Check out the Cleveland Cinematheque May/June 2015 schedule

[Press release from the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

 

An eclectic mix of film classics, exclusive first-run movies, and thematic series will fill the screen in May and June at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. Three filmmakers are the focus of series during the two months: Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao-hsien, Argentina’s Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, and Hollywood’s Fritz Lang. Forty-nine different feature films will be presented between April 30 and June 27, and all of them will show in CIA’s Aitken Auditorium at 11141 East Boulevard in University Circle. (The Cinematheque has only three more months in this 616-seat theater that has been its home since 1986. On August 1, the program moves to a brand new facility at 11610 Euclid Avenue.) The complete May-June schedule is below.

 

Unless noted, admission to Cinematheque films is $9; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $7. A second film on the same day costs an additional $7-$8. Free parking for filmgoers is available in the CIA lot. For further information, visit www.cia.edu/cinematheque, email cinema@cia.edu, or call John Ewing or Tim Harry at (216) 421-7450. Cinematheque programs are supported by Cuyahoga Arts and Culture and the Ohio Arts Council.

 

APRIL 30 – MAY 3

 

Thursday, April 30, at 6:45 pm &

Friday, May 1, at 9:35 pm

THE HUNTING GROUND

USA, 2015, Kirby Dick

The provocative new documentary from the director of This Film Is Not Yet Rated and The Invisible War is an exposé of the epidemic of sexual assaults and rape on U.S. college campuses. It also delves into the institutional cover-up of many of these crimes. “Heartbreaking, infuriating, and unmissable.” –Entertainment Weekly. Cleveland theatrical premiere. Blu-ray. 90 min. www.thehuntinggroundfilm.com/

 

Thursday, April 30, at 8:35 pm &

Friday, May 1, at 7:15 pm

ABOUT ELLY

DARBAREYE ELLY

Iran/France, 2009, Asghar Farhadi

The multiple prize winner that Iranian master Asghar Farhadi made just before his Oscar-winning A Separation (2011) was never released in the U.S. Golshifteh Farahani stars in this taut tale of a fateful seaside holiday that is spoiled when one of the vacationers, a young woman, mysteriously disappears. Best Narrative Feature, 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. “A milestone in Iranian cinema.” –Int’l Film Guild 2010. Subtitles. Blu-ray. 119 min. www.cinemaguild.com

 

Friday, May 1, at 9:35 pm

THE HUNTING GROUND

See 4/30 at 6:45 for description

 

Saturday, May 2, at 5:00 pm

The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien

A SUMMER AT GRANDPA’S

DONG DONG DE JIA QI

Taiwan, 1984, Hou Hsiao-hsien

In this lovely, lyrical idyll, two children from Taipei—a 12-year-old boy and his younger sister—spend the summer at their grandfather’s house in the country when their mother is hospitalized. “[Hou’s] sunniest picture…His most Ozu-like film.” –Alan Stanbrook. Subtitles. 35mm. 93 min. Preceded at showtime by Hou’s two most recent movies, both shorts: The Electric Princess Picture House (Dian Ji Guan, France, 2007), a tribute to Robert Bresson from the anthology film Chacun son cinema (shown in two versions, 3 min. & 4 min.) and La Belle Epoque (Taiwan, 2011, 5 min.), Hou’s contribution to the omnibus film 10+10. Special admission $12; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $9; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Saturday, May 2, at 7:05 pm

THE IRISH PUB

Ireland, 2013, Alex Fegan

This new documentary celebrates what its makers call “the greatest institution in Irish society”—the pub. The movie profiles not only the venerable watering holes renowned for the warmth, wit, and wisdom of their habitués but also for the barkeeps and families who own and operate them, often for generations. Some subtitles. Blu-ray. 76 min. irishpubfilm.com

 

Saturday, May 2, at 8:45 pm &

Sunday, May 3, at 6:30 pm

BECOMING BULLETPROOF

USA, 2014, Michael Barnett

Winner of the Roxanne T. Mueller Award for best film at this year’s Cleveland Int’l Film Festival, this exhilarating and touching new documentary focuses on a group of people with disabilities who take major acting roles in an independently produced Western being filmed on vintage Hollywood locations. Blu-ray. 80 min. www.becomingbulletproofmovie.com

 

Sunday, May 3, at 4:00 pm

Filmmaker in Person!

