Venice’s winners in Seoul

Features

Published: 23 Sep. 2004, 21:24

Venice’s winners in Seoul

Without advance arrangements, the Chuseok holidays can feel a bit empty. Tickets for getaway trips were sold out long ago, your favorite restaurants are closed and new videos have been snapped up by other people who, like you, are stuck in Seoul.
But if you don’t want to be stuck at home with the same holiday television specials, you can experience a bit of Venice. Earlier this week, Cine Cube, an established arthouse theater in Gwanghwamun, began daily screenings of six movies that have won acclaim at the International Venice Film Festival. The program will run through next Thursday.
A 2002 Golden Lion winner, “The Magdalene Sisters,” directed by Peter Mullan, is set in an Irish convent called the Magdalene Asylum, where four young women are imprisoned. Suffering from inhumane treatment, they plan their escape.
“The Magdalene Sisters” is the series’ only movie in English; another, “Before the Rain,” directed by Milcho Manchevski, has English subtitles. The other films have Korean subtitles. Winner of several awards in 1994, including the Golden Lion and the best actor prize, “Before the Rain” is a tragic tale of lovers whose fates are intertwined in the Bosnian war.
The other films include “Un Monde Sans Pitie” (A World Without Pity, 1989), directed by Eric Rochant, about a good-for-nothing, handsome young man facing big changes after falling in love with an ambitious, smart young woman.
“Crna Macka, Beli Macor” (Black Cat, White Cat, 1998) directed by Emir Kusturica, is a fun drama centered on a small-time hustler. “Dayereh” (Circle, 2000), directed by Jafar Panahi, chronicles the courageous adventure of four Iranian women who confront social stigma.
“Une Liaison Pornographique” (A Pornographic Affair), directed by Frederic Fonteyne, delves into a relationship that starts off as purely physical but develops into something more emotional.

by Chun Su-jin

Tickets to each of the six daily features cost 6,000 won ($5). The first screening starts at 10:40 a.m., with the last at 8:50 p.m. Cine Cube is best reached from Gwanghwamun station, subway line No. 5, exit 6. For more information, call (02) 2002-7770 or visit www.cinecube.net (Korean only).