WALTZ WITH BASHIR
Israel/France/Germany • 2008 • Dir: Ari Folman
Based on interviews with Israeli veterans who served in the 1982 conflict with Lebanon, with flashbacks to combat.
USA • 2009 • Dir: Pete Docter and Bob Peterson
Old man Carl, who sells helium balloons in the park, somehow inflates a couple thousand of them, and he sails off to South America with a wayward Boy Scout, pursuing a youthful dream to explore the wilds.
THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE
France/Belgium/Canada • 2003 • Dir: Sylvain Chomet
Three aging dancers go on a search for a kidnapped grandson. Critic Roger Ebert says: “It is creepy, eccentric, eerie, flaky, freaky, funky, grotesque, inscrutable, kinky, kooky, magical, oddball, spooky, uncanny, uncouth, and unearthly. Especially uncouth.”
PRINCESS MONONOKE
Japan • 1997 • Dir: Hayao Miyazaki
From a country with a tradition of fine feature-length animation. Again, from Ebert: “Miyazaki is a great animator, and Princess Mononoke is a great film. Do not allow conventional thoughts about animation to prevent you from seeing it.”
Jim Piper is a Filmworks board member, a filmmaker, and a retired film studies instructor.