PAY 2 PLAY: DEMOCRACY’S HIGH STAKES

USA, 2014, John Wellington Ennis

Ohio’s 2005 “Coingate” scandal is one of the cases explored in this new film about the corrosive effects of money in politics. (Also covered: the Citizens United and Hobby Lobby cases, the Koch brothers, etc.) California filmmaker John Wellington Ellis, who will answer audience questions after the screening, shows us how to take back our democracy. With Lawrence Lessig, Noam Chomsky, Jack Abramoff, Robert Reich, et al. Cleveland theatrical premiere. Blu-ray. 87 min. Thanks to David Olajos. www.pay2play.tv

 

Sunday, May 3, at 6:30 pm

BECOMING BULLETPROOF

See 5/2 at 8:45 for description

 

Sunday, May 3, at 8:10 pm

MARFA GIRL

USA, 2012, Larry Clark

The lyrical new film from the director of Kids and Bully is a snapshot of life in the desolate West Texas town of Marfa, where a 16-year-old boy enamored of drugs, sex, and skateboarding interacts with a gallery of colorful locals—from his mom and girlfriend to a racist Border Patrol officer and the uninhibited artist of the film’s title. “Weirdly memorable.” –The L.A. Times. Adults only! Cleveland theatrical premiere. Blu-ray. 105 min. bgpics.com

 

MAY 7-11

 

Thursday, May 7, at 6:45 pm &

Friday, May 8, at 9:35 pm

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY

UK, 2014, Peter Strickland

Peter Strickland, who paid tribute to Italian horror films of the 1960s and 1970s in his 2012 thriller Berberian Sound Studio, now evokes the 60s-70s Eurotic costume dramas of Tinto Brass, Jean Rollin, and Jess Franco with his kinky and stylish new movie. The Duke of Burgundy chronicles the sadomasochistic relationship between two lesbian entomologists during what seems to be the Victorian era. Has a 93% “fresh” rating on RottenTomatoes and a Metascore of 87 on metacrtic.com. No one under 18 admitted! Blu-ray. 106 min. www.ifcfilms.com/films/the-duke-of-burgundy

 

Thursday, May 7, at 8:50 pm &

Friday, May 8, at 7:30 pm

THE VOICES

USA/Germany, 2014, Marjane Satrapi

French-Iranian director Marjane Satrapi follows up her imaginative Chicken with Plums (2011) and animated hit Persepolis (2007)—both based on her graphic novels—with this outrageous, live-action horror comedy. Ryan Reynolds plays a lonely, sweetly goofy, small town factory worker who lives with his talking cat and dog and moonlights as a schizophrenic serial killer. With Gemma Arterton, Anna Kendrick, and Jacki Weaver. “A perfect film.” –Village Voice. Adults only! Cleveland theatrical premiere. Blu-ray. 103 min.

 

Friday, May 8, at 9:35 pm

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY

See 5/7 at 6:45 for description

 

Saturday, May 9, at 5:00 pm

The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien

THE BOYS FROM FENGKUEI

FENG GUI LAI DE REN

Taiwan, 1983, Hou Hsiao-hsien

Hou Hsiao-hsien regards his fourth feature as his personal favorite and the true beginning of his directorial career. It follows a group of bored young Taiwanese men, fresh out of school, who leave their sleepy fishing village for a series of adventures in a southern port city. Subtitles. 35mm. 99 min. Special admission $12; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $9; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Saturday, May 9, at 7:00 pm &

Sunday, May 10, at 8:40 pm

OF HORSES AND MEN

HROSS Í OSS

Iceland/Germany/Norway, 2013, Benedikt Erlingsson

One of the most pleasant surprises at last year’s Cleveland Int’l Film Festival was this handsomely shot, mordantly funny, and sometimes unflinching portrait of horses and humans living in a scenic, provincial Icelandic village. It consists of six quirky vignettes of love, death, and survival—some which you’ll never forget. “Spellbinding...Extraordinary scenes of equestrians and high-strung animals interacting in the stunningly beautiful Icelandic countryside.” –The NY Times. Adults only! Subtitles. 81 min. www.musicboxfilms.com

 

Saturday, May 9, at 8:40 pm &

Sunday, May 10, at 4:15 pm

CUPCAKES

Israel/France, 2013, Eytan Fox

The latest film from the director of Yossi & Jagger and The Bubble is an effervescent musical comedy about a group of Tel Aviv friends who find themselves representing Israel in an international singing competition after they impulsively perform and record a song on a cell phone. “[A] candy-coated confection…Irresistible.” –The NY Times. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. Blu-ray. 92 min. www.strandreleasing.com

 

Sunday, May 10, at 6:30 pm

FUTURO BEACH

PRAIA DO FUTURO

Brazil/Germany, 2014, Karim Ainouz

In this sensuous gay drama, a Brazilian lifeguard forsakes his ailing mother and dependent kid brother to follow a German tourist back to Berlin and move in with him there. “Stunning…Exhilarating…Part tactile gay romance, part inquisitive journey into self.” –Variety. No one under 18 admitted! Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. Blu-ray. 106 min. www.strandreleasing.com

 

Sunday, May 10, at 8:40 pm

OF HORSES AND MEN

See 5/9 at 7:00 for description

 

Monday, May 11, at 6:45 pm

A Special Event!

