[Press release from the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

 
A jazz film series and a personal appearance by actor Willem Dafoe are two of the May-June highlights at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque.
 
The “Double-C JazzFilmFest” (“Double C” for Cleveland Cinematheque), which runs from May 10 through June 21, consists of nine classic jazz movies. The seven-week series leads up to the Tri-C JazzFest (June 27-29 at Playhouse Square), which this year celebrates its 35th anniversary. The Cinematheque series is dedicated to the late Bobby Jackson, longtime host of WCPN’s “Jazz Tracks.”
 
Actor Willem Dafoe (SPIDER-MAN, PLATOON, THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, many others) appears in person on Saturday, June 7 to answer audience questions after a screening of the 2000 movie SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE, for which we was nominated for an Oscar. Three other films starring Dafoe will show on June 5 and 6.
 
The Cinematheque’s May-June schedule also features many exclusive Cleveland-area first-run films from around the world, as well as popular second-run films and restored classics. The complete schedule follows. Aside from two movies that will show at the Capitol Theatre in the Gordon Square Arts District, all films will show in the Aitken Auditorium of the Cleveland Institute of Art, 11141 East Boulevard in University Circle, telephone (216) 421-7450, www.cia.edu/cinematheque. Admission to each program (unless noted) is $9; Cinematheque members $7; age 25 & under $6. A second film on the same day generally costs an additional $6. Free parking for filmgoers is available in the adjacent CIA lot.
 
For further information, call John Ewing or Tim Harry at (216) 421-7450 or email cinema@cia.edu. Cinematheque programs are supported by Cuyahoga Arts and Culture and the Ohio Arts Council.
 

DOUBLE-C* JAZZFILMFEST
 
*CLEVELAND CINEMATHEQUE
 
SAT        5/10       6:50 PM                THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM
SAT        5/10       9:10 PM                NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SUN       5/11       3:15 PM                NEW YORK, NEW YORK 
SAT        5/17       5:15 PM                A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM
SAT        5/17       6:45 PM                BIRD
SUN       5/18       4:30 PM                A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM
FRI          5/23       5:15 PM                THE GLENN MILLER STORY
SAT        5/24       5:00 PM                THE GLENN MILLER STORY
FRI          5/30       9:20 PM                JAZZ ON A SUMMER’S DAY
SAT        5/31       5:00 PM                JAZZ ON A SUMMER’S DAY
FRI          6/6         5:15 PM                JOHN HUBLEY: A CENTENNIAL SALUTE
SAT        6/7         5:00 PM                JOHN HUBLEY: A CENTENNIAL SALUTE
FRI          6/13       7:15 PM                THE CONNECTION
SAT        6/14       9:00 PM                THE CONNECTION
THU       6/19       5:45 PM                PARIS BLUES
SAT        6/21       9:25 PM                PARIS BLUES
 
COMPLETE CINEMATHEQUE SCHEDULE FOR MAY-JUNE 2014
 
MAY 1-4
 
Thursday, May 1, at 6:45 pm &
Sunday, May 4, at 8:20 pm
STRANGER BY THE LAKE
L'INCONNU DU LAC
France, 2013, Alain Guiraudie
One of the most talked about and debated films from this year's Cleveland Int'l Film Festival is also one of the most acclaimed movies of the past year, with a 95% "fresh" rating on RottenTomatoes.com. Alain Guiraudie's breakthrough work is a lean thriller set at an isolated lake in rural France, where gay men sunbathe in the buff and cruise for love and companionship. One young man finds himself inexorably drawn to a mysterious, gorgeous hunk who looks a bit like Mark Spitz—and may be a killer. No one under 18 admitted! Subtitles. Blu-ray. 97 min. www.strandreleasing.com Alain Guiraudie’s 2009 film The King of Escape, made right before this one, plays 5/11.
 
Thursday, May 1, at 8:40 pm &
Friday, May 2, at 7:00 pm
Back by Popular Demand!
MR. NOBODY
France/Germany/Canada/Belgium, 2009, Jaco Van Dormael
Oscar winner Jared Leto co-stars with Sarah Polley in this ambitious, expansive sci-fi film (set in 2092) that the audience loved when we showed it in January. Leto plays 118-year-old Nemo Nobody, the last mortal man in a world that has achieved immortality, who reflects on the key moments in his life and on the alternate paths he could have taken (and maybe did). This fluid, nonlinear mindbender, a cult classic in the making, won Magritte Awards (Belgian Oscars) for Best Film and Best Director and the Audience Award for Best Film at the 2010 European Film Awards. In English. Blu-ray. 141 min. www.magpictures.com/mrnobody
 
Friday, May 2, at 9:40 pm &
Saturday, May 3, at 7:10 pm
VISITORS
USA, 2013, Godfrey Reggio
Godfrey (the Qatsi trilogy) Reggio’s latest collaboration with composer Philip Glass is another hypnotic, wordless film that proffers a series of visually stunning images (including many faces) in b&w and scope to ponder man’s relationship with technology. “A wondrous work.” –Austin Chronicle. Cleveland premiere. Blu-ray. 87 min. visitorsfilm.com
 
