Burning (2018)

Thursday, January 10, 2019 @ 6:45 PM
Globe Cinema - 617 8th Ave SW, Calgary, AB
$12 General | $10 Members/Seniors/Students | $40 5-Pack Punch Pass | $99 Season Pass

Winner of the FIPRESCI prize at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, awarded by The International Federation of Film Critics to the film they deem to be the finest in competition, Burning marks a welcome return to the screen from Lee Chang-dong, one of the most lauded directors of his generation, eight years on from his last feature. Lee was a celebrated novelist for many years before trying his hand at the cinema, already a man in his forties; he was (some would say ironically) South Korea's Minister of Culture and Tourism from 2003 to 2004. He is known for carefully modulated melodramas that by virtue of their management of sustained tension take on certain characteristics of the slow-burning thriller. His work is unflinching, committed, critical. Burning, loosely adapting the 1983 Haruki Murakami story “Barn Burning,” presents a simmering love triangle and pyromaniacal acting out within the context of a corroding social fabric, specific to the South Korean experience but with indisputably global implications, informed by what Lee has described as his growing concern with “the rage of young people.” Many are calling it the best film of 2018.

- Written by Jason Wierzba

CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA

As we progress further into the 21st century, the global currents of ideas, influences, and images that inform the art house cinema have both widened and deepened. Digital technologies enable new voices from disparate places to assert themselves into the conversation. Global travel and finance stimulate new, unexpected collaborations, ideations, and co-productions; ever-globalizing telecommunications ensures that word of new discoveries and developing reputations circulates freely between Berlin and Busan, Cannes and Karlovy Vary, and most everywhere in between.

Despite all this, it is still rare to see these films in theatres, with other people, projected on a big screen. In our Contemporary World Cinema series, programmed on an ongoing basis, we present a selection of the most vital, challenging, and artistically cutting-edge films from around the world. Most importantly, these works of critical cinema will be presented in the cinema, as intended. Don’t miss these one-of-a-kind works, which likely will not return to theatres in Calgary. 

About Calgary Cinematheque

We are a non-profit film society dedicated to presenting significant, challenging, and essential works of cinema art in Calgary. During our season, which runs from October to April, we screen films weekly, in curated programs which situate each film in a thematic and historical context. We do this because we believe cinema is an essential form of artistic, social, and political expression. Audiences should be able to engage with a wide range of cinematic expression, not only with what is commercially viable. We believe in the power of sharing these experiences with other people in a theatrical setting and we strive to cultivate a community around that experience.  

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