CU Cinema offers series on Bergman & Ullmann and '60s Soviet films

Cornell Cinema presents new 35 mm prints of four classic collaborations between Swedish director Ingmar Bergman and actress Liv Ullmann, as well as their latest project together. In addition, Cornell Cinema offers "Revolution in the Revolution: Soviet Cinema of the '60s" through October.

Admission for the Bergman--Ullmann series is $4.50 general/$4 students. All screenings are in Willard Straight Theatre, unless otherwise noted. For screening dates and times, visit http://cinema.cornell.edu or call 255-3522.

Associate Professor Don Fredericksen of the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance will begin the series by introducing a restored print of "Persona" (1967), the film that Bergman has described as "a breakthrough, a success that gave me the courage to keep on searching along unknown paths." This restored print features more detailed translations in the subtitles, resulting in almost 40 percent more text in the film's central monologue and additional dialogue throughout the film. "Persona" will be introduced by Fredericksen Monday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. It also will be shown Wednesday, Oct. 3, at 9:30 p.m.

The series continues with new prints of Bergman's "island trilogy," three films that map the limits of human isolation. Ullmann is the title character in "The Passion of Anna" (1969), a woman who has lost both her husband and daughter in an auto accident. "Shame" (1969) stars Max von Sydow and Ullmann as a couple who flee a civil war only to have it engulf them and their marriage. And "Hour of the Wolf"(1968), a masterpiece of psychological horror and one of Bergman's greatest works, is the occasion for perhaps Ullmann's finest onscreen performance, as a pregnant wife who can't stop her husband's descent into madness.

Cornell Cinema presents a series of Soviet films from the 1960s, including "Goodbye, Boys" (1964). The film will be shown as a free screening Sunday, Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m. in Uris Auditorium.

In recent years Ullmann has become a noted director in her own right, and Bergman scripted her latest film, "Faithless," the story of love, marriage, infidelity and its aftermath. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times has called it "a highlight in the careers of both Bergman and Ullmann, a glorious coda to one of world cinema's greatest collaborations."

Cornell Cinema presents "Revolution in the Revolution: Soviet Cinema of the '60s" throughout October. Cornell Cinema's series features 10 of 25 films that were co-curated by Richard Pena and Alla Verlotsky and showcased last November at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Admission to the Sunday evening and Monday afternoon screenings is free. Admission to other screenings in the series is $4.50 general/$4 students and seniors. All screenings are in Willard Straight Theatre unless otherwise noted.

The 1960s are associated with new waves in national cinemas from France to Japan to Czechoslovakia to Brazil. But a Soviet new wave? Up until recently, only the Soviet '20s held a prominent place in the history of cinema, with work by Eisenstein, Pudovkin and Dovzenko setting the standard for groundbreaking, innovative film art. But the Krushchev-era "thaw" brought about a tremendous resurgence in Soviet filmmaking. Influenced by cinematic developments abroad, and more than ready to abandon the safe subjects and methods of Stalinist "socialist realism," this generation of filmmakers wanted to turn the camera lens on themselves and contemporary Soviet life.

Cornell Cinema's series begins with "The Letter Never Sent" (1959). Actress Tatiana Samoilova rejoined the director and cinematographer team nonpareil, Mikhail Kalatozov and Sergei Urusevsky, who also created "I Am Cuba." This fact-based drama is about a geological expedition to Siberia that meets unimaginable obstacles from Arctic frost to a forest fire. The era's typical sanctification of science is given a nicely short shrift here: The geologists are hunting for diamonds. "The Letter Never Sent" will be shown Wednesday, Oct. 3, at 7:15 p.m.

Other highlights of the series include Andrey Kozintsev's "Hamlet" (1964), arguably the finest screen version of all time, and the rediscovered gem "July Rain" (1966), a portrait of mid-'60s Moscow youth culture.

The series is co-sponsored with the Cornell Council for the Arts, the Department of Russian, the Pentangle Film Series, the Institute for European Studies, the Einaudi Center for International Studies, the Department of History and the Jewish-Russian Club.