The triumphant return of action-cinema master John Woo, who reunites with international superstar Tony Leung.

Written by John Woo, Khan Chan, Lup Cheng and Sheng Heyu
Directed by John Woo

Admission is free and open to all.

About Red Cliff

Red Cliff pairs John Woo with Tony Leung for the first time since the 1992 classic Hard Boiled. A breathtaking war epic, Red Cliff brings to the screen the legendary tale of the Battle of Red Cliff, which took place in China in 208 A.D.
 
The film opens with power hungry Prime Minister-turned-General Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) seeking permission from the Han dynasty emperor to organize a southward-bound mission designed to crush two troublesome warlords that stand in his way: Liu Bei (You Yong) and Sun Quan (Chang Chen). As the expedition gets underway, Cao Cao's troops rain destruction on Liu Bei's army, forcing the latter to retreat. Liu Bei's military strategist, Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro), knows that their only hope for survival is to form an alliance with rival warlord Sun Quan, and reaches out to Sun Quan's trusted adviser, war hero Zhou Yu (Tony Leung). Vastly outnumbered by Cao Cao's fast approaching, brutal army, the rebel warlords band together to mount a heroic campaign unrivaled in history, one that will change the face of China forever.

The Battle of Red Cliff was first immortalized in the classic Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Although written more than seven hundred years ago, the novel is still widely read all over Asia and has spawned more than a dozen video games and numerous comic books. Thus John Woo created two versions of the film: a two part, five-hour version for Asian audiences, and a single, two-and-a half hour version for other territories. When the first part was released in Asia in July 2008, it went on to gross more than $124 million and broke the box office record previously held by Titanic in mainland China. With an estimated budget of $80 million, Red Cliff is the most expensive Asian-financed film to date.

"We wanted to make a Hollywood blockbuster in Chinese that would appeal to non-Asian audiences as well. We worked very hard to create a version of the film that maintains the integrity of the action and character development of the story, while excising some of the cultural details that could be considered unnecessary for Western audiences not intimately familiar with the historical mythology," notes Producer Terence Chang, Woo's longtime collaborator. 

Provided courtesy of Magnet Releasing.

Rated R. Running time: 146 minutes. In Mandarin with English subtitles.

Opening at select Los Angeles theaters on November 25.

To learn more about the film and to view the trailer, click here.

About Outside the Box (Office)

Outside the Box (Office) is a weekly showcase for upcoming releases, highlighting world cinema, documentary and independent film titles. Recognizing a need for greater diversity on campus, the series will draw from around the globe to present movies that may challenge, inspire or simply entertain. The weekly screenings will be on Wednesday nights (and other select dates, as they arise) in the School of Cinematic Arts Complex, George Lucas Building.

To view the calendar of screenings, click here.

About Check-In and Reservations

The theater will be overbooked to ensure capacity, and the RSVP list will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis, with no reserved seating. Please bring a photo ID or printout of your reservation confirmation, which will automatically be sent to your email account after you successfully RSVP through the Web site. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.

Sunday 11/22/2009: 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

University Park Campus Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre

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Author Russell Banks and filmmaker Atom Egoyan discuss the challenges and excitement of using history as a subject for literature and film.

Russell Banks is a novelist whose work spans the bleakest of contemporary stories (The Sweet Hereafter, Affliction) and a dazzling piece of historical recreation, Cloudsplitter, his novel recounting John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. Banks’ novels turn on the understandings and misunderstandings brought by time, as characters challenge each other’s versions of the truth. Atom Egoyan’s films powerfully evoke the treachery of memory. His eerie and haunting visual style, particularly in his stunning adaptation of The Sweet Hereafter, uses our confidence in what we see to make us doubt what we know. Where Banks plays with the voices of four narrators, each undoing what came before, only to be deconstructed in turn, Egoyan, in films like Calendar, Exotica and Ararat, obsessively transforms vibrant images into memories before our eyes, moving us in and out of time, bringing the dead back and making the old young, just for a moment. 

Bringing these two geniuses of time construction together will open a new conversation about how we learn, forget and lie in time — and how history returns only to mock and mourn for us all.

