Narrative Films


ISABELLA [narrative]
ISABELLA [narrative]

2021  Literature  Women's Studies  Narrative Films  Cinema Studies 

A New York Times Critic's Pick! The latest in Matías Piñeiro's series of films inspired by the women of Shakespeare's comedies is his most structurally daring and visually stunning work to date. 

GHOST TROPIC (narrative)
GHOST TROPIC (narrative)

2020  Cinema Studies  Narrative Films  Urban Studies 

Khadija (Saadia Bentaïeb) is a fifty-eight-year-old Maghrebi cleaning woman living in Brussels in the wake of the 2016 bombings that shook the city. After work one night, she falls asleep on the last subway train, wakes up at the end of the line and has no choice but to make her way home—all the way across the city—on foot.

YOURSELF AND YOURS
YOURSELF AND YOURS

2020  Asian Studies  Narrative Films  Cinema Studies  Films of Hong Sangsoo 

When painter Youngsoo (Kim Joohyuk) learns that his girlfriend, Minjung (Lee Yooyoung), was recently seen having drinks with another man, he can’t help but question her about it. It doesn’t go well and they part on bad terms. The next day, Youngsoo tries to find her, but can’t. As he wanders and frets, Minjung has a series of encounters with other men. But to them it seems she’s not herself.

THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV
THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV

2017  Narrative Films 

Versailles, August 1715. Back from hunting, Louis XIV - magisterially interpreted by New Wave icon and honorary Palme d’Or recipient (Jean-Pierre Léaud) - feels pain in his leg. A serious fever erupts, which marks the beginning of the agony of the greatest King of France.

I WAS AT HOME, BUT...
I WAS AT HOME, BUT...

2020  Cinema Studies  Directed by Women  Narrative Films 

Astrid, a forty-something mother of two, struggles to regain her balance in the wake of her husband’s death. Her adolescent son Phillip disappeared for a week and now that he has returned, he faces disciplinary action at school and his toe requires amputation. As new questions confront Astrid from every angle, even simple activities like buying a bicycle or engaging with a work of art, are fraught with unexpected challenges.

END OF THE CENTURY (narrative)
END OF THE CENTURY (narrative)

LGBTQ  Narrative Films  Latin-American Studies  Spanish Language  Cinema Studies  2019 

When Ocho (Juan Barberini), a 30-something Argentine poet on vacation in Barcelona, spots Javi (Ramón Pujol), a Spaniard from Berlin, from the balcony of his Airbnb, the attraction is subtle but persistent. After a missed connection on the beach, a third chance encounter escalates to a seemingly random hookup. But are these two merely beautiful strangers in a foreign city or are they part of each other’s histories—and maybe even their destinies?

THE WILD PEAR TREE
THE WILD PEAR TREE

2019  Family Relations  Islamic Studies  Literature  Narrative Films  Psychology & Psychiatry  Middle Eastern Studies  Cinema Studies 

Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's The Wild Pear Tree follows in the great tradition of family dramas like Death of a Salesman and Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and weaves an evocative tale of creative struggle and familial responsibility with inspired performances, sumptuous imagery and surprising bursts of humor. 

EN EL SEPTIMO DIA (On The Seventh Day)
EN EL SEPTIMO DIA (On The Seventh Day)

2018  Immigration  New York City  Latino Studies  Cinema Studies  American Studies  Chicano Studies  Labor Studies  Narrative Films 

A fiction feature about a group of undocumented immigrants from Puebla, Mexico who live in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. En el Séptimo Día (On the Seventh Day) is both timely for our current immigration debate and an exciting enjoyable film to watch.

WESTERN
WESTERN

2018  Narrative Films  Directed by Women 

Tensions rise as a group of German construction workers start a tough job at a remote site in the Bulgarian countryside. Directed by Valeska Grisebach and produced by Maren Ade, the film played at NYFF, TIFF and Cannes.

4 DAYS IN FRANCE
4 DAYS IN FRANCE

2017  LGBTQ  Narrative Films  Cinema Studies 

On a seemingly ordinary night in Paris, Pierre takes one last look his lover Paul’s sleeping body, then steals away into the early morning light. Where he’s headed, neither of them know. Pierre’s only guide is his Grindr app, which leads him on a series of encounters with an indelible cast of characters across the French countryside. Paul sets out after him, using his own phone to track Pierre’s movements in a strange and wonderful game of Grindr cat-and-mouse. 

