Cinematheque Blog

Nov. 17-21: Mozart's Sister, The Naked Spur, The Devil's Cleavage & More!

11/16/11  |  Posted by Cinematheque  |  Posted in Cinematheque

MOZART'S SISTER tells of Wolfgang's exceedingly talented, but stunted, sibling.
Five years older than Wolfgang, Maria Anna "Nannerl" Mozart was the famous musical family's first child prodigy. An accomplished singer, harpsichordist, and violinist, she sought to become a composer. But her gender thwarted opportunities for tutelage and advancement, and soon she was overshadowed by her bratty younger brother. Nannerl's story is re-imagined in René Féret's 2010 French film MOZART'S SISTER , a gorgeous period piece that Variety called "vividly precise in its depiction of 18th-century pre-revolutionary France (the filmmakers were allowed to shoot inside Versailles), alive with exuberantly thesped personages, and awash in the joy and power of music?A stunner." See/hear it Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

Blistering THE INHERITORS exposes the "lost childhood" of many young Mexicans
Eugenio Polgovsky's haunting new Mexican documentary THE INHERITORS is a film poem focused on children-but children who spend their days doing manual labor like picking crops, hauling firewood, woodcarving, and weaving in the fields and huts of Mexico's poorest rural regions. This heartbreaking chronicle of childhood lost should make working Americans thankful for the mere "drudgery" of their own jobs. The Hollywood Reporter calls THE INHERITORS "awareness-raising documentary cinema at its most urgent and necessary." Watch the original trailer and then see the whole film on Sunday or Monday. Print this post and present it at the box office and see the movie for only $7 ($5 if you're a Cinematheque member). It's our Deal of the Week! (Limit two discount admissions per print-out)

THE NAKED SPUR, probably the best of the five James Stewart/Anthony Mann Westerns, shows in rare 35mm color print
Anthony Mann's THE NAKED SPUR (1953) is "one of the best Westerns ever made," according to Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide. Jimmy Stewart plays a greedy bounty hunter who, along with two other men, tracks outlaw Robert Ryan through the majestic Colorado Rockies. The villainous Ryan proves a wily opponent; even after he is captured he shrewdly pits the pursuers against each other. This tight, suspenseful, psychologically complex drama is the only one of the five Mann/Stewart Western on the National Film Registry. It's generally considered the best of their collaborations. Don't miss it in a rare 35mm color print on Friday or Saturday. Janet Leigh co-stars. Here's the 1953 trailer.

THE DEVIL'S CLEAVAGE pays tribute to the late George Kuchar, king of kitsch
Hollywood melodramas of the 1940s and 1950s-from Hitchcock to Preminger-are lovingly spoofed in THE DEVIL'S CLEAVAGE, a campy 1973 cult classic from the recently deceased George Kuchar. Kuchar (1942-2011) was a prolific underground filmmaker whose hilarious, tacky, low-rent productions and homemade aesthetic inspired John Waters, Guy Maddin, and countless others. Ainslie Pryor, Curt McDowell, and others star in this "marvelous hybrid, as if Sam Fuller and Sternberg had collaborated in shooting a script by Tennessee Williams and Russ Meyer" (Chuck Kleinhans). Adults can see it Saturday night.

West meets East, and bullets fly, in Sam Fuller's Japan-set HOUSE OF BAMBOO
Speaking of Sam Fuller, the pulp master's best film (according to Jean-Luc Godard) is his 1955 crime drama HOUSE OF BAMBOO, shot in postwar Japan. Robert Ryan (see THE NAKED SPUR above) plays the head of a Tokyo crime syndicate comprised of ex-G.I.'s. Robert Stack is a U.S. Army intelligence officer who infiltrates the gang. Gorgeous lensing makes the most of the exotic and colorful Asian locale, and it should look great in the new color & scope print we will show on Sunday and Monday. Here's the 1955 trailer. Tenth EMIT festival of CIA video and animation revisits the previous nine EMIT is the annual juried showcase of film, video, and animation produced by students at the Cleveland Institute of Art. For its tenth edition, EMIT 2011 looks back at the previous nine festivals, reprising highlights in a variety of genres: the best of EMIT. Admission is free to this singular short-film fest that will be followed by a reception open to all attendees. Shows Thursday night only!

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