The two will speak about their individual work, and then we will open a larger conversation about the particular challenges and excitement of using history as a subject for both literature and film and moving between the two media.

Organized by the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Monday 11/23/2009: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Bovard Auditorium

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About Dream Weavers: Beijing 2008

Seven years of filming, five Olympic stories, one nation's preparation for the biggest sporting event in the world. The crew of Dream Weavers: Beijing 2008 took seven years to research, investigate, pursue and film five Olympic stories, leading to China's first Olympic Games.

About Gu Jun

Gu Jun graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1991. With a strong interest in anthropology and sociology, Gu took on a directorship position at China Central Television in 1993 and focused on documentary filmmaking. As she researched, interviewed and filmed people, places and events, her knowledge on social practices and social investigation increased. When it was announced in 2001 that the 29th Olympic Games had been awarded to Beijing, Gu began to divert her attention to the impact of the Olympics on Beijing; she dedicated herself to up-close research and investigation, documenting preparations for the Games.

For more information, please contact the USC East Asian Studies Center at (213) 740-2991 or easc@usc.edu. Please RSVP with your name and number of guests to eascrsvp@usc.edu.

Tuesday 12/01/2009: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

University Park Campus Leavey Library Auditorium

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The performance, directed by Miranda Garrison, will range from celluloid classics to some current flicks that you've never imagined as dance films.

Daily: Thursday 12/03/2009 - Friday 12/04/2009; 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Bing Theatre

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A daring Indonesian film about a couple separated by their differing names for God.

Directed by Sammaria Simanjuntak
Written by Sally Anom Sari and Sammaria Simanjuntak

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Simanjuntak.

Admission is free and open to all.

About Cin(T)a

Cina (Sunny Soon), an 18 year-old college freshmen, is ready to conquer the world with a strong yet naive faith, since it has never been tested by failure. Annisa (Saira Jihan) is a 24-year-old college senior whose education was held back because of her career in the movie industry. Her fame and beauty leave her so lonely that she draws a sad face on her finger to serve as her companion. One day, another "finger" comes, and she is no longer lonely.

(T) is the most unpredictable character. Everybody tries to describe Him. Everybody thinks they know Him. Every art tries to represent Him. But nothing is really like Him... or Her? (T) loves Cina and Annisa, but Cina and Annisa can't love each other because they call (T) by different names.

The growth of Indonesian filmmaking in recent years has seen the theme of love reduced to a level that is too often exploited and simplified. With a love story that is seen through a different lens, Cin(T)a serves up a menu of various dialogues that peel apart the differences with honesty and wit. In reality, it is the acknowledgment and working through of our differences that spur our world to move forward; our differences must not be a reason for us to obstruct each other. Screenwriters Sammaria Simanjuntak and Sally Anom Sari have created a story that is simple, yet evocative of the multicultural conditions of Indonesia.

Provided courtesy of Semilan Matahari Film. Not rated. Running time: 79 minutes. In Indonesian, with English subtitles.

To learn more about the film and to view the trailer, click here.

About Sammaria Simanjuntak

Simanjuntak was born in Bandung, Indonesia. She grew up in various places in that culturally diverse country, which exposed her to the beauty of differences.

Simanjuntak went to architecture school. After enjoying a year of a secure life as an architect, she realized that moviemaking was her personal destiny. She decided to give faith a fighting chance and pursued her dream.

About Outside the Box (Office)

Outside the Box (Office) is a weekly showcase for upcoming releases, highlighting world cinema, documentary and independent film titles. Recognizing a need for greater diversity on campus, the series will draw from around the globe to present movies that may challenge, inspire or simply entertain. The weekly screenings will be on Wednesday nights (and other select dates, as they arise) in the School of Cinematic Arts Complex, George Lucas Building.

To view the calendar of screenings, click here.

About Check-In and Reservations

The theater will be overbooked to ensure capacity, and the RSVP list will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis, with no reserved seating. Please bring a photo ID or printout of your reservation confirmation, which will automatically be sent to your email account after you successfully RSVP through the Web site. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.

Friday 12/04/2009: 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

University Park Campus George Lucas Instructional Building Albert and Dana Broccoli Theatre

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Set in Cape Cod, a tale of two daughters surprised by the romantic affairs of their widowed father.