Dalai Lama Double Feature!

Filmmaker in Person!

DALAI LAMA AWAKENING

USA, 2014, Khashyar Darvich

COMPASSION IN ACTION

USA, 2014, Khashyar Darvich

Two films about the Dalai Lama directed by Baldwin Wallace alum Khashyar Darvich, who will answer audience questions at the screening. The first is a newly expanded version of Darvich’s 2007 documentary Dalai Lama Renaissance, in which Western innovators travel to India to meet with the Dalai Lama about solving the world’s problems and undergo an inner transformation. Harrison Ford narrates. In Compassion in Action these revolutionary thinkers and the Dalai Lama explore the sources of happiness and unhappiness in our world. Cleveland premiere. Blu-ray. Total approx. 210 min. Special admission $20; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $15; no passes, twofers, or radio winners. Advance tickets available at www.brownpapertickets.com. Dalailamafilm.com

 

MAY 14-17

 

Thursday, May 14, at 6:45 pm

Manoel de Oliveira, 1908-2015

BELLE TOUJOURS

Portugal/France, 2006, Manoel de Oliveira

Tonight we pay tribute to the uncanny Portuguese master Manoel de Oliveira, who died in April at the age of 106, after a stellar directorial career that began in earnest when he was in his mid-sixties. We will show two of his best movies: one made when he was 97, the other when he was 101. The first is a follow-up to Luis Buñuel’s 1967 classic Belle de Jour. 38 years after the events of the first movie, Séverine, the daytime prostitute originally played by Catherine Deneuve and embodied here by Bulle Ogier, and Husson (Michel Piccoli in both movies), the sadistic libertine who knew of her secret life, meet by chance in Paris. They go to dinner and the repentant Séverine tries to learn whether the cruel Husson ever told her paralytic husband about her scandalous day job. This elegant, autumnal work is at once a wry tribute to Buñuel, a moving evocation of the passage of time, and a knowing acknowledgement of the eternal mysteries of the human psyche. Subtitles. 35mm. 68 min.

 

Thursday, May 14, at 8:15 pm

Manoel de Oliveira, 1908-2015

THE STRANGE CASE OF ANGELICA

O ESTRANHO CASA DE ANGÉLICA

Portugal/Spain/France/Brazil, 2010, Manoel de Oliveira

Called the best film of 2010 by J. Hoberman in The Village Voice, this delightful movie by Portugal’s late centenarian master tells of a loner photographer who is summoned one rainy night to take a picture of the recently-deceased daughter of a wealthy couple. But when he looks at this beautiful young woman, laid out in her wedding dress, through his viewfinder, she comes alive and smiles for him. Immediately smitten, he retreats from the land of the living to try to join her in the netherworld beyond. Subtitles. 35mm. 97 min.

 

Friday, May 15, at 7:30 pm &

Sunday, May 17, at 8:20 pm

LA SAPIENZA

France/Italy, 2014, Eugène Green

A prominent French architect undergoing a personal and professional crisis travels with his equally disenchanted wife to Italy, where they find solace and spiritual renewal thanks to two siblings there and a rejuvenating dose of great Italian architecture. This stylish drama from the American-born French director of The Portuguese Nun is “easily the most astonishing and important movie to emerge from France in quite some time,” according to critic Godfrey Cheshire of RogerEbert.com. “While its style deserves to be called stunningly original and rapturously beautiful, the film is boldest in its artistic and philosophical implications…[It’s] an impassioned and genuinely innovative argument for the coherence and value of life and the redemptive powers of art…Like Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty of two years ago and Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida last year, La Sapienza evokes masterpieces of decades past while confidently charting new territory of its own.” Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. Blu-ray. 101 min. www.kinolorber.com

 

Friday, May 15, at 9:35 pm

TAXI ZUM KLO

W. Germany, 1980, Frank Ripploh

Hailed by The Village Voice as “the first masterpiece of modern gay life” when released 35 years ago, this landmark gay drama is now largely forgotten. Writer-director Frank Ripploh also stars in the semiautobiographical film, playing a Berlin man leading a double life. By day he’s an ordinary elementary school teacher; at night he cruises for anonymous sex in public toilets. (The title translates as “Taxi to the John.”) No one under 18 admitted! Subtitles. Blu-ray. 98 min.

