It’s horrendous outside, which means it’s a good time to watch movies.
Oh sure, you could curl up on the couch with a blanket and Netflix or a few DVDs.
And, yes, you need to get caught up at the theater with all the Oscar hopefuls that have arrived or that soon will.
But don’t forget about another option: The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. The repertory movie theater house continues, as it has for years, to screen classic, experimental and a wide-range of other films, largely for niche audiences. And since summer 2015, its done so in a much more modern home, the Peter B. Lewis Theater, 11610 Euclid Ave.
The folks from the Cinematheque announced in a recent news release that at 9:05 p.m. Jan. 6 and 4 p.m. Jan. 7 they would be screening a 2017 film shot largely in Cleveland, “In Search of Fellini.”
Its official synopsis from Spotted Cow Entertainment:
A sheltered, small-town Ohio girl is suddenly faced by harsh reality. Desperate for answers, she discovers hope in the delightfully bizarre films of Federico Fellini, and sets off on a strange, beautiful journey across Italy to find him. Along the way she discovers far more than she ever expected.
“In Search of Fellini” stars Ksenia Solo and features better-known actresses Maria Bello (“A History of Violence”) and Mary Lynn Rajskub (“24”). Also noteworthy: It was co-written by Nancy Cartwright — longtime voice of Bart Simpson on “The Simpsons” and a Dayton native.
Also showing the first weekend of January is another Cleveland premiere: the new French film “BPM (Beats Per Minute),” voted Best Foreign Language Film of 2017 by the New York Film Critics Circle, according to the news release.
Most shows at the Cinematheque are $10 ($7 for Cinematheque members and those 25 and younger. Free parking for filmgoers is available in two CIA lots, Lot 73 and the Annex Lot, both off East 117th Street from Euclid Avenue. For more information, call 216-421-7450, email cinema@cia.edu or visit cia.edu/cinematheque.
Here’s the January-February schedule, taken verbatim from the news release:
JANUARY 4-7
Thursday, January 4, at 6:30 pm &
Friday, January 5, at 9:45 pm
SYLVIO
USA, 2017, Kentucker Audley, Albert Birney
Sylvio, a small town gorilla (clearly played by a man in an ape suit) works as a corporate drone in a debt collection agency. But what Sylvio really wants to do is express himself on TV through his hand puppets. When he finally gets his chance, an unfortunate mishap threatens his future. “[A] charming lo-fi indie…Equal parts absurd and poignant.” –Variety. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 80 min.
Thursday, January 4, at 8:10 pm &
Friday, January 5, at 7:00 pm
BPM (BEATS PER MINUTE)
120 BATTEMENTS PAR MINUTE
France, 2017, Robin Campillo
One of the best reviewed films at Cannes 2017—and throughout the world—is a riveting group portrait of Parisian AIDS activists during the early 1990s. Voted Best Foreign Language Film of 2017 by the New York Film Critics Circle. “A moving, lump-in-the-throat love story.” –Screen Int’l. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 142 min.
Friday, January 5, at 9:45 pm
SYLVIO
See 1/4 at 6:30 for description
Saturday, January 6, at 5:00 pm &
Sunday, January 7, at 8:35 pm
Film Classics in 35mm!
Danielle Darrieux, 1917-2017
THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE…
MADAME DE…
France/Italy, 1953, Max Ophüls
In this elegant, sensuous, sophisticated drama of adultery set in fin de siècle Paris, a pair of earrings continually changes hands among a trio of privileged, high-society lovers (Danielle Darrieux, Charles Boyer, Vittorio De Sica). The result is a dizzying roundelay of rapture and rupture, and one of the great movies of all time. “One of the most beautiful things ever created by human hands.” –Dave Kehr. Subtitles. 105 min. Special admission $11; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.
Saturday, January 6, at 7:05 pm
Film Classics in 35mm!
New Print from Italy!
THE SPIDER’S STRATAGEM
STRATEGIA DEL RAGNO
Italy, 1970, Bernardo Bertolucci
Long udistributed in the U.S. and still unavailable here on DVD or Blu-ray, this major Bertolucci film (made between The Conformist and Last Tango in Paris) tells of a young man who receives a cool welcome when he returns to the village where his anti-fascist father was murdered in 1936. Adapted from a Borges short story; sumptuous color cinematography by Vittorio Storaro. With Alida Valli. Has a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “Bertolucci at the height of his powers.” –Time Out Film Guide. Imported print! Subtitles. 97 min. Special admission $14; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $10; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.