Saturday, May 3, at 5:15 pm
Back by Popular Demand!
COUSIN JULES
LE COUSIN JULES
France, 1972, Dominique Benicheti
Hailed as a masterpiece when first released in 1972, then forgotten for 40 years, this serene ode to rural France and life’s simple pleasures chronicles the daily existence of an 80-ish blacksmith (the filmmaker's cousin) who lives on a farm with his elderly wife of many years. Painstakingly shot in color, scope, and stereo over a five-year period, the movie has been newly restored after the filmmaker’s recent death. It wowed our audience in February. "A ravishing, totally immersive work in which we not only enter into the subjects’ world but also into the very rhythms of their lives." -50th New York Film Festival description (2012). "Thoroughly transporting." -Village Voice. Subtitles. Blu-ray. 91 min. lecousinjules.com
 
Saturday, May 3, at 7:10 pm
VISITORS
See 5/2 at 9:40 for description
 
Saturday, May 3, at 9:00 pm &
Sunday, May 4, at 6:30 pm
Alain Resnais, 1922-2014
New 35mm Color Print!
JE T’AIME, JE T’AIME
France, 1968, Alain Resnais
This little-known major work from Alain Resnais, the director of Hiroshima, Mon Amour and Last Year at Marienbad who died in March, is a sci-fi nightmare that deals with Resnais’ usual themes of time and memory. A man who attempted suicide finds himself a guinea pig in a time-travel experiment gone awry; he can’t escape his life’s unhappy moments. “Five stars (highest rating)…A masterpiece…You can see why Michel Gondry cited this as a major influence on his sci-fi romance, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” –Time Out New York. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. 35mm. 91 min. www.thefilmdesk.com
 
Sunday, May 4, at 4:00 pm
Back by Popular Demand!
THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN
Belgium/Netherlands, 2012, Felix Van Groeningen
Our audience loved this Belgian bluegrass movie when we showed it last winter. It was one of the five nominees for this year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and was also nominated for five 2013 European Film Awards—the most nominations for any movie—including Best Film, Director, Actress (Veerle Baetens, who won), Actor, and Screenplay. This Once-like movie chronicles the love affair between a female tattoo artist and a Belgian banjo player, and the child who changes and challenges their relationship. Includes superb English-language performances of American bluegrass classics. Subtitles. Blu-ray. 111 min. tribecafilm.com/tribecafilm/filmguide/brokencircle
 
Sunday, May 4, at 6:30 pm
JE T’AIME, JE T’AIME
See 5/3 at 9:00 for description
 
Sunday, May 4, at 8:20 pm
STRANGER BY THE LAKE
See 5/1 at 6:45 for description
 
MAY 8-11
 
Thursday, May 8, at 6:45 pm &
Friday, May 9, at 9:20 pm
JOURNEY TO THE WEST
aka JOURNEY TO THE WEST: CONQUERING THE DEMONS
XI YOU XIANG MO PIAN
China, 2013, Stephen Chow, Derek Kwok
The new action comedy from Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer) is a spectacular, special-effects-laden fantasy based on a 16th-century classic of Chinese literature. It tells of an aspiring demon hunter who tries to protect a village from all manner of monsters—be they giant fish, pig, or monkey. “Showcases Chow at his weirdest and most entertaining.” –The A.V. Club. East Side Cleveland theatrical premiere! Subtitles. Blu-ray. 110 min. magnetreleasing.com/journeytothewest/
 
Thursday, May 8, at 8:55 pm &
Friday, May 9, at 7:30 pm
A FIELD IN ENGLAND
UK, 2013, Ben Wheatley
The fourth feature by fast-rising filmmaker Ben Wheatley (Down Terrace, Kill List, Sightseers) is an hallucinatory historical drama set in civil war-torn 17th-century England. It’s a mash-up of Witchfinder General, Winstanley, Monty Python, and David Lynch that tells of four soldiers who are enlisted by an apprentice alchemist/conjurer to scour a meadow for buried treasure. “Breathtakingly lovely and genuinely unsettling…There’s a ten-minute sequence of pure psychedelic freefall and freakout which is one of the most captivating, hypnotic and beautiful things you’ll ever see on a cinema screen..We can’t stress enough how important it is to catch this one on the big screen.” –Time Out London. Adults only! East Side Cleveland theatrical premiere. Blu-ray. 90 min. drafthousefilms.com/film/a-field-in-england
 