 

Saturday, May 16, at 5:00 pm

The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien

A TIME TO LIVE AND A TIME TO DIE

TONGNIAN WANGSHI

Taiwan, 1985, Hou Hsiao-hsien

Hou’s sixth feature was his U.S. breakthrough—an exquisite, semiautobiographical coming-of-age saga depicting the daily life of a Chinese family living in Taiwan during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Cut off from their cultural heritage after emigrating from the Chinese mainland in the late forties, this displaced family struggles to find new footing in a new land while also dealing with a widening generation gap within the household. “Hou’s first genuine masterpiece.” –Phillip Lopate. Subtitles. 35mm. 136 min. Special admission $12; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $9; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Saturday, May 16, at 7:40 pm &

Sunday, May 17, at 4:30 pm

DELI MAN

USA, 2014, Erik Greenberg Anjou

This mouthwatering history of Jewish delicatessens in America is also a chronicle of Eastern European Jews who emigrated to North America and assimilated into U.S. society, bringing food traditions with them. With Ziggy Gruber, Larry King, and Jerry Stiller. “Good food and good cheer are the order of the day.” –San Francisco Chronicle. Cleveland premiere. Blu-ray. 90 min. www.delimanmovie.com

 

Saturday, May 16, at 9:30 pm

New Digital Restoration!

THE NIGHT PORTER

IL PORTIERE DI NOTTE

Italy, 1974, Liliana Cavani

Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling star in one of the most controversial films of the 1970s. Set 13 years after the end of WWII, the movie tells of an ex-Nazi SS officer and a beautiful former concentration camp prisoner who meet again by chance at the posh Vienna hotel where he now works. The two of them resume an ambiguous and disturbing sadomasochistic relationship that began in the camp. No one under 18 admitted! Cleveland revival premiere. In English. Blu-ray. 118 min. See 5/23 for a newly released WWII-era film directed by Liliana Cavani.

 

Sunday, May 17, at 4:30 pm

DELI MAN

See 5/16 at 7:40 for description

 

Sunday, May 17, at 6:30 pm

MAEDCHEN IN UNIFORM (GIRLS IN UNIFORM)

MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM

Germany, 1931, Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich

Banned in Germany when first released (and censored in many countries since then), this all-female lesbian classic, an early talkie, tells of a sensitive orphan girl sent to a harsh Prussian boarding school where discipline and blind obedience, exemplified by the school’s authoritarian principal, are the norm. She finds relief in a relationship with a loving, tender teacher whose affections aren’t merely maternal. Subtitles. 16mm. 89 min.

 

Sunday, May 17, at 8:20 pm

LA SAPIENZA

See 5/15 at 7:30 for description

 

MAY 22-23

 

Friday, May 22, at 7:00 pm

52 TUESDAYS

Australia, 2013, Sophie Hyde

Though a far cry from Boyhood’s 12 years, this debut feature was filmed every Tuesday for one year. A multiple award winner at festivals around the world, the film chronicles the challenging, strained relationship between a 16-year-old girl and her lesbian mother who is undergoing a sex change. The teen, who lives with her dad, is discovering her own sexuality at the same time that mom is altering hers, and the two of them see each other only on Tuesday afternoons. “[A] near-masterpiece…Grippingly plotted and exquisitely thoughtful.” –Village Voice. Blu-ray. 109 min. www.kinolorber.com

 

Friday, May 22, at 9:10 pm

CYMBELINE

USA, 2014, Michael Almereyda

Ethan Hawke, Ed Harris, and Milla Jovovich star in this new film that reimagines Shakespeare’s drama of power and thwarted love as a contemporary urban crime thriller (and sometimes comedy) involving bikers and corrupt cops. Director Michael Almereyda previously updated Hamlet with Ethan Hawke. “Brash and inventive and more than a little wild.” –Village Voice. Cleveland premiere. Blu-ray. 98 min.

