By
Aaron Cowan
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Those interested in soaking up some foreign culture can head over to the Modern Languages Auditorium this semester for diverse cinematic entertainment.
The UA International Arts Society will be presenting its annual foreign film series - showcasing different films originating from Italy to Japan - every Friday at 7:30 p.m.
The films will be a mix of both new and old, dating between 1927 and 1995, with selections from such distinguished directors as Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman.
Charles Scruggs, a University of Arizona English professor and International Arts Society coordinator, said the main intent of the series is to get a wide array of films from around the world, but certain films were also chosen for their theme during particular times of the year.
Scruggs personally selected most of the movies, with a few suggestions from his daughter-a classic film enthusiast.
"It doesn't really matter who recommends the movies to us," Scruggs said. "We just want them to be good movies."
Screenings are free again this year, with financial assistance from the College of Humanities. Also, the presentations will be much clearer thanks to the acquisition of new projectors.
"It's almost cinema quality," Scruggs said. "We used to use 16 mm film, but it was usually of poor quality. (When) we showed "Port of Shadows"... all we got were the shadows."
Fourteen films will be shown this semester, including:
"Throne of Blood" (1957) resets Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan with Macbeth as a samurai warrior. "The General" (1927), a silent film directed by and starring early-cinema comedic giant Buster Keaton, is a fast-paced farce that sends Keaton's character in search of a stolen Confederate locomotive. "The White Balloon" (1995), an Iranian film that won acclaim at the 1995 Cannes film festival, chronicles a young girl's excursion through Teheran.
"Aguirre, The Wrath of God" (1972), from Germany, is a tale of the Spanish Conquistadors' trip through the Peruvian rain forest in search of a lost city. The film was directed by Werner Herzog, known for his 1979 remake of "Nosferatu." The American "Night on Earth " (1992), deals with five separate taxi rides in different cities around the world
"Night of the Hunter" (1955), a thriller starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters, will be exhibited as a tie-in to Halloween.
Viewers familiar with Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's most recent film- 1999 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, "All About my Mother"- may be interested in seeing his earlier work "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" (1988).
