Cinematheque announces July's last picture shows in Aitken Auditorium

[Press release from the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

 

Peter Bogdanovich’s THE LAST PICTURE SHOW will be the last film shown by the Cleveland Cinematheque in its longtime home, the Cleveland Institute of Art’s Russell B. Aitken Auditoriium at 11141 East Boulevard in University Circle. The 1971 movie, which was the overwhelming choice for “last film” in an audience poll conducted by the Cinematheque from last November through this April, will show at 7:00 pm on Thursday, July 30. It will be preceded at 6:30 pm by a slide show recounting the Cinematheque’s illustrious 29-year history in Aitken Auditorium. Tickets (at the door; cash/check only) cost $10, Cinematheque members and those age 25 & under $8.

 

Two days later, on Saturday, August 1, the Cinematheque will open its new auditorium, the Peter B. Lewis Theater, inside a brand new Cleveland Institute of Art building at 11610 Euclid Avenue.

 

But before the movie, the Cinematheque will say farewell to the splendid, 60-year-old, 616-seat space where the non-profit film presenter established itself as “one of the country’s best repertory movie theaters,” according to The New York Times. The Cinematheque’s last month in Aitken will feature other vote getters from the recent survey, as well as landmarks and audience favorites from past years at the theatre. Everything will be shown from 35mm film and, unless noted, the same prices as above will apply. (Those who see more than one film per night pay the member price for any subsequent show).

 

July also marks the 30^th anniversary of the first film ever presented by the Cinematheque: a 1980 French movie, A WEEK’S VACATION, that screened on July 14, 1985, in Strosacker Auditorium on the CWRU quad. (The Cinematheque relocated to the art institute in August, 1986.) This milestone will be celebrated on July 14 (Bastille Day) with two separate shows at the Capitol Theatre: a program of three classic short works from France entitled “An Evening in the Country,” and Jack Webb’s appropriately titled 1959 newspaper drama “-30-.”

 

Complete details about the Cinematheque’s July films follow. 29 years on, there is still free parking for filmgoers in the Cleveland Institute of Art lot, located off on East Boulevard. The Cinematheque receives support from both Cuyahoga Arts and Culture and the Ohio Arts Council.

 

NO FILMS JULY 3-4

 

JULY 10-14

 

Friday, July 10, at 7:00 pm

THE LONG GOODBYE

USA, 1973, Robert Altman

A hopelessly square and shabby Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) drifts and mumbles through hip, bonkers 1970s L.A. in Robert Altman’s funny, rueful update of Raymond Chandler’s novel. With Sterling Hayden and Henry Gibson; music by John Williams. 35mm color & scope print! 112 min.

 

Friday, July 10, at 9:15 pm

THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER

USA, 1955, Charles Laughton

This poetic, haunting chiller was named the second best movie of all time (right behind Citizen Kane) by France’s Cahiers du cinema magazine in 2008. Robert Mitchum plays a psychopathic country preacher who relentlessly pursues two children who know where $10,000 is hidden. This eerie, expressionistic allegory of good and evil, innocence and corruption was the only film that actor Charles Laughton directed. James Agee wrote the lyrical screenplay. With Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish. 35mm. 93 min.

 

Saturday, July 11, at 5:00 pm

WWI + 100

New 35mm Color Restoration!

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP

UK, 1943, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

This magnificent Technicolor epic from the directors of The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus “may be the greatest English film ever made” (Anthony Lane, The New Yorker). Spanning the Boer War to WWII, the movie charts the friendship between a British military man (Roger Livesey) and his German counterpart (Anton Walbrook) who are linked by three near-identical women through the years. Winston Churchill denounced the movie as “disgraceful” and tried to stop its production and distribution. (Fortunately he was a better Prime Minister than a movie critic and censor.) “My idea of perfection is Roger Livesey (my favorite actor) in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (my favorite film) about to fight Anton Walbrook (my other favorite actor).” –David Mamet. Cleveland revival premiere. 163 min.

 

Saturday, July 11, at 8:05 pm

INLAND EMPIRE

USA/Poland/France, 2006, David Lynch

David Lynch’s last completed feature (and only full-length film since Mulholland Drive) was the only film that the Cinematheque showed for an entire week. Laura Dern, Justin Theroux, Jeremy Irons, and Harry Dean Stanton star in this three-hour head trip that The Boston Globe called “maybe most aggressively surreal feature film ever released to movie theaters in this country.” Shot on digital video, the film follows an actress (Dern, spectacular) who lands a dream movie part that soon devolves into all manner of nightmarish role-playing. This hallucinatory epic, with head-scratching subplots and dumbfounding detours, is just what you’d expect from the director of Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, and Lost Highway: an eye-popping, emotional roller coaster ride that is by turns funny, spooky, horrifying, perverse, and mystifying. “Lynch's most experimental endeavor in the 30 years since Eraserhead…After two viewings, I cannot wait to see it again.” –Scott Foundas. Adults only! 35mm. 180 min. Special admission $12; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $9. No passes, twofers, or radio winners. Special thanks to Mindy Ramaker and David Lynch.