Directed by Gwen Wynne
Written by Gwen Wynne and Mary Beth Fielder

Free to all USC students, faculty, staff and alumni.

About American Primitive

Everybody in Dennis, Cape Cod thinks that Harry Goodhart (Tate Donovan) is quite the catch. Harry, a handsome Englishman, has just moved to this seaside destination with his teenage daughters, Madeline (Danielle Savre) and Daisy (Skye McCole Bartusiak). Madeline and Daisy, however, are determined to keep their recently widowed father away from the swarm of female suitors, such as the beautiful journalist, Joy (Stacey Dash), and the manic matchmaker, Mrs. Brown (Anne Ramsay). That is, until one night, when Madeline's new high school friends give her a taste of a racier Cape Cod. They take her to a notorious underground disco in Provincetown. Through the throngs of drag queens and gay men, Madeline sees her father dancing with a man. The double shocker is that the man is Mr. Gibbs (Adam Pascal), recently introduced by her father as his new business partner and who just moved into the back of their house.

Provided courtesy of Cape Cod Films. Unrated. Running time: 83 minutes.

To learn more about the film and to view the trailer, click here.

About the School of Cinematic Arts Alumni Screening Series

During fall 2009, the series will host a wide array of film screenings and filmmaker Q&As, highlighting recent work by School of Cinematic Arts alumni. All screenings are free to the public but will require an electronic reservation, which can be made through the Web site for each individual screening. Many screenings will be overbooked to ensure that capacity is met in the theater. Some screenings will be run from digital sources.

To view the calendar for the Alumni Screening Series, click here.

About Check-In and Reservations

The theater will be overbooked to ensure capacity, and the RSVP list will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis, with no reserved seating. Please bring a photo ID or printout of your reservation confirmation, which will automatically be sent to your email account once you have successfully made an RSVP through the Web site. Doors will open at 3:30 p.m.

Sunday 12/06/2009: 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM

University Park Campus Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre

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Pedro Almodóvar and Penélope Cruz reunite for a new drama about the dual personalities of a film director and screenwriter.

Written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Starring Penélope Cruz

Admission is free and open to all

About Broken Embraces

Official Selection, 2009 Cannes Film Festival

A man writes, lives and loves in darkness. Fourteen years before, he was in a brutal car crash on the island of Lanzarote. In the accident, he not only lost his sight, but Lena (Penélope Cruz), the love of his life.

This man uses two names: Harry Caine, a playful pseudonym with which he signs his literary works, stories and scripts; and Mateo Blanco, his real name, with which he lives and signs the film he directs. After the accident, Mateo Blanco reduces himself to his pseudonym, Harry Caine. If he can't direct films, he can only survive with the idea that Mateo Blanco died on Lanzarote with his beloved Lena.

In the present day, Harry Caine lives thanks to the scripts he writes and the help he gets from his faithful former production manager, Judit García, and from her son Diego, his secretary, typist and guide. Since making the decision to live and tell stories, Harry has been an active, attractive blind man, one who has developed his other senses in order to enjoy life, on a basis of irony and self-induced amnesia. He has erased from his biography any trace of his first identity, Mateo Blanco.

35mm print provided courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. Rated R. Running time: 128 minutes. In Spanish, with English subtitles.

Opening in Los Angeles theaters on December 11.

To learn more about the film and to view the trailer, click here.

About Outside the Box (Office)

Outside the Box (Office) is a weekly showcase for upcoming releases, highlighting world cinema, documentary and independent film titles. Recognizing a need for greater diversity on campus, the series will draw from around the globe to present movies that may challenge, inspire or simply entertain. The weekly screenings will be on Wednesday nights (and other select dates, as they arise) in the School of Cinematic Arts Complex, George Lucas Building.

To view the calendar of screenings, click here.

About Check-In and Reservations

The theater will be overbooked to ensure capacity, and the RSVP list will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis, with no reserved seating. Please bring a photo ID or printout of your reservation confirmation, which will automatically be sent to your email account after you successfully RSVP through the Web site. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.

