A Crack in the World: Cinema of Chaos and Transcendence

A Crack in the World: Cinema of Chaos and Transcendence
January 10–February 26, 2017
Screening Room
Regular: $10 / Student, Senior, Teacher: $9 / YBCA Members: $8 / All Access Members: Free
Package: Buy tickets to three or more screenings and save 25%


What happens when civilization falls apart? YBCA’s Film/Video curator Joel Shepard has put together eleven cinematic visions of what might happen when society breaks down. In films that span the last century, we survey the unraveling of the individual, to that of families and small groups, and finally the total collapse of the entire world. Pay close attention, however: far from wallowing in despair, this series is intended as a compassionate overview of the fragility of human existence, and the innate ability of the human spirit to cope even in the most dire and terrifying of circumstances.


The Survivalist
Thu, Jan 19, 7:30PM
Dir. Stephen Fingleton

In a kill-or-be-killed world, a solitary man lives by his wits. When a starving woman and her daughter discover his forest refuge, loneliness compels him to overcome his suspicions and strike a bargain with them. But as desire grows stronger than necessity, the exchange becomes an uneasy arrangement that threatens not only his carefully constructed world, but his life. Winner, Best Narrative Feature, Tribeca Film Festival. (2015, 104 min, digital)


The Sacrifice
Sat, Jan 21, 7PM & Sun, Jan 22, 2PM
Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

This haunting vision of a world threatened with nuclear annihilation is the final masterpiece by the famed Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. The story of a philosopher who enters into a Faustian bargain with God to save his loved ones, The Sacrifice is a profoundly moving, redemptive tragedy steeped in unforgettable imagery and wrenching emotion. (1986, 149 min, 35mm)


Homo Sapiens
Thu, Jan 26, 7:30PM
Dir. Nikolaus Geyrhalter

Homo Sapiens asks questions about what it means to be a human being, and what will remain of us after we’re gone. We are presented with breathtaking images of empty spaces, ruins, and cities overgrown with vegetation. Abandoned and decaying, these spaces are being gradually reclaimed by nature after being taken from it so long ago. This poetic documentary is an ode to humanity as seen from a possible future, in hopes of sharpening our consciousness of the present moment. (2016, 94 min, digital)


Safe
Sat, Jan 28, 7PM & Sun, Jan 29, 2PM
Dir. Todd Haynes

Julianne Moore gives a breakthrough performance as Carol White, a housewife who comes down with a debilitating illness. When doctors can give her no clear diagnosis, she comes to believe that she has frighteningly extreme environmental allergies. A profoundly unsettling work, Safe functions on multiple levels: as a prescient commentary on self-help culture, as a metaphor for the AIDS crisis, as a drama about class and social estrangement, and as a horror film about what you cannot see. (1995, 119 min, 35mm)


Atrapados (Trapped)
Thu, Feb 2, 7:30PM
Dir. Matthew Patrick

We know. You’ve never heard of this film. An independent obscurity from the early 1980s with strong psychedelic elements, Atrapados should have become a cult hit but never found its audience. It’s the story of two strangers, trapped underground after the collapse of a building, who gradually realize they may have inherited the Earth as its sole survivors. With superb performances (the main actor intentionally lost eighty pounds during the shoot), Atrapados is a strange and special film ripe for rediscovery. (1981, 92 min, digital)

“A staggering and haunting film.” —Los Angeles Times


Come and See
Sat, Feb 4, 7PM & Sun, Feb 5, 2PM
Dir. Elem Klimov

Author J. G. Ballard declared Come and See the greatest war film ever made, and indeed it’s a savage and lyrical fever dream of death, rage, and terror. During World War II, a boy is thrust into the atrocities of war, fighting with a hopelessly unprepared Soviet resistance movement against ruthless German forces. Witnessing scenes of abject horror and surviving unnerving situations, he loses his innocence and then, slowly, his mind. (1985, 142 min, 35mm)

“Will stay with me forever; it is a masterpiece not only of filmmaking, but of humanity itself.” —Sean Penn


No Blade of Grass
Thurs, Feb 16, 7:30PM
Dir. Cornel Wilde

Civilization is brought to its knees for crimes against Mother Nature. Thousands are starving, millions are dead. Resources are poisoned and polluted. The Custance family sets out on a quest for safety in a savage world that may end up turning them into the very thing they’re fleeing. Audiences in 1970 were not prepared for the harrowing sights that awaited them in No Blade of Grass. Raw and uncompromising, the film went largely unseen upon its original release, yet it’s now considered an overlooked gem of the era. (1970, 96 min, digital)


Behemoth
Sat, Feb 18, 7PM & Sun, Feb 19, 2PM
Dir. Zhao Liang

Behemoth is a portrait of modern-day China—a nation built mostly on the blood and sweat of poor laborers. Beginning with a mining explosion in Mongolia and ending in a ghost city west of Beijing, political documentarian Zhao Liang’s visionary new film details, in one extraordinary sequence after another, the social and ecological devastation behind an economic miracle that may yet prove illusory. (2015, 95 min, digital)

“Colossal in scope . . . Behemoth seems to shudder with the destructive power of invisible, ubiquitous, and cruelly indifferent authority. —New Yorker


The Exterminating Angel
Thu, Feb 23, 7:30PM
Dir. Luis Buñuel

In Luis Buñuel’s audacious masterpiece, a group of high-society friends are invited to a mansion for dinner and find themselves inexplicably unable to leave. Full of black comedy and absurdity, this is one of Buñuel’s most ruthless attacks on the rituals and dependencies of the upper classes, illustrating how, with the slightest provocation, this community spirals into total chaos. Sadly, no good-quality film prints with English subtitles exist, so we’ll present it in newly remastered high-definition digital. (1962, 95 min, digital)


Dawn of the Dead
Sat, Feb 25, 7PM
Dir. George A. Romero

When there’s no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth. A true American classic, Dawn of the Dead perfectly blends still-shocking horror with bitterly funny commentary on materialist societies. As hordes of zombies swarm the United States, the terrified populace tries everything in its power to escape the attack, but neither cities nor the countryside prove safe. A group of survivors retreat to the haven of a shopping mall to make what could be humanity’s last stand. (1978, 127 min, digital)

“Dawn of the Dead is one of the best horror films ever made.” —Roger Ebert


Sunrise
Sun, Feb 26, 2PM
Dir. F. W. Murnau

Our series finale offers some light at the end of a long tunnel. Sunrise blends a story of fable-like simplicity with unparalleled visual imagination and technical ingenuity. Invited to Hollywood and given total artistic freedom to execute any project he wished, F. W. Murnau chose this tale of the idyllic marriage of a peasant couple (George O’Brien and Janet Gaynor) threatened by a Machiavellian seductress from the city, and created a milestone of filmic expressionism. Orchestral score by Hugo Riesenfeld. (1927, 94 min, digital)

“Simply put, there’s before Sunrise and after it. . . . It’s easily the most modern film of the silent period. . . . You can see Murnau not only obliterating the barriers of cinema’s vocabulary but also constructing a new, sophisticated language before your very eyes.” —Time Out