Saturday, January 6, at 9:05 pm &
Sunday, January 7, at 4:00 pm
IN SEARCH OF FELLINI
USA, 2017, Taron Lexton
Dayton native Nancy Cartwright, the longtime voice of Bart Simpson, co-wrote this semi-autobiographical tale of a sheltered Ohio girl who travels to Italy to meet Federico Fellini after his films open her eyes to a new world of fantastic possibilities. With Maria Bello. “A charming drama about the love of movies and youthful passion…Ms. Cartwright creates a Felliniesque fantasy of her own.” –NY Times. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 93 min.
Sunday, January 7, at 6:30 pm
DINA
USA, 2017, Antonio Santini, Dan Sickles
Dina, a mentally challenged 49-year-old Philadelphia woman who has also survived abuse and trauma, embarks on a new romance with Scott, a genial Walmart greeter with Asperger syndrome. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, this funny, moving, and surprisingly candid and even intimate movie could not have been made if one of the filmmakers did not already have a longstanding relationship with Dina. Has a 98% critics score and 92% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Adults only! East Side Cleveland premiere. DCP. 103 min.
Sunday, January 7, at 8:35 pm
THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE…
See 1/6 at 5:00 for description
JANUARY 11-14
Thursday, January 11, at 6:30 pm &
Friday, January 12, at 9:45 pm
New Digital Restoration!
D.O.A.: A RITE OF PASSAGE
USA, 1980. Lech Kowalski
This survey of the punk scene circa 1978 focuses primarily on the Sex Pistols during their seven-city U.S. tour, and includes an extended interview with Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. But the Clash, Stiv Bators, the Dead Boys, and others are also included. Cleveland revival premiere. DCP. 90 min.
Thursday, January 11, at 8:20 pm &
Friday, January 12, at 7:00 pm
THE SQUARE
Sweden/Germany/France/Denmark, 2017, Ruben Östlund
Winner of the Palme d’Or (top prize) at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, the sardonic, squirm-inducing new film from the director of Force Majeure focuses on a cool, buttoned-down, Swedish curator of modern art (Claes Bang) whose chic, ordered, privileged world is undermined by raging human desires, behaviors, and injustices outside his galleries. With Elisabeth Moss and Terry Notary. Subtitles. DCP. 142 min.
Friday, January 12, at 9:45 pm
D.O.A.: A RITE OF PASSAGE
See 1/11 at 6:30 for description
Saturday, January 13, at 5:00 pm
Film Classics in 16mm!
Canyon Cinema 50 Film Tour
PROGRAM TWO: ASSOCIATIONS
USA, 1958-2012, various directors
The first of four programs celebrating the 50th anniversary of Canyon Cinema, a longtime San Francisco-based distributor of truly independent, often experimental short works by major American filmmakers. This program is named after John Smith’s 1975 film, a joyfully dense, rebus-like image-word construction. Also showing: Mark Toscano’s Releasing Human Energies (2012); Abigail Child’s Mercy (1989); canonical works by Phil Solomon, Barbara Hammer, Robert Breer, and Robert Nelson; and two recent restorations, Confessions (1971) by Curt McDowell, and Akbar, an extraordinary 1970 portrait of a young black film student by Northeast Ohio’s Richard Myers, who will appear in person at our screening, schedule permitting. 12 films in all, 6 in new prints. Complete film titles at canyoncinema50.org/tour/. Total 90 min. Special admission $11; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.
Saturday, January 13, at 7:15 pm &
Sunday, January 14, at 8:45 pm
New 4K Digital Restoration!
THE CRIME OF MONSIEUR LANGE
LE CRIME DE MONSIEUR LANGE
France, 1936, Jean Renoir
One of the best films from Renoir’s greatest decade, this effervescent comedy tells of a group of exploited workers at a French publishing house who band together to turn the company into a successful cooperative when their corrupt boss flees from debt collectors and disappears. Presumed dead, he turns up one day to collect the co-op’s profits… Co-written by Jacques Prévert. “Perhaps the most delightful of Jean Renoir’s films…Given its emphasis on the predatory behavior of powerful men and the precariousness of the journalistic profession, it is as topical as any movie made this year, and a good deal funnier than most.” –J. Hoberman, NY Times (2017). Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 83 min. This film supported by a generous grant from Maison Française de Cleveland.
Saturday, January 13, at 9:00 pm &
Sunday, January 14, at 6:30 pm
TOM OF FINLAND
Finland/Sweden/Denmark/Germany/Iceland/USA, 2017, Dome Karukoski
A gay WWII vet and advertising designer in homophobic postwar Finland finds escape and solace by making private drawings of hot, muscular, well-endowed gay men. Eventually these idealized pictures are published in the U.S., countering the stereotype of gays as “sissies” and advancing 50s-60s leather and motorcycle culture. This is a biopic of Touko Laaksonen (1920-1991), who became the influential artist Tom of Finland. “A good, strong movie.” –San Francisco Chronicle. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 115 min.
