MAY 20TH RESIDENT EVIL: DEGENERATION

may 20 (new date!!!)
RESIDENT EVIL: DEGENERATION
dir. Makato Kamiya
[2008, 97 min]
Melnitz Hall room 2534, The Design Room
Wednesday 5pm

Makato Kamiya’s 2008 Resident Evil: Degeneration exists as an odd hybrid of video game and film. Entirely computer generated, it visually resembles a cut scene of epic proportions, yet it has a comprehensive narrative that develops the video game franchise’s characters, and an eerie presence that asks the viewer to non-interactively experience survival horror, qualities the preceding live-action film trilogy notably lack. A virus outbreak following an airplane disaster requires zombie-killer Leon Kennedy’s steady trigger finger and lighting quick reflexes, as the government’s collusion with the villainous Umbrella Corporation is revealed. Notably, Degeneration is itself a zombie, reanimating, reinvigorating and crossbreeding known stories, games, and media.

Film notes by Harrison Gish

our film series continues with: THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS

may 6

THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS

dirs. Lars von Trier, Jørgen Leth

[2003, 90 min]

Melnitz Hall room 2534, The Design Room

Wednesday 5pm

In this documentary, the most game-like of movie directors, Lars von Trier, challenges his former professor, veteran filmmaker Jørgen Leth, to remake Leth’s 1967 cult short THE PERFECT HUMAN five times. For each remake, the petulant von Trier enforces a series of obstructions that force Leth to navigate the difficulties of rule-bound filmmaking as he traverses the globe. Nutty and combative, this meta-film presents the filmmaking process as a series of game-like moves and counter moves.