Friday, May 9, at 9:20 pm
JOURNEY TO THE WEST
See 5/8 at 6:45 for description
 
Saturday, May 10, at 5:00 pm &
Sunday, May 11, at 8:40 pm
GRAND PIANO
Spain, 2013, Eugenio Mira
Elijah Wood and John Cusack star in this highly stylized, Hitchcockian/De Palmaesque thriller about a young concert pianist, just getting over a debilitating bout of stage fright, who discovers a threatening note written on his sheet music ("play one wrong note and you die") just before a performance. Screenplay by Damien Chazelle, writer-director of Whiplash and Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. "A pulse-pounding experiment in terror." -Rolling Stone. Cleveland theatrical premiere. In English. Blu-ray. 90 min. www.magnetreleasing.com/grandpiano
 
Saturday, May 10, at 6:50 pm
JazzFilmFest
Restored 35mm Archive Print!
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM
USA, 1955, Otto Preminger
Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak star in Otto Preminger's jazz-infused drama, about a drummer and ex-addict who licks his heroin habit in prison but struggles to stay clean on the outside. The movie’s focus on drug addiction (a taboo subject in 1955) caused the film to be denied a seal of approval by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Music by Elmer Bernstein. 119 min. Restored by the Academy Film Archive with funding from the Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Special thanks to Vicky Preminger and Cassie Blake.
 
Saturday, May 10, at 9:10 pm &
Sunday, May 11, at 3:15 pm
JazzFilmFest
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
USA, 1977, Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli star in Martin Scorsese's stylish salute to classic Hollywood musicals, made between Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. This underrated epic charts the relationship between a frustrated sax player and a brassy singer as their fortunes change during the post-WWII big band era. We will show the restored version that includes the complete Kander & Ebb song "Happy Endings." "[A] masterly romantic drama." -Jazz in the Movies. 35mm. 163 min.
 
Sunday, May 11, at 6:45 pm
THE KING OF ESCAPE
LE ROI DE L’ÉVASION
France, 2009, Alain Guiraudie
The film that Alain Guiraudie made before Stranger by the Lake (see 5/1 & 4) was “the revelation of Lincoln Center’s recent Guiraudie retrospective,” according to the Anthology Film Archives. (Their April-June program book also calls it “one of the greatest films in recent memory.”) The King of Escape is an outlandish sex farce in which an obese, gay, rural tractor salesman becomes the unlikely love object of his boss’s teenage daughter. They run away together, setting off a chain of bizarre events. “Guiraudie’s most purely enjoyable film.” –Film Comment. No one under 18 admitted! Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. 93 min. Print courtesy of Institut Français, Paris. Special thanks to Florence Almozini, Cultural Services of the French Embassy, NY, and Laurence Geannopulos, French Consulate, Chicago.
 
Sunday, May 11, at 8:40 pm
GRAND PIANO
See 5/10 at 5:00 for description
 
MAY 15-18
 
Thursday, May 15, at 6:45 pm &
Friday, May 16, at 7:00 pm
WADJDA
Saudi Arabia/Germany, 2012, Haifaa al-Mansour
This historic and acclaimed crowd-pleaser was the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and also the first feature film by a female Saudi director. It tells of an 11-year-old Riyadh girl, Wadjda, who longs for a bicycle so that she can race one of her friends, a neighborhood boy. But bike-riding by girls is frowned upon in her country, so when Wadjda's mother refuses to buy the bicycle, the determined moppet sets out to see what she can do by herself. Has a 99% "fresh" rating on RottenTomatoes.com. Subtitles. 35mm. 98 min. Presented as part of Cleveland Bike Month. Show your bicycle helmet at the box office and pay only $7. sonyclassics.com/wadjda/
 
Thursday, May 15, at 8:45 pm &
Sunday, May 18, at 7:50 pm
NARCO CULTURA
USA/Mexico, 2013, Shaul Schwarz
Narcocorridos are ballads that celebrate the exploits of Mexico’s narco traffickers and drug lords. This music that openly glorifies violence, drugs, and money is shockingly popular among many Mexicans and Latinos. Narco Cultura, which features performances by narcocorrido artists and footage from the front lines of the drug wars, lifts the curtain on this explosive and disturbing music subculture.  “As overwhelming as it is absorbing.” –Variety. Cleveland theatrical premiere. Subtitles. Blu-ray. 103 min. narcoculture.com
 
Friday, May 16, at 7:00 pm
WADJDA
See 5/15 at 6:45 for description
 
Friday, May 16, at 9:00 pm
A Special Event!
Filmmaker Tom Jarmusch in Person!
SOMETIMES CITY
USA, 2011, Tom Jarmusch
This portrait of Cleveland by an ex-resident focuses not on new developments, fancy restaurants, or venerable arts institutions but on the poor, struggling individuals and outcasts who try to subsist in a decaying, racially divided, economically-stratified city. City boosters may not approve of Jarmusch’s unvarnished vision or gritty poetry, but this, too, is Cleveland. Jarmusch will answer audience questions after the screening. With Harvey Pekar. “No symphony of a singing metropolis, Sometimes City is more a spare-parts scavenging of stories.” –Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice. Preceded at 9 by Jarmusch’s 8-min. Alfredo (2000), a portrait of artist Alfredo Martinez. DVD. Total 88 min. plus Q&A.
 
