Seoul Art Cinema shows 22 ‘important, underrated films’

Seoul Art Cinema will screen 22 modern films it thinks are important or severely underrated. The featured filmmakers include Brian De Palma, Nanni Moretti, Abbas Kiarostami and Takashi Miike. The special series, titled “Parallax,” will begin in March.

Some of the films have already been released in theaters in Seoul, though they did not succeed commercially, while one of them ― Margarethe von Trotta’s “Hannah Arendt” ― is having its Korean premiere.

“Hannah Arendt” is a drama about the eponymous German-Jewish philosopher; its Korean release is scheduled for April.

The movie deals with Arendt’s response to the 1961 trial of ex-Nazi Adolf Eichmann, one of the major architects of the Holocaust. She wrote a piece for The New Yorker after attending the trial, in which she introduced the famous concept of “the banality of evil.”

Takashi Miike’s 2012 slasher film “Lesson of the Evil,” which deals with a school teacher who is a sociopath, as well as Johnnie To’s 2012 film “Drug War” are being screened as well. Both films were released in Korean theaters, but only for about a week due to their poor box office performances.

Olivier Assayas’ 2012 film “Something in the Air,” which is set amid the fallout of the May ’68 uprising in France, will snow as well. The film competed for the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival in 2012, and was featured at the Busan International Film Festival in the same year, but was never released in Korean theaters.

Other films in the lineup include Brian de Palma’s 2012 erotic thriller “Passion”; Bruno Dumont’s 2013 film “Camille Claudel 1915,” a biopic of the eponymous French sculptor; and Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami’s 2012 Japanese-language drama “Like Someone in Love.”

Prominent film critics, including Lee Yong-cheol, Yoo Woon-seong and Kim Seong-wook, will hold special talks about selected films in the lineup during the film series.

“Parallax” will run from March 11-April 13 at Seoul Art Cinema in Nakwon-dong, central Seoul. Tickets range from 5,000 won to 7,000 won. For more information, call (02) 741-9782 or visit www.cinematheque.seoul.kr.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)