as the hanging.
Antonio Luigi Grimaldi’s Quiet Chaos (Caos calmo), March 8
Nanni Moretti plays a man who has lost his wife in an accident and throws himself completely into his role as a father to cope. Other people in his life must now force him back into a life.