Cinema 320 announces spring 2015 schedule

Every semester, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, Cinema 320 — housed in Clark’s Jefferson 320 for more than 30 years — offers independent movies from around the world.

  • Tickets: $6 | $4 seniors | $3 students with current Clark ID

This spring, Cinema 320 will screen eight films from different countries. Start your cinematic journey right at Clark.

ZERO MOTIVATION (Israel 2014; 97 min; NR; Subtitles)

Zero Motivation

  • Tues., Feb. 24; Thurs., Feb. 26; Sat., Feb. 28: 7:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, March 1: 1 and 3 p.m.

Directed by Talya Lavie

Staple guns are brandished more often than Uzis in this alternately funny and sobering comedy-drama about three female Israeli soldiers, two of them best friends and slackers, the other their ambitious top sergeant, all wasting away under the mind-deadening tedium of a human resources office on a remote desert base. “Satiric, surreal, unexpected and at times wildly funny” – LA Times; “Full of unexpected twists and turns, inventively recasts conflict in decidedly non-heroic, absurdist white-collar terms” – Variety. Best Narrative Award, Tribeca Film Festival; winner of six Israeli Academy Awards including Best Director and Best Screenplay.

THE OVERNIGHTERS (USA 2014; 102 min; PG-13)

The Overnighters

  • Tues., March 3; Thurs., March 5; Sat., March 7: 7:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, March 8: 1 and 3 p.m.

Directed by Jesse Moss

In the small town of Williston, ND, the pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church runs into controversy when he opens the church basement to shelter hundreds of homeless people who have descended on the town in hopes of getting a job during the oil boom. What seems at first to be an admirable example of Christian charity in action becomes more complex when the backgrounds of some of the newcomers come to light and the pastor’s judgment is questioned. “A heart-wrencher about the clash between economics and ethics… sounds like the sort of dry news blurb you’d skim over in the Sunday paper but unfolds into an epic tragedy” – Village Voice; “A third-act revelation will knock viewers silly and cause them to reevaluate everything that’s come before, but even without that jaw-dropping information, Moss’ film is a righteous piece of empathetic, of-the-moment documentary filmmaking” – Austin Chronicle; “An indelible American documentary” – The Playlist.

THE SEARCH FOR GENERAL TSO (USA 2014; 71 min; NR; Subtitles and English)

Search for General Tso

  • Tues., March 10; Thurs., March 12; Sat., March 14: 7:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, March 15: 1 and 2:30 p.m.

Directed by Ian Cheney

Using the history of General Tso’s Chicken, the ubiquitous Chinese restaurant favorite (which no one in China has ever heard of) as his point of departure, Ian Cheney amusingly samples the Chinese immigrant experience in America. “The quixotic ‘search’ of the movie’s title seems secondary to that more arduous quest of so many Chinese-Americans to find their place in a country that did not always welcome them with open arms, and how food forged the path of least resistance” – Variety; “Fascinating, funny and informative… a surprisingly satisfying and tasty dish” – Washington Post.

GETT: THE TRIAL OF VIVIANE AMSALEM (Israel 2014; 115 min; NR; Subtitles)

Gett

  • Tues., March 17; Thurs., March 19; Sat., March 21: 7:30 p.m.;
  • Sun., March 22: 1 and 3:15 p.m..

Directed by Ronit & Shlomi Elkabetz

Divorce in Israel is not a civil matter, but is mediated by religious courts whose Orthodox rabbis adjudicate the failure of a marriage from a presumption of the husband’s prerogatives. The potential abuses and absurdities of this approach are rivetingly humanized in this superb, powerfully acted domestic drama of a woman who must wage a protracted and infuriating court campaign to free herself from the man she no longer loves. “Expertly written and brilliantly acted” – Variety; “A very suspenseful courtroom drama. The performances are quite perfect” – Chicago Tribune; “Densely rich drama, told with stringent austerity but also humor and judicious empathy” – Hollywood Reporter. Best Film winner, Israeli Academy Awards. Golden Globe nominee, Best Foreign Film.