Saturday, May 17, at 5:15 pm &
Sunday, May 18, at 4:30 pm
JazzFilmFest
A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM
USA, 1994, Jean Bach
This Oscar-nominated documentary tells the story behind Art Kane's famous group photograph that the film is named after. That picture, shot in front of a Harlem brownstone on 8/12/58, captured 57 jazz greats including Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Marian McPartland, Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, and Thelonious Monk. Quincy Jones narrates the film, which features interviews, home movies, and vintage performances. DVD. 60 min.
 
Saturday, May 17, at 6:45 pm
JazzFilmFest
BIRD
USA, 1988, Clint Eastwood
Forest Whitaker plays Charlie Parker, the innovative saxophonist and bebop pioneer who battled heroin addiction during his short life, in Clint Eastwood's heartfelt portrait, one of the great jazz movies. 35mm. 161 min.
 
Saturday, May 17, at 9:45 pm &
Sunday, May 18, at 6:30 pm
INTERIOR. LEATHER BAR.
USA, 2013, James Franco, Travis Mathews
James Franco reimagines and recreates the deleted/destroyed 40 minutes of gay s&m sex in William Friedkin's 1980 thriller Cruising in this "documentary" about the casting and creation of Franco's own film. The result is a meta-movie that meditates on straight actors' comfort with (and acceptance of) explicit homosexual activities that surround them. "A sly conceptual coup d'art and a deeply sincere exploration of masculinity and its discontents." -The NY Times. No one under 18 admitted! Blu-ray. 60 min. www.interiorleatherbar.com
 
Sunday, May 18, at 4:30 pm
A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM
See 5/17 at 5:15 for description
 
Sunday, May 18, at 6:30 pm
INTERIOR. LEATHER BAR.
See 5/17 at 9:45 for description
 
Sunday, May 18, at 7:50 pm
NARCO CULTURA
See 5/15 at 8:45 for description
 
MAY 23-27
 
Friday, May 23, at 5:15 pm &
Saturday, May 24, at 5:00 pm
JazzFilmFest
THE GLENN MILLER STORY
USA, 1954, Anthony Mann
James Stewart plays the legendary bandleader in this colorful biopic with lots of terrific musical numbers (e.g., Louis Armstrong and Gene Krupa play "Basin Street Blues"). This was the first non-Western collaboration between Stewart and director Anthony Mann; they made it between The Naked Spur and The Far Country, both of which we showed in 2011. June Allyson co-stars—the second of three times she played Stewart’s wife on screen. 35mm color print from the Universal Pictures studio archive! 116 min.
 
Friday, May 23, at 7:30 pm &
Saturday, May 24, at 9:30 pm
PIG DEATH MACHINE
USA, 2013, Jon Moritsugu
The first feature film in a more than a decade from underground cinema icon Jon Moritsugu (Scumrock, Mod Fuck Explosion, Hippy Porn) is another lo-fi aberration. Shot in garish colors on cheap digital video, Moritsugu’s new movie tells of a shipment of tainted pork that turns a brainless hottie into a genius and allows a buxom botanist to start communicating with her plants. “Anyone who longs for the old, weird films of John Waters or the psychotronic freak-outs of New York's Cinema of Transgression school should be able to get their fix from Pig Death Machine. –The L.A. Times. “Overflowing with eye-popping production design, eardrum-destroying rock 'n' roll, gross-outs aplenty and deadpan one-liners you'll be quoting for weeks.” –The Wall St. Journal. No one under 18 admitted! Cleveland premiere. 82 min. www.jonmoritsugu.com
 
Friday, May 23, at 9:15 pm &
Saturday, May 24, at 7:15 pm
50th Anniversary!
GOLDFINGER
UK, 1964, Guy Hamilton
Probably the most famous and iconic of all James Bond films (third in the series) stars Sean Connery as Agent 007, Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore, Gert Frobe as precious metals magnate Auric Goldfinger, and Harold Sakata as hat-throwing hit man Oddjob. Shirley Bassey sings the classic theme song. The story concerns international criminal masterminds who plot to tamper with the U.S. stockpile of gold bullion at Fort Knox in order to wreak havoc on the world economy. (This was before sub-prime mortgages, mortgage-backed securities, and collateralized debt obligations simplified the process.) New 35mm color & scope print! 111 min.
 