Monday 12/07/2009: 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

University Park Campus Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre

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The film tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa's rugby team to help unite their country.

Newly elected President Mandela knows that his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's rugby team as they make their historic run to the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship match.

Guests are invited to a reception prior to the screening.

Proceeds benefit the USC School of Social Work.

To receive an invite, contact swevents@usc.edu or call (213) 821-1297.

Tuesday 12/08/2009: 6:30 PM

Warner Bros. Studio 4000 Warner Boulevard Burbank CA 91522

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Director Franco Zeffirelli's breathtaking production of Puccini's last opera is a favorite of the Met repertoire.

The USC School of Cinematic Arts, The Metropolitan Opera and Visions and Voices: The USC Arts & Humanities Initiative invite you to a special HD broadcast of Turandot, presented in HD and 5.1 sound.

About Turandot

Maria Guleghina plays the ruthless Chinese princess of the title, whose hatred of men is so strong that she has all suitors who can't solve her riddles beheaded. Marcello Giordani sings Calàf, the unknown prince who eventually wins her love and whose solos include the famous Nessun Dorma.

Conductor: Andris Nelsons. Production: Franco Zeffirelli.

In Italian with English subtitles. Approximate running time: three hours 21 minutes, with two intermissions. This presentation is a delayed rebroadcast of a live performance from the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

About Check-In and Reservations

This screening is presented free of charge and is open to all. Seats must be reserved electronically through the link above, with the RSVP list opening November 23 at 12 p.m.; please do not attempt to reserve via phone or email. The theater will be overbooked to ensure capacity, and the RSVP list will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis, with no reserved seating. Please bring a photo ID or printout of your reservation confirmation, which will be automatically sent to your email account after you successfully RSVP through the Web site. Check-in will begin at approximately 6:30 P.M. Doors will close 15 minutes into the performance. Food and drink are strictly prohibited in the auditorium.

Tuesday 12/08/2009: 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

University Park Campus Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre

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A Romanian film about a cop who shows mercy on a young offender, not wanting the boy's fate to burden his conscience.

Written, directed and produced by Corneliu Porumboiu

Admission is free and open to all.

About Police, Adjective

From the writer/director of 12:08 East of Bucharest

Winner, Un Certain Regard, 2009 Cannes Film Festival

Cristi is a policeman who refuses to arrest a young man who offers hashish to two of his schoolmates. "Offering" is punished by the law. Cristi believes that the law will eventually change and does not want the life of a young man he considers merely irresponsible to be a burden on his conscience. For his superior, "conscience" has a totally different meaning...

35mm print provided courtesy of IFC Films. Not rated. Running Time: 113 minutes. In Romanian with English subtitles.

Opening in theaters and on video-on-demand on December 23.

To learn more about the film, click here.

About Outside the Box (Office)

Outside the Box (Office) is a weekly showcase for upcoming releases, highlighting world cinema, documentary and independent film titles. Recognizing a need for greater diversity on campus, the series will draw from around the globe to present movies that may challenge, inspire or simply entertain. The weekly screenings will be on Wednesday nights (and other select dates, as they arise) in the School of Cinematic Arts Complex, George Lucas Building.

To view the calendar of screenings, click here.

About Check-In and Reservations

The theater will be overbooked to ensure capacity, and the RSVP list will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis, with no reserved seating. Please bring a photo ID or printout of your reservation confirmation, which will automatically be sent to your email account after you successfully RSVP through the Web site. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday 12/16/2009: 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

University Park Campus George Lucas Instructional Building Room 108

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A moving and provocative event explores the legacy of the Vietnam War, through two new Vietnamese films.

Schedule

2 p.m. Screening of Don’t Burn!
4 p.m. Panel Discussion
4:45 p.m. Reception
5:15 p.m. Screening of Oh, Saigon!
6:15 p.m. Discussion with filmmakers Doan Hoang and Dang Nhat Minh and author Andrew X. Pham

Join us for a screening and discussion of two new Vietnamese films, Don’t Burn! by Vietnam’s most acclaimed filmmaker, Dang Nhat Minh, and Oh, Saigon! by award-winning documentary filmmaker Doan Hoang. 

