Volume CXXXI, Number 22 April 19, 2002 f

Film Society rolls ahead with trippy movies
JIM FLANAGAN
COLUMNIST

This weekend features a date loved by drug users everywhere, April 20, pronounced four-twenty. All connections to the date being Hitler's birthday aside (which, incidentally, have nothing whatsoever to do with this being a day associated by drug users), and barring any claims that the Film Society endorses drug use, we proudly present a series of "messed up" movies.

Now, our Friday night line-up is set, but as for Saturday, we are having some trouble locating a copy of our advertised film Meet the Feebles. But I write this article on Wednesday afternoon, hopefully by the time you are reading this on Friday, the film will have been found. Check your student (or faculty) digest for the final word on what Saturday's film will be. All of our films this weekend will be shown in Smith Auditorium, in Sills Hall.

As an addendum, I would like to ask that any of you who are interested in helping out with the Film Society next year please email me. A number of our members are graduating, and we would like some help in planning and running events for the next school year. You can reach me at jflanaga@bowdoin.edu.

Pi
Friday at 7:00 p.m.
This is the first of writer/director Darren Aronofsky's major films. It is a wild black and white movie filled with incredible camera movements and tricks. The story concerns a mathematician named Max who looks for patterns in things to predict future results. His latest subject is the stock market. Evil businessmen are out to gain Max's knowledge of the stock market, and they are willing to kill for it. At the same time, a group of Jewish mathematicians want to apply Max's techniques to the Jewish Holy Book to create an event of Biblical proportions, literally. This is a wonderful independent film that doesn't require an ounce of math knowledge to appreciate. It is, in fact, probably the most intense film about math you could imagine.

Requiem for a Dream
Friday at 9:00 p.m.
For his second major release, Darren handed over the job of writing to Hubert Selby Jr., so that he could adapt his book for the big screen. And what a remarkable job he did. The story of four residents of Coney Island who see their lives shattered by drug addictions is extremely powerful and moving. This film perfectly depicts the depravity of human life when one becomes an addict, and what you will subject yourself to in order to feed the addiction. Aronofsky takes the tricks used in the previous film to a new level with this movie. The cinematography is simply stunning and mesmerizing. It is almost impressive enough for one to claim that this film enthralls you with it's technical mastery, but the story and characters are just so impressive that they are the ones you will be thinking about when the credits roll.