Saturday, May 24, at 5:00 pm
THE GLENN MILLER STORY
See 5/23 at 5:15 for description
 
Saturday, May 24, at 7:15 pm
GOLDFINGER
See 5/23 at 9:15 for description
 
Saturday, May 24, at 9:30 pm
PIG DEATH MACHINE
See 5/23 at 7:30 for description
 
Tuesday, May 27, at 7:00 pm
Special Offsite 3D Event!
The Cinematheque at the Capitol Theatre
CHARLIE VICTOR ROMEO
USA, 2013, Robert Berger, Patrick Daniels, Karlyn Michelson
The black box transcripts from six real-life airline emergencies between 1985 and 1996 are brought to heart-pounding life in this 3D film version of an acclaimed stage play. Set entirely within the planes’ cockpits, the film features a cast of actors playing pilots, co-pilots, and flight attendants doing everything they can to avert disaster. A 2013 New York Film Festival presentation. "A curious hybrid of documentary and experimental theater…Also one of the most terrifying movies I have ever seen." –The NY Times. Adults only! Cleveland premiere. DCP. 80 min. Shown on the big screen at the Capitol Theatre, 1390 W. 65th St. at Detroit Ave. Special admission $10; Cinematheque members & CIA I.D. holders $8; age 25 & under $7. (Price includes 3D glasses.) No passes, twofers, or radio winners and no Cleveland Cinemas passes or discounts. Advance $10 tickets available at www.clevelandcinemas.com. Special thanks to Jon Forman and Dave Huffman.
 
MAY 30-31
 
Friday, May 30, at 5:00 pm &
Saturday, May 31, at 6:45 pm
THE PAST
LE PASSÉ
France/Italy, 2013, Asghar Farhadi
Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) won the Best Actress prize at Cannes for her starring role in Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi's masterful follow-up to his Oscar-winning A Separation. Bejo plays a French wife and mother whose estranged Iranian husband comes to France to finalize their divorce. But her two daughters from a different father, the young stepson of her current partner, and the hidden truth behind an attempted suicide complicate matters. “A superbly written, directed and acted drama that commands attention every step of the way.” –The Hollywood Reporter. Subtitles. 35mm. 130 min. sonyclassics.com/thepast/
 
Friday, May 30, at 7:30 pm &
Saturday, May 31, at 9:15 pm
THE ANONYMOUS PEOPLE
USA, 2013, Greg D. Williams
23 million Americans live in long-term recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. This important and inspiring new documentary chronicles a grassroots social justice movement in which courageous citizens, leaders, volunteers, corporate executives, and public figures come out from the shadows to advocate for others with their disease. Addicts, they argue, should receive treatment and rehabilitation—not just lectures, stigmatization, discrimination, and prison time. Cleveland premiere. Blu-ray. 88 min. alivemindcinema.com/anonymouspeople/
 
Friday, May 30, at 9:20 pm &
Saturday, May 31, at 5:00 pm
JazzFilmFest
JAZZ ON A SUMMER’S DAY
USA, 1959, Bert Stern
Celebrated commercial photographer Bert Stern shot this classic record of the 1958 Newport (Rhode Island) Jazz Festival. The movie, “a must for jazz aficionados” (Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide), features thrilling performances by Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong, Sonny Stitt, Anita O'Day, Gerry Mulligan, Chuck Berry, Jack Teagarden, and Mahalia Jackson, among many others. “Often hailed as one of the first and most influential of live concert films…A dazzling array of jazz and rock ‘n’ roll giants.” –Time Out Film Guide. 35mm. 85 min.
 
Saturday, May 31, at 6:45 pm
THE PAST
See 5/30 at 5:00 for description
 
Saturday, May 31, at 9:15 pm
THE ANONYMOUS PEOPLE
See 5/30 at 7:30 for description
 
JUNE 5-7
 
Thursday, June 5, at 7:00 pm
Special Offsite Event!
The Cinematheque at the Capitol Theatre
Willem Dafoe Weekend!
THE DUST OF TIME
TRILOGIA II: I SKONI TOU HRONOU
Greece/Italy/Germany/Russia, 2008, Theo Angelopoulos
Willem Dafoe, Bruno Ganz, Michel Piccoli, and Irène Jacob star in the last completed film by the late, great Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos. The second part of a planned trilogy that Angelopoulos was finishing when he died in 2012 (2004’s virtuosic The Weeping Meadow was the first part), The Dust of Time follows a Greek-American movie director (Dafoe) as he attempts to tell his mother’s life story on screen—specifically, her love for two men during an epic odyssey through Greece, the USSR, Germany, and America during the second half of the 20th century. As in other Angelopoulos historical dramas, the past parallels the present and time is a river of dreams, memories, and flashbacks. This major work has never been distributed in the U.S., so don’t miss this rare chance to see it! Ohio premiere. DCP. 125 min. Shown on the big screen at the Capitol Theatre, 1390 W. 65th St. at Detroit Ave. Special admission $12; Cinematheque members & CIA I.D. holders $9; age 25 & under $7. No passes, twofers, or radio winners and no Cleveland Cinemas passes or discounts. Advance $12 tickets available at www.clevelandcinemas.com. Special thanks to Anna Angelopoulou, Jon Forman, and Dave Huffman.
 
