The Oklahoma City University Film Institute’s screening series will continue its 34th year at 2 p.m. Nov. 1 with Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s Two Days, One Night in the Kerr McGee Auditorium of Meinders School of Business.
In her Oscar-nominated performance as best actress in Two Days, One Night, Marion Cotillard as Sandra has just been released from the hospital to find that she no longer has a job. According to management, the only way Sandra can hope to regain her position at the factory is to convince her co-workers to sacrifice their much-needed yearly bonuses. Now, over the course of one weekend, Sandra must confront each co-worker individually in order to win a majority of their votes before time runs out.
With Two Days, One Night, the Dardennes turned a relevant social inquiry into a powerful statement on community solidarity. Rolling Stone magazine noted: “The Dardenne brothers have created a film for its time, bristling with peril and alive to every flicker of human decency.”
The theme of this year’s season is based on Viktor Frankl’s classic book “Man’s Search for Meaning.” Harbour Winn, director of the series, said the theme is intended to help participants come to understand the purpose of suffering.
“The films in this series stress the importance of an individual’s attitude to existence,” Winn said. “Even when life seems restricted by external forces, we can choose the attitude with which we live and make meaning, to find value.”
The screening will begin at 2:00PM at the Kerr McGee Auditorium in the Meinders School of Business at NW 27th Street and McKinley Ave. A discussion will follow the presentation for those who wish to stay. Admission is free, but donations are greatly appreciated.
ACCOLADES FOR TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT
-“In film after film the Dardennes have proven themselves the cinema's most acute humanist critics of predatory capitalism; this masterful drama finds them at the top of their game.” Chicago Reader
-“The Dardennes take us into the ecosystem of need. By the time they are through, they've cut a wide swath that covers most of the issues of the working class.” LA Times
-“A small miracle of a movie, a drama so purely humane that it makes most attempts at audience uplift look crass and calculated by comparison.” The Onion
-“Cotillard's performance is as fine a piece of screen acting as you will ever see.” NY Times
-“Cotillard is magnificent, her luminous eyes reflecting a soul in crisis. The Dardenne brothers have created a film for its time, bristling with peril and alive to every flicker of human decency.” Rolling Stone
-“The premise is as simple as a biblical parable, and as densely packed with significance.” Wall Street Journal
-“Coursing underneath the film's calm, observant surface is a fury at a system that sets people in the same leaky boat at each other's throats.” Boston Globe
UPCOMING FILMS
* Jan. 24, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up
* Feb. 7, Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox
* Feb. 21, Asghar Farhadi’s About Elly
* March 6, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan