The Oklahoma City University Film Institute series will continue at 2 p.m. Jan. 22 with Francois Truffaut’s “The Last Metro.” This year’s series is based on the theme “On Being Mortal.”
All films in the series are screened free to the public in the Kerr McGee Auditorium of Meinders School of Business at N.W. 27th Street and McKinley Avenue.
The series is supported in part by the Thatcher Hoffman Smith Endowment Fund and endowments through Oklahoma City University and the Oklahoma City Community Foundation.
In “The Last Metro,” Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve star as members of a French theater company living under German occupation during World War II in Truffaut's gripping, humanist character study. Against all odds, the wife of the missing Jewish theater manager, a leading man who’s in the Resistance, and the company’s troupe believe the show must go on in spite of increasingly restrictive Nazi oversight. Equal parts romance, historical tragedy and even comedy, “The Last Metro” is considered by critics to be Truffaut’s ultimate tribute to art overcoming adversity.
The theme of this year’s season is based on Atul Gawande’s recent book “Being Mortal.” Winn, director of the series, said the films were selected to show “how we, as individuals and a culture, confront, avoid and deal with finitude.” Topics covered include how societies deal with people who are aging, the importance of life and how it is lived with need for a healthy and ethical awareness in knowing we all ultimately die.
A discussion session follows each film screening for those who wish to participate. Other dates and films in the series are:
* Feb. 5, Lasse Hallstrom’s “My Life as a Dog”
* Feb. 19, Asghar Farhadi’s “Fireworks Wednesday”
* March 5, Ciro Guerra’s “Embrace of the Serpent”
For more information about the series, call 405-208-5707 or visit okcufilmlit.org.