Sunday, January 14, at 3:30 pm
A Special Event!
Film Classics in 35mm!
SHALL WE DANCE
USA, 1937, Mark Sandrich
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers star in this musical with songs, music, and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin. It tells of a ballet dancer (Astaire) who, as a publicity stunt, pretends to be married to a showgirl (Rogers). Musical numbers include “Slap That Bass,” “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.” Co-presented by The Musical Theater Project, the movie will be introduced at 3:30 by TMTP Artistic Director Bill Rudman, who will also lead a post-film discussion. 106 min. Special admission $15; Cinematheque & TMTP members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $10; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.
Sunday, January 14, at 6:30 pm
TOM OF FINLAND
See 1/13 at 9:00 for description
Sunday, January 14, at 8:45 pm
THE CRIME OF MONSIEUR LANGE
See 1/13 at 7:15 for description
JANUARY 18-21
Thursday, January 18, at 6:45 pm &
Sunday, January 21, at 8:55 pm
FRANCES HA
USA, 2012, Noah Baumbach
Greta Gerwig’s arthouse breakthrough as a writer and actress was this delightful, touching, and acclaimed 2012 comedy-drama that has various parallels to her acclaimed new film Lady Bird. Gerwig plays Frances, a ditzy but endearing 27-year-old New Yorker, a Sacramento transplant, whose dance career is going nowhere. The film chronicles Frances’ gauche, funny, fumbling attempts to find her place in the city—and in the world—and even contains a Christmas scene in California featuring Gerwig’s real parents, who are fictionalized in Lady Bird. Blu-ray. 86 min.
Thursday, January 18, at 8:35 pm &
Saturday, January 20, at 7:15 pm
Author Phil Skerry in Person on Saturday!
78/52: HITCHCOCK’S SHOWER SCENE
USA, 2017, Alexandre O. Philippe
Originally scheduled to be shown at the Cinematheque as part of the 41st Cleveland Int’l Film Festival, but pulled by the distributor, this new documentary takes an in-depth look at the shower scene in Hitchcock’s Psycho (which consisted of 78 different camera setups and 52 edits). Fans and filmmakers like Guillermo del Toro, Peter Bogdanovich, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Bret Easton Ellis chime in on this famous sequence, and film scholar Philip J. Skerry, who wrote the 2009 book Psycho in the Shower, will discuss the movie in person at Saturday’s screening. Cleveland theatrical premiere. DCP. 91 min.
NO FILMS FRI., 1/19
Saturday, January 20, at 5:00 pm
Film Classics in 35mm!
Print from Italy!
BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
PRIMA DELLA RIVOLUZIONE
Italy, 1964, Bernardo Bertolucci
Long undistributed in the U.S. and unavailable here on DVD or Blu-ray, Bertolucci’s second feature (made when he was 22) is both auspicious and astonishing—the work of a cinema prodigy. The movie focuses on a young man in 1962 Parma who flirts with revolt and sexual freedom after discovering Marx, but also feels the strong pull of bourgeois convention. Inspired by Stendahl’s The Charterhouse of Parma; music by Ennio Morricone. Has a 93% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “Sweepingly romantic…Captures what has rarely been seen on the screen—the extravagance and poetry of youthful ardor.” –Pauline Kael. Imported print! Subtitles. 115 min. Special admission $14; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $10; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.
Saturday, January 20, at 7:15 pm
A Special Event!
Author Phil Skerry in Person!
78/52: HITCHCOCK’S SHOWER SCENE
See 1/18 at 8:35 for description
Saturday, January 20, at 9:30 pm
BRIMSTONE & GLORY
Mexico/USA, 2017, Viktor Jakovleski
Move over, Fourth of July. This singular, visually stunning nonfiction film documents the National Pyrotechnic Festival in Tultepec, Mexico, a ten-day celebration of San Juan de Dios, patron saint of firework makers (which include three-fourths of all Tultepec residents). “An impressionistic immersion into fire and fiesta…As you-are-there experiences go, it has energy to burn.” –L.A. Times. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 67 min.
Sunday, January 21, at 4:30 pm
THY FATHER’S CHAIR
USA, 2015, Àlex Lora, Antonio Tibaldi
Two hoarders, Orthodox Jewish twin brothers in their 60s, are compelled to hire a company to clean out the Brooklyn home they inherited from their parents, or lose it. This poignant (but not despairing) documentary chronicles the brothers’ pain in dealing with the past while also confronting a present of alcoholism and isolation. “Critic’s pick…Quiet and quietly moving.” –NY Times. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 74 min.
