"Foreign Film Festival"

Some of the fondest memories of my college days are of attending foreign films at an old and dilapidated theater in downtown Moscow, Idaho, home of the University of Idaho.

As I remember, the building which housed the theater was a combination coffee house and theater. This was back in the early 1960’s when one associated coffee houses with “hippies” not “yuppies”.

Regular brewed coffee--not the flavored coffees of today -- could be drunk at the small and dirty tables in the lobby or could be taken into the dark interior of the theater. Often times, a would-be folk singer would be on a little stage in the lobby plucking at his guitar and singing freshly written ballads. The room was generally so smoke filled that it was difficult to identify the singer from a distance.

In contrast to the Hollywood movies of the time, where actors such as Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson, Cary Grant, Doris Day, and Marilyn Monroe were the draw, the foreign films were viewed to study the advant garde techniques of the directors.

We were crazy about any film done by Swedish director, Ingmar Bergman. I’ll never forget how hard it was to read the English subtitles to the grainy black and white film, “Wild Strawberries” (1957). I can remember that I practically had a religious revelation while watching the severe and stark film, “The Seventh Seal” (1957) starring Max Von Sydow.

Frederico Fellini was another great director whose work was studied by the foreign film aficionados. His film, “La Strada” (1954), featured the new Mexican actor, Anthony Quinn. Another great film, “La Dolce Vita” (1960), made Anita Ekberg a worldwide sensation.

Other great film directors of the early 1962’s included Francois Truffaut, especially known for his “The 400 Blows” (1959), and Polish director, Roman Polanski, who produced the stunning film, “Knife in the Water” (1962).

It’s time to have a foreign film festival in Columbus. Beginning on Tuesday, November 1st and running the four following Tuesday evenings, the Library will be showing a foreign film at 7:00 PM in the auditorium on the 2nd floor. The bill de fare will include: “The Monsoon Wedding” on November 1st. This “Father-of-the-Bride”-type movie reveals a shameful family secret during the wedding festivities of a wealthy Indian family.

On November 8nd, the feature will be the Japanese version—the original version—of “Shall We Dance”. This movie is about a stressed-out executive who enrolls in ballroom dancing to regain a modicum of romance in his life. A not-so-good American version of this movie was produced a year ago and starred Richard Gere.

November 15th will feature an older Swedish film, “Pelle the Conqueror” about an aging widower and his young son, Pelle, who barely survive the brutalities of peasant life in Denmark in the early 1800’s.

The movie for November 22nd will be “Combination Platter” by director Tony Chan. An illegal immigrant, working in a Chinese restaurant in New York, begins dating an American woman with the hope of obtaining a green card by marrying her.

The last movie in our “Foreign Film” series to be shown on Tuesday, November 30th
is “The Lover”. This French film, based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Maugerite Duras, takes place in French Colonial Vietnam in 1929. A French teenage girl catches the eye of a wealthy young Chinese businessman. A torrid affair ensues between them as they try to overcome the class restrictions and social mores of the time.

The public is invited to attend any or all of these films. Because of the subject matter of several of the films, the audience will be restricted to adults, nineteen years and older.

Recent donations to the Columbus Library Foundation include those from Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Beckmann and Mr. and Mrs. Larry Anderson in memory of Olive Markham.  Mr. and Mrs. Robert gave a memorial in honor of Connie Brown and Lucille and Burns Ellison presented a
memorial in honor of Robert Miessler.