Written by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht in 1939, “Mother Courage and Her Children” chronicles 12 years in the life of merchant Mother Courage as she attempts to make enough money for her and her four children to survive the Thirty Years’ War of the 17th century. Brecht tends to craft characters that elicit little sympathy from the audience — Mother Courage is portrayed as an anti-heroine of sorts as she profits off of a devastating war.

“‘Mother Courage and Her Children’ is one of the greatest plays of the 20th century,” director Michael Najjar said. “It’s actually considered one of the greatest plays ever written.”

One of the reasons this play is so critically acclaimed is Brecht’s penchant for the alienation effect. Non-sympathetic characters alienate the audience, forcing them to think about and grapple with the overarching issues of war rather than the characters’ emotions. The minimal set design further highlights this concept — it consists of a wagon, a singular door, a table and chairs.

“What Brecht does with language and entertainment is so interesting, because he doesn’t want the audience to relate,” UO freshman and ”Mother Courage” cast member Jessica Jaszewski said. “He wants you to know that you’re watching a show.”

But Najjar argues that there is one aspect of the play in which Brecht’s intentions don’t necessarily shine through: Mother Courage’s supposed unrelatability. “We have to ask ourselves, in the Thirty Years’ War, what were the options for women?” he said. “Even now, it’s very difficult for women in the workplace. Imagine what it was like in the 1600s … I think of her as an economic migrant above anything.”

The titular Mother Courage is played by UO alum Penta Swanson, who has worked with major New York theatre companies The Living Theatre and The Alchemical Theatre. Swanson is also a singer/songwriter, which is helpful considering the play is a pseudo-musical.

“Mother Courage” features an original score by UO’s School of Music and Dance PhD student Daniel Daly. Because the script comes with lyrics but no music, Daly had an abundance of creative freedom. According to Najjar, Daly was constantly inspired, merging Brecht’s almost 80-year-old lyrics with contemporary music which will be played live by students of the School of Music and Dance.

“Mother Courage and Her Children” will run on March 2, 3, 9, 10, 16 and 17 at 7:30 p.m. and on March 11 at 2 p.m. at the Robinson Theater in the Miller Theatre Complex (1231 University St.). Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, youths and non-UO students, and free for UO students with ID.

For more information, visit: tickets.uoregon.edu/mother-courage.

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The “Fifty Shades” film saga was never intended to be “good.” You can’t take source material that’s based off of “Twilight” fanfiction and make it Oscar-worthy. These movies are purposefully designed to guarantee an absolutely ridiculous (yet surprisingly entertaining) girls night out at the theater. They’re impossible to take seriously. Poking fun at them is low-hanging fruit, and I refuse to stoop to that level.

Psych! “Fifty Shades Freed” picks up exactly where “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” — I mean, “Fifty Shades Darker”— left off. Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) and Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) are getting married. A honeymoon montage of the newlyweds traipsing across Europe plays over the opening credits, apparently just to show off how large the movie’s budget is.  

But of course, the marital bliss doesn’t last long. “Fifty Shades Freed” is more than just softcore eroticism — there’s a strange subplot involving Anastasia’s vengeful former boss. Hacking, car chases, courtroom drama, kidnapping and shoot-outs are sprinkled in between the steamy scenes in Christian’s infamous “playroom.” These action sequences aren’t shot well at all, but it’s still gratifying to watch the once timid Anastasia speeding down the twisty, tree-lined roads of the Pacific Northwest.

Johnson is a real talent as Anastasia, handling the cheesy writing with expertise and injecting a bit of much-needed playful humor into the role. It’ll be exciting to see where her career goes now that she’s finally “freed” from this franchise. Her characterization is the definitive high point of the film, as the former submissive finally begins to understand Christian’s attraction to power.

Many of the intimate scenes find Anastasia in control — she washes his hair, drips and spreads ice cream all over his body and even beckons him to his own playroom. And he takes it. This is a stark change from the Christian of the first film, an overbearing domineer who wouldn’t let her touch him at all. One could argue that “Fifty Shades Freed” is feminist because it focuses on Anastasia’s transformation from the shy, submissive girl she was in the first film to a dominant woman, while simultaneously objectifying Christian. One could also argue that it’s not feminist because of the myriad dangerous inaccuracies about BDSM and the abusive tendencies of Christian, and because it only benefits straight white women.

Either way, women deserve better entertainment. We deserve romance movies that feature healthy relationships, and at the very least deserve women-led movies that aren’t rooted in romance. The activist in me is screaming that we should be boycotting these films to show the industry that we won’t mindlessly consume this garbage anymore. But at the same time, this twisted trilogy is just too damn fun to ignore.

