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The most talked about climate flick since An Inconvenient Truth is down for its first licensed showing in Shanghai this Wednesday! The Age of Stupid tells the story of how our era´s stupidity and lack of action in the climate matter will be looked upon from a futuristic point of view, namely in the devastated world of 2055. The movie didn´t make it into Chinese cinemas so Dulwich College in Shanghai is now showing it, making Wednesday´s event one of the few public screenings in China of this engaging film. Sounds like a must-do!
The movie is:
A low-budget drama documentary starring Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living in a devastated world in 2055. He watches archive films from half a century earlier and asks himself why we didn't do something about climate change before it was too late.
In the eyes of British director Franny Armstong, the current generation inhabitating the planet seems to suffer from suicidal tendencies: we all know how bad our precious earth is feeling, we know what´s at stake and we have the power to change course - instead we do nothing, but face our own destruction.
For Armstrong, taking political action is an everyday task, and also the only truly meaningful thing to do. But most people in her (read: our) generation have been brought up to lead a more individualistic and shallow kind of life:
I'm one of the MTV generation who got told the point of your life is to go shopping, play computer games and die. It amazes me that my life is so much more meaningful than what was planned for it. I just believe if you're not fighting against climate change and you're not doing a job - like a teacher or a doctor - that is about improving the world, then you're wasting your life.
One of Armstrong´s means to make a change was by becoming a film-maker. Her first documentary, McLibel, describes McDonald's attempt to sue two penniless activists - a film seen by 53 million people in 15 countries. In 2002 she made Drowned Out, about an Indian family who refuse to leave their village home during the construction of the Narmada Dam, and Baked Alaska about the impact of climate change on human life and wildlife in the Arctic.
The Age of Stupid is a movie which Armstrong has spent much of her 30s making. The production of the film was notable for its innovative way crowd-funding financing model, along with the Indie Screenings distribution system which makes it possible for anyone anywhere to screen the film. The full story of the production of the film is told in the 50-minute Making Of documentary which is free to watch online and also available on the double-pack DVD.
In The Guardian´s environment session, you can find lots of links and debates around the movie. In one of the articles who mainly focuses on Armstrong´s conviction and climate campaigning work, former London mayor Ken Livingstone is quoted, saying:
"Every single person in the country should be forcibly sat down on a chair and made to watch this film,"
Main star Pete Postlethwaite is among many other things known for his role in In the Name of the Father from 1993, for which he gained an Academy Award nomination. The actor seems just as passionate as director Armstrong about climate issues. For example, in 2004 he was made an OBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the 2004 New Year's Honours List, but at the premiere of The Age of Stupid on 15 March this year, the actor promised the UK Energy and Climate Change minister Ed Miliband that he would return this medal if the government gave the go-ahead for new coal-fired units at Kingsnorth power station.
In China the movie made a successful but rather modest premiere in the Box Café in Beijing, on the 22nd of September 2009, gathering around 30 people. The movie team had tried to get the film into cinemas but, as they put it "getting past the Chinese censorship board, forget it. We therefore offered the film for free online to all of China. This was geo-blocked so don't go thinking anyone could have watched it online."
So, dear fellow Shanghaineezers: take your chance to get environmentally updated once you´ve got it!
Where: Dulwich College, 266 Lan'an Lu, Jinqiao, near Biyun Lu, 蓝桉路266号, 近碧云路
Starts: Wednesday, Dec 9th, 7pm - 9pm
Cover: 20 RMB
Check out what other movies are showing in Shanghai this coming week after the jump. Links lead to info about times and venues.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE MOVIES
- Phantasm: Dada gives horror movie fans a night of screams by showing the 1979 horror flick Phantasm. The film walks that fine line between genius and madness. It features a fearless 13-year-old, a supernatural undertaker and tons of dwarf zombies. Music before and after by DJ Drunk Monk and Deville. Language TBD. Free entry.
- The Twilight Saga: The New Moon (暮光之城): The supernatural tale of star-crossed lovers continues as the Cullen family flees Forks in order to protect Bella (Kristen Stewart), and the heartbroken high-school senior discovers that vampires aren't the only creatures in town.
- G-Force (豚鼠特攻队): The story is about a team of trained secret agent guinea pigs that takes on a mission for the US government. A specially trained squad of guinea pigs is dispatched to stop a diabolical billionaire, who plans to taking over the world with household appliances.
- 2012: Ever get chills from the Mayan prophecy that predicts the world will end on December 21, 2012? Sony Pictures’ upcoming disaster drama 2012 simulates the catastrophic happenings of the last days of the earth with plenty of epic floods and destruction. The Day after Tomorrow director Roland Emmerich helms. John Cusack and Amanda Peet star. The film boasts a sky-high US$200 million budget and breath-taking special effects. In English with Chinese subtitles.
- District 9: This sci-fi flick delivers an amazing story about extraterrestrials who come to live on Earth. Instead of being hostile attackers, these aliens are actually refugees from space who seek asylum. They get set up in the temporary “home”: District 9 in South Africa. The film’s special effects are jaw-dropping and the alien guns are simply ridiculous. In English with Chinese subtitles.
