Movies

Living for Cinema

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Oasis (NR) Lee Chang-Dong. Hong Jong-Du returns after two and a half years in prison for a hit-and-run death to find South Korean society indifferent at best and hostile at worst. Feeling guilty, Hong attempts to make amends with the victim's relatives, most significantly the adult daughter with whom he becomes involved to the dismay of those who dismiss, ignore, or prefer not to deal with her because of her cerebral palsy. Extended family and community services, including social workers and the police, should support and rehabilitate, but instead they exploit. Apt but obvious metaphors dominate: A lovely white dove precedes Hong into the victim's apartment, a "Danger" sign is prominent at one juncture; even the disabled woman and Jong-Du's slow-witted natures telegraph their difficulties negotiating a world of mercenary, alienated individuals. A mélange of ironically humorous and touching events relieve the slow, meandering plot that captures many nuances of South Korean culture. At its own unhurried pace, depicting a dysfunctional microcosm, Oasis implicitly encourages us to reevaluate priorities and reconnect with our own humanity. In Korean with English subtitles. Screens at 9 p.m. Friday, November 14, and 9:30 p.m. Monday, November 17, at the Tivoli. (Diane Carson)

Robot Stories (NR) Greg Pak. Its science-fiction elements less significant than the title suggests, Robot Stories offers a quartet of light, even quaint, short stories that are as much about human nature as they are about technology, filtered through a sensibility that was clearly formed under the influence of 1980s pop culture and the Spielberg/Lucas canon (one episode even involves a mother trying to save her comatose son by restoring his collection of robot action figures). The best qualities of the film are decidedly low-tech, resting on director Pak's excellent work with a largely Asian-American cast, including Pak himself as a frustrated android trapped in a boring office job. Screens at 7 p.m. Friday, November 21, at the Tivoli. (Robert Hunt)

Sunrise (NR) F.W. Murnau. Considered by many to be the greatest silent film ever made, the extraordinary Sunrise (1927) showcases director F.W. Murnau's unlimited budget and unbridled imagination. Lured from Germany by Fox Studios, Murnau utilizes matte shots, superimposed images, expressionistic set design and forced perspective. The director's fluid camera movement rivals contemporary work, and it all adds up to an astonishingly gorgeous film. The moral fable -- a farmer seduced by a devilish city vamp schemes to drown his angelic wife -- moves from temptation to exuberant relief to joyful abandon before it collides with a calamitous, dramatically staged storm. George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor and Margaret Livingstone use nonverbal gestures and facial expressions to translate abstract attributes into memorable characterizations. Before the screening, Fox Theatre organist Stan Kann will receive the 2003 Cinema St. Louis Award for his decades of stellar accompaniment work. Kann will then play for Sunrise. Screens at 7 p.m. Saturday, November 15, at the Tivoli. (Diane Carson)

The Triplets of Belleville (PG-13) Sylvain Chomet. Wildly inventive in its animated style and its madcap story, The Triplets of Belleville unreels with a French accent and a protective, globetrotting grandmother heroine. She dotes on Bruno, her overweight, food-loving canine, and her on grandson. Aptly named Champion, this otherwise unfocused young boy becomes obsessed with bicycles and, of course, with the ultimate accomplishment: winning the Tour de France. Champion is ferocious in his training, and he's aided and abetted by his equally intense, resourceful grandmother. Poised to win the race, Champion is kidnapped by gangsters and secreted to New York. Detective work and bizarre events follow, with the legendary Triplets of Belleville in riotous singing form. Belleville exuberantly careens through inventive, loving homages to Josephine Baker, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Stomp (!). Just as impressive, director Sylvain Chomet and designer Evgeni Tomov prove that sketch animation artists still have ingenious, previously untapped ideas devoid of romanticism. Unabashedly gritty and great, scenes have so many visual jokes, we race to keep up with the brash humor. Screens at 7 p.m. Thursday, November 13, at the Hi-Pointe. (Diane Carson)

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