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This month, BACCS Cinema is presenting two strikingly different films: Youth (Spring), the latest documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Wang Bing, and The Last Emperor, the 1987 historical epic by legendary Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci.
One is a documentary centered on the lives of factory youth; the other, a sweeping historical drama about an emperor’s fate. One was embraced by the arthouse world at the Cannes Film Festival; the other dominated the Oscars 36 years ago with nine awards. Though seemingly worlds apart, the two films share a resonant theme: an exploration of how individuals collide and converge with their times.
Youth (Spring) - November 12
“Wang Bing sits at the pinnacle of the Chinese documentary groundswell.” โThe New York Times
Youth (Spring) is a documentary driven by the thrum of industrial sewing machines โ just like the lives of the young garment workers it portrays. The town of Zhili, about 95 miles from Shanghai, is a center for the children’s garment industry. Workers in their teens and early twenties come from surrounding provinces to live in sparse, trash-strewn concrete dorms in the same buildings as the small factories where they spend their days sewing.
- Duration: 212 minutes
- Language: Mandarin with English subtitles
- IMDB: imdb.com/title/tt8469104
The Last Emperor - November 18
Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor won nine Academy Awards, unexpectedly sweeping every category in which it was nominated. The life of Emperor Pu Yi, who took the throne at age three, in 1908, before witnessing decades of cultural and political upheaval, within and without the walls of the Forbidden City.
- Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
- Starring: John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O’Toole
- Duration: 160 minutes
- Language: English
- IMDB: imdb.com/title/tt0093389
Co-presented by Roxie Theater, San Francisco.