 

Saturday, May 23, at 5:00 pm

THE SKIN

LA PELLE

Italy/France, 1981, Liliana Cavani

Marcello Mastroianni, Burt Lancaster, and Claudia Cardinale star in this lavish, sensationalist WWII drama from the director of The Night Porter (see 5/16). Never before released in America and based on a controversial memoir by oft-imprisoned Italian writer and war correspondent Curzio Malaparte, the film details the American “liberation” of Naples in 1943, emphasizing that freedom came with a heavy price, especially for women who continued to be sexually degraded and exploited by a new set of occupiers. The film pits the innocence of the Americans against the more jaded outlook of beleaguered Italians struggling to survive. Co-written by Catherine Breillat. “Caustic in dramatizing the dance of the victors and vanquished…Evokes a circle of hell.” –J. Hoberman, The NY Times. Adults only! Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. Blu-ray. 131 min. www.cohenmedia.net/films/the-skin

 

Saturday, May 23, at 7:30 pm

The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien

Special Free Screening!

Richard Suchenski discusses

THE PUPPETMASTER

HSIMENG RENSHENG

Taiwan, 1993, Hou Hsiao-hsien

Richard Suchenski, director of the Center for Moving Image Arts at Bard College and organizer of the international touring retrospective “Also Like Life: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien,” introduces and discusses one of Hou’s most celebrated works. Inspired by the life of Taiwanese puppeteer Li Tien-lu, an official “national treasure” who appeared in Hou’s previous films City of Sadness and Dust in the Wind and was 84 when this movie was made (he died in 1998), The Puppetmaster intercuts Li’s first-person recollections with dramatic reenactments of episodes from his turbulent life. This seamless, multi-layered narrative transports us back to Li’s childhood during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, to his days on the road with a troupe of traveling puppeteers, to his censorship battles with political authorities, and to his ongoing struggles with poverty and traditional family life. There are also memorable puppet performances. Subtitles. 35mm. 142 min. Admission free.

 

MAY 29-30

 

Friday, May 29, at 7:00 pm

New Digital Restoration!

100th Anniversary!

Dr. Rob Shelton introduces

THE BIRTH OF A NATION

USA, 1915, D. W. Griffith

“History writ with lightning” is what President Woodrow Wilson allegedly called D.W. Griffith’s galvanizing Civil War epic, which follows the members of two families—one pro-Union, the other pro-Confederacy—during the war and Reconstruction. “Lightning” is an apt description because the film consolidated all the artistic advances of the young movie medium into one sweeping, electrifying showcase. But its claims as “history” are dubious at best. Based on Thomas Dixon’s novel The Clansman, the movie, hugely controversial even when first released, is undeniably racist in its depiction of African Americans and portrays the Ku Klux Klan as a defender of law and order. Dr. Robert S. Shelton, Associate Professor of History at Cleveland State University and an expert on slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction, will introduce the movie and put it into its proper context. With Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, and Henry B. Walthall. Color-tinted b&w. Silent with recorded music. Blu-ray. 192 min. Special admission $11; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $9; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Saturday, May 30, at 5:00 pm

World War I + 100

A FAREWELL TO ARMS

USA, 1932, Frank Borzage

Neglected master Frank Borzage, whose 1933 romance Man’s Castle proved an audience favorite when we showed it in February, directed this Pre-Code version of Hemingway’s famous novel, about the love between an ambulance driver (Gary Cooper) and an English nurse (Helen Hayes) in Italy during WWI. This Oscar-winning classic saw its original ending changed for the U.S. release. Then in 1938 it was reissued shorn of 11 minutes. However, we will show an HD version of the original movie that Borzage intended. Blu-ray. 89 min.

 

Saturday, May 30, at 6:50 pm

The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien

New 35mm Color Print!

FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI

HAI SHANG HUA

Taiwan, 1998, Hou Hsiao-hsien

Acclaimed by numerous critics as the best movie of 1998, Hou’s celebrated film focuses on the denizens of an upper-class brothel in turn-of-the-century Shanghai. Bathed in golden light and fluidly shot in the brothel’s interiors, this serene, haunting portrait perfectly captures the lonely, obsessive, enclosed lives of five elegant “flower girls” and their regular patrons. With Tony Leung. “(A) visually ravishing masterpiece…Flowers of Shanghai is perfect, and one of the most beautiful films ever made.” –Phillip Lopate. Subtitles. 113 min. Special admission $12; members and CIA I.D. holders $9; no passes, twofers, or radio winners and no second film discount.

