Cinematheque Film Schedule

United States | 1970 | Hollis Frampton

This poetic experimental film, one of the seminal masterworks of structural cinema, is the most famous movie by the late Hollis Frampton, who attended Western Reserve University for three-and-a-half years during the 1950s but never graduated. Named for a mathematical axiom relating to set theory, Zorn’s Lemma is a three-part film that moves beyond the alphabet and words to create a highly structured lexicon of patterned images. Preceded at showtime by Frampton’s Prince Ruperts Drops...

USSR | 1972 | Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Tarkovsky’s philosophical sci-fi epic has long been regarded as the Soviet 2001: A Space Odyssey. (Tarkovsky, a Christian, reputedly made it as a response to the “atheism” of the Kubrick film.) The movie follows a psychologist who is sent to a distant space station to learn what is killing some of the cosmonauts there and causing others to see visions. The key seems to be the nearby, “sentient” planet of Solaris.

United States | 1959 | Robert Wise

Harry Belafonte stars in the first noir drama with a black protagonist. He also produced the movie, hiring blacklisted screenwriter Abraham Polonsky (see Force of Evil on 2/16) to co-write the script. Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters, and Gloria Grahame co-star in the taut thriller, which follows two men, a debt-ridden gambler (Belafonte) and a racist ex-con (Ryan), as they team up for a bank heist.

Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden | 2011 | Lisa Ohlin

The L.A. Times says that Simon & the Oaks is “a two-hour theatrical feature that has the kind of emotional and storytelling reach regularly found these days only in cable TV miniseries.” Based on a Swedish bestseller, the film follows two teenage boys as they come of age in Gothenburg between 1939 and 1952. Simon (Bill Skarsgård, son of Stellan) is a teen misfit from a working class family who is seduced by the world...

Japan | 1994 | Isao Takahata

This animated feature by Studio Ghibli’s co-founder focuses on a group of magical tanuki, mischievous raccoon-like animals from Japanese folklore that are capable of changing their shapes. When a new development threatens their forest, the tanuki transform into humans and start playing tricks on the workers—in order to make them think the construction site is haunted!

Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden | 2011 | Lisa Ohlin

The L.A. Times says that Simon & the Oaks is “a two-hour theatrical feature that has the kind of emotional and storytelling reach regularly found these days only in cable TV miniseries.” Based on a Swedish bestseller, the film follows two teenage boys as they come of age in Gothenburg between 1939 and 1952. Simon (Bill Skarsgård, son of Stellan) is a teen misfit from a working class family who is seduced by the world...

Japan | 1994 | Isao Takahata

This animated feature by Studio Ghibli’s co-founder focuses on a group of magical tanuki, mischievous raccoon-like animals from Japanese folklore that are capable of changing their shapes. When a new development threatens their forest, the tanuki transform into humans and start playing tricks on the workers—in order to make them think the construction site is haunted!

United States | 1959 | Robert Wise

Harry Belafonte stars in the first noir drama with a black protagonist. He also produced the movie, hiring blacklisted screenwriter Abraham Polonsky (see Force of Evil on 2/16) to co-write the script. Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters, and Gloria Grahame co-star in the taut thriller, which follows two men, a debt-ridden gambler (Belafonte) and a racist ex-con (Ryan), as they team up for a bank heist.

Belgium, France, Germany | 2011 | Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud

Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud follow up their 2007 animated hit Persepolis with a visually stunning and imaginative live-action adaptation of another Satrapi graphic novel. Chicken with Plums is set in late-1950s Iran, where an accomplished musician (Mathieu Amalric) loses the will to live when his wife breaks his beloved violin. Waiting to die, he flashes back to his young love for a woman who married another, and to other funny, sad, surreal episodes in...

Italy, Spain | 1968 | Sergio Corbucci

This spaghetti Western from the director of The Great Silence and Django (see 1/22) tells of a Polish hired gun (Franco Nero) who escorts a silver shipment to Texas. There a Mexican peasant and freedom fighter (Tony Musante) convinces him to fight against the evil mine owner and his ruthless henchmen (led by sadistic dandy Jack Palance). Music by Ennio Morricone.

