Monday Jan 14, 2008 (8pm)
Before Milos Forman made American classics, the Czech auteur made Taking Off, a sweet film about the gap between out-of-touch parents and their disillusioned offspring. Featuring fascinating, spot-on vocal auditions and an unforgettable parents-smoking-pot scene, Forman's sardonic but sympathetic film follows the couple's search for their daughter in New York. The kitschy Work Is a Four-Letter Word, meanwhile, is a funny, futuristic tale about a mycology-mad slacker, who believes his ingestible mushrooms will save society from total dehumanization. A rare conversation between filmmaker Mike Mills, journalist/historian Paul Cullum, and Arthur editor Jay Babcock follows the films.
– Jason Jude Chan