HARPUR CINEMA SERIES AT BU

Funeral Parade of Roses (Nov 3 & 5) – “Directed by Toshio Matsumoto - possibly the most prominent Japanese avant-garde filmmaker who died recently - Funeral Parade of Roses features drag queen Peter (as Eddie, a hostess at a gay bay in Tokyo) and retells the Athenian tragedy Oedipus Rex. The film had been unavailable in the U.S. for decades, and it was restored for rerelease in 2017. It is 'one of the most subversive and intoxicating films of the late 1960s: a

headlong dive into a dazzling, unseen Tokyo night-world of drag queen bars and fabulous divas, fueled by booze, drugs, fuzz guitars, performance art and black mascara' (Cinelicious Pies and Cinefamily)." (R)

The Death of Louis XIV (Nov 10 & 12) - “Albert Serra takes his audience through a historical event, the final days of Louis XIV, in 1715 in Versailles, placing us by the royal deathbed where the extravagantly wigged Sun King lies, surrounded by his devoted servants, favorite pets, and hopeless physicians. ‘Serra has crafted a ravishing, darkly witty evocation of 18th-century aristocracy and neoclassical period piece’ (Film Comment). Filled with entrancing candlelit images, exquisite cinematography and costumes, and painstaking details, ‘the film is as darkly funny as it is moving’ (Film Society Lincoln Center), and fuses two great myths: Louis XIV as myth of Power, and Jean Pierre Léaud - icon of the French New Wave immortalized in the final freeze-frame of Trauffaut’s The 400 Blows – as myth of Cinema.” (NR)

Toni Erdmann (Nov 17 & 19) – “A divorced, recently retired father with a prankish sense of humor, and prone to assuming absurd outrageous invented personas, decides to reconnect with his career-obsessed daughter. The attempt throws her ordered life into chaos at times, and leads to profound revelations, transformations, and many surprises for the characters as well as the viewers. At once hilarious comedy, intimate story, powerful social commentary, existential protest against the standardization of life, and supported by fearless performances, ‘the film wants to shake its audience out of habits of complacency and compromises, to alter our perceptions and renew our sense of what is possible. There are things that you will look at differently after seeing Toni Erdmann’ (The New York Times).” (R)

Viewings take place at 7:30 pm Fridays and Sunday in Lecture Hall 6 on the BU campus. Admission is $4 at the door. For more information call (607) 777-4998.