Italy, Spain | 1968 | Sergio Corbucci

This spaghetti Western from the director of The Great Silence and Django (see 1/22) tells of a Polish hired gun (Franco Nero) who escorts a silver shipment to Texas. There a Mexican peasant and freedom fighter (Tony Musante) convinces him to fight against the evil mine owner and his ruthless henchmen (led by sadistic dandy Jack Palance). Music by Ennio Morricone.

United States | 1964 | Michael Roemer

Ivan Dixon (Hogan’s Heroes) and Abbey Lincoln star in this landmark racial drama which was shot during the summer (1963) that also witnessed the March on Washingrton and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Set in Alabama, the movie focuses on a black laborer who marries the educated daughter of a preacher, then struggles (against racism and other realities) to build a dignified life for her. “One of the great American independent films...

United States | 1947 | Robert Montgomery

Robert Montgomery plays private eye Philip Marlowe in this unique Raymond Chandler adaptation in which all of the action is seen from Marlowe’s first-person point of view. (The star is seen only in mirror reflections.) In the film, Marlowe is hired to locate the estranged wife of the publisher of a crime magazine, but soon becomes embroiled in a complicated murder case. With Audrey Totter.

United States | 1964 | Michael Roemer

Ivan Dixon (Hogan’s Heroes) and Abbey Lincoln star in this landmark racial drama which was shot during the summer (1963) that also witnessed the March on Washingrton and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Set in Alabama, the movie focuses on a black laborer who marries the educated daughter of a preacher, then struggles (against racism and other realities) to build a dignified life for her. “One of the great American independent films...

Japan | 1995 | Yoshifumi Kondô

Co-written by Hayao Miyazaki (who also directed some of the fantasy scenes), the only feature by a promising Studio Ghibli animator who died at age 47 tells of a well-read teenage girl who discovers that all the books she checks out from the library have previously been borrowed by another individual. She sets out to find this person, thus setting off on a singular journey that will determine her future life and career. “An ineffably...

Belgium, France, Germany | 2011 | Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud

Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud follow up their 2007 animated hit Persepolis with a visually stunning and imaginative live-action adaptation of another Satrapi graphic novel. Chicken with Plums is set in late-1950s Iran, where an accomplished musician (Mathieu Amalric) loses the will to live when his wife breaks his beloved violin. Waiting to die, he flashes back to his young love for a woman who married another, and to other funny, sad, surreal episodes in...

Japan | 1995 | Yoshifumi Kondô

Co-written by Hayao Miyazaki (who also directed some of the fantasy scenes), the only feature by a promising Studio Ghibli animator who died at age 47 tells of a well-read teenage girl who discovers that all the books she checks out from the library have previously been borrowed by another individual. She sets out to find this person, thus setting off on a singular journey that will determine her future life and career. “An ineffably...

United States | 1947 | Robert Montgomery

Robert Montgomery plays private eye Philip Marlowe in this unique Raymond Chandler adaptation in which all of the action is seen from Marlowe’s first-person point of view. (The star is seen only in mirror reflections.) In the film, Marlowe is hired to locate the estranged wife of the publisher of a crime magazine, but soon becomes embroiled in a complicated murder case. With Audrey Totter.

United States | 1989 | Rob Reiner

We’ve all seen Meg Ryan’s fake-orgasm-at-the-deli. But how many of us have seen the movie that surrounds this hilarious scene? For Valentine’s Day we present a rare theatrical screening of this beloved romantic comedy, written by the late Nora Ephron, in which Ryan and Billy Crystal play college acquaintances who become friends, confidants, and eventually lovers over a period of years. Music by Harry Connick, Jr., Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, et al.

France, Germany | 2012 | Leos Carax

Leos Carax’s fifth feature is one of 2012’s must-see movies! A mysterious French businessman in a stretch limo dons different disguises for a surreal series of theatrical “appointments,” playing different roles in scenes around Paris that evoke various film genres and famous movies. “An electrifying, confounding, what-the-hell-just-happened exercise in unbounded imagination, unapologetic theatricality, bravura acting and head-over-heels movie-love.” –Washington Post. “The coolest and strangest movie of the year.” -Salon.com Subtitles.