Friday, June 6, at 5:15 pm &
Saturday, June 7, at 5:00 pm
JazzFilmFest
JOHN HUBLEY: A CENTENNIAL SALUTE
USA, 1956-70, John and Faith Hubley
John Hubley (1914-1977) was an important American animator who worked at Disney during the 1930s and 1940s but later joined United Productions of America, where he created Mr. Magoo and helped pioneer UPA’s more contemporary and design-y style of “limited animation.” After running afoul of the House Committee for Un-American Activities in the early 1950s, he left UPA and founded his own independent animation company with his wife and fellow artist, Faith. There he won three Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Subject. The eight films we will show in this compilation all come from that period of his career. All will be shown in restored 35mm color prints and most have memorable jazz scores (by Lionel Hampton, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, et al.). Program includes Adventures of an * (1957); The Tender Game (1958); the Oscar-winning Moonbird (1959); The Hat (1964); Urbanissimo (1967); Windy Day (1968); Of Men and Demons (1969); and Eggs (1971). Cleveland revival premiere. Total running time 80 min. www.artistspublicdomain.org/cinema-conservancy
 
Friday, June 6, at 7:00 pm
Willem Dafoe Weekend!
PLATOON
USA, 1986, Oliver Stone
Willem Dafoe earned his first Academy Award nomination for his performance in Oliver Stone's semiautobiographical classic, about an inexperienced young soldier's shattering experiences during the Vietnam War. Winner of four Oscars, including Best Picture and Director. With Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Forest Whitaker, and Johnny Depp. Adults only! 35mm. 120 min.
 
Friday, June 6, at 9:20 pm
Willem Dafoe Weekend!
GO GO TALES
Italy/USA, 2007, Abel Ferrara
Willem Dafoe, Bob Hoskins, Matthew Modine, and Asia Argento star in this unreleased-in-America Abel Ferrara comedy inspired by John Cassavetes' The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. The movie is set in a struggling topless club in downtown Manhattan, where the financially-strapped owner fights with his brother, and the dancers threaten a "strip strike." "A sincere and inspired meditation on art and creation, but in a loose, funny key." -The NY Times. Cleveland premiere. 35mm. 96 min. Special thanks to Abel Ferrara.
 
Saturday, June 7, at 5:00 pm
JOHN HUBLEY: A CENTENNIAL SALUTE
See 6/6 at 5:15 for description
 
Saturday, June 7, at 7:00 pm
A Special Event!
An Evening with Willem Dafoe
SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE
UK/USA/Luxembourg, 2000, E. Elias Merhige
Tonight we welcome actor Willem Dafoe, who will appear in person to answer questions after a screening of a little-known film that contains one of his most celebrated performances (and earned him his second Oscar nomination). Shadow of the Vampire is a fictionalized account of the filming of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 German silent horror classic Nosferatu. Dafoe plays Max Schreck, the star of Murnau’s film, who, in this reimagining, takes method acting to new levels—staying in character (and in his ghoulish makeup) throughout the shoot at a spooky Czech castle; terrorizing his co-stars by claiming he’s a real vampire; even eating bats! It’s an unforgettable performance by one of our finest actors, who will talk about his many memorable roles and performances in a wide-ranging Q&A session after the screening. 35mm. Total approx. 3 hrs. Special admission $20; Cinematheque members and CIA I.D. holders $15; age 25 & under (at the door only, if seats remain) $12; no passes, twofers, or radio winners. No second film discount. Advance $20 & $15 tickets at http://willemdafoe.brownpapertickets.com/
 
JUNE 12-14
 
Thursday, June 12, at 6:30 pm
ALL THE LIGHT IN THE SKY
USA, 2012, Joe Swanberg
Joe Swanberg's new movie is one of the most acclaimed works by this prolific indie filmmaker. Jane Adams (Hung, Happiness) plays an aging L.A. actress who is keenly aware that the roles she can play are drying up. Her mid-life crisis is exacerbated when her 25-year-old niece turns up at her Malibu beach house and announces that she also wants to act in movies. Cleveland premiere. Blu-ray. 79 min. www.factorytwentyfive.com/all-the-light-in-the-sky
 
Thursday, June 12, at 8:10 pm
IT FELT LIKE LOVE
USA, 2013, Eliza Hittman
A lonely 14-year-old girl who longs to be sexually experienced like her slightly older best friend sets her sights on an older, thuggish college boy who "will sleep with anyone." Eliza Hittman's highly acclaimed debut feature—a rare coming-of-age story from a female point of view—is “brilliantly, brutally tactile" (Village Voice). "Rarely has the zone between girlhood and womanhood been captured with such urgent honesty." -The L.A. Times. Cleveland premiere. Blu-ray. 82 min. www.itfeltlikelove.com/
 
