CU Cinema presents films about the eve of the millennium

Hal Hartley's "The Book of Life," Sept. 1, 3 and 4 in Willard Straight Theatre, begins Cornell Cinema's "2000 Seen By ..." series of seven films about the eve of the millennium.

Though it may be too late to make reservations at the Ritz, and champagne retailers are predicting a late autumn sell-out, Cornell Cinema audiences can get a jump on millennial mania by checking out seven remarkable films set on Dec. 31, 1999, shown in the series "2000 Seen By..." which begins next week. All screenings are in Willard Straight Theatre and admission is $4.50/$4 for students and seniors. Admission to matinee screenings is $3.50.

Commissioned by La Sept Arte, the French television channel, "2000 Seen By ..." presents seven films created by a group of acclaimed young international filmmakers. Each film is set on the eve of the year 2000, and the directors have envisioned prophetic tales of what will happen when we enter the next millennium -- be it the second coming, the end of the world or unlikely romances that cut across social boundaries.

American director Hal Hartley's foray into the next century, "The Book of Life," begins at JFK airport when Jesus (played by the ever so cool Hartley regular Martin Donovan) arrives with his assistant Magdalena (P.J. Harvey) and the Book of Life stored on the hard drive of his Mac Powerbook. Naturally, they cross paths with Satan Satan ("Henry Fool" star Thomas Jay Ryan), who's buying cut-price souls in a SoHo bar. Filmed on digital video and blown up to 35mm, Hartley's darkly comic view of the apocalypse is set to a driving techno beat. "The Book of Life" will be shown Wednesday, Sept. 1, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Sept. 3, at 9:35 p.m.; and Saturday, Sept. 4, at 5 p.m.

Four young European filmmakers also show off their very different styles in the series. In French director Laurent Cantet's "The Sanguinaires," a group of friends exile themselves on a remote island in an attempt to escape millennial hysteria, but find it's not easy to evade. Shot on location in the Mediterranean, the film substitutes a very personal vision of what it means to enter the year 2000 for the mass hype surrounding the new millennium.

"The Sanguinaires" will be shown as a double feature with "The Wall." Fans of Alain Berliner's "Ma Vie En Rose" can see the Belgian filmmaker's take on the new millennium in this politically pointed allegory about cultural and linguistic divides. A chips vendor wakes up one morning to discover that a wall has been built to divide the French and Dutch speaking parts of Brussels -- cutting his stand right down the middle. "The Sanguinaires" and "The Wall" will be shown Wednesday, Sept. 8, and Saturday, Sept. 11. The first film begins at 7 p.m., followed by the second at 8:15 p.m. Admission includes both films, but tickets for "The Wall" may be purchased separately at the box office.

Miguel Albaladejo, an up-and-coming star of the new Spanish wave, takes us on a wild ride through the suburbs of Madrid in "The First Night of My Life." A young man and his very pregnant wife encounter endless accidents and mishaps on their way to celebrate the New Year with relatives in this "marvelously clever comedy" (Jack Mathews, Daily News). "The First Night of My Life" will be shown Wednesday, Sept. 15, at 7:15 p.m., and Saturday, Sept. 18, at 7:30 p.m.

The way in which personal stories can take precedence over global ones is the subject of "Tamás et Juli," Ildiko Enyedi's tale of Hungarian lovers tragically separated on New Year's Eve. There's still time, though, to make everything right before the stroke of midnight. "Tamás et Juli" will be shown with another very personal film, Abderrahmane Sissako's "Life on Earth." The film is the story of a Mauritanian filmmaker (played by the director himself) living in France who returns to Mali to visit his father on the eve of the year 2000. The inhabitants of his father's community, a serenely beautiful red-clay village, pass the time visiting, doing chores, listening to the radio and trying to call distant relatives from the post office telephone. "Tamás et Juli" and "Life on Earth" will be shown Wednesday, Sept. 22, and Saturday, Sept. 25. The first film begins at 7 p.m., followed by the second at 8:15 p.m. Admission includes both films, but tickets for "Life on Earth" may be purchased separately at the box office.

The series concludes with Taiwanese director Tsai Ming Liang's "The Hole," an official selection at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. In this memorably surreal picture, set in Taipei during a mysterious epidemic and rainstorm, a botched plumbing job leaves a hole in the middle of an apartment floor, allowing the lonely tenant to spy on his beautiful downstairs neighbor. A darkly comic dystopian vision, the film reflects the director's feelings about the rapid development of Taipei. "The Hole" will be shown Wednesday, Sept. 29, at 7:15 p.m., and Saturday, Oct. 2, time to be announced.