maastricht movie nite
Welcome to my Movie Nite webpage, made available to you by Joel Reithler, Francesco Gentile and me. The movie titles link to in-depth discussion and reviews available on the world wide web (Wikipedia or IMDB).
Each movie session starts with a short introduction on the choice of the movie, its background and relevance to the respective movie cycle or event. In some cases, the movie nite also includes a home-cooked diner and drinks and/or discussion of accompanying materials (such as the book on which the film is based on in the Book-Movie combination).
Featured movies:
First cycle
Transformations
Culturally inclined (preceded by a short introduction on relevance of movie choice to presenter's cultural origin)
Food for thought (we cooked meals, drank wine and then watched the movie)
Cinematic screenings (this cycle runs throughout and independent of other movie-nite cycles)
Book-movie combination (preceded by discussion of the book on which the film is based)
Shorts
Mike Leigh Cycle (Francesco enlightened us about cinematic and cinematographic details of Mike Leigh's working style and movie making)
Each movie session starts with a short introduction on the choice of the movie, its background and relevance to the respective movie cycle or event. In some cases, the movie nite also includes a home-cooked diner and drinks and/or discussion of accompanying materials (such as the book on which the film is based on in the Book-Movie combination).
Featured movies:
First cycle
- Solaris (1972, Andrei tarkovsky). Based on the novel "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem.
- Idioterne (1998, Lars Von Trier). Together with Thomas Vinterberg, Lars von Trier presented Dogme 95 manifesto for a new cinematic style.
- Children of Men (2006, Alfonso Cuaron)
Transformations
- Koyaanisqatsi (1982, Godfrey Reggio). A collage of visual images portraying Life out of Balance. Music score by Philip Glass.
- Sånger från andra våningen (2000, Roy Andersson)
- Stalker (1979, Andrei Tarkovsky)
Culturally inclined (preceded by a short introduction on relevance of movie choice to presenter's cultural origin)
- Leef! (2005, Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen). Dutch movie.
- Le conseguenze dell’amore (2004, Paolo Sorrentino). Italian movie.
- Kaspar Hauser – Jeder fuer sich und Gott gegen Alle (1974, Werner Herzog). German movie.
Food for thought (we cooked meals, drank wine and then watched the movie)
- Un affair de gout (2000, Bernard Rapp)
- La grand bouffe (1973, Marco Ferreri)
- Ratatouille (2007, Brad Bird & Jan Pinkava)
Cinematic screenings (this cycle runs throughout and independent of other movie-nite cycles)
Book-movie combination (preceded by discussion of the book on which the film is based)
- L'année dernière à Marienbad (1961, Alain Resnais). Based (very loosely) on "The invention of Morel" by Adolfo Bioy Casares.
- Eyes wide shut (1999, Stanley Kubrick). Based on "Traumnovelle" by Arthur Schnitzler.
- The graduate (1967, Mike Nichols). Based on "The graduate" by Charles Webb. We also visited a theatrical play that was loosely based on the premise of the book at the Vrijthof Theater in Maastricht.
Shorts
- 11'09"01 - September 11 (2002). Eleven directors from 11 countries each contribute an 11-minute short reflecting on the events of 11 September 2001.
- Paris, Je t'aime (2006). Paris, je t'aime is about the plurality of cinema in one mythic location: Paris, the City of Love. Twenty filmmakers have five minutes each.
- Coffee and cigarettes (2003). Short moments of short interactions between two or more individuals. Shot over a 17-year period.
Mike Leigh Cycle (Francesco enlightened us about cinematic and cinematographic details of Mike Leigh's working style and movie making)
- Secrets and Lies (1996). Successful black woman traces her birth mother to a lower-class white woman, who denies it. Several scenes are improvised or actors were kept unaware of its meaning/contents. See also a great review from (the late) Roger Ebert.
- Vera Drake (2004). Vera Drake 'helps young women'. She finds that her morals and ideas conflict with those of 1950s British society.
- Topsy-turvy (1999). The film shows a musical within a film, and brings and account of how 'The Mikado' was written, conducted and performed by Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert. An interesting break in style from the director's previous work, although cinematic elements (long close-up shots, slowly evolving facial expressions, discussion of topics related to sex and abortion) do recur in this film.