Purdue News

December 8, 1998 'Cinema Now' features 5 films this spring WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Purdue Convocations will present five films during the spring semester in its Cinema Now Film Series. All shows will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Fowler Hall, Stewart Center. Tickets are $4 for faculty and staff, $3 for Purdue students. The schedule: Friday, Jan. 29. "Smoke Signals" (88 minutes) (Chris Eyre, USA, 1998) A 1998 Sundance Film Festival Winner, Smoke Signals tells the story of two young men who grew up on the Coeur d'Alene Indian reservation in Idaho and set off on a picaresque road trip together. The screenplay is an adaptation of stories culled from Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven . Critics praised it as "heartfelt .warmly comic ..charming " Friday, Feb. 12. "The Apostle" (148 minutes) (Robert Duvall, USA, 1998) On many 10 Best lists this year, The Apostle features Robert Duvall in what will surely be one of his greatest performances, a Southern Pentecostal preacher who embarks on a search for redemption after committing a crime of passion. Thirteen years in the making, it was a labor of love which Duvall directed from his own script. Sunday, Feb. 21. "A Merry War" (101 minutes) (Robert Bierman, Great Britain, 1998) A funny and caustic adaptation of George Orwell's Keep the Aspidistras Flying by the director of Vampire's Kiss. Richard E. Grant plays a frustrated adman who wages a valiant but unsuccessful effort to become "a poet and a freeman" in Depression-blighted London. Helena Bonham Carter is the girlfriend who shows him the reward of bourgeois life. A Merry War refers to the battle between the sexes, between the classes, and between art and commerce. Sunday, March 28. "The Truce" (116 minutes) (Francesco Rosi, Italy, 1997) The life and times of Jewish Italian chemist and writer Primo Levi provide the basis of this biographical drama that depicts the late author's nine-month journey home following his release from the Auschwitz concentration camp. Along the way, the drama focuses on Levi's rediscovery of life, hope and dignity, and the simultaneous awakening of a sense of moral outrage previously suppressed by the horror of his daily existence. John Turturro strikes a perfect balance between despair and laughter in the role of Levi. Friday, April 23. "Marius And Jeannette" (102 minutes) (Robert Guediguian, France, 1998) Winner of seven Cesar Awards and a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, Marius and Jeannette is a charming, Pagnolesque love story between a security guard and a fiery single mother in working-class Marseilles. It is a love story, family drama, and ensemble comedy which also touches on the unemployment and deep political and racial unrest of the area. Source: Sue Stevens, Convocations publicist, (765) 494-9712; e-mail, snstevens@convos.purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page