Walker Cinema: November-December 2014
MASTER OF TURKISH CINEMA: NURI BILGE CEYLAN
“I’m interested in the timeless.” —Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Regarded as “the most acclaimed Turkish director in contemporary cinema” (Indiewire), Nuri Bilge Ceylan will introduce his 2014 Palme d’Or winner Winter Sleep in the Walker Cinema. Ceylan is comfortably established as a remarkable and ingenious director—of his seven features, the last four have won top prizes at the Cannes Film Festival.
The director’s early interest in photography grounds his skill in utilizing long and careful shots of landscape and characters. He typically uses close friends and family members as his cast, personalizing his narratives to a greater extent. Ceylan’s immersive images and engaging characters create an entrancing viewing experience.
Master of Turkish Cinema: Nuri Bilge Ceylan is held in conjunction with MoMA’s Filmmaker in Focus series.
All films are directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan and are in Turkish with English subtitles. They will be screened in the Walker Cinema, and unless otherwise noted, are $9 ($7 Walker members, students, and seniors).
WINTER SLEEP (Kis uykusu)
Saturday, November 1, 7 pm
$12 ($10 Walker members, students, and seniors)
Introduction by director/co-writer Nuri Bilge Ceylan
“A richly engrossing and ravishingly beautiful magnum opus” —Variety
Winner of this year’s top prize at Cannes, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s most ambitious film to date explores themes of charity and generosity—both monetary and in spirit. The epic Winter Sleep is set in the mountains in a mostly deserted Turkish hotel, where a rich man’s strained relationships with his ambitious, young wife and divorced sister are put to a challenging test. As in all Ceylan films, subplots reveal the social and political restraints in Turkey, played out in the severity of the frugal landlord to his fellow townspeople. Adopt Films opens the film theatrically in December. 2014, DCP, in Turkish with English subtitles, 196 minutes.
CLIMATES (Iklimler)
Sunday, November 2, 1 pm
$12 ($10 Walker members, students, and seniors)
Introduction by director/co-writer Nuri Bilge Ceylan
“One of the most perceptive and turbulent love stories” —Seattle Times
An intense and slow-burning romance, Climates follows the unraveling relationship between Isa and Bahar (played by real life husband and wife Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Ebru Ceylan). The film seamlessly flows from scenes set in reality to nightmarish scenarios of their disintegrating love. Winner of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival FIPRESCI Prize. 2006, 35mm, in Turkish with English subtitles, 101 minutes.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (Bir zamanlar Anadolu’da)
Wednesday, November 5, 7 pm
“An exhilarating masterpiece.” —The Guardian (UK)
Combining a true story with dialogue from several of Anton Chekov’s short works, this film follows a group of officials who take a murder suspect through the picturesque Anatolian countryside in search of the victim’s body. One problem: the suspect can’t remember where it is buried. With exacting detail, director Nuri Bilge Ceylan reveals the seemingly small instances that lead to change as members of the group—policemen, a doctor, a prosecutor, a transcriber, and others—reflect on their lives along the journey. Winner of the 2011 Cannes Grand Jury Prize. 2011, 35mm, in Turkish with English subtitles, 157 minutes.
DISTANT (Uzak)
Wednesday, November 12, 7 pm
“Richly contemplative and languid filmmaking” —Tom Dawson, BBC
Tension arises when family obligations are tested during an unexpected visit from an unemployed cousin arriving at his kin’s house in a big Turkish city. The two could not be more different—a divorced photographer and a factory man looking for better pay. Both are trapped in solitude, but propelled by the unwavering bond of family roots. Winner of the 2003 Cannes Grand Jury Prize. 2002, 35mm, in Turkish with English subtitles, 110 minutes.
This presentation is made possible by generous support from the Bentson Foundation.
TWIN CITIES EXCLUSIVES
GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE (Adieu au langage)
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Friday, November 7, 7:30 pm
Saturday, November 8, 2 pm and 7:30 pm
Walker Cinema
$9 ($7 Walker members, students, and seniors)
“[Godard] hasn’t lost his prankster side, and Goodbye alights with visual gags and punning wordplay, including various permutations of the French title, Adieu au langage, as ‘Ah dieu’ (‘Oh God’) and ‘Oh langage.’” —Scott Foundas, Variety
As the director himself describes his newest 3-D triumph, “The idea is simple: A married woman and a single man meet. They love, they argue, fists fly.” But, of course, nothing is so simple with Godard. The director explores myriad paths, including the ups and downs of a couple in an adulterous relationship, a scenario reminiscent of his 1960s New Wave–era films. 2014, 3D DCP, in French with English subtitles, 70 minutes.
LI’L QUINQUIN (P’tit Quinquin)
Directed by Bruno Dumont
Friday, November 14, 7 pm
Saturday, November 15, 2 pm and 7 pm
Friday, November 21, 7 pm
Saturday, November 22, 2 pm and 7 pm
$9 ($7 Walker members, students, and seniors)
Walker Cinema
“A wonderfully weird and unexpectedly hilarious murder mystery.” —Variety
Fresh from the Cannes, Toronto, and New York film festivals, French filmmaker Bruno Dumont returns to the screen with a new, wild comedy set in rural Northern France. A hopeless police inspector and his comical sidekick (with the effect of a modern day Laurel and Hardy) take up an unconventional and provocative search for a missing body, while being menaced by the story’s central figure—a little mischief-maker named Li’l Quinquin. Using humor, Dumont also touches upon complicated issues of immigration, racism, jealously, and family rivalries. 2014, DCP, in French with English subtitles, 200 minutes.