From March 24 through March 29, Cinema 320 makes way for Worcester’s 20th Latino Film Festival! For more information, email: dollyvaz@hotmail.com.

FORCE MAJEURE (Sweden 2014; 120 min; R; Subtitles)

Ruben Östlund's film Force Majeure

  • Tues., March 31; Thurs., April 2; Sat., April 4: 7:30 p.m.
  • Sun., April 5: 1 and 3:20 p.m.

Directed by Ruben Ostlund

When a family vacation in the Alps momentarily threatens to turn tragic in the form of a near-miss avalanche, a husband and wife are forced to reconsider their marriage in light of the husband’s spontaneous reaction to the danger. “The rare kind of moviegoing experience that will haunt you long after you leave the theater” – Entertainment Weekly; “Leaves the audience squirming — in all the very best ways” – Washington Post; “A cruelly precise, often bleakly comic account of upper-middle-class privilege coming unglued when the cosmos throws a curveball” – Boston Globe. Cannes Jury Prize winner. Golden Globe nominee, Best Foreign Film.

MANUSCRIPTS DON’T BURN (Iran 2014; 125 min; NR; Subtitles)

Manuscripts Don't Burn 2

  • Tues., April 7; Thurs., April 9; Sat., April 11: 7:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, April 12: 4 p.m.

Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof

The oppression of Iranian writers and Iranian intellectual life in general is stunningly exposed in this ominous and frightening drama from a director who worked in defiance of a 20-year ban on filmmaking imposed on him by the government. “Not since ‘The Conformist’ has a film captured the spiritual, psychological, and physical torture of a tyrannical regime the way that ‘Manuscripts Don’t Burn’ manages to do. And none since ROME, OPEN CITY has been made under such trying circumstances” – Boston Globe; “The film, while wrenching and audacious, is crafted with that humane and observational mastery of great Iranian cinema of recent decades” – Village Voice. International Federation of Film Critics Prize winner, Cannes Film Festival.

TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT (Belgium 2014; 93 min; PG-13; Subtitles)

Two Days One Night

  • Tues., April 14; Thurs., April 16; Sat., April 18: 7:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, April 19: 1 and 2:50 p.m.

Directed by Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne

An expendable employee must somehow convince eight of her co-workers to sacrifice their much-needed bonuses so that she can keep her job, over the course of an emotionally fraught weekend that plunges everyone involved into a brutal ethical dilemma. “A small miracle of a movie, a drama so purely humane that it makes most attempts at audience uplift look crass and calculated by comparison” – The A.V. Club; “A small, compassionate gem of a movie, one that’s rooted in details of people and place but that keeps opening up onto the universal” – Boston Globe; “From the theme of global downsizing, the filmmakers wring humor, heartbreak, suspense and stirring social drama” – Rolling Stone. Best Actress Oscar nominee, Marion Cotillard.

KUMIKO THE TREASURE HUNTER (USA 2015; 105 min; NR; Subtitles and English)

Kumiko the Treasure Hunter

  • Tues., April 21; Thurs., April 23; Sat., April 25: 7:30 p.m.
  • Sun., April 26: 1 and 3:05 p.m.

Directed by David Zellner

A lonely Japanese woman (Rinko Kikuchi) living a drab life in Tokyo becomes convinced that the satchel of loot buried in a snowfield by Steve Buscemi in “Fargo” is actually there. She determines to go to North Dakota and dig it up. This is a touching film with a superb lead performance by Kikuchi. “A striking film, a bizarre joy and a beautiful delight” – The Playlist; “A wonderfully strange and beguiling adventure story comprised of buried treasure, hand crafts, and a possibly unhealthy obsession with the Coen brothers” – Variety; “Kikuchi’s reaction shots are better than most professional actors’ entire reels — her evolving pronunciation of the word ‘Fargo’ is enough in and of itself to make this a truly unforgettable performance” – Film.com.

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