“Fifty Shades Freed” is now playing in theaters everywhere. You can even catch it in IMAX for some reason.

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Director, screenwriter and University of Oregon alum James Ivory visited campus Sunday evening to answer questions about “Call Me By Your Name.” Ivory produced the film and wrote the Academy Award-nominated script adapted from André Aciman novel of the same name.

The event began with a screening of “Call Me By Your Name” in the EMU Redwood auditorium as part of UO’s 2018 Queer Film Festival. According to event coordinator Isaiah Nixon, 293 people were allowed in — a long line led out the door and many had to be turned away.

“Call Me By Your Name” is a sprawling, epic romance that follows Elio, a moody, intelligent 17-year-old boy who falls in love with Oliver, his academic father’s 24-year-old student during their annual summer vacation in Northern Italy.

In addition to Ivory’s nomination, the film is up for three other Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Timothee Chalamet) and Best Original Song (“Mystery of Love” by Sufjan Stevens).

Ivory graduated from UO in 1951 with a degree in architecture and fine arts. His original plan was to become a film set designer, but he opted to attend graduate school at the University of Southern California in order to avoid being drafted in the Korean War.

About 10 years later, he founded Merchant Ivory Productions with his friend Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and his long-term romantic partner Ismail Merchant. Merchant Ivory Productions has won six Oscars for their films, which are often melodramatic, early 20th century period pieces adapted from English literature.

Ivory donated his special documents from the company’s films to the UO Special Collections, which include “photos, sketchbooks, scripts, business records, and correspondence with family, friends, and major film stars with whom Ivory has worked,” according to the UO Cinema Studies website.

“Maurice” is one of the most groundbreaking films he directed, centering on two men (Hugh Grant and Rupert Graves) who fall in love while studying at Cambridge University. According to Ivory, critics in England mocked the film for having a happy ending for the gay characters, calling it “unrealistic.”

“In the interim between that film [“Maurice”] and this film, it’s been very hard to find a gay film which was about happiness and joy and love,” Ivory said during the Q&A after the film.

The few mainstream LGBTQ+ films that do exist tend to derive their main conflict from the suffering of their characters. For example, Jack and Ennis of Ang Lee’s 2006 drama “Brokeback Mountain” can’t be together because they live in 1960s Wyoming, a time and place where homophobic hate crimes were much more prevalent.

The moderator of the event, cinema studies instructor Sergio Rigoletto, said that one of the revolutionary things about “Call Me By Your Name” is that it allows its gay characters to be in love without the impending threat of punishment. Sure, the fear of being found does live in the back of their minds, but their main reasons for not being able to be together are their age differences and the fact that Elio and Oliver only have six weeks of their summer together.

After the Q&A, several UO students lined up to tell Ivory how much “Call Me By Your Name” meant to them. UO senior Jeff Knight said he had read both the book and the screenplay three times and had seen the film in theaters at least five times.

“I read the book when I was discovering my own queer identity,” UO senior Kyle Heiner said. “I’m still looking for my ‘Somewhere in Northern Italy.’”

When UO junior Olivia Decklar asked how it felt to be nominated for an Oscar, Ivory laughed. “I didn’t dream about being nominated for an Oscar,” he said. “It was just accidental.”

“Call Me By Your Name” is now playing at the Broadway Metro and other movie theaters in Eugene. Ivory’s documents are available for viewing in the Special Collections section of the Knight Library on campus.

Follow Mia on Twitter @MIACINO.

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Near the beginning of “Jane,” the now 83-year-old primatologist Jane Goodall reflects on the patriarchal culture of the 1950s, back when her dream of studying animals was just that — a dream. Wistfully, she says, “I wanted to do things which men did and women didn’t.”

“Jane” is Goodall’s story told her way, drawing from hundreds of hours of recently discovered archival footage from Goodall’s seminal African expeditions. Present-day interviews with Goodall herself provide insight into her emotions as she broke new anthropological ground with her chimpanzee research. Her work would go on to redefine the very definition of “man.”

At 26-years-old, Goodall began as a secretary for paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey. She had no training whatsoever — just passion and patience. That was enough for Leakey, who sent Goodall to Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania to study chimpanzees in 1960. Prior to this expedition, there was virtually no research on great apes.

Goodall’s lack of college education and abundance of empathy actually aided her research. Rather than number the chimps like anthropologists are “supposed” to do so as not to become attached, she would name them. Rather than merely observing silently for hours on end, she would interact with them. She would care for them. She would become one of them. 