Sunday, January 21, at 6:30 pm
New Digital Restoration!
SHAKESPEARE WALLAH
USA, 1965, James Ivory
This early Merchant-Ivory Production (co-written by the team’s longtime screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala) focuses on a troupe of itinerant British actors who try to keep Shakespeare alive in a fast-changing, post-colonial India more interested in Bollywood than in bodkins. With Shashi Kapoor, Felicity Kendal, and Madhur Jaffrey; music by Satyajit Ray. Cleveland revival premiere. DCP. 122 min.
Sunday, January 21, at 8:55 pm
FRANCES HA
See 1/18 at 6:45 for description
JANUARY 25-28
NO FILMS THU., 1/25
Friday, January 26, at 7:30 pm
Catherine Gund in Person!
CHAVELA
USA/Mexico/Spain, 2017, Catherine Gund, Daresha Kyi
Mexican musician Chavela Vargas (1919-2012) was a legendary ranchera singer who also became a gay icon for comporting herself like a man. She is the subject of this new film co-directed by Emmy-nominated documentarian Catherine Gund (Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity). The movie centers around a 1991 interview with the singer—her first public appearance after 15 years lost to alcoholism and heartbreak. This was right before her momentous third act, when she came out as a lesbian, became a muse to filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar (interviewed in the film), earned a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, and performed sold-out shows at prestigious concert halls around the world. Gund will answer audience questions after the screening. “Donald Trump’s ultimate nightmare—a Mexican lesbian diva who can wring your very soul.” –The Guardian. Cleveland theatrical premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 93 min. Special admission $11; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.
Saturday, January 27, at 5:00 pm
Film Classics in 16mm!
Canyon Cinema 50 Film Tour
PROGRAM ONE: STUDIES IN NATURAL MAGIC
USA, 1973-2017, various directors
Here’s the second of four programs celebrating the 50th anniversary of Canyon Cinema, a longtime San Francisco-based distributor of truly independent, often experimental short works by major American filmmakers. This installment features recent films by Saul Levine, Charlotte Pryce, and Christopher Harris; rarely screened works by Standish Lawder and Jean Sousa; sublime, acutely perceived portraits of cities, seas, skies, and landscapes by Peter Hutton, Julie Murray, Gary Beydler, Robert Fulton, and Emily Richardson; Betzy Bromberg’s audacious and energetic feminist punk city symphony Ciao Bella… (1978); and Greta Snider’s Portland (1996), a travelogue and playful Rashomon-like inquiry into the nature of truth. 14 films in all, 4 in new prints. Complete film titles at canyoncinema50.org/tour/. Total 79 min. Special admission $11; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.
Saturday, January 27, at 6:45 pm &
Sunday, January 28, at 8:20 pm
THE DIVINE ORDER
DIE GÖTTLICHE ORDNUNG
Switzerland, 2017, Petra Volpe
A quiet Swiss housewife and mother in 1971 Switzerland becomes a passionate proponent for an upcoming referendum granting women the right to vote. This entertaining movie won the Audience Award for Best Film at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and is Switzerland’s official entry for this year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. “A mainstream crowd-pleaser adept at inspiring and amusing in equal measure.” –Variety. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 96 min.
Saturday, January 27, at 8:45 pm
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL
MUGEN NO JÛNIN
Japan/UK, 2017, Takashi Miike
The prolific Takashi Miike returns to the big Cinematheque screen with this supernatural swordplay movie (his 100th film!) about an immortal samurai who helps a young girl avenge her family’s murder. You’ll experience elaborate battles, outrageous weapons, and sacred bloodworms that heal the hero’s hurts! “If you are going to see one outlandish and occasionally nauseating bloodbath samurai pic this year, this is the one.” –The Guardian. Cleveland theatrical premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 140 min.
Sunday, January 28, at 4:15 pm
THE DEPARTURE
USA, 2017, Lana Wilson
This moving, acclaimed documentary introduces us to a former Japanese punk rocker turned Buddhist priest who specializes in counseling suicidal individuals. But this taxing work has clearly taken its toll on this husband and father, who has demons of his own. The movie has both a critics and audience score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. “It’s not often one can have a genuinely spiritual experience watching a movie. But that’s precisely what’s on offer with The Departure.” -Washington Post. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 87 min.
Sunday, January 28, at 6:30 pm
MANSFIELD 66/67
USA, 2017, P. David Ebersole, Todd Hughes
The new film from the producers of the fascinating Room 237 takes a campy look at the last two years in the highly publicized life of actress Jayne Mansfield (1933-67). Mansfield was a busty, low-rent Marilyn Monroe who pre-dated the Kardashians and eventually became involved with second-rate Satanist named Anton LeVay. (Did a curse from him cause the car crash that ended her life?) With Ann Magnuson, Kenneth Anger, John Waters, et al. “A celebration of the sex-positive, taboo-breaking image she created for herself.” –L.A. Times. Cleveland theatrical premiere. DCP. 86 min.