Don’t Burn! is based on the Vietnamese best-seller Last Night I Dreamed of Peace: The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram, written by a young female doctor from North Vietnam who was killed during the war. The film tells the moving story of her personal experiences as well as the tale of how her diary, discovered by an American serviceman, narrowly escaped burning and was eventually returned to Vietnam, where it became an international publishing sensation. This is the first Vietnamese film shot in part in the United States. 

Oh, Saigon! tells another side of the war story, focusing on a Vietnamese family who fled Saigon on the last civilian airplane to leave in 1975. After 30 years in the United States, the family returns to visit relatives, some of whom fought on the other side of the conflict, and to make amends with one daughter left behind.

A discussion about the legacy of the Vietnam War will feature filmmakers Dang Nhat Minh and Doan Hoang and author Andrew X. Pham. Minh, Vietnam’s premier film director, has made more than a dozen films, featured at festivals throughout the world. Hoang is a Vietnamese-born filmmaker whose film Oh, Saigon! won the Best Documentary award at the Asian Pacific Film Festival in Los Angeles. Pham is the Vietnamese-born author of two acclaimed memoirs, Catfish and Mandala and The Eaves of Heaven, and translator of Last Night I Dreamed of Peace. 

Organized by Janet Hoskins (Anthropology) and Viet Nguyen (English and American Studies and Ethnicity). Co-sponsored by the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network, Asian American Studies, the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the Center for Trans-Pacific Studies.

Saturday 01/23/2010: 2:00 PM - 6:45 PM

University Park Campus Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Frank Sinatra Hall

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The USC arts schools offer an exciting array of hands-on workshops in art, photography, theater, dance, music, architecture and film.

In response to popular demand, the USC arts schools team up once again to present a daylong festival, an exciting opportunity to get your hands dirty with the arts. Learn how to salsa dance, make a sculpture, play guitar or take architectural photos. Join us, get your hands dirty, and experience the creativity and thrill of making art!

Organized by the USC arts schools

Saturday 01/30/2010: All day

University Park Campus

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Established in 1988 and presented annually by the Friends of the USC Libraries, the Scripter celebrates with its 22nd annual black-tie gala, to take place in the historic Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library.

Eligible written works and films are reviewed by a committee consisting of Writers Guild of America members, Academy Award-winning and -nominated screenwriters, authors, film industry executives, faculty and select members of the Friends of the USC Libraries. This selection committee narrows down the year's eligible films to five nominees and then chooses the year's best cinematic adaptation.

Past Scripter winners have included the authors and screenwriters of Slumdog Millionaire, No Country for Old Men, Million Dollar Baby, The Hours, A Beautiful Mind, L.A. Confidential, The English Patient and Schindler's List.

Saturday 02/06/2010: 6:30 PM

University Park Campus Doheny Memorial Library Times Reference Room

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A look at filmic works from Japan, by some of the most creative and accomplished filmmakers working today.

The recent Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for Departures, directed by Yojiro Takita, has given new international visibility to the rich and dynamic history and tradition of Japanese cinema. Often overshadowed by the celebrated directors of the past, such as Ozu Yasujiro and Akira Kurosawa, contemporary Japanese filmmakers in fact are among the most creative and accomplished practitioners of the art. Filmmakers like Hirokazu Kore-eda, Shinji Aoyama, Nobuhiro Suwa and Takashi Miike have established themselves as unique within a highly diverse film culture, reflecting changes in Japanese art, culture and society.

This festival will showcase a selection of these works and will include discussions with invited scholars and filmmakers.

Daily: Friday 02/19/2010 - Sunday 02/21/2010; All day

University Park Campus Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Frank Sinatra Hall

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Magician Ricky Jay and USC professor Howard A. Rodman come together for a dialogue on deception in magic, film and real life.

They will entertainingly explore many of the themes of Mr. Jay’s work, including the selective unreliability of memory; the ways in which the mechanisms of perception allow us to misperceive; and the cognitive and psychological bases of con artistry and magic.

One of the larger foci of the conversation will be what Mr. Jay calls “The Big Con” — the ways in which our own agendas create conditions of non- and misperception. This con is at the heart of most magic tricks, much governance and every Ponzi scheme, and is also the perceptual and narrative basis for cinema.

