Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Dallas’ Magnolia Theater serves up free foreign films in June

By John P. Meyer

Nothing like a friendly game of chess

Quick pop quiz:

If you were to name the first director that came to mind when I offered up the following countries of origin, who would they be? (No fair glancing down for the answer.)

* Sweden?

* Japan?

* France?

* Italy?

Wait a minute: where are their gunbelts?

If you answered "Bergman, Kurosawa, Truffaut and Fellini," you win the satisfaction of correctly guessing the obvious. (O.K., so that French part is arguably less obvious...)

In any case, June must be some sort of international-themed month on Turner Classic Movies, because the lineup of weekly free digital simulcasts presented by the Magnolia includes nothing but foreign films, the viewing of which will require you to read subtitles in order to follow along with the action. (Unless you speak Swedish, Japanese, French and/or Italian in addition to English - in which case, the UN may have a job opening for you. I suggest you get on over there and apply without further delay.)

Second part of the quiz: go ahead and take a stab at which films have been cued up to appear as representatives of the aforementioned directors' work.

The envelope, please:

On Thursday, June 4 at 8 p.m., Ingmar Bergman's 1957 masterpiece, The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet, for you Swedish speakers) - in all its black and white, symbol-ridden glory - kicks off the month of multi-cultural movie viewing. Just pick up your free tickets at the Magnolia box office on the day of the show. (Same goes for the rest of the events in the lineup.)

A week later (Thursday, June 11 - this time at 7 p.m.), check out Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954), the film that inspired so many reinterpretations in so many different genres: western, The Magnificent Seven; war movie, The Dirty Dozen; women's film, Steel Magnolias. (O.K., so that last one's debatable...)

Next comes Francois Truffaut's Jules and Jim (1962), at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 18. New wave cinematic techniques; a love triangle; Oskar Werner dressed as Mozart - what more could you ask for in an evening's (free) entertainment?

Finally, on Thursday, June 25 at 7 p.m., get set for Federico Fellini's La Strada (1954), which is not to be confused with the forthcoming Hollywood movie of the same title (though in English as opposed to Italian) starring Viggo Mortensen. They are both road movies, and that is where the resemblance ends. (At least for now - if The Road ends up winning an Oscar, that would count for another resemblance.)

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