United States | 1989 | Rob Reiner

We’ve all seen Meg Ryan’s fake-orgasm-at-the-deli. But how many of us have seen the movie that surrounds this hilarious scene? For Valentine’s Day we present a rare theatrical screening of this beloved romantic comedy, written by the late Nora Ephron, in which Ryan and Billy Crystal play college acquaintances who become friends, confidants, and eventually lovers over a period of years. Music by Harry Connick, Jr., Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, et al.

United States | 1948 | Abraham Polonsky

John Garfield stars in this beautifully shot film noir that was one of the first 150 films selected for the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. He plays Joe Morse, a lawyer working for a powerful gangster who wants to consolidate and control the New York numbers racket. But one of the small operations targeted for takeover is run by Morse’s older brother, and he prizes his independence. This Cain and Abel story was the...

France, Italy | 1971 | Claude Sautet

Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider star in this 40-year-old French crime film by Claude Sautet (A Simple Story, Un Coeur en Hiver/A Heart in Winter) that was released in America only last year. Piccoli plays Max, a determined police detective who poses as a wealthy banker in order to lure a gang of thieves into committing a heist. Then during the robbery he will catch them red-handed. Unfortunately, a high-class prostitute (Schneider) involved with both...

Japan | 1999 | Isao Takahata

In this charming animated feature, Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata breaks from his company’s tradition of mythic, larger-than-life stories to recount the everyday activities of an ordinary Japanese family—husband, wife, son, daughter, mother-in-law, and dog. He also departs from the studio’s detailed, saturated cel animation for a faster, more fluid, minimalist style inspired by comic strip sketches and pastel-colored watercolors. (It was the first Studio Ghibli feature created entirely on computers.) “If there’s an American...

France, Italy | 1971 | Claude Sautet

Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider star in this 40-year-old French crime film by Claude Sautet (A Simple Story, Un Coeur en Hiver/A Heart in Winter) that was released in America only last year. Piccoli plays Max, a determined police detective who poses as a wealthy banker in order to lure a gang of thieves into committing a heist. Then during the robbery he will catch them red-handed. Unfortunately, a high-class prostitute (Schneider) involved with both...

Japan | 1999 | Isao Takahata

In this charming animated feature, Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata breaks from his company’s tradition of mythic, larger-than-life stories to recount the everyday activities of an ordinary Japanese family—husband, wife, son, daughter, mother-in-law, and dog. He also departs from the studio’s detailed, saturated cel animation for a faster, more fluid, minimalist style inspired by comic strip sketches and pastel-colored watercolors. (It was the first Studio Ghibli feature created entirely on computers.) “If there’s an American...

France, Germany | 2012 | Leos Carax

Leos Carax’s fifth feature is one of 2012’s must-see movies! A mysterious French businessman in a stretch limo dons different disguises for a surreal series of theatrical “appointments,” playing different roles in scenes around Paris that evoke various film genres and famous movies. “An electrifying, confounding, what-the-hell-just-happened exercise in unbounded imagination, unapologetic theatricality, bravura acting and head-over-heels movie-love.” –Washington Post. “The coolest and strangest movie of the year.” -Salon.com Subtitles.

France | 1938 | Marcel Carné

Seven years before they collaborated on Children of Paradise, filmmaker Marcel Carné and screenwriter Jacques Prévert made the quintessential work of pre-war poetic fatalsim and one of the most iconic French films of the 1930s. Set in the foggy port city of Le Havre, this moody masterpiece stars Jean Gabin (Grand Illusion) as a broke, hungry, world-weary army deserter who hopes to hop a freighter out of France. At a lonely bar on the edge...

United Kingdom | 1962 | Terence Young

This was the first James Bond film, and we wanted to present it last year for its 50th anniversary. But there was a moratorium on theatrical bookings of all Bond movies around the release of Skyfall, so we had to wait until now to show it. In the film, which created the template for those that followed, 007 (Sean Connery) is sent to Jamaica to investigate the death of another British agent. There he uncovers...