Friday, June 13, at 5:15 pm &
Saturday, June 14, at 7:00 pm
HONEY
MIELE
Italy/France, 2013, Valeria Golino
The highly acclaimed first feature directed by veteran Italian actress Valeria Golino (Rain Man) shows her to be a filmmaker of sensitivity and style. An introspective woman who advocates euthanasia for terminally ill patients (and secretly facilitates assisted suicides) has a crisis of conscience when she supplies life-ending drugs to a cynical, suicidal man who turns out to be perfectly healthy. “An impressively mature directing debut.” –The Hollywood Reporter. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. Blu-ray. 96 min. www.emergingpictures.com
 
Friday, June 13, at 7:15 pm &
Saturday, June 14, at 9:00 pm
JazzFilmFest
New 35mm Restoration!
THE CONNECTION
USA, 1961, Shirley Clarke
Shirley Clarke's boundary-shattering Beat-era classic, based on an off-Broadway play by Jack Gelber, focuses on eight junkies—some of whom play jazz as they wait for their fix in a NYC loft apartment. A preppy young filmmaker (William Redfield) agrees to pay for the drugs if they will let him film the "connection." This taboo-breaking indie movie was initially banned in New York until the state's supreme court OK’ed its release. Has a 92% "fresh" rating on RottenTomatoes.com. Cleveland revival premiere. 110 min. Preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding by the Film Foundation. projectshirley.com/connection.html
 
Friday, June 13, at 9:25 pm
TO BE ANNOUNCED
 
Saturday, June 14, at 5:00 pm
Imported 35mm Print!
GEBO AND THE SHADOW
O GEBO E A SOMBRA
Portugal/France, 2012, Manoel de Oliveira
The most recent feature from 105-year-old Portuguese master Manoel de Oliveira features a top-notch cast of European art-film stars (Michel Lonsdale, Claudia Cardinale, Jeanne Moreau) and Oliveira regulars (Leonor Silveira, Luís Miguel Cintra, Ricardo Trépa). Based on a play by Raul Brandão, the movie is a claustrophobic drama, set during the late 19th century, in which an elderly couple anxiously awaits the return of their elusive, long-absent son, who’s been seen in town. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see an important movie that’s undistributed in the U.S. “An exquisite yet anguished spectacle, a grand piece of cinematic chamber music for a cast of mighty soloists.” –The New Yorker. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. 95 min. Special admission $12; members & CIA I.D. holders $9; age 25 & under $7; no passes, twofers, or radio winners. Special thanks to Jed Rapfogel, Anthology Film Archives.
 
Saturday, June 14, at 7:00 pm
HONEY
See 6/13 at 5:15 for description
 
Saturday, June 14, at 9:00 pm
THE CONNECTION
See 6/13 at 7:15 for description
 
JUNE 19-21
 
Thursday, June 19, at 5:45 pm &
Saturday, June 21, at 9:25 pm
JazzFilmFest
PARIS BLUES
USA, 1961, Martin Ritt
Never released on DVD or Blu-ray in the U.S., this jazz film classic (with a Duke Ellington score) stars Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier as American musicians in Left Bank Paris who fall for tourists Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll. With Louis Armstrong. 35mm. 98 min.
 
Thursday, June 19, at 7:45 pm &
Saturday, June 21, at 5:00 pm
New Digital Restoration!
IL SORPASSO (THE EASY LIFE)
Italy, 1962, Dino Risi
In one of the great examples of Commedia all'italiana, a brash, middle-aged playboy (Vittorio Gassman) takes an uptight young law student (Jean-Louis Trintignant) on a two-day, top-down, summer joy ride in his sports car. They speed along the Italian coast, ogling girls and having a series of carefree adventures. Dino Risi's masterpiece, set during Italy's postwar economic boom, is perhaps the first modern-day road movie. But this favorite of Martin Scorsese and Alexander Payne has been out of release in the U.S. for decades—until now. "Five stars (highest rating)...Unmissable." -Time Out New York. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. Blu-ray. 107 min. www.janusfilms.com/sorpasso/
 
Friday, June 20, at 5:15 pm &
Saturday, June 21, at 7:10 pm
THE FRENCH MINISTER
QUAI D’ORSAY
France, 2013, Bertrand Tavernier
The new film by veteran French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier (whose 1980 A Week’s Vacation was the first movie ever presented by the Cinematheque) is a biting and buoyant political comedy about a handsome, arrogant, and (thankfully) fictional French Minister of Foreign Affairs (Thierry Lhermitte) who is continually setting fires around the world that his beleaguered staff –and new speechwriter—must put out. “A sparkling and savvy comedy...Spry, pleasingly funny.” –Variety. Cleveland theatrical premiere. Subtitles. Blu-ray. 113 min. www.ifcfilms.com/films/the-french-minister
 