 

Tuesday, July 14, at 7:00 pm

Special Offsite Event!

The Cinematheque at the Capitol Theatre

Cinematheque 30^th Anniversary!

“AN EVENING IN THE COUNTRY”

France, 1936-52, Jacques Tati, Max Ophüls, Jean Renoir

On July 14, 1985, the Cinematheque presented its first film. It was Bertrand Tavernier’s 1980 French movie A Week’s Vacation and it showed in CWRU’s Strosacker Auditorium. Three decades later we celebrate our 30^th anniversary (and Bastille Day, of course) with another top-notch French program, this time at the Capitol Theatre. On 7/14/15 we screen three short works by three master filmmakers. The headliner is Jean Renoir, whose great A Day in the Country (Partie de campagne, 1936/released 1946) will be shown in a brand new digital restoration. Based on a Guy de Maupassant story, this 40-min. featurette follows two elegant Parisian women on a daytime outing who are wooed by two rustic young men. Renoir’s miniature masterpiece will be preceded by two other pastoral French classics: Jacques Tati’s The School for Postmen (L'école des facteurs, 1947), an uproarious short about speedy rural mail delivery, and the delightful “La Maison Tellier” episode from Max Ophuls’ three-part 1952 classic Le Plaisir. This segment, also based on a Maupassant story, follows a group of prostitutes who accompany their madam to the country for her niece’s first communion. Subtitles. Blu-ray/DVD. Total approx. 120 min. Shown on the big screen at the Capitol Theatre, 1390 W. 65^th St. at Detroit Ave. Special admission $10; Cinematheque members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners and no Cleveland Cinemas passes or discounts. Special thanks to Jon Forman and Dave Huffman.

 

Tuesday, July 14, at 9:20 pm

Special Offsite Event!

The Cinematheque at the Capitol Theatre

Cinematheque 30^th Anniversary!

-30-

USA, 1959, Jack Webb

How could we not show this movie for our 30^th anniversary?  Jack (Dragnet) Webb plays a harried, hard-bitten night editor at a big city tabloid newspaper who must adroitly negotiate dramas inside and outside his newsroom on the way to getting out the next day’s edition. “-30-“ is a designation used by newspapermen to indicate the end of a story. With William Conrad, David Nelson, Joe Flynn, and Richard Deacon. DVD. 88 min. Shown on the big screen at the Capitol Theatre, 1390 W. 65^th St. at Detroit Ave. Special admission $9; Cinematheque members, CIA I.D. holders, those age 25 & under, and those paying to see tonight’s 7 pm program $7. No passes, twofers, or radio winners and no Cleveland Cinemas passes or discounts. Special thanks to Jon Forman and Dave Huffman.

 

JULY 17-18

 

Friday, July 17, at 7:00 pm

THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE & HER LOVER

UK/France/Netherlands, 1989, Peter Greenaway

Set in and around a posh gourmet restaurant owned by a gangster (Michael Gambon) with an unfaithful wife (Helen Mirren), Peter Greenaway’s most notorious movie is a food film that just might make you lose your appetite. Intellectually, though, there’s a lot to chew on. This exploration of the dual natural of man is a banquet of elegantly rendered tableaux peppered with sex, vitriol, cruelty, and stomach-churning violence. No one under 18 admitted! 35mm color & scope print! 124 min.

 

Friday, July 17, at 9:25 pm

TR Ericsson introduces

GUMMO

USA, 1997, Harmony Korine

Artist and filmmaker TR Ericsson, whose work is on view in the Cleveland Museum of Art Transformer Station exhibition “Crackle & Drag” through 8/23, will introduce tonight’s screening of Harmony Korine’s polarizing directorial debut. Set in post-tornado Xenia, Ohio, the movie is a bizarre freak show in which a bunch of juveniles kill time by engaging in a variety of outré activities. Condemned by many but admired by Lukas Moodysson, Gus Van Sant, and Werner Herzog (who especially likes the bacon taped to the wall of the bathroom), Gummo is at once daring, disturbing, and surreal. With Linda Manz, Max Perlin, and Chloë Sevigny. Adults only!  35mm. 89 min.

 

Saturday, July 18, at 5:00

Linda Ehrlich introduces

THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE

EL ESPIRITU DE LA COLMENA

Spain, 1973, Victor Erice

This haunting film focuses on two young girls living in a rural village in 1940 Franco Spain, at the end of the Spanish Civil War. One of the children (the extraordinary Ana Torrent, then 8) escapes the repressed atmosphere at home via private reveries and fantasies inspired by the movie Frankenstein, which she has just seen. Dr. Linda Ehrlich, CWRU associate professor and author of the book An Open Window: The Cinema of Victor Erice, will introduce the film and lead a post-film discussion. Subtitles. 35mm. 98 min.