- Rouge Crocodile (逃亡鳄鱼岛): Pete is an American travel writer on assignment in the Australian outback. While taking a river cruise he finds himself stuck with a collection of interesting characters, including Kate, the local tour guide. When their boat is rammed by something from below, the tour is thrown into disarray and they become stranded on a tiny mud island. As night falls and the tide starts to rise, the group slowly realise they are being stalked by a huge saltwater crocodile, beginning a terrifying struggle for survival in one of the most remote places in the world.
CHINESE LANGUAGE MOVIES
- Amazing Tales: Three Guns (三枪拍案惊奇): This comedy thriller, also known as "A Simple Noodle Story" is Zhang Yimou's remake of the Coen brothers´ "Blood Simple". The story begins as a noodle restaurant-owner in the northwest part of ancient China hires a soldier to kill his cheating wife and her new man, a waiter, but the soldier has a plan of his own. Expect heaps of nonsensical humor and a line of A-listers in the cast, including comedian Xiao Shenyang, Zhao Benshan and actor Sun Honglei. Mandarin only
- Storm Warriors (风云Ⅱ): Storm Warriors is a Hong Kong martial arts/wuxia film, produced and directed by the Pang brothers. It is the second live-action film adaptation of screenwriter Ma Wing-Shing's manhua Fung Wan, following the 1998 film The Storm Riders. Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok respectively reprise their roles as Wind and Cloud, who this time find themselves up against Lord Godless (Simon Yam), a ruthless Japanese warlord bent on invading China.The film is the first Chinese language film to be shot in bluescreen.
- The Treasure Hunter (刺陵): Also called Taiwan´s answer to Indiana Jones: In the northwest desert where countless prosperous dynasties have flourish and fallen, there is rumour of a buried treasure of unbelievable riches. A group of mysterious guardians have kept the map to the location of the treasure safe, until a fierce rivalry erupts. A notorious international crime group, The Company hunt down the map keepers and before they manage to secure it, the keeper passes the map to a young chivalrous man Ciao Fei (Jay Chou). Ciao Fei is forced to give up the map to save the live of his mentor’s daughter Lan Ting (Lin Chi Ling). Teaming up with Hua Ding Bang (a famous archaeologist) and Lan Ting they embark on a dangerous journey to recover the map and fight to protect the ancient treasure.
- Park Shanghai: Local director Huang Kai´s debut film explores the life of China’s post '80s generation. The romantic drama follows former lovebirds Dong and Rerei as they meet again at their high school reunion years after graduation. Huang Kai himself will attend the screenings. Call for more information. Mandarin, Shanghainese and English dialogue with Chinese and English subtitles.
- Jump (跳出去): This comedy follows a girl who pursues her dream as a hip-hop dancing queen, but instead becomes a janitor in a big city dancing school. Produced by Stephen Chow, this flick originally featured Edison Chan as the leading actor, but later the production team re-shot the whole film and replaced Chan with Leon Jay Williams after Chan’s scandal broke out. In Mandarin or Cantonese depending on the cinema.
- Mulan (花木兰): Mulan, the old Chinese tale that was made into a Disney movie in 1998, is finally finding its way back home to its original country. When the country is threatened by invaders, a young girl defends her father by sneaking away from home and dressing up as a man to join an all-male army where she eventually assumes a historically critical role in defending the nation in a time of war.
- Mars Baby (火星没事): This is family entertainment, aimed especially at children. Mars Baby is about a boy from Mars who is adopted by a benevolent man on earth. With the name of "OK", the boy is unbelievably lucky. This is noticed by a greedy businessman who kidnaps the boy to make use of his superpower. The kidnapping opens the door to plenty of humor and action in the film.
- The Robbers/Tang Dynasty Brothers (我的唐朝兄弟): A pair of amoral thieves end up defending a tiny village they initially came to pilfer in "The Robbers," a rambunctious black comedy in period duds that plays like a Chinese riff on "Seven Samurai."
- Panda Express (熊猫大侠): In Panda Express, a flying dagger vendor is mistakenly contracted to ship a dancing panda to the capital city.
- Glittering Days (万家灯火): The film revolves around the changes that happen in a community in the southern part of Beijing. The characters are residents that live in a small congested courtyard but finally get to move into the apartment they´ve longed for.
- Panda Express (熊猫大侠): In Panda Express, a flying dagger vendor is mistakenly contracted to ship a dancing panda to the capital city.
OTHER LANGUAGE MOVIES
- Der Knochenmann: On Thursday 10 December, Vienna Café shows an Austrian thriller Der Knochenmann (The Bone Man) (2009). A man by the name of Horvath has vanished, and the only clue leads to the Löschenkohl Restaurant, a well-known country inn which specialises in roast chicken. And it would be most unlike Brenner if the bone-grinding machine in the cellar of the restaurant didn‘t present him with a few additional mysteries. For him, minor transgressions and other human frailties are of moist interest here - but Brenner realises almost too late that he is in great danger. Be prepared to be shocked. Directed by Wolfgang Murnberger. German with English subtitles.
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