Foreign Film Friday: “Taste of Cherry” by Kiarostami
(1997, 1h 35m, Iran, Drama by Abbas Kiarostami)
The first Iranian film to win the Palme d’Or, this austere, emotionally complex drama by the great Abbas Kiarostami follows the enigmatic Mr. Badii (Homayoun Ershadi) as he drives around the hilly outskirts of Tehran looking for someone who will agree to bury him after he commits suicide, a taboo under Islam. Extended conversations with three passengers (a soldier, a seminarian, and a taxidermist) elicit different views on mortality and individual choice. Operating at once as a closely observed, realistic story and a fable populated by archetypal figures, Taste of Cherry challenges the viewer to consider what often goes unexamined in everyday life.
Foreign Film Fridays • 7:00pm
Classic movies from around the world every Friday!
Donation-based admission. Light refreshments available.
Flood Gallery Fine Art Center
Centrally located just off I-240 Exit 8; River Ridge Business Center, Suite 1200, 802 Fairview Rd, Asheville 28803 (behind Hamrick’s and Sun Soo Martial Arts, next to Hot Yoga Asheville and Asheville Dance Theater)
Foreign Film Friday: “Heart of Glass” by Herzog
(1976, 1h 34m, West Germany, Drama/Experimental by Werner Herzog)
In an 18th century Bavarian village, which relies on a blown glass factory, the master craftsman dies taking the secret of the famous red glass with him. The community is shocked all over, from the unstable aristocracy to the proletarian drunkards. An oracle foretells the slew of troubles time will bring. Every actor in every scene performed while hypnotized, with the exception of the oracle character Hias and the professional glassblowers who appear in the film. Herzog intended the strange performances to suggest the trance-like state of the obsessed townspeople in the story.
Foreign Film Fridays • 7:00pm
Classic movies from around the world every Friday!
Donation-based admission. Light refreshments available.
Flood Gallery Fine Art Center
Centrally located just off I-240 Exit 8; River Ridge Business Center, Suite 1200, 802 Fairview Rd, Asheville 28803 (behind Hamrick’s and Sun Soo Martial Arts, next to Hot Yoga Asheville and Asheville Dance Theater)
Foreign Film Friday: “The Butcher of Prague (Lidice)” by Nikolaev
(2011, 2h 6m, Czech Republic, War/Drama by Petr Nikolaev)
The story of the Czech village of Lidice, which was razed in 1942 in reprisal for the assassination in Prague of Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich, is familiar the world over. The film of the same name takes a look beyond the story, however, and allows the viewer to follow the lives of specific individuals associated with the village. It also demonstrates the timelessness of human qualities and failings – even behind unimaginable tragedy there is always a concrete decision which has its precise causes.
Foreign Film Fridays • 7:00pm
Classic movies from around the world every Friday!
Donation-based admission. Light refreshments available.
Flood Gallery Fine Art Center
Centrally located just off I-240 Exit 8; River Ridge Business Center, Suite 1200, 802 Fairview Rd, Asheville 28803 (behind Hamrick’s and Sun Soo Martial Arts, next to Hot Yoga Asheville and Asheville Dance Theater)
Foreign Film Friday: “Love on the Run” by Truffaut
(1979, 1h 35m, France, Comedy/Drama by François Truffaut)
Antoine Doinel strikes again! In the final chapter of François Truffaut’s saga, we find Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), now in his thirties, convivially concluding his marriage, enjoying moderate success as a novelist, and clinging to his romantic fantasies. The newly single Doinel finds an object of his affections in Sabine, a record-store salesgirl whom he pursues with the fervid belief that without love, one is nothing. Along the way, he renews his acquaintance with previous loves and confronts his own chaotic past.
Foreign Film Fridays • 7:00pm
Classic movies from around the world every Friday!
Donation-based admission. Light refreshments available.
Flood Gallery Fine Art Center
Centrally located just off I-240 Exit 8; River Ridge Business Center, Suite 1200, 802 Fairview Rd, Asheville 28803 (behind Hamrick’s and Sun Soo Martial Arts, next to Hot Yoga Asheville and Asheville Dance Theater)
Foreign Film Friday: “The Most Beautiful” by Kurosawa
(1944, 1h 25m, Japan, Docudrama by Akira Kurosawa)
This portrait of female volunteer workers at an optics plant during World War II, shot on location at the Nippon Kogaku factory, was created with a patriotic agenda. Yet thanks to Akira Kurosawa’s groundbreaking semidocumentary approach, “The Most Beautiful” is a revealing look at Japanese women of the era and anticipates the aesthetics of Japanese cinema’s postwar social realism.
Classic movies from around the world every Friday!
Donation-based admission. Light refreshments available.
Flood Gallery Fine Art Center
Centrally located just off I-240 Exit 8; River Ridge Business Center, Suite 1200, 802 Fairview Rd, Asheville 28803 (behind Hamrick’s and Sun Soo Martial Arts, next to Hot Yoga Asheville and Asheville Dance Theater)
Original propaganda movie poster
Foreign Film Fridays: “Where the Green Ants Dream”
Classic movies from around the world!
“Where the Green Ants Dream” (1984, 1h 40m, West Germany/Australia, by Werner Herzog)
A surveying team led by Australian geologist Lance Hackett (Bruce Spence) is setting off subterranean explosions deep in the outback, searching for possible uranium mining sites. Hackett’s work is interrupted by Aboriginals Miliritbi (Wandjuk Marika) and Dayipu (Roy Marika), who claim that green ants dream underneath this land, and, if the insects’ slumbers are interrupted, the world will come to an end. The dispute between the two sides becomes both a court case and a philosophical debate.
Donation-based admission. Light refreshments available.
Foreign Film Fridays: “The Cremator”
Classic movies from around the world!
“The Cremator” (1969, Horror/Comedy, 1h 42m, Czechoslovakia, by Juraj Herz)
In Prague, Kopfrkingl (Rudolf Hrusínský) enjoys his work at the crematorium perhaps a bit too much, having gained a perverse idea of reincarnation from his haphazard studies of Tibet. After World War II breaks out, there is a sudden need to be as Aryan as possible, and Kopfrkingl’s old friend Reinke (Ilja Prachar) points out that Kopfrkingl has some German heritage. But his wife is Jewish, which makes his children Jewish, which makes the now-Nazi Kopfrkingl’s blood boil.
Donation-based admission. Light refreshments available.
Foreign Film Friday: “Ciao Professore!”
Classic movies from around the world!
“Ciao Professore!” (1992, 1h 40m, Italy, by Lina Wertmüller
An error puts a strict teacher (Paolo Villaggio) from northern Italy with street-smart third graders to the south.
Donation-based admission. Light refreshments available.
Foreign Film Fridays: “My American Uncle”
“My American Uncle” (1980, 2h 5m, France, by Alain Resnais)
In this unconventional French film, renowned writer/philosopher Henri Laborit (portraying himself) presents three stories that illustrate the complexities of human behavior. René (Gérard Depardieu) is a man from humble farming roots who becomes manager at a textile factory and must contend with the pressures of the job. Meanwhile, Janine (Nicole Garcia), an actress turned stylist, is involved in an affair with Jean (Roger Pierre), a politician and aspiring writer who faces difficulties at home.
Donation-based admission. Light refreshments available.