Mr. Jay and Prof. Rodman will explore the ways in which the human capacity for self-deception is at the heart of much that is enjoyable and essential in modern life (literature, cinema), and much that is execrable (e.g., Bernie Madoff). It is not always possible to know, in the moment, which of our self-deceptions are salutary and which are malign. More often than not, we are unaware of our own self-deception or, worse, eager participants in it.

This delightful and compelling conversation will parse these various cons, illuminating the fields of magic and screenwriting and some of the more bizarre and omnipresent aspects of contemporary life.

While Ricky Jay has long been considered one of the world’s great sleight-of-hand artists, his career is further distinguished by a remarkable variety of accomplishments as an author, actor, historian and consultant. His one-man show Ricky Jay & His 52 Assistants was directed by David Mamet and garnered Lucille Lortel and Obie awards for outstanding achievement. His most recent show, Ricky Jay: On the Stem, also directed by Mamet, just closed a seven-month, critically acclaimed run in New York. As an actor, Mr. Jay debuted in the Joseph Papp production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the New York Shakespeare Festival. He has appeared in the David Mamet films House of Games, Homicide, Things Change, The Spanish Prisoner, State and Main and Heist. He can be seen in many other films, including Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Tomorrow Never Dies. He has contributed to many publications and written several books, including Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women and Jay’s Journal of Anomalies, both of which were named “Notable Books of the Year” by The New York Times. He has hosted television specials for CBS, HBO and the BBC, and was the host and narrator of the first documentary miniseries on conjuring, The Story of Magic, for A&E.

Howard A. Rodman is a screenwriter, novelist and educator. He is a professor and former chair of the writing division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. His films include Savage Grace, starring Julianne Moore, and August, with Josh Hartnett, Rip Torn and David Bowie. His work on Savage Grace was nominated for a 2009 Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay. Rodman also wrote Joe Gould’s Secret, and his original screenplay F. was selected by Premiere magazine as one of Hollywood’s 10 best unproduced screenplays. He has worked with numerous filmmakers, including David Lynch, John McTiernan, Rodrigo García, Errol Morris, Clive Barker, Peter Bogdanovich, Maurice Sendak, Michael Lehmann, Chantal Akerman and Steven Soderbergh (who repaid the favor by giving the name Mr. Rodman to two of the sleazier characters in The Underneath and Traffic). His numerous publications include the novel Destiny Express and articles in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles magazine and The Village Voice (for which he was a monthly columnist). He currently blogs for The Huffington Post.

Friday 02/26/2010: 7:00 PM

University Park Campus School of Cinematic Arts, Room 108

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Gritty short films, music videos and docs from Kourtrajmé Productions, a Paris-based collective of emerging visual artists, filmmakers, actors and musicians.

“Beautiful women, ugly illegal immigrants, Romanian sneaker pimps, coked-up fashion babes, down-and-out thugs eating shish kebab at 3 a.m. Welcome to our Paris.” — Kourtrajmé Productions, as quoted in Anthem magazine

Kourtrajmé Productions is a collective of emerging French and Francophone visual artists, filmmakers, actors and musicians. The brainchild of internationally acclaimed directors Mathieu Kassovitz and Vincent Cassel, this production house and artist collective has garnered increasing attention and acclaim after getting millions of hits on online sites like Dailymotion and YouTube. Founded by Kim Chapiron, Romain Gavras and Toumani Sangaré, Kourtrajmé produces playful innovations and cutting interventions in popular culture and society that represent the cultural dreams, lives and crises of transnational urban and peri-urban French youth today.

This is a chance to explore the short films, music videos and documentaries that represent what legendary French filmmaker Chris Marker calls a “nouvelle nouvelle vague” of French cinema. Directors from the collective, including Ladj Ly and Toumani Sangaré, will be on hand to answer questions and discuss the group’s history and work.

Organized by Edwin Hill (French and Comparative Literature). Co-sponsored by the Department of French and Italian and French Cultural Services, Los Angeles.

