By Nate Byerley
Arizona Daily Wildcat
March 3, 1998

The Reel World

The phrase "foreign film" conjures up a couple of particularly unappetizing images: impeccably chic socialites name-dropping film titles (with painfully inaccurate pronunciation) in an attempt to impress one another, and hopelessly small subtitles that whisk by in your peripheral vision while you piece together a narrative from facial expressions.

For those of us who enjoy foreign films despite these minor annoyances, there's good news: The Eye on Diversity Committee of the University Activities Board and the Minority Action Council are sponsoring four, count them, four foreign films this week. Best of all, each and every show is free. Never has it been more affordable to gain social status or sink into confusion, whichever the case may be.

The films, screening at the Gallagher Theatre beginning this afternoon, are "Beyond Rangoon," from Burma (today, 4 p.m.), "Strawberry and Chocolate," from Cuba (tomorrow, 7:30 p.m.), "Prisoner of the Mountains," from Russia (Thursday, 7:30 p.m.), and "Delicatessen," from France (Friday, 7:30 p.m.).

The global representation of these four pictures reflects our own diverse student population.

"There are over 3,000 foreign students on our campus" and there are "many more students who, while not foreign to this country, are foreign to mainstream culture," said Harminder Singh, chair of the Eye on Diversity Committee.

"In the past, various student groups have sponsored movie nights or international film series, but it was primarily people of a particular group that attended. There was a need for a cultural film series which will attract viewers from all cultural groups and all walks of life," Singh explained.

Eye on Diversity hopes to show that foreign films offer much more than a crash course in another language. Developed by the dynamic French filmmaking duo of Jeunet and Caro, "Delicatessen" presents a perspective of film as both a medium for delivering a narrative and an art form in and of itself. The scenes verge on the fantastic with sets as rich as the wide variety of faces that mark each character. While "Delicatessen" presents a reality teeming with the bizarre - a butcher/landlord that survives by killing off and selling unsuspecting tenants as meat, for example - the characters are no less endearing.

Margaret Adcock, a creative writing freshman, visited Cuba this summer and had a chance to see "Strawberry and Chocolate," perhaps the most notable of all modern Cuban films.

"Even though my Spanish skills were lacking, seeing 'Fresa y Chocolate' ['Strawberry and Chocolate'] was a remarkable experience," Adcock said. "This film serves as an important comment on the freedom of expression available in Cuba."

As an artistic medium, film is certainly one of the most provocative, able to combine visual art, language and music into one coherent expression. That is why films are one of the most intimate and accessible means of familiarizing oneself with other cultures.

There is no question that you will leave any one (if not all) of the four films with a heightened awareness of people and places most of us know little about.

That, at least, is the hope of those behind this series of foreign films, including Singh.

"We hope that by making this event highly visible and free," he said, "we can help to educate the campus and community about some of the cultures represented on our campus."