 

Saturday, May 30, at 9:05 pm

THAT GUY DICK MILLER

USA, 2014, Elijah Drenner

You may not know the name, but Dick Miller’s face will be instantly recognizable to most movie buffs. Miller’s handsome-goofy presence enlivened numerous Roger Corman cheapies during the 1950s and 1960s (most notably The Little Shop of Horrors and A Bucket of Blood) and he has also been a fixture in most of the films by Corman alum Joe Dante. (He’s also worked with Scorsese, Spielberg, and James Cameron during his 50-year career.) Now this veteran character actor who has played over 170 roles (five of them were Walter Paisley) gets his own movie full of interviews and fun film clips. “Wildly entertaining.” –RogerEbert.com. Cleveland premiere. Blu-ray. 92 min. www.thatguydickmiller.com

 

JUNE 5-6

 

Friday, June 5, at 7:00 pm

OUT OF PRINT

USA, 2014, Julia Marchese

The New Beverly Cinema, a Los Angeles revival movie theatre that has been showing daily double features of old 35mm films since 1978, is profiled in this new documentary by former employee Julia Marchese. The New Bev advocates that classic films should be seen theatrically and also projected from 35mm film. Owned, operated, and programmed by Sherman Torgan from 1978 until his sudden death (at age 63) in 2007, the cinema is now owned and programmed by Quentin Tarantino, who actively embraces its all-35 policy. Marchese’s film pays tribute to the loyal patrons of the New Bev (which include directors and actors like John Landis, Joe Dante, Kevin Smith, and Patton Oswalt) while also describing the digital-age realities that threaten the existence of all 35mm repertory cinemas. Cleveland premiere. 35mm. 86 min. outofprintfilm.com

 

Friday, June 5, at 8:45 pm

LA ÚLTIMA PELÍCULA

Mexico/Denmark/Canada/Philippines, 2013, Raya Martin, Mark Peranson

A snarky, satirical riff on Dennis Hopper’s indulgent, shot-in-Peru 1971 fiasco The Last Movie (though this movie’s title more accurately translates as “The Last Film”), this mock-doc by a Filipino filmmaker and the editor of Canada’s film magazine CinemaScope takes place in the year of the predicted Mayan apocalypse. Indie filmmaker Alex Ross Perry (Listen Up Philip) plays an insufferable American director scouting locations around Mexico’s Mayan ruins. Sensing that the death of cinema is as imminent as the end of the world, he plans to make a visionary, mystical, and spiritual cinematic masterpiece using the world’s last existing 35mm film stock. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. 35mm. 88 min.

 

Saturday, June 6, at 5:00 pm

The Films of Leopoldo Torre Nilsson

END OF INNOCENCE

aka THE HOUSE OF THE ANGEL

LA CASA DEL ÁNGEL

Argentina, 1957, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson

In this haunting and visually stunning drama, a sheltered young Argentine girl (Elsa Daniel), growing up in a repressive upper middle-class Catholic household during the 1920s, suffers a disastrous first love affair. Screenplay by Beatriz Guido. “This claustrophobic Gothic drama put [Torre Nilsson]—and Argentina—on the cinematic map.” –Holt Foreign Film Guide. Subtitles. 16mm. 73 min. Three other forgotten classics by Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, all written by Beatriz Guido, will show over the next three Saturdays.

 

Saturday, June 6, at 6:35 pm

Technicolor Centenary, 1915-2015

Restored 35mm Archive Print!

BECKY SHARP

USA, 1935, Rouben Mamoulian

Incorporated in 1915, the Technicolor company marks its centennial this year. We commemorate the occasion with a special screening of the first feature film shot in three-strip Technicolor (full color), Becky Sharp, based on William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. Miriam Hopkins stars as the title character, a cunning, amoral, lower-class young woman who engineers a rapid rise through 19th-century European society. “Marvellous…Sophisticated, witty, and beautifully economical…The colour is supremely important.” –Time Out Film Guide. 35mm restored print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Restoration funding provided by The Film Foundation. 84 min. Special admission $11; members and CIA I.D. holders $9; age 25 & under $7; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Saturday, June 6, at 8:20 pm

The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien

MILLENNIUM MAMBO

QIAN XI MAN BO

Taiwan/France, 2001, Hou Hsiao-hsien

Chinese pop star Shu Qi plays a bar hostess torn between two men—her possessive live-in boyfriend and a small-time gangster who offers her refuge and the promise of love—in Hou’s portrait of life in contemporary Taipei. If the urban milieu and techno soundtrack are new for Hou, the deliberate pacing, formal rigor, gorgeous cinematography (by Ping Bin Lee, who also shot In the Mood for Love), and trance-like mood recall his previous masterpiece, Flowers of Shanghai. Subtitles. 35mm. 119 min. Special admission $12; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $9; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

JUNE 12-13

 

Friday, June 12, at 7:00 pm

50^th Anniversary!

