Obilgatory Totoro picture whenever "Ghibli" is mentioned
Although we may take it for granted, Berkeley is a great place for the avid movie-goer. The Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive and SUPERB offer an excellent line-up of films throughout the school year and there are a multitude of movie theaters throughout the area. There used to be a decent Blockbusters on Shattuck as well, which was a great resource for those who are Netflix-less, but it permanently closed its doors early January. Ah, what a shame.
In any case, the slow, early weeks of the semester before the rush-up to midterms are a great time to watch a movie or two. For those who want to expand beyond Hollywood and explore foreign films, the Pacific Film Archive Theater will be showing an excellent line-up of African movies for the African Film Festival 2012 until February 29. The next movie on the line-up, “The Screaming Man,” directed by Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, will screen on Sunday, Jan. 29 at 4:30 p.m.
The film follows a father named Adam who is a hotel employee in Chad. Adam is forced out of his position as a pool security guard and is replaced by his son, Abdel. Upset and wanting to recover his position, Adam sends Abdel out to war and soon experiences the wide spread consequences of the Chadian civil war. The film was highly regarded by critics and won the Jury Prize at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. It is certainly worth a watch.
We wrote about the awesome “Flashbacks” program at the UA Berkeley 7 Theater on 2274 Shattuck Ave. several months back. The line-up for the spring semester appears to be excellent as well. On February 2 at 8 p.m., the UA will screen the Studio Ghibli film, “Howl’s Moving Castle” (Yes!). It will be an excellent warm-up for Ghibli’s new movie, “The Secret World of Arrietty,” which will arrive in U.S. theaters on Feb. 17. Other stand-out picks from the Flashbacks line-up include “The Fifth Element,” a superb sci-fi film directed by Luc Besson (I’m sure all you fellow 90s kids have nostalgia for this movie, don’t lie) which will screen on March 15 and “Labyrinth” directed by Jim Henson which will screen on April 12. You know, the movie where David Bowie dances and sings among a group of puppets in extremely tight pants. We at the Clog call it “Man’s Greatest Achievement.”
Image source: kirainet under Creative Commons