Sunday, January 28, at 8:20 pm
THE DIVINE ORDER
See 1/27 at 6:45 for description
FEBRUARY 1-4
Thursday, February 1, at 6:45 pm
CINEMA NOVO
Brazil, 2016, Eryk Rocha
The son of Glauber Rocha, director of Antonio das Mortes and Brazil’s foremost Cinema Novo filmmaker, takes an extended look of that socially, intellectually, and artistically progressive “new wave” movement of the 1960s & 1970s that changed Brazilian moviemaking. Rocha fils creates an impressionistic portrait of the era via ample film clips and interviews with the era’s other leading directors—among them, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Carlos Diegues, Ruy Guerra, and Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, whose 1969 masterpiece Macunaíma shows tonight and Sunday. Best Documentary, 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Cleveland theatrical premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 90 min.
Thursday, February 1, at 8:35 pm &
Sunday, February 4, at 6:30 pm
Film Classics in 35mm!
MACUNAÍMA
aka JUNGLE FREAKS
Brazil, 1969, Joaquim Pedro de Andrade
This wild, colorful, sardonic folktale—one of the key works of Brazil’s Cinema Novo (see 2/1 at 6:45)—was a huge box office hit in its native country (where it was partially censored). It tells of a black man, Macunaíma, who is born as a fully formed adult to an old woman in the Amazonian jungle. Macunaíma miraculously turns white on his way to the big city, where he has a series of outlandish, grotesque adventures involving political revolutionaries and killer capitalists. “A bizarre and often very funny comedy.” –Time Out Film Guide. Adults only! New color print! Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. 95 min. Special admission $11; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.
Friday, February 2, at 7:30 pm
Jean Rouch 101
New Digital Restorations!
MOI, UN NOIR (I, A NEGRO)
France, 1958, Jean Rouch
Jean Rouch’s first great feature was a major influence on the French New Wave. (It introduced jump cuts and employed non-professional “actors.”) Set in the Ivory Coast, the movie focuses on two Nigerian immigrants nicknamed Edward G. Robinson and Eddie Constantine who try to find work as dockworkers while living in a squalid section of Abidjan. Moi, un Noir will be preceded at 7:30 by Rouch’s groundbreaking short film The Mad Masters (Les maîtres fou, France, 1955), a record of a Hauka “trance” ritual in the former Gold Coast (now Ghana) in which initiates are “possessed” by the spirits of British colonials, whom they mock. This controversial work is one of the seminal ethnographic movies, inspiring Werner Herzog, among others. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. Total 103 min.
Friday, February 2, at 9:35 pm &
Sunday, February 4, at 4:00 pm
New 4K Digital Restoration!
MILDRED PIERCE
USA, 1945, Michael Curtiz
Joan Crawford stars in one of the great noir melodramas, a gripping tale of an impoverished woman turned entrepreneur who will do almost anything to keep her spoiled older daughter happy. Crawford won the Oscar. From a James M. Cain novel. DCP. 111 min.
Saturday, February 3, at 5:00 pm &
Sunday, February 4, at 8:25 pm
HOLY AIR
Israel, 2017, Shady Srour
In this deadpan new comedy, a Christian Arab living in Nazareth with his pregnant wife and dying father decides to make some money by bottling and selling air from the Holy Land. But first he must get the blessing of the city’s three ruling parties: Jewish politicians, Muslim mobsters, and Catholic Church officials. “A wry commentary on religious tourism.” –L.A. Times. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 81 min.
Saturday, February 3, at 6:45 pm
New Digital Restoration!
LA BELLE NOISEUSE
France/Switzerland, 1991, Jacques Rivette
Jacques Rivette’s celebrated, four-hour epic that dissects the artistic process has been newly restored and re-released! Michel Piccoli plays a long dormant painter who returns to an unfinished canvas, his magnum opus, after convincing a beautiful, headstrong young woman (Emmanuelle Béart) to model nude for him. Jane Birkin plays the painter’s former model, now his wife. “The best film I have ever seen about the physical creation of art.” –Roger Ebert. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 238 min. Special admission $12; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $9. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.
Sunday, February 4, at 4:00 pm
MILDRED PIERCE
See 2/2 at 9:35 for description
Sunday, February 4, at 6:30 pm
MACUNAÍMA
See 2/1 at 8:35 for description
Sunday, February 4, at 8:25 pm
HOLY AIR
See 2/3 at 5:00 for description
FEBRUARY 8-11
Thursday, February 8, at 6:45 pm &
Friday, February 9, at 9:35 pm
New 4K Digital Restoration!