INTIMATE LIGHTING

INTIMNÍ OSVĔTLENÍ

Czechoslovakia, 1965, Ivan Passer

This masterpiece of the Czech New Wave was the only Czech feature of Ivan Passer, who co-wrote Milos Forman’s Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen’s Ball before emigrating with him to the U.S. and becoming a Hollywood director. The movie is a funny, rueful account of a professional cellist from Prague who agrees to be the soloist in a provincial orchestra conducted by an old Conservatory friend he hasn’t seen for years. Their reunion finds big city ambitions clashing with small town ways. “A moving, sympathetically directed study of belonging, place, and the pleasures of friendship…Wistful, gently comic, and affecting.” –Time Out Film Guide. Subtitles. 35mm. 72 min.

 

Friday, June 12, at 8:35 pm

The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien

THREE TIMES

ZUI HAO DE SHI GUANG

Taiwan, 2005, Hou Hsiao-hsien

Hou tells three love stories set in three different eras of Taiwanese/Chinese history, and Chang Chen and Shu Qi play the lovers in all three episodes. The first, “A Time for Love,” is set in pop-music-filled 1966 and overflows with youthful yearning. It tells of a young army recruit who becomes smitten with a young woman working in a billiard parlor. “A Time for Freedom” is an artistically daring period romance set in 1911 at an upscale brothel reminiscent of the one in Hou’s Flowers of Shanghai. The third story, “A Time for Youth,” is set in present-day Taipei, where a singer abandons her female lover for a young male photographer. “[A] masterpiece…The first section is one of the most perfect pieces of cinema I’ve ever seen.” –Jim Jarmusch. “A masterpiece…This is why cinema exists.” –A.O. Scott, The NY Times. Subtitles. 35mm. 130 min. Special admission $12; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $9; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Saturday, June 13, at 5:00 pm

The Films of Leopoldo Torre Nilsson

THE FALL

LA CAIDA

Argentina, 1959, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson

A repressed, virginal, Catholic university student from the provinces (Elsa Daniel) takes a room at a creepy Buenos Aires boarding house, where she helps a bed-ridden mother care for her four independent, amoral children. The experience proves mind-expanding, but not in a good way. “The director evokes with great force and conviction the film’s enclosed world with its strongly Cocteauesque overtones.” –Peter Cowie. Subtitles. 35mm. 86 min.

 

Saturday, June 13, at 6:45 pm

Special Benefit Screening!

PINA

Germany/France/UK, 2011, Wim Wenders

Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, The Buena Vista Social Club) celebrates the groundbreaking work of his friend and fellow German Pina Bausch (1940-2009), a modern dancer and choreographer. This magnificent, Oscar-nominated movie captures Bausch and members of her company performing some of their most celebrated works both on stage and around the German city of Wuppertal, home of Bausch’s dance theatre since 1972. Shown in 2D. Subtitles. 35mm. 103 min. Screening courtesy of IFC Films; proceeds from this show will help pay for the costs of installing digital cinema in our new theatre.

 

Saturday, June 13, at 8:50 pm

THE WHITE REINDEER

VALKOINEN PEURA

Finland, 1952, Erik Blomberg

This hauntingly photographed Finnish fantasy is a vampire movie like no other. (It won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film over 50 years ago.) Set in Finnish Lapland and based on an ancient legend, the movie follows a herdsman’s lonely wife who is transformed by a shaman into a shape-shifting, vampiric white reindeer. This cursed creature wanders the snowfields of the Midnight Sun, luring hunters to their deaths. Subtitles. 35mm. 75 min.

 

JUNE 19-20

 

Friday, June 19, at 7:00 pm

The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien

FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON

LE VOYAGE DU BALLON ROUGE

France/Taiwan, 2007, Hou Hsiao-hsien

Juliette Binoche stars in the first Hou Hsiao-hsien film made outside of Asia. Produced by the Musée d’Orsay, it’s one of the director’s most rapturous works. Inspired by Albert Lamorisse’s 1956 kids’ classic The Red Balloon, Hou’s movie tells of a Taiwanese film student in Paris who is hired by a frazzled single mom (Binoche) to be nanny to her seven-year-old son. “A meditation on art, life, loneliness and the links between friends and strangers.” –Philadelphia Inquirer. “A movie of genius.” –J. Hoberman, Village Voice. Subtitles. 35mm. 115 min. Special admission $12; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $9; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Friday, June 19, at 9:15 pm

