| Golden Globe Foreign-Language
Nominee Series:
http://www.myspace.com/americancinematheque
Co-Presented With The Hollywood
Foreign Press Association.
In early 1944, a number of movie stars went to 20th Century Fox
Studios to see what a small group of foreign journalists, reporting from Hollywood back to
their homelands, had found to be especially interesting and worthwhile during the
turbulent preceding year. Lunch was served in the commissary, and all applauded when THE
SONG OF BERNADETTE was declared best motion picture and Jennifer Jones and Paul Lukas took
home the honors (in the form of scrolls) in the leading actress/actor categories. The
journalists, all members of the Hollywood Foreign Press, decided that this would be a
yearly event for the purpose of delivering an impartial view on motion pictures and their
impact. In order not to be swayed and influenced by the powers in Hollywood -- not even
the Academy Award choices -- it was important to them that they give their awards before
the Oscars. The basic awards for motion picture, leading and supporting actors and
actresses were supplemented with a director's award the second year, an award that became
permanent. Since 1955, the Golden Globes have honored achievement in television as well as
film. By 1962, the general public was invited to share in the celebration when KTTV in Los
Angeles first televised the awards. The Golden Globes Awards, from the very first, were
born out of a wish to create bridges between countries and cultures all around the globe
and have, over the years, kept alive a feeling of celebration rather than competition.
We’re honored to host this series of screenings devoted to the
films and filmmakers nominated for the Golden Globe Best Foreign-Language Film Awards.
Five films will be spotlighted.
Please also join us for the free Golden Globe
Foreign-Language Nominees Seminar, featuring all of the nominated filmmakers, at the
Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood January 10 at 1:00 PM. For more information visit:
www.goldenglobes.org and www.hfpa.org
Schedule at a Glance
 Wednesday January 7 – 7:30 PM
THE BAADER-MEINHOF COMPLEX
(DER BAADER-MEINHOF KOMPLEX) 2008, Germany, 149 minutes. Dir. Uli Edel. The film, the
official German Oscar entry, sparked controversy across Europe when it was first screened.
This high-paced thriller traces the history of the Red
Army Faction (RAF), a movement that is believed to have killed more than 30 public figures
in an attempt to crush West German capitalism in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Moritz
Bleibtreu (RUN LOLA RUN) stars as Andreas Baader alongside Martina Gedeck (THE LIVES OF
OTHERS) as Ulrike Meinhof, who together are fighting a violent war against what they
perceive as the new face of fascism: American imperialism supported by the German
establishment (and tainted with a Nazi-ridden past). The one man who understands them is
also their hunter: the head of the German police force Horst Herold, played by Bruno Ganz
(DOWNFALL, WINGS OF DESIRE). While he proceeds in his relentless pursuit of the young
terrorists, he knows he's only dealing with the tip of the iceberg. Discussion following with director Uli
Edel and writer/producer Bernd Eichinger.
official website | trailer
Thursday, January 8 – 7:30 PM
Double Feature:
 EVERLASTING MOMENTS
(MARIA LARSSONS EVIGA
ÖGONBLICK), 2008, IFC Films, SWEDEN/DENMARK, 131 min. Dir.
Jan Troell. Maria (Maria Heiskanen) is a young, working-class woman who happens upon a
camera she wins in a lottery in 1907 Sweden. With the help of an older storeowner, she
begins to photograph her world, and newfound skill thrusts her on a journey that changes
her entire life. The camera lens enables Maria to see the world through new eyes; it also
becomes a threat to her nearly alcoholic womanizer of a husband, just as it brings the
charming photographer "Piff Paff Puff" into her life. "Swedish master Jan
Troell (The Emigrants (1971), for which he was nominated for Academy Awards® for both
best direction and best adapted screenplay ) has always had a deep understanding of
historical currents and how individuals confront them. His heroes have been either
drifters, buffeted about by historical currents, or dreamers who found themselves ahead of
the cultural curve, railing against their time and, in some cases, nature itself. Set in
the early days of the last century, Everlasting Moments has the same epic scope as his
previous work, encompassing everything from socialist and evangelical movements to
industrialization and urbanization. But it also operates on a far more intimate, human
scale. Based on the life of his wife's grandmother, the film is a profoundly personal look
at cultural shifts through the history of one family." (Toronto Film Festival)
"Production details transport the viewer back a century with utter credibility, and
the camerawork makes every second an intense pleasure." - Todd McCarthy, Variety
Official
Website | Trailer
 WALTZ WITH BASHIR, 2008, Sony Pictures Classics, 90 min. This mesmerizing and gripping "animated documentary" is a
hand-drawn chronicle of director-writer-producer Ari Folman’s repressed memories of
war. It begins one night at a bar, when an old friend tells Folman about a recurring
nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of
beasts. The two men conclude that there’s a connection to their Israeli Army mission
in the first Lebanon War of the early 1980s. Ari is surprised that he can’t remember
a thing anymore about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he begins to meet
and interview old friends and comrades around the world in order to rediscover his past,
his identity, and the consequences of so much violence on his psyche. As Ari delves deeper
and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to offer up surreal images. Winner of six
Awards of the Israeli Film Academy, including Best Film and Best Director. "It's a
provocative, strange and arresting film, whose unusual blend of style and substance should
reach a large worldwide audience." - Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com.
Official
Website | Trailer
Friday, January 9 – 7:30 PM
Double Feature: SOLD OUT
 I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG
(IL Y A LONGTEMPS QUE JE
T’AIME), 2008, France, Sony Pictures Classics, 115 min. Dir. Philippe Claudel. Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) has been estranged from
her French family for 15 years while in prison for a domestic crime. At her return, her
younger sister Léa (Elsa Zylberstein) takes her into the home she shares with her husband
Luc, his father, and their adopted Vietnamese daughters. As their lives begin to readjust
to each other, Juliette’s family struggles to trust her again. A highly nuanced
character study and Philippe Claudel’s directorial debut, I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG is a
film about the strength of women and their capacity to shine forth, reconstruct themselves
and be reborn. "Rarely do head and heart coalesce to such sublime effect in
film." - Maggie Lee, The Hollywood Reporter.
Official Website | Trailer
 GOMORRAH (GOMORRA), 2008, Italy, IFC Films, 137 min.
Dir. Matteo Garrone. An epic, mesmerizing tour-de-force
based on Robert Saviano’s explosive best-selling mafia exposé. As five seemingly
unrelated stories unfold, Italy’s infamous Camorra crime family is revealed as the
common force brutally dominating over Naples and the lives of its inhabitants. Filmed with
gritty realism, it gives an honest and frank depiction of the cycle of crime, refreshingly
devoid of sensationalism. A box-office smash in Italy, GOMORRAH was a critical sensation
at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prize. It has also won five
European Film Awards including Best Film and is the official Italian Oscar® selection.
With Salvatore Cantalupo. "[Matteo Garrone] tells all this with an unfussy style,
with a documentarist’s eye for the authentic, both for people or places, and a
dramatist’s urge for the tragic and the universal."- Dave Calhoun, Time
Out. Director Philippe
Claudel will introduce I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG and Matteo Gorrone will introduce GOMORRAH.
Official Website | Trailer |