United Kingdom | 1963 | Terence Young

After the events of Dr. No (see previous blurb), international criminal organization SPECTRE seeks to get even with 007 (Sean Connery). So they sic two ruthless assassins (Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya) on him while he tries to locate a Russian decoding device. The second James Bond film is often cited as the best of them all.

United Kingdom | 1963 | Terence Young

After the events of Dr. No (see previous blurb), international criminal organization SPECTRE seeks to get even with 007 (Sean Connery). So they sic two ruthless assassins (Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya) on him while he tries to locate a Russian decoding device. The second James Bond film is often cited as the best of them all.

United Kingdom | 1962 | Terence Young

This was the first James Bond film, and we wanted to present it last year for its 50th anniversary. But there was a moratorium on theatrical bookings of all Bond movies around the release of Skyfall, so we had to wait until now to show it. In the film, which created the template for those that followed, 007 (Sean Connery) is sent to Jamaica to investigate the death of another British agent. There he uncovers...

United States | 1955 | Joseph H. Lewis

The other great noir by Gun Crazy director Joseph H. Lewis is one of the most brutal, perverse, and sexually charged of classic crime films. It tells of a cop (Cornel Wilde) who’s absolutely obsessed with bringing down a sadistic mob boss (Richard Conte) and stealing his classy girlfriend. John Alton’s b&w cinematography, which demonstrates his mastery of chiaroscuro, should sparkle in the preservation print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive that we...

France, Switzerland | 2012 | Ursula Meier

Switzerland’s official entry for this year’s foreign film Oscar is one of the most acclaimed movies of 2012, with an overall metacritic.com rating of 81 (out of 100). It’s a haunting “up-mountain, down-mountain” drama about a 12-year-old boy who steals from wealthy guests at an Alpine ski resort in order to support his desperate, down-and-out older sister (Léa Seydoux of Farewell, My Queen ) who lives in a decrepit apartment in the valley below. With...

Japan, United States | 2002 | Hiroyuki Morita

In this spin-off from Whisper of the Heart (see 2/9-10), a young schoolgirl who rescues a cat in danger soon finds herself transported to a fantastic feline world, where the grateful King of Cats wants her to marry the animal she saved, his son. “Good-hearted, energetic, and full of Ghibli's characteristically beautiful hand-rendered animation.” –The Onion A.V. Club.

Japan, United States | 2002 | Hiroyuki Morita

In this spin-off from Whisper of the Heart (see 2/9-10), a young schoolgirl who rescues a cat in danger soon finds herself transported to a fantastic feline world, where the grateful King of Cats wants her to marry the animal she saved, his son. “Good-hearted, energetic, and full of Ghibli's characteristically beautiful hand-rendered animation.” –The Onion A.V. Club.

France, Switzerland | 2012 | Ursula Meier

Switzerland’s official entry for this year’s foreign film Oscar is one of the most acclaimed movies of 2012, with an overall metacritic.com rating of 81 (out of 100). It’s a haunting “up-mountain, down-mountain” drama about a 12-year-old boy who steals from wealthy guests at an Alpine ski resort in order to support his desperate, down-and-out older sister (Léa Seydoux of Farewell, My Queen ) who lives in a decrepit apartment in the valley below. With...

United States | 2011 | Various Directors

Ten filmmakers who have bucked the digital tide by working on 16mm film are represented in this new compilation culled from last year’s 50th edition of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, America’s oldest showcase for independent and experimental cinema. Included is Landfill 16, a new film by renowned artist Jennifer Reeves, who constructed her movie by burying and hand-painting outtakes from a previous work. Visit www.aafilmfest.org for a list of the other films....

Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden | 2011 | Lars von Trier

Named the Best Film of 2011 by both the National Society of Film Critics and the European Film Awards, Lars von Trier’s most recent movie is a visually stunning drama with an all-star cast: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, et al. Set at a lavish estate, the film follows two sisters at a disastrous dusk-to-dawn wedding reception—and later on the property as a rogue planet hurtles toward earth on a possible collision course.