BOB LE FLAMBEUR
aka BOB THE GAMBLER
France, 1956, Jean-Pierre Melville
A dapper ex-gangster who is now a compulsive gambler decides to knock off a casino. Jean-Pierre Melville’s first film noir, evocatively shot in the Montmartre district of Paris, is one of his key works, and had a major impact on the young filmmakers of the French New Wave. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 98 min.
Thursday, February 8, at 8:45 pm &
Friday, February 9, at 7:30 pm
ON THE BEACH AT NIGHT ALONE
BAMUI HAEBYUN-EOSEO HONJA
S. Korea, 2017, Hong Sang-soo
A Korean actress having an affair with a married film director, but temporarily separated from him in a foreign city, ponders her feelings about the affair and also wonders about his love for her. South Korean master Hong Sang-soo (who has carried on a scandalous affair with Kim Min-hee, the star of this movie, for two years now) mines his own life more deeply than usual for his acclaimed, self-reflective, and often unsparing new work. “The drama has a vast scope, a fierce intensity, and an element of metaphysical whimsy (including one of the great recent dream sequences).” –The New Yorker. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 101 min.
Friday, February 9, at 9:35 pm
BOB LE FLAMBEUR
See 2/8 at 6:45 for description
Saturday, February 10, at 5:00 pm
Film Classics in 16mm!
Canyon Cinema 50 Film Tour
PROGRAM THREE: DECODINGS
USA, 1964-2012, various directors
Here’s the third of four programs celebrating the 50th anniversary of Canyon Cinema, a longtime San Francisco-based distributor of truly independent, often experimental short works by major American filmmakers. Decodings is named after Michael Wallin’s 1988 found-footage masterpiece, “a profoundly moving, allegorical search for identity from the documents of collective memory” (Manohla Dargis). Also showing: two works by key early Canyon filmmakers, Lawrence Jordan’s Duo Concertantes (1964), a classic animation, and Will Hindle’s Billabong (1969); Tom Palazzolo’s Love It/Leave It (1973); JoAnn Elam’s Lie Back & Enjoy It (1982), a lucid examination of the representation of women in film; and Naomi Uman’s found-footage movie Removed (1999), which deploys nail polish, bleach, and 1970s pornography. 9 films in all, 3 in new prints. Complete film titles at canyoncinema50.org/tour/. Total 87 min. Special admission $11; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.
Saturday, February 10, at 6:50 pm &
Sunday, February 11, at 8:25 pm
35mm Print!
THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE
TOIVON TUOLLA PUOLEN
Finland/Germany, 2017, Aki Kaurismäki
A Syrian refugee hooks up with a novice Helsinki restaurateur in the deadpan, very funny, heartfelt new comedy from Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki. Like his previous movie Le Havre, Kaurismäki’s latest shows the human side of the European refugee crisis. “This is a world that reeks of cigarette smoke and cheap vodka, yet as always in the work of Finland’s maestro of droll melancholy, the perfume that lingers longest is empathy.” –Hollywood Reporter. Shot (and shown here) on 35mm film. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. 100 min. Special admission $11; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.
Saturday, February 10, at 8:50 pm &
Sunday, February 11, at 4:00 pm
New 4K Digital Restoration!
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
aka STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN
UK, 1946, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
This imaginative, one-of-a-kind color fantasy/love story is one of Powell and Pressburger’s greatest films. Set during WWII, it tells of an RAF pilot (David Niven) who bales out of his flaming plane without a parachute and suddenly finds himself pleading for his life before a heavenly tribunal. Arguing that his time has not yet come, he finds an ardent ally in a female American radio operator (Kim Hunter). Cleveland revival premiere. DCP. 104 min.
Sunday, February 11, at 6:30 pm
Jean Rouch 101
New Digital Restoration!
THE HUMAN PYRAMID
LA PYRAMIDE HUMAINE
France/Ivory Coast, 1961, Jean Rouch
Black and white high school seniors at a French school in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, play themselves in Jean Rouch’s experimental narrative about how the arrival of a new European white girl affects the school’s interpersonal and racial dynamics. Rouch also lets the students watch his rushes and comment on the movie in process. “Groundbreaking metafiction.” –The New Yorker. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 93 min.