ON THE BEACH AT NIGHT ALONE
ON THE BEACH AT NIGHT ALONE

2018  Cinema Studies  Asian Studies  Narrative Films  Films of Hong Sangsoo 

From master director Hong Sangsoo comes his most personal film to date, On The Beach at Night Alone.  Starring Kim Minhee (The Handmaiden, Claire's Camera)—in the role that won her the Silver Bear for best actress in Berlin.

JOURNEY TO THE WEST
JOURNEY TO THE WEST

2015  Cinema Studies  Narrative Films  Religion & Spirituality 

An immersive and transporting experience directed by Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-liang (Stray Dogs), Journey to the West focuses on the figure of the Walker, a character loosely based on the life of Xuanzang, a seventh-century Buddhist monk who painstakingly traversed Asia for seventeen years in search of "the void."

PRINCESS OF FRANCE (narrative)
PRINCESS OF FRANCE (narrative)

2015  Narrative Films  Cinema Studies  Spanish Language 

Victor returns to Buenos Aires after his father’s death and a stay in Mexico to prepare a radio production of "Love’s Labour’s Lost." Reuniting with his repertory, he finds himself sorting out complicated entanglements with girlfriend Paula, sometime lover Ana, and departed actress Natalia, as well as his muddled relations with the constellation of friends involved with the project.

HORSE MONEY (narrative)
HORSE MONEY (narrative)

2015  Narrative Films  Cinema Studies  Europe 

A visionary masterwork from the renowned director of Colossal Youth, Pedro Costa’s Horse Money is a mesmerizing odyssey into the real, imagined and nightmarish memories of the elderly Ventura, a Cape Verdean immigrant living in Lisbon.

ABOUT ELLY (narrative)
ABOUT ELLY (narrative)

2015  Narrative Films  Middle Eastern Studies  Cinema Studies 

With the return of their friend Ahmad from Germany, a group of old college pals (two married couples and a brother and sister, along with three young kids) decide to reunite for a weekend outing by the Caspian Sea. The fun starts right away as they quickly catch on to the plan of lively Sepideh, who has brought along Elly, her daughter’s kindergarten teacher, in hopes of setting her up with recently divorced Ahmad.

JAUJA (narrative)
JAUJA (narrative)

2015  Narrative Films  Cinema Studies 

Jauja is the story of a man’s desperate search for his daughter, a solitary quest that takes him to a place beyond time, where the past vanishes and the future has no meaning.

VIVA LA LIBERTA
VIVA LA LIBERTA

2015  Narrative Films  Europe  Business  Political Science 

In this chilling story about world politics, the great Toni Servillo (THE GREAT BEAUTY) defies expectations playing two roles, imbuing each character with brilliant nuance. In the first, he personifies political failure in the role of the disgraced ideologue and party leader, Enrico Oliveri. In the second, he embodies the shrewd genius of a madman as Oliveri’s unhinged twin brother who seizes control of the nation amidst the void of his brother’s disappearance.

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JEALOUSY

Cinema Studies  2014  Narrative Films 

An enthralling tale of love, temptation and betrayal, directed by major post-New Wave auteur Philippe Garrel and starring his son, actor Louis Garrel. Shot in lustrous, widescreen black and white by the great Willy Kurant (Masculin Feminin, Under Satan’s Sun).

STRAY DOGS
STRAY DOGS

Cinema Studies  Asian Studies  2015  Narrative Films 

A haunting masterpiece and possibly the last film from the great Tsai Ming-liang, Stray Dogs is a visually powerful work about a single father and his two young children trying to survive on the streets of Taipei. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY  (narrative)
NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY (narrative)

2014  Southeast Asian Studies  Narrative Films  Cinema Studies 

In Norte, the End of History, one of the world"s most uncompromising cinematic visionaries, Filipino director Lav Diaz delivers an extraordinary reimagining of Dostoevsky"s "Crime and Punishment" that is both an intimate human drama and a cosmic treatise on the origin of evil.

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