Friday 03/05/2010: 6:00 PM

University Park Campus School of Cinematic Arts, Room 108

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A satellite broadcast of The Metropolitan Opera’s unforgettable new production of Hamlet, starring Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay.

This event is part of an ongoing series of broadcasts presented in spectacular HD digital projection and 5.1 surround sound.

Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay bring their extraordinary acting and singing skills to two of the Bard’s most unforgettable characters in this new production of Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet. For the role of Ophelia, the French composer created an extended mad scene that is among the greatest in opera.

Conducted by Louis Langrée. Presented in French with English subtitles.

The opera will be preceded by a discussion hosted by the USC Thornton School of Music.

The opera is presented as a rebroadcast of a live performance taking place at The Metropolitan Opera in New York at 10 a.m. that day.

Organized by the USC School of Cinematic Arts in association with The Metropolitan Opera.

Saturday 03/27/2010: 12:00 PM

University Park Campus Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Frank Sinatra Hall

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By the year 2020, will the seductions of virtual worlds triumph over our desires for communal forms of entertainment?

A panel discussion moderated by Martin Kaplan, director of the USC Annenberg School’s Norman Lear Center, will ask whether people will still go to the theater, movies and museums as home entertainment becomes more sophisticated. In turn, how will this affect the business of entertainment and our culture as a whole?

The discussion will feature Mark Murphy, executive director of REDCAT, an interdisciplinary arts center housed at Walt Disney Concert Hall; longtime Time movie reviewer Richard Schickel; and Tracy Fullerton, associate professor in interactive media at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and director of the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab.

Organized by the USC Libraries and the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities

Monday 03/29/2010: 4:00 PM

University Park Campus Doheny Memorial Library Room 233

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Join us for a reading and book signing with Robert Pinsky, a world renowned poet, literary critic and translator.

Pinsky’s translation of Dante’s Inferno is among the most praised poetical reimaginings of our time, and his own poetry, including such prize-winning volumes as An Explanation of America, The Figured Wheel and Sadness and Happiness, continues to inspire a wide range of readers. In the book-length essay Thousands of Broadways: Dreams and Nightmares of the American Small Town, Pinsky travels seamlessly from personal history to literary analysis to film. The works of Preston Sturges and Alfred Hitchcock meet up with dazzling insouciance with such writers as William Faulkner, Willa Cather and Thornton Wilder. In his work as U.S. poet laureate and as creator of the Favorite Poem project, Pinsky makes us take literature more seriously and see the way the artistic imagination creates, recreates and transforms the world around us.

In this reading and book signing, Pinsky will bring together his work as a poet and essayist, just as he brings together the very different media of poetry and film, helping us to map the literary terrain of the contemporary world.

Organized by the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Co-sponsored by The College Commons.

Monday 04/19/2010: 4:00 PM

University Park Campus Doheny Memorial Library Room 240

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This festival will present a wide selection of Corman’s work, interspersed with discussions between directors, producers and actors.

In an extraordinarily prolific career spanning more than five decades, Los Angeles–based independent filmmaker Roger Corman has produced more than 380 motion pictures and television programs and directed more than 50 films. Now in his 80s, he continues to be an active producer, having completed four projects in 2008 alone. Often called the “King of the Bs,” Corman prefers the term “exploitation” to describe his films. Shot quickly with very low budgets and themes ranging from horror to science fiction, nearly all of Corman’s films, he proudly notes, have made money.

In this festival, directors, producers and actors Corman nurtured at the beginning of their careers, along with others from the entertainment industry, will discuss his influence as an independent producer, as well as his successful business model of producing and distributing films throughout the world.

Screenings may include: Little Shop of Horrors (starring Jack Nicholson), House of Usher, Death Race 2000, Piranha, Boxcar Bertha (directed by Martin Scorsese), Caged Heat (directed by Jonathan Demme), Grand Theft Auto (directed by Ron Howard), The Trip (written by Jack Nicholson and starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper), X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes (starring Oscar-winning actor Ray Milland) and Dementia 13 (directed by Francis Ford Coppola).

Organized by the USC School of Cinematic Arts

Daily: Friday 04/23/2010 - Sunday 04/25/2010; All day

University Park Campus Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre Frank Sinatra Hall

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