Sunday, February 11, at 8:25 pm
THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE
See 2/10 at 6:50 for description
FEBRUARY 15-18
Thursday, February 15, at 6:45 pm
Post-film Panel Discussion
BIG TIME
Denmark, 2017, Kaspar Astrup Schröder
Acclaimed, innovative Danish “starchitect” Bjarke Ingels, who heads the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) in New York City (where he has designed the forthcoming Two World Trade Center tower), is profiled in this new documentary shot over a six year period. The film celebrates Ingels’ visionary genius while also showing the compromises he sometimes must make and illustrating the toll success has taken on his personal life. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 93 min. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion organized by AIA (American Institute of Architects) Cleveland; special thanks to Marie-Rose Andriadi. Special admission $11; Cinematheque and AIA Cleveland members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.
NO EARLY FILM FRI., 2/16
Friday, February 16, at 9:15 pm &
Saturday, February 17, at 8:30 pm
35mm Print!
PORTO
Portugal/France/Poland/USA, 2016, Gabe Klinger
The late Anton Yelchin stars in this moody, stylish, elegiac film by former film critic Gabe Klinger. Employing flashbacks, flash-forwards, and multiple motion picture formats (8mm, 16mm, 35mm), this movie deconstructs a one-night stand in Oporto, Portugal, between an American drifter and a French archaeology student. Produced by Jim Jarmusch. “A film that’s in love with love, in love with cinema, and concerned that neither is built to last.” –Variety. Cleveland premiere. 76 min. Special admission $11; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.
Friday, February 16, at 10:50 pm &
Saturday, February 17, at 10:10 pm
WET WOMAN IN THE WIND
KAZE NI NURETA ONNA
Japan, 2017, Akihiko Shiota
Japan’s Nikkatsu studio is marking the 45th anniversary of the “Roman Porno” genre (softcore pornographic films that sustained the studio through the 1970s and 1980s) with five newly commissioned, sexy, low-budget quickies. Wet Woman in the Wind, the first, is an amusing, arousing tale of a fed-up Tokyo playwright who swears off romance and goes on a solitary retreat in the country. But his solitude is soon shattered by a libidinous young woman who won’t take no for an answer. “Exuberantly funny…An eccentric, hugely enjoyable film.” –Screen Int’l. No one under 18 admitted! Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 77 min.
Saturday, February 17, at 5:00 pm &
Sunday, February 18, at 4:00 pm
Film Classics in 35mm!
Black History Month
HALLELUJAH
USA, 1929, King Vidor
The first Hollywood film with an all-black cast “has fair claim to being the first masterpiece of the sound era” (Macmillan Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers). Director King Vidor, who grew up in Texas, worked without a salary to bring his long-cherished tale of southern black folk (and their music and culture) to the screen, shooting the movie in Tennessee and Arkansas. Despite Vidor’s good intentions and the work’s many commendable attributes (performances, songs, cinematography), this account of a sharecropper’s ill-advised infatuation with a young temptress teems with regrettable African American stereotypes. Selected for the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 2008. 106 min. Special admission $11; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.
Saturday, February 17, at 7:10 pm
OPORTO OF MY CHILDHOOD
aka PORTO OF MY CHILDHOOD
PORTO DA MINHA INF NCIA
Portugal/France, 2001, Manoel de Oliveira
Manoel de Oliveira, the great, durable Portuguese film director who finally died in 2015 at age 106, remembers his childhood in the Portuguese coastal city of Porto/Oporto in this short feature made when he was 93. Mixing documentary footage with reenactments of decades-old memories, the movie features such Oliveira regulars as Ricardo Trêpa and Maria de Medeiros, as well as the director himself. “Poignant and playful…One of the old master’s most accessible late films.” –Time Out. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 61 min.
Saturday, February 17, at 8:30 pm
PORTO
See 2/16 at 9:15 for description
Saturday, February 17, at 10:10 pm
WET WOMAN IN THE WIND
See 2/16 at 10:50 for description
Sunday, February 18, at 4:00 pm
HALLELUJAH
See 2/17 at 5:00 for description
Sunday, February 18, at 6:30 pm
Jean Rouch 101
New Digital Restoration!
CHRONICLE OF A SUMMER
CHRONIQUE D’UN ÉTÉ
France, 1961, Jean Rouch, Edgar Morin
Jean Rouch’s most celebrated documentary that’s not set in Africa finds the anthropologist-filmmaker teaming up with sociologist Edgar Morin to take the pulse of Parisians during 1960. They convene a group of diverse interviewees and ask them if they are happy—before delving into other questions. Later they let their subjects comment on their own screen appearances, gauging how authentic and realistic they are. A seminal work of cinéma vérité. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. Blu-ray. 90 min.
Sunday, February 18, at 8:20 pm
Jean Rouch 101
New Digital Restoration!
