Gangsters, Ghosts, Ghouls Fill the Worsham

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 22, 2010) – The Late Night Film Series, in partnership with the International Film Series, brings three feature-length films to the Worsham Theatre this week. Chinese film, “Exiled,” will screen at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23. At 10 p.m. that same night, Scorsese's “Shutter Island” will take the screen. On Friday, Sept. 24, at 10 p.m. “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” will be shown.

The film “Exiled” centers on Macau, a city along the southern coast of China that is to be handed over from Portuguese to Chinese rule. That’s when two hit men from Hong Kong arrive. They’re after a gangster who abandoned his life of syndicate crime to create a safe new life for his wife and newborn child. At the same time, two army officers, who happen to be former associates of the hit men, also arrive to protect the former gangster.

“Shutter Island” is set in 1954, where U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels is sent out to investigate a disappearance on Shutter Island’s Ashecliffe Hospital. He spends time partly searching for clues to the disappearance and partly searching for the person responsible for his wife’s death. Before long, Teddy begins to doubt the hospital’s ethics and motives after witnessing events ranging from immoral to illegal to sinister.

“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” was Heath Ledger’s last movie. It follows the elusive Dr. Parnassus and his traveling imaginarium, where customers get the chance to enter a world of imagination and choose either a path of joy and light or darkness and gloom. Dr. Parnassus has the gift of guiding others through their imagination, but has a dark secret. He long ago made a bet with the devil.

Sponsored by the Student Center Director’s Office, the Late Night Film Series screenings are free and open to UK faculty, staff and students.