The fact that Goodall was a successful woman in such a male-dominated scientific community sent the media into a frenzy. According to “Jane,” headlines critiqued her appearance, calling her too blonde, too attractive to be a real scientist. So Goodall used this voyeuristic obsession with her body for her own gain — her status as a “National Geographic cover girl” helped her to secure more funding for her trips to Gombe. The magazine agreed to fund her expedition as long as she allowed one of their wildlife photographers, Hugo van Lawick, to film her as she worked.

Because van Lawick was able to shoot so much footage, the first half hour of “Jane” is shot and edited like a narrative film rather than a documentary. We get to experience the thrill of Goodall’s landmark discovery of the chimpanzees through her own own eyes, thanks to the innovative cinematography by van Lawick, whom Goodall later married. The film itself has been beautifully re-colorized, allowing the majestic purples of the Tanzanian sunsets and the vibrant greens of the jungles to truly pop.

While “Jane” does begin to drag a bit in the second half, most likely due to van Lawick’s eventual reassignment from Gombe, it’s still fascinating to watch Goodall’s evolution from secretary to the foremost primate researcher in the world. The documentary demonstrates just how vital yet undervalued the female perspective is in regards to history and science. “Jane” and the upcoming documentary “Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story,” which details Hollywood leading lady Lamarr’s contributions to wireless communications, may signal hope for the long overdue inclusion of women in scientific history.

“Jane” is now playing at the Broadway Metro, at 43 W Broadway.

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Sequels that outshine the originals are exceedingly rare, but “Paddington 2” pulls this lofty feat off with aplomb. The film has officially broken Rotten Tomatoes’ record for the best-reviewed film, previously set by last year’s “Lady Bird.” Though the “Paddington” films have been huge box office hits in their native United Kingdom, they have yet to fully break through to American audiences despite their universal critical-acclaim.

The film follows Paddington, a wholesome talking bear with a penchant for marmalade sandwiches, as he embarks on a quest to save enough money for the perfect gift for his Aunt Lucy’s birthday — a rare pop-up picture book of London. After taking on a series of odd-jobs such as window-cleaning and hair-cutting, he finally gets the money, only for a thief to steal the book and leave Paddington with the blame — and a 10-year prison sentence. It’s then up to the Browns, his adoptive family, to retrieve the book and clear the little bear’s name.

But “Paddington 2” is more than just a feel-good family film — it’s also cinematically impressive, particularly the production design of the prison, which heavily parallels the pastels and whimsy of Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”

Adults will also pick up on its political commentary, which references a post-Brexit world. Paddington himself hails from “Darkest Peru,” and after he’s falsely arrested for stealing the book, his crotchety neighbor Mr. Curry rants to the community about how they shouldn’t have trusted an immigrant. Curry later dismisses a newspaper’s claims that the bear is innocent as “propaganda,” perhaps a nod to President Trump’s infamous tirades against “fake news.”

The strong ensemble cast of British all-stars — including the delightful Sally Hawkins of the 13-time Oscar-nominated “The Shape of Water” and a high percentage of the adult “Harry Potter” actors — bolsters the film. But it’s Hugh Grant as the thieving, cravat-wearing Phoenix Buchanan who steals the show.

While the original “Paddington” antagonist was a Cruella DeVille-type taxidermist played with a steely stillness by Nicole Kidman, this time the little bear squares off against a Count Olaf-type has-been actor. His home is adorned with actual old headshots of floppy-haired Notting Hill-era Grant, as well as a secret attic in which he spends his time plotting and talking to mannequins dressed in his old theater costumes. Grant fully commits to the role, combining silly, theatrical facial and bodily expressions with his trademark English charm. On top of that, he shines in a snazzy, post-credits musical number that cements his campy supporting performance as Oscar-worthy.

Overwhelmed by the high volume of Oscar-nominated films you need to catch up on this season? No problem — “Paddington 2” wasn’t released until 2018 in the U.S., making it ineligible until next year’s Oscars, so you’ll be a whole year ahead of the game (assuming the Academy has refined enough taste to nominate it). Haven’t seen the original “Paddington”? That’s cool too — aside from a few subtle callbacks, the sequel has almost nothing to do with its predecessor (but if you’d like to catch up, it’s streaming on Netflix). Embarrassed about buying a ticket to a children’s film about a talking bear? Understandable — but the 30 seconds of shame you may feel at the box office will be vastly outweighed by the 104 minutes of pure bliss you’ll feel in the theater.

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