Friday, June 20, at 7:30 pm
Double Feature!
THE MISSING PICTURE
L'IMAGE MANQUANTE
Cambodia/France, 2013, Rithy Panh
GOLDEN SLUMBERS
LE SOMMEIL D’OR
France/Cambodia, 2011, Davy Chou
Two new documentaries that remember the casualties of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge.  The Missing Picture, one of this year’s five Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Language Film, is a unique autobiography in which Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh employs painted, miniature clay figurines to re-create a genocide that was never documented on film—specifically the atrocities visited on his own family by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge during the nightmarish 1970s. Has a 98% “fresh” rating on RottenTomatoes.com. Subtitles. Blu-ray. 92 min. Golden Slumbers is a poetic remembrance of Cambodian cinema, which shone brightly from 1960 to 1975 with more than 400 productions. Unfortunately the Khmer Rouge regime destroyed almost every one of the movies and executed most of the country’s creative community. “Elegantly assembled and deeply moving.” –Variety. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. Blu-ray. 96 min. See both films for one price: $10; members and CIA I.D. holders $8; age 25 & under $7. No passes, twofers, or radio winners. www.strandreleasing.com; www.icarusfilms.com
 
Saturday, June 21, at 5:00 pm
IL SORPASSO (THE EASY LIFE)
See 6/19 at 7:45 for description
 
Saturday, June 21, at 7:10 pm
THE FRENCH MINISTER
See 6/20 at 5:15 for description
 
Saturday, June 21, at 9:25 pm
PARIS BLUES
See 6/19 at 5:45 for description
 
JUNE 26-28
 
Thursday, June 26, at 5:30 pm &
Saturday, June 28, at 5:00 pm
JUST A SIGH
LE TEMPS DE L’AVENTURE
France, 2013, Jérôme Bonnell
Gabriel Byrne and Emmanuelle Devos play strangers (he’s an Irish professor; she’s a French actress) who meet on a train bound for Paris. This contemporary Brief Encounter is set on the first day of summer. “A bracingly romantic drama that's alive with a mature sense of passion and mystery.” –The L.A. Times. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. Blu-ray. 104 min. www.distribfilms.com/us/just-a-sigh/
 
Thursday, June 26, at 7:35 pm &
Friday, June 27, at 9:10 pm
New 35mm Color Print!
Alternate German Language Version
NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE
NOSFERATU: PHANTOM DER NACHT
W. Germany/France, 1979, Werner Herzog
Klaus Kinski and Isabelle Adjani star in Werner Herzog’s eerie, poetic update of F.W. Murnau’s silent vampire classic, which adds color and sound (and 11,000 live rats—no CGI here) to the 1922 original, an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Shot simultaneously in two languages (English and German), the film will be shown in its little-known subtitled version. “Five stars (highest rating) …A pinnacle of horror cinema…Chillingly poetic…Atmospheric, rhapsodic and achingly transcendent." –Time Out New York (2013). Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. 107 min.
 
Friday, June 27, at 5:30 pm &
Saturday, June 28, at 7:05 pm
2013 BRITISH ARROWS AWARD WINNERS
UK, 2013, various directors
If the commercials are what get you to watch that big football game in early February, then it’s Super Bowl Weekend at the Cinematheque! The British Arrows awards (formerly the British Television Advertising Awards) honor the best, the wittiest, and the most innovative ads produced in the UK for television, cinemas, and the internet during the preceding year. This annual compilation of British Arrows prize winners is always hugely entertaining—just ask the thousands of people who watch it every holiday season at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where it’s now a 27-year tradition! In this year’s edition you will watch a major movie star get slapped repeatedly for art’s sake; see how the Three Little Pigs precipitated the mortgage crisis; and thrill to the amazing feats of Olympic and Paralympic athletes. These funny, touching, well-acted, well-produced ads play more like short films than mere commercials. Cleveland theatrical premiere. Blu-ray. 73 min. Thanks to Dean Otto, Walker Art Center and Lucy Clay & Katie Taylor at the British Arrows.
 
Friday, June 27, at 7:05 pm &
Saturday, June 28, at 8:40 pm
EXPOSED
USA, 2013, Beth B
The cutting-edge performers and artists who have recently reclaimed the once-disreputable art form of burlesque—and pushed it into bold new realms of satire, parody, and even empowerment—are surveyed in this new film by the always subversive Beth B. Features interviews with—and performances by—such groundbreaking underground luminaries as Bambi the Mermaid, Bunny Love, Dirty Martini, Julie Atlas Muz, Mat Fraser, Rose Wood, Tigger, and World Famous *Bob*. "Allowing its subjects to bare their souls as much as their bodies, Exposed is as frequently moving as it is entertaining." -The Hollywood Reporter. Cleveland premiere. No one under 18 admitted! Blu-ray. 77 min. www.exposedmovie.com
 
Friday, June 27, at 9:10 pm
NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE
See 6/26 at 7:35 for description
 
Saturday, June 28, at 5:00 pm
JUST A SIGH
See 6/26 at 5:30 for description
 
Saturday, June 28, at 7:05 pm
2013 BRITISH ARROWS AWARD WINNERS
See 6/27 at 5:30 pm for description
 
Saturday, June 28, at 8:40 pm
EXPOSED
See 6/27 at 7:05 for description
 
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