THE LION HUNTERS
aka HUNTING THE LION WITH BOW AND ARROW
LA CHASSE AU LION À L’ARC
France, 1966, Jean Rouch
In this Jean Rouch ethnographic classic that was shot on the border between Niger and Mali over a period of seven years, five African tribesmen undertake the ritual preparations for a lion hunt (they include incantations and dancing). Their quarry is a powerful beast, nicknamed “the American,” who has been stalking the bush and killing cows. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 81 min.
FEBRUARY 22-25
Thursday, February 22, at 6:45 pm &
Sunday, February 25, at 8:25 pm
New 4K Digital Restoration!
50th Anniversary!
MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT
MEMORIAS DEL SUBDESARROLLO
Cuba, 1968, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
The first feature film from Castro’s Cuba to be widely acclaimed and seen in the U.S. is now five decades old. Memories of Underdevelopment focuses on an affluent Cuban intellectual and writer who stays behind in Havana after his wife, family, and friends escape to Miami in the wake of the Bay of Pigs invasion. Alienated from Cuba’s revolution, but fascinated by the changes and recent historical events he is witnessing, he spends his time observing and pondering his “underdeveloped” country—and also pursuing girls. (Gutiérrez Alea co-directed the Oscar-nominated Strawberry and Chocolate 25 years later.) Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 98 min.
Thursday, February 22, at 8:45 pm &
Saturday, February 24, at 6:45 pm
New Digital Restoration!
FORBIDDEN GAMES
JEUX INTERDITS
France, 1952, René Clément
Here’s a new digital restoration of one of the most shattering pacifist films ever made! Set in WWII France, the movie tells of a five-year-old French orphan girl and an 11-year-old peasant boy who together engage in private, war-inspired play involving the burial of dead animals and the theft of crosses from a local churchyard. “Perhaps the greatest war film since La Grande Illusion.” –Pauline Kael. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 86 min.
NO FILMS FRI., FEB. 23
Saturday, February 24, at 5:00 pm
Film Classics in 16mm!
Canyon Cinema 50 Film Tour
PROGRAM FOUR: CONTINUUM
USA, 1968-2005, various directors
The last of four programs celebrating the 50th anniversary of Canyon Cinema, a longtime San Francisco-based distributor of truly independent, often experimental short works by major American filmmakers. This show is named for Dominic Angerame’s exquisitely filmed, silent, black and white 1987 city portrait. Also showing: Los Angeles effects artist and filmmaker Pat O’Neill’s 1973 masterpiece Down Wind; Gunvor Nelson’s 1969 My Name is Oona, one of the canonical works of the American avant-garde; and two works by Canyon Cinema founders Bruce Baillie and Chick Strand that continue to resonate as vital, adventurous film art. 8 films in all, 2 in new prints. Complete film titles at canyoncinema50.org/tour/. Total 85 min. Special admission $11; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.
Saturday, February 24, at 6:45 pm
FORBIDDEN GAMES
See 2/22 at 8:45 for description
Saturday, February 24, at 8:35 pm
New 4K Digital Restoration!
GOODFELLAS
USA, 1990, Martin Scorsese
Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, and Joe Pesci star in Martin Scorsese’s modern crime classic about the rise and fall of an Italian-American “wiseguy” who works for the Mob between 1955 and 1980. Never before shown at the Cinematheque! Adults only! DCP. 146 min. Special admission $11; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25-18 $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.
Sunday, February 25, at 4:00 pm
World War I + 100
New Digital Restoration!
WESTFRONT 1918
WESTFRONT 1918: VIER VON DER INFANTERIE
Germany, 1930, G.W. Pabst
Released one month after the better-known All Quiet on the Western Front, the first sound film by the celebrated German director of Diary of a Lost Girl and Pandora’s Box is grimmer and more powerful than that Lewis Milestone WWI classic. Like All Quiet, Pabst’s film follows a German soldier during the final days of the Great War, fighting in the trenches, going home for a brief but dispiriting leave, and returning to the front’s hellacious fury. A few years after its release, Joseph Goebbels denounced this pacifist classic as “cowardly defeatism.” Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 96 min.
Sunday, February 25, at 6:30 pm
Jean Rouch 101
New Digital Restoration!
JAGUAR
France, 1968, Jean Rouch
In one of Jean Rouch’s most disarming “ethnofictions,” three young men from Niger leave their homeland to find work and opportunity in the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Originally filmed in the 1950s, with dialogue, sound, and the participants’ commentary added a few years later, this improvisational narrative constitutes a playful collaboration between all four men. Cleveland revival premiere! Subtitles. DCP. 93 min.
Sunday, February 25, at 8:25 pm
MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT
See 2/22 at 6:45 for description
Mark Meszoros can’t make up his mind about the best 2017 film he’s seen. Follow him on Twitter @MarkMeszoros.