Ciné club
On the occasion of CERN’s 60th anniversary the CERN CinéClub will be showing films from all CERN member states.
Thursday 9 October 2014 at 20:00
CERN Council Chamber
Beresina or The Last Days of Switzerland
Directed by Daniel Schmid
Switzerland, 1999, 106 minutes
Beresina, or the Last Days of Switzerland chronicles the story of Irina, a Russian call girl arriving in Switzerland, whose innocent attempt to live the high life there triggers unintended coup d'etat in the country. The title Beresina refers to the Beresinalied, a patriotic song used as the code for initiating the Putsch. The film is a black comedy where all aspects of Swiss life are satirized in anecdotes. The heroine deals with a retired P-26 officer who appears as her false "sponsor" and various sexual perverts at the top of Swiss social hierarchy. Their attitudes to immigrants are also depicted ironically. Even the national identity and modern history of Switzerland are caricaturized in the country's first ever coup d'état sequences. The film culminates with Irina's coronation as Queen of Switzerland.
Original version German; English subtitles
Thursday 16 October 2014 at 20:00
CERN Council Chamber
Kadosh
Directed by Amos Gitaï
Israel, 1999, 110 minutes
The year 2000 approaches in Jerusalem's Orthodox Mea Shearim quarter, where the women work, keep house, and have children so the men can study the Torah and the Talmud. Rivka is happily and passionately married to Meir, but they remain childless. The yeshiva's rabbi, who is Meir's father, wants Meir to divorce Rivka: "a barren woman is no woman." Rivka's sister, Malka, is in love with Yakov, a Jew shunned by the yeshiva as too secular. The rabbi arranges Malka's marriage to Yossef, whose agitation when fulfilling religious duties approaches the grotesque. Can the sisters sort out their hearts' desires within this patriarchal world? If not, have they any other options?
Original version Hebrew; English subtitles
par Ciné club
