Renowned Italian film director Bernardo Bertolucci provides the opening feature for the Fall 2005 season of Villanova’s Cultural Film and Lecture Series.
Sometimes controversial and never disappointing, Bertolucci’s repertoire includes such films as “The Conformist,” “Last Tango in Paris” and “The Last Emperor,” with the latter receiving seven Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture.
The first of 10 films in this semester’s Cultural Film Series, themed “Isn’t It Romantic?,” Bertolucci’s “Besieged” tells a delicate love story of strangers overcoming the boundaries of culture, language and identity.
The story, co-written by Bertolucci and his wife, Clare Peploe, centers on two disparate characters. An African woman named Shandurai (Thandie Newton, known for her work in “Beloved,” “Mission Impossible 2″ and “Crash") flees to Italy after her husband is imprisoned by a dictator.
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"We'll start at the store in Kanata and go downtown," says Eric Kunstadt, owner of Kunstadt Sports, suggesting a biking date.
50 First Dates takes a light-hearted look at the world of dating by describing "first dates" with interesting, eligible men. These aren't real dates, but fun encounters that offer a bit of a profile of some of the men out there and a glimpse into a variety of dating experiences.
"Oh, downtown Kanata. How far is that?"
"Umm. Downtown Ottawa."
"Okay. You may be Lance Armstrong, but I'm NO Sheryl Crow." "We'll take a tandem bike," he suggests.
Opening this week, as if to confirm what a rotten, unoriginal summer it's been for Hollywood, Must Love Dogs is a romantic comedy that feels like yet another remake. It's not, though almost every line and comic situation is dispiritingly familiar.
Diane Lane plays Sarah, late thirties, divorced for eight months, moping about in ghastly childlike pyjamas and now besieged by her large family, all oddly eager to launch her on the dating scene. Her sisters post her profile on a matchmaking website, describing her as "voluptuous" (she isn't) and adding the caveat that gives the film its irritating title.
The film
Pity poor Magenta Hughes, a lovely young maiden desperate for a husband, terrified of becoming an old maid, fishing for a man, using a taste of ale in a silver cup as bait.
“I will make a wonderful wife,” she declared. “I will only drink a little of his ale and I will only spit in it if he do deserve it. I will only nag twice a day. Once, in the morning to the evening, and once in the evening, ’til the morning.”
But Magenta could find no takers, for she desired commitment, and a quiet life at home. At the