NOTHING LASTS FOREVER

USA, 1984, Tom Schiller

So strange and unclassifiable that it was never released theatrically, this 1980s sci-fi comedy written and directed by longtime Saturday Night Live writer and filmmaker Tom Schiller (and produced by Lorne Michaels) stars Zach Galligan, Lauren Tom, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Mort Sahl, among others. Set in a surreal future where the iron-fisted Port Authority controls NYC, the film follows an aspiring artist who goes to work in the Holland Tunnel, discovers a society of powerful bums and tramps living underground, and takes a bus to the moon. Old newsreels, classic film clips, and assorted celebrity cameos add to the comic craziness. Cleveland theatrical premiere. 35mm. 82 min. Special admission $10; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Saturday, June 20, at 5:00 pm

The Films of Leopoldo Torre Nilsson

THE HAND IN THE TRAP

LA MANO EN LA TRAMPA

Argentina/Spain, 1961, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson

In what may be Leopoldo Torre Nilsson’s greatest film, a convent schoolgirl (Elsa Daniel), home for the summer, decides that she wants to meet the mysterious recluse who has been living in solitary confinement on the third floor of her spooky, seen-better-days house for more than 20 years. The shocking truth ensnares her as well. With Francisco Rabal. Subtitles. 16mm. 90 min.

 

Saturday, June 20, at 6:50 pm

New 35mm Scope Print!

MARKETA LAZAROVÁ

Czechoslovakia, 1967, František Vláčil

Voted the best Czech movie of all time in a 1998 poll of Czech film critics, this stirring medieval epic, set at the time that Christianity replaced paganism, chronicles a kidnapping that ignites a feud between two rival clans.  “Pure cinema…Stark, daring and often astoundingly dynamic…Near hallucinatory…Not so much a drama as an ancient litany—mystical and feral rather than spiritual or religious.” –Time Out Film Guide. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. 162 min. Special admission $11; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $9; no passes, twofers, or radio winners. Support for this film comes from the Cinematheque’s George Gund III endowment.

 

JUNE 26-27

 

Friday, June 26, at 7:00 pm

Lang Noir

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW

USA, 1944, Fritz Lang

In “one of the best of Fritz Lang’s American movies” (Pauline Kael), a criminology professor (Edward G. Robinson) falls hard for a woman (Joan Bennett) pictured in a painting, and soon he’s involved in murder and blackmail. This clever, nightmarish thriller is “not merely a dazzling piece of suspense, but also a characteristically stark demonstration of Lang’s belief in the inevitability of fate” (Time Out Film Guide). With Dan Duryea. 35mm. 99 min. Special admission $10; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Friday, June 26, at 9:00 pm

Lang Noir

Restored 35mm Archive Print!

SCARLET STREET

USA, 1945, Fritz Lang

Fritz Lang’s follow-up to The Woman in the Window (see previous blurb) also starred Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea. It’s a remake of Jean Renoir’s 1931 La Chienne in which a meek, put-upon husband and Sunday painter becomes criminally involved with a tart who models for him and with her lowlife boyfriend. This movie was originally banned in New York State for being “immoral, indecent, corrupt, and tending to incite crime.” Whoa! 35mm print preserved by the Library of Congress. 103 min. Special admission $10; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Saturday, June 27, at 5:00 pm

The Films of Leopoldo Torre Nilsson

SUMMERSKIN

PIEL DE VERANO

Argentina, 1961, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson

This Torre Nilsson tale of moral corruption forsakes the creepy confines of dilapidated mansions for the sun, sea, and sand of the summertime beach. There a young girl pretends to love a sick boy in order to help his recovery. “Visually shows Torre Nilsson at his brilliant best.” –Int’l Film Guide 1967. Subtitles. 16mm. 96 min.

 

Saturday, June 27, at 7:00 pm

Lang Noir

New 35mm Print!

THE BIG HEAT

USA, 1953, Fritz Lang

Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Lee Marvin star in Fritz Lang’s brutal, shocking police drama, about a clean cop who turns unrelenting avenger in his attempt to bring down a corrupt crime syndicate. “A definitive film noir.” –Pauline Kael. 90 min. Special admission $10; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Saturday, June 27, at 8:50 pm

Lang Noir

WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS

USA, 1956, Fritz Lang

Fritz Lang believed that this rarely shown thriller was as good as his earlier masterpieces M and Fury. It follows three greedy, ambitious newspaper men who each try to catch a serial sex murderer before the police do, thus winning the position of executive editor at their paper. With Dana Andrews, Ida Lupino, George Sanders, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, et al. 35mm scope print! 100 min. Special admission $10; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.