 

Saturday, July 18, at 7:00 pm

AU HASARD BALTHAZAR

France/Sweden, 1966, Robert Bresson

A donkey named after one of the Three Wise Men is the passive center of Robert Bresson’s unique parable of suffering and transcendence. Balthazar, whom we follow from birth to death through a variety of owners (most memorably a melancholy young girl), is both witness to and victim of human cruelty and folly. He ultimately emerges as some kind of saint. Voted 16^th best movie of all time in an international poll of critics and filmmakers conducted by Britain’s Sight and Sound magazine in 2012. “Heart-breaking and magnificent…The supreme masterpiece by one of the greatest of 20^th-century filmmakers. Bringing together all of Bresson’s highly developed ideas about acting, sound, and editing, as well as grace, redemption, and human nature, Balthazar is understated and majestic, sensuous and ascetic, ridiculous and sublime.” –J. Hoberman, Village Voice. Subtitles. 35mm. 95 min.

 

Saturday, July 18, at 8:55 pm

Christmas in July!

EYES WIDE SHUT

USA, 1999, Stanley Kubrick

Set at Christmastime, Kubrick’s final film finds him taking perhaps his boldest journey ever—into the mysteries of marriage and the depths of the human heart. A young husband (Tom Cruise), distraught over his wife’s confession of lustful fantasies involving another man, embarks on a surreal and scary nighttime odyssey of sex and death. With Nicole Kidman and Sydney Pollack. Adults only! 35mm. 155 min.

 

JULY 24-25

 

Friday, July 24, at 7:00 pm

THE NEVERENDING STORY

DIE UNENDLICHE GESCHICHTE

W. Germany/USA, 1984, Wolfgang Petersen

Wolfgang Petersen’s follow-up to Das Boot was, in its day, the most expensive film ever made outside the U.S. or the USSR. It’s an elaborate, special effects laden fantasy in which a neglected, bullied schoolboy enters into a book’s imaginative universe—where he must help save the world of Fantasia from a destructive force known as “The Nothing.” In English. 35mm. 101 min.

 

Friday, July 24, at 9:00 pm

THE LAST WALTZ

USA, 1978, Martin Scorsese

One of the greatest rock docs ever made was impeccably filmed (on 35mm) by Martin Scorsese. The Band (Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson) are joined by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, The Staple Singers, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, and others for an unforgettable farewell concert in San Francisco on Thanksgiving Day 1976. 35mm. 117 min.

 

Saturday, July 25, at 5:00 pm

SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS

USA, 1941, Preston Sturges

In one of Preston Sturges’ greatest films, a successful Hollywood movie director, tired of making fluff, decides to try his hand at a Serious Film. (The title of his movie may sound familiar: O Brother, Where Art Thou?) To learn about life and poverty, the helmer goes on the road disguised as a hobo. With Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake. 35mm. 91 min.

 

Saturday, July 25, at 6:50 pm

LAST TANGO IN PARIS

ULTIMO TANGO A PARIGI

France/Italy, 1972, Bernardo Bertolucci

A guilt-ridden and grief-stricken American expatriate (Marlon Brando) enters into a carnal, “no questions asked” relationship with a young French woman (Maria Schneider) whom he meets by chance one day. This notorious, controversial classic is also a stunning piece of cinema, shot by the great Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now). No one under 18 admitted! Subtitles. 35mm. 129 min.

 

Saturday, July 25, at 9:20 pm

35mm Archive Print!

THE LAST MOVIE

USA, 1971, Dennis Hopper

Dennis Hopper’s follow-up to his hugely successful directorial debut Easy Rider was a self-indulgent, over ambitious, drug-addled, critically drubbed box office flop. (It prompted his self-imposed exile from Hollywood for almost ten years.) Yet it remains a fascinating failure that has never been released to DVD or Blu-ray. Hopper plays a stuntman on a Hollywood film crew shooting a Western in the Peruvian Andes. When the movie wraps, Hopper decides to stay behind and live with the local peasants, who start imitating the Americans by shooting their own movie with hand-crafted wooden cameras but real violence. With Peter Fonda, Julie Adams, Sylvia Miles, Kris Kristofferson, and Sam Fuller, among others. Laszlo Kovacs did the beautiful cinematography. 35mm color print from the Academy Film Archive. 108 min. Special admission $12; members, CIA I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $9. No passes, twofers, or radio winners. Special thanks to The Hopper Art Trust (Taylor Livingston) and the Academy Film Archive (Cassie Blake).

 

JULY 30

 

Thursday, July 30, at 7:00 pm

The Final Film in Aitken Auditorium

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

USA, 1971, Peter Bogdanovich

Here’s the film you chose to be the last one we show in Aitken Auditorium. (We move into a new theater at 11610 Euclid Avenue on Saturday, August 1.) Peter Bogdanovich’s celebrated and evocative coming-of-age story is set in a small, dying north Texas town during 1951 and 1952. However, there’s more sex and drama in this small, close-knit community than you might imagine. The star-studded cast includes Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ellen Burstyn, Eileen Brennan, Randy Quaid, and Oscar winners Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson. (Both won for this movie.) 35mm. 118 min. Arrive at 6:30 and see a slide show, assembled by Cinematheque projectionist Les Vince, that chronicles the Cinematheque’s 29 years in Aitken Auditorium.

 

-30-