Monday | May 17, 2004 7:00 pm

Ju Dou

Screening on Film

Directed by Zhang Yimou and Yang Fengliang.
With Gong Li, Li Baotian, Li Wei.
China/Japan, 1990, 35mm, color, 95 min.
Mandarin with English subtitles.

A fatalistic, Oedipal fable of an abusive husband, his new bride, and the adopted nephew who falls in love with her, Zhang Yimou's Ju Dou is a disturbing tragedy that counts pyromania and manslaughter among its dramatic developments. Zhang, trained as a cinematographer, creates visually stunning, edenic landscapes and then exposes the hellish realities beneath them. Banned in China on its initial release, the film went on to win numerous international film awards, including a nomination for best foreign language film at the 1990 Academy Awards.

March 1 – May 24, 2004

Masterworks of Modern Cinema

March 18–April 15, 2002

Classics of World Cinema

July 18–23, 2002

Treasures from the Harvard Film Archive: Actors K–N

July 5–October 27

Melville et Cie.

September 6–November 7

Psychedelic Cinema

September 29–December 1

Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith

October 18–November 3

António Campos and the Promise of Cinema Novo

sepia photo of Artie Freedman in silhouette with a video camera at show

November 8

Boston Punk Rewound / Unbound. The Arthur Freedman Collection

November 9–December 9

The Yugoslav Junction: Film and Internationalism in the SFRY, 1957 – 1988

November 10–24

From the Jenni Olson Queer Film Collection

a mausoleum that looks like a miniature Spanish cathedral, next to a variety of others, against an evening sky

November 11

The Night Watchman by Natalia Almada

a double-exposed image that includes a 16th century Russian man being fed grapes by another amid decadent decor

November 23

Wings of a Serf