Events

The Canterbury Tales

(From The Cinematheque Website)

“Retains an enviable censor-baiting gusto, a protean ability to celebrate the body and its appetites, and can still shock with imperishable style.” - Kate Stables, Sight and Sound

Winner of the Golden Bear at Berlin in 1972, Pasolini’s uproarious adaptation of The Canterbury Tales continues in much the same pagan vein as The Decameron (1971)—except that this time around the large, lewd canvas is perhaps even more salacious and scatological. Some felt that Pasolini’s preoccupation with bodily functions and the grotesque, culminating in a bizarre, Bosch-like vision of Satan’s anus, represented a ​“loss of confidence in the liberating powers of human sexuality” (Peter Bondanella). That said, this is still one riotously ribald ride at the movies, and one of its comic highlights has Chaucer (played by Pasolini) furtively cribbing from Boccaccio while writing The Canterbury Tales—a take on literary history that is not entirely inaccurate. Italian censors subjected the film to a series of seizures and prosecutions (for obscenity and ​“vilification of religion”). Pasolini was absolved in each instance. In English.

“Behind Pasolini’s ribald collection of ripe teenage backsides, golden-skinned ephebes, and naughty nuns lies a melancholy philosophy, in which the ephemeral joys of sex and love are inextricable from social power-brokering and street-level flimflam.” - Ed Halter, Village Voice

 

“[A reminder of] the timeless appeal of a well-told dirty joke … A display of vitality, [with] an eye for period detail … it also contains one of cinema’s greatest flatulence gags ever.” - Jason Anderson, Toronto Star

Panellists: Jon Beasley-Murray, Ervin Malakaj, Laura U. Marks, Stephen Partridge

Mariupolis

Cinema Thinks The World is proud to present a rare screening of the late Mantas Kvedaravicius’s 2016 documentary, Mariupolis. The film takes us to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in 2016, offering a portrait of a city under the constant threat of a conflict that today has erupted into a full-scale war, and which in March 2022 claimed the life of the film’s director. Join us to watch the film and to discuss it with a range of scholars and thinkers, including Serhy Yekelchyk, Zoë Druick, and Igor Drjlaca. In partnership with Filmmakers for Ukraine, this event is organized by the Public Humanities Hub, UBC Connects at Robson Square, and the Centre for European Studies.

The screening is open to the public and takes place at UBC's Robson Square Theatre (room C300). Doors open at 6pm, and the screening starts at 6:30pm. More info available and reserve your free ticket at the public humanities event page.

In 2016, Mariupol, a city of half a million in Ukraine, is waiting for a war. For some it’s an occasion to fight, for others it’s the best time to repair shoes and rehearse new plays. A man repairs his fishing net and goes out to the bridge. Two trams run into each other – nobody is hurt and cables are fixed the same day. A small concert is given for factory workers and the sincere performance of a violinist makes them cry. Bombs fall into the sea, no one notices. Everyday life is defined by bomb threats in Mariupol, a city in Ukraine, situated to the east of the Crimea and once populated by Greeks. It is a visually powerful homage to a city in crisis, dedicated to its poets and shoemakers.