Freer and Sackler Galleries|Films

Flight of the Red Balloon

2010-09-10T23:00:00Z

Taiwan's most acclaimed filmmaker pays homage to Albert Lamorisse's classic children's film with this poignant story of a tempestuous single mother (Juliette Binoche), her precocious young son, and the Taiwanese exchange student she hires as his nanny. At once a sublime tribute to Paris and a compassionate exploration of the inevitable complications of human relationships, this film has been hailed as "a gem" (Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune), "a movie of genius" (J. Hoberman, Village Voice), and "a work of art on the order of a poem by Yeats or a painting by Rothko" (John Anderson, Washington Post). (Dir.: Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan, 2007, 115 min., French and Mandarin with English subtitles)

Night and Day

2010-09-12T18:00:00Z

After he's arrested for smoking marijuana, a famous Korean painter flees to Paris where, between emotional calls home to his wife, he falls in with a group of expatriate Koreans and becomes smitten with a beautiful young art student. But repeated coincidences and surreal images gradually blur the line between the real and the imaginary. Director Hong Sang-soo's characteristic dry humor suffuses his portrayal of Koreans living abroad, the allure of Paris, and his feckless hero's neuroses and delusions. "Some of it is hilarious, some sad, all filtered through Hong's inimitably wry take on the unbearable lightness of being" (Scott Foundas, Village Voice). Intended for mature audiences. (Dir.: Hong Sang-soo, Korea, 2008, 144 min., Korean and French with English subtitles)

Late Spring

2010-09-17T23:00:00Z

This "heartbreaking postwar masterpiece" (Scott Tobias, The Onion) by Yasujiro Ozu explores the relationship between a widowed father and his adult daughter as they negotiate the changing social pressures of a modernizing Japan. He wants her to marry so she won't be alone after his death, but she is steadfast in her desire to remain single and care for him. Elegantly told in Ozu's uniquely pensive style, this tremendously moving film is one of his most revered and influential. (Dir.: Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1949, 108 min., B&W, Japanese with English subtitles)

35 Shots of Rum

2010-09-19T18:00:00Z

Yasujiro Ozu's masterpiece Late Spring is transported to Paris' African immigrant community in this beautiful contemplation of the bond between a widowed father and his overly devoted daughter. Claire Denis' tribute to the Japanese master retains Ozu's basic storyline and compassionate sensibility, but also cleverly filters the original film's themes through a very different period and setting, and infuses it with her own powerful style. "To fall in love with it, viewers only have to be receptive to a movie that examines the ties that bind with grace, wit and depth," writes David Fear in Time Out New York. (Dir.: Claire Denis, France, 2008, 100 min., French and German with English subtitles)

Sleepwalking through the Mekong

2010-09-24T23:00:00Z

In the 1960s, Cambodian musicians blended traditional Khmer music with Western pop to create Khmer rock, a genre that has been revived by the Los Angeles-based band Dengue Fever. This film documents the band's tour of Cambodia, where they performed with local musicians, reconnected with charismatic lead singer Chhom Nimol's roots, and found a vibrant modern Cambodia far different from the tragic images so often associated with it. (Dir.: John Pirozzi, United States, 2007, 68 min., video, English and Khmer with English subtitles)

The Golden Age of Cambodian Cinema

2010-09-26T18:00:00Z

Join filmmaker and Cambodian cinema specialist Davy Chou (the grandson of famous Cambodian movie producer Van Chann) as he presents a history of Cambodian cinema from the 1960s and 70s. Chou has been tirelessly tracking down films and filmmakers from this period, during which Khmer rock and Khmer movies together created a lively, inventive pop culture that was tragically destroyed by the Pol Pot regime. Don't miss this opportunity to see rare film clips and learn about a rich cinematic world that remains virtually unknown in the West.

Adrift

2010-10-01T23:00:00Z

Today's Hanoi serves as the backdrop for this steamy tale of a precarious love triangle. When a young wife's husband proves unable to consummate their marriage, her best friend—who secretly desires her—pushes her into the arms of a seductive lothario. Seething with sexual tension, this sensuous feature from Chuyen Bui Thac "is a subtle, melancholy exploration of erotic angst and uncomfortable awakening" (Manohla Dargis, New York Times).

Copresented by the Global Film Initiative as part of the Global Lens 2010 film series. (Dir.: Chuyen Bui Thac, Vietnam, 2009, 110 min., Vietnamese with English subtitles)

The Little Girl of Hanoi

2010-10-02T18:00:00Z

In person: William Belding, Frederick Z. Brown, Bill Marmon, Ron Nessen, and Jonathan Rosenbaum

Filmed amid the rubble of a recently bombed Hanoi, this harrowing tale—of a girl searching for her soldier father after losing the rest of her family during a bombardment—is at once a powerful drama and a very rare look at life in the city during the Vietnam War. In the words of film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, "the film is remarkable not only for its sincerity and emotional directness, but for its accomplished visual style." (Dir.: Hai Ninh, Vietnam, 1974, 72 min., B&W, video, Vietnamese with English subtitles)

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion.

Panelists: William Belding is an adjunct professor at American University's School of International Service. He was president and CEO of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, an international humanitarian organization that co-founded the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, the winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. He also served as chief of staff of Common Cause. He was a Navy SEAL and served in Vietnam.

Frederick Z. Brown is a visiting research scholar in the Southeast Asia studies program, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. He is a retired State Department officer who served in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1968–78.

Bill Marmon was a Time Magazine staff correspondent in Saigon from 1968–71. He returned to Asia more recently as general counsel for MCI/Verizon, covering Vietnam. He continued to follow events in Vietnam as vice-president of the US ASEAN Business Council from 2008–2009. He is now retired but works with the European Institute as managing editor of its online journal.

Ron Nessen is Journalist in Residence at the Brookings Institution, a Washington thinktank. He served five tours as an NBC News correspondent covering the Vietnam War, and was wounded while covering a battle with the 101st Airborne Division. He later became President Gerald R. Ford's White House press secretary. In that capacity, he announced the end of America's military involvement in Vietnam. His memoir, titled Making the News, Taking the News, will be published in 2011.

Jonathan Rosenbaum was head film critic for the Chicago Reader from 1987–2008, and has contributed to many major film publications, including Film Comment and Cahiers du cinéma. An authority on world cinema, among his books are Moving Places: A Life at the Movies (1980), Placing Movies: The Practice of Film Criticism (1995), Movies as Politics (1997), Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons (2004), and Goodbye Cinema, Hello Cinephilia: Film Culture in Transition (2010).

The Guava House

2010-10-03T18:00:00Z

The main character of this film from Dang Nhat Minh—one of Vietnam's most acclaimed directors—is a 50-year-old man whose emotional and mental development ended after a childhood fall from a guava tree. Obsessed with returning to his childhood home, he is caught scaling his neighbor's fence, in the process forming a relationship with the daughter of the powerful civil servant who lives there. As described at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, "Director Dang Nhat Minh uses the memories of a man who can't grow up to reflect upon a land which still has difficulty in reconciling itself to the past and in finding a direction towards the future." (Dir.: Dang Nhat Minh, Vietnam, 2000, 100 min., Vietnamese with English subtitles)