NATIONAL GALLERY
Directed by Frederick Wiseman
Friday, November 28, 7 pm
Saturday, November 29, 1 & 7 pm
Sunday, November 30, 1 pm
Walker Cinema
$9 ($7 Walker members, students, and seniors)
“One of Wiseman’s richest and most thought-provoking films, and
easily one of his best.” —Slant Magazine
Long renowned for his examination of public institutions (the
university, the ballet, a strip club, and a boxing gym to name a few),
Wiseman expands his work to exploring the art museum—specifically,
the two-centuries-old National Gallery in London. Wiseman’s approach
is to remove the narration and interviews typical of documentary
filmmaking and to let his voice be revealed through the editing of his
often long shots of his subjects. He focuses on how the roles of the staff
and public intersect and affect each other, and in doing so revitalize the
lives of works of art. Close attention is paid to the labor involved in
conserving pieces and eventually the film becomes a testament to the
fluid nature of a painting’s meaning. Wiseman was subject of the
November 2003 Walker Dialogue & Retrospective. 2014, DCP, 180
minutes.
This presentation is made possible by generous support from the
Bentson Foundation.
BRITISH ARROWS AWARDS
This holiday season, the Walker Art Center carries on the 28-year
tradition as host to the British Arrows Awards—an eclectic mix of
riveting mini-dramas, outrageous wit, and awe-inspiring innovation.
From high-tech extravaganzas to down-and-dirty comedy, this
celebration of commercial creativity brings people back year after year.
Tickets go on sale for members on October 7 and October 21 for the
general public.
Screening Schedule: December 5 – January 4
Friday, December 5: 7 and 9 pm (Introduced by Andy Gulliman, British
Arrows Vice Chairman and Saatchi & Saatchi Executive Broadcast
Director)
Saturday, December 6: 5, 7, and 9 pm
Sunday, December 7: 1 and 3 pm
Thursday, December 11: 6, 7, and 8 pm
Friday, December 12: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
Saturday, December 13: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
Sunday, December 14: 2, 3, 4, and 5 pm
Thursday, December 18: 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
Friday, December 19: 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
Saturday, December 20: 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
Sunday, December 21: 2, 3, 4, and 5 pm
Friday, December 26: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
Saturday, December 27: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 pm
Sunday, December 28: 2, 3, 4, and 5 pm
Monday, December 29: 2, 3, 4, and 5 pm
Tuesday, December 30: 2, 3, 4, and 5 pm
Friday, January 2: 3, 5, and 7 pm
Saturday, January 3: 5 and 7 pm
Sunday January 4: 3 and 5 pm
Odd-hour screening times (1, 3, 5, 7, 9 pm) = Walker Cinema
Even-hour screening times (2, 4, 6, 8 pm) = McGuire Theater
Audio-described and ASL-interpreted screenings:
December 13, 2 pm
December 18, 6 pm
RSVP to access@walkerart.org
Tickets
$12 ($10 Walker members, students, and seniors). Screenings sell out
quickly! Each ticket includes free gallery admission ($14 value), a $5
Walker Shop discount, and $1 off drinks. Special rates for groups of 10
or more: contact Kate Farstad at 612.375.7686 or email
kate.farstad@walkerart.org.
walkerart.org/tickets
612.375.7600
Free Tickets for Joining
Join the Walker as a new member and receive two free tickets.
Call 612.375.7655 or visit walkerart.org/membership.
Pop-Up Pub is Simply Smashing!
Get together for British fare with a twist, along with classic ales and
cocktail specials. For one month only, the Walker Pub takes over
Gather with a new menu and expanded hours. Reservations:
612.253.3410 or OpenTable.com
The 2014 British Arrows Awards are sponsored by Thomson Reuters.
Media partner Star Tribune.
FREE FILMS ON VIEW
RUBEN/BENTSON FILM AND VIDEO STUDY COLLECTION: A FORTY
YEAR HISTORY
November 4 – December 31
Screens daily from 11 am
Lecture Room
This Walker-produced documentary reveals the history of the Ruben/Bentson Film Collection since its formation in 1973 and includes interviews conducted by current curator Sheryl Mousley with former curators John Hanhardt, Melinda Ward, Richard Peterson, and Bruce Jenkins. The collection, now comprised of more than 1,000 titles, has expanded and diversified over the years. Serving as a basis for an exploration of cinema’s history and the aesthetic and theoretical properties of the medium, the strengths of the collection are in early silent cinema with a concentration on those from the Soviet era, the European avant-garde from the 1930s and 1940s, and American experimental films from the 1950s through today.
ALIVE FROM OFF CENTER
Various Directors
Through February 7, 2015
Best Buy Video Bay
“A lively collection . . . may leave you excited, intrigued, angry or completely mystified, but rarely bored” —New York Times
Alive from Off Center took performance into the realm of broadcast TV, featuring groundbreaking work from a new generation of international artists working on the frontiers of comedy, dance, music, performance, and video. Selections of this classic Walker Art Center and Twin Cities Public Television (KTCA) creative collaboration include shows from the first three seasons. 1984-1987, video, each episode runs 28 minutes.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Major support to preserve, digitize and present the Ruben/Bentson Film and Video Study Collection is generously provided by the Bentson Foundation.