December 9 at 7pm

Introducing Night School, MSP Film’s new monthly repertory series exploring film history and form. Local experts heighten our appreciation of cinema as an art form, social institution, and object of study. Class is in session the second Wednesday of every month – enroll today!

The Night School screening of Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence will feature a discussion of framing and score with Christine Marran, Professor of Japanese Literature and Cultural Studies, University of Minnesota.

ABOUT THE FILM

In this captivating, skewed World War II drama from Nagisa Oshima, David Bowie regally embodies Celliers, a British officer interned by the Japanese as a POW. Rock star Ryuichi Sakamoto (who also composed this film’s hypnotic score) plays the camp commander, obsessed with the mysterious blond major, while Tom Conti is the British lieutenant colonel Lawrence, who tries to bridge the emotional and language divides between captor and prisoner. Also featuring actor-director Takeshi Kitano in his first dramatic role, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is a multilayered, brutal, at times erotic tale of culture clash, and one of Oshima’s greatest successes.