Throughout the history of cinema, “the city” has fascinated filmmakers. Movies have reflected modern urban life, immersed us in brilliant metropolises and
invited us to discover the intimate secrets of cities around the world. Featuring contemporary international films, this class will explore the ways in which cinema
has engaged with the phenomenon of the city and the experience of urban life today.
Note: Participants must be able to rent or stream films to watch at home prior to each class. Dates below are the dates of discussion after watching each film on your own.
This course will feature four films set in four distinctly different cities: Bari (Italy), Lagos (Nigeria), Paris (France), and Beijing (China).
Friday, April 30 - The Life Ahead (2020) - Italian drama directed by Edoardo Ponti (Sophia Loren's younger son) starring Sophia Loren, Ibrahima Gueye and Abril Zamora. In this film set in Bari, a port city on the Adriatic coast that is a trade and migratory link with Greece, North Africa, and the eastern Mediterranean, Madame Rosa, an Italian Holocaust survivor, takes in children whose mothers have either abandoned them or can't take care of them.
Friday, May 7 - Lionheart (2018) - Nigerian drama directed by Genevieve Nnaji, her directorial debut. A young woman takes charge of her father’s business due to his health problems. She must come to terms with her grief as she becomes the boss of the highly desirable Lionheart Bus Company in a male-dominated society. Set in modern-day Lagos, the film navigates and uncovers less-represented elements of different Nigerian cultures and breaks away from some previous cinematic clichés.
Friday, May 14 - Street Flow (Banlieusards) (2019) - French drama directed by Leïla Sy and Kery James. Noumouké is a a youth from a tough Parisian suburb who has two role models in his older brothers Soulayman, the lawyer student, and Demba the gangster. What initially seems to be a familiar story of the struggle for the soul of a disenfranchised youth evolves into an investigation of the rhetoric and architecture that define France's capital and French society.
Friday, May 21 - Us and Them (Chinese: "The Future Us") (2018) - Chinese romantic drama directed by Taiwanese singer-actress Rene Liu in her directorial debut. A man and a woman from the same rural hometown try to find fulfillment together in Beijing in the face of economic, social, familial, and romantic adversity. Bringing out the beauty and heartache of movement between a rural home and an alluring metropolis, along snow-swept highways, under autumn sunlight on golden leaves, and among the grungy rooms of urban dwellings, we contemplate the beauty of community and the fragility of relationships.