“This globe-trotting, politically committed Dutchman epitomized cinematic internationalism, while documenting a good chunk of the 20th century.”
–J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
“POWER AND THE LAND (1941), a New Deal propaganda piece on rural electrification, is – against all odds – a little masterpiece. This account of the life of an Ohio family before and after electrification, stunningly photographed by the great Floyd Crosby, turned out an indelible portrait of heartland America – Norman Rockwell without the mush.”
–Elliott Stein, The Village Voice
“A time machine of another sort is now at work – in a retrospective of the films of Joris Ivens. From a starting point in the European and political avant-garde of the 1920’s Ivens cinema moved on to document (evoke, eulogize, sing) many of the most profound social and political moments of the twentieth century – and then concluded with the astonishing TALE OF THE WIND, which turned his own life story into a poem, a landscape, a philosophy”.
–Stuart Klawans, The Nation
“At the ripe age of 90, Ivens completed his final film, A TALE OF THE WIND co-directed by his second wife and long-time collaborator Marceline Loridan … in which a legendary wind that rushes across the Chinese desert is cast as a twin metaphor for the approach of death and the perseverance of creative will. What is genuinely surprising and rewarding, are moments of self-deflating humor and the bold mixture of memory, fantasy, travelogue, reflexivity, and Chinese history and culture.”
–Paul Arthur, Film Comment
“This series of 10 films highlights the work of Dutch directors who find their inspiration in a host of global locations. TUSSENLAND/SLEEPING ROUGH, a sensitive, award-winning first feature by [veteran documentarian] Eugenie Jansen, explores the ghosts of Holland’s colonial past alongside the lives of recent immigrants from Africa. (…) With a documentarian’s keen eye for detail, Jansen follows the halting friendship that develops between these two characters, united in their sense of loss and displacement.
Veteran director George Sluizer travels to the far tip of Europe with THE STONERAFT, his sly, visionary adaptation of the novel by Nobel laureate and Portuguese author Jos� Saramago. (…) Sluizer manages to strike a delicate balance between magical realism and biting political satire in this engaging allegory of failed pan-European aspirations.”
–Leslie Camhi, The Village Voice
FOOTLIGHTS
“The world comes to New York and brings its subtitles in a flurry of foreign film festivals. At the QUAD cinema Dutch Treats 2002 …in its sixth year, includes 10 films from the past three years, half by women.”
“ZUS & ZO: In this bittersweet comedy (the Dutch 2002 Academy Award entry for Best Foreign language Film), three sisters scheme to prevent their gay older brother from inheriting the family’s idyllic seaside home. The film kicks off Dutch Treats 2002: New Films from Holland.
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“After the War: In Frans Weisz’s QUI VIVE, making its NY premiere, a large family comes together for a 40th wedding anniversary, bringing emotional baggage – much of it from the war – and unpacking secrets.”
Three women face midlife crises as the approach 30 in ILES FLOTTANTES. The coming of age film is part of a survey of new Dutch cinema at the QUAD.
–Vincent Musetto, New York Post
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EEW: “A golden opportunity to do two uncommon things: See seldom shown work of two world-class directors. And experience something even more rare and extraordinary, cinema as revelation.”
–John Anderson, NEWSDAY
