Taiwanese Film Series at UT This Weekend

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, head over the CMA building (that's the one on the corner of Dean Keaton and Guadalupe that looks like the Death Star) at UT in order to see three free screenings of new wave Taiwanese films. All three are directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien and deal with recent Taiwanese history as experienced at an intimate level. These films have been decorated at Cannes, Venice, and Berlin film festivals.

On Thursday at 6, you can catch Three Times, which uses the same pair of lead actors to tell three love stories set over the span of the twentieth century. (Roger Ebert said of this film when it came out: "Photographed with such visual beauty that watching the movie is like holding your breath so the butterfly won’t stir." Orientalist? Maybe, but also appealing.) On Friday, also at 6, City of Sadness, about a family's experiences in the late 1940s after Taiwan was returned to Chinese control. This showing will be followed by a panel discussion with film professors from UT, Texas State, and Trinity. Finally, on Saturday at 6, Dust in the Wind, about a couple who move from a small town to big-city Taipei.