Cinematheque Film Schedule

Bolivia, United States | 2016 | Werner Herzog

Michael Shannon, Gael García Bernal, and former CWRU physics professor Lawrence Krauss star in Werner Herzog’s new film, a thriller in which three ecologists investigating an environmental disaster in South America are kidnapped by the CEO of the corporation that caused the debacle. Soon they find themselves in the Bolivian salt flats near a dormant volcano. “Like all of Herzog’s output, it casts its own strange spell.” –The Guardian. DCP. 98 min.

France | 2014 |

Ovid’s ancient, multi-volume narrative poem Metamorphoses is a compendium of classical creation myths involving Roman gods and mortals—many of whom get transformed into plants, animals, or other things. This Latin classic receives a modern-day reimagining in the sensuous, visually stunning new film from the director of Love Songs and Beloved. The movie consists of three magical tales in which a contemporary French high school student encounters Jupiter, Bacchus, and Orpheus. “A remarkably beautiful film.” –Film...

France | 2014 |

Ovid’s ancient, multi-volume narrative poem Metamorphoses is a compendium of classical creation myths involving Roman gods and mortals—many of whom get transformed into plants, animals, or other things. This Latin classic receives a modern-day reimagining in the sensuous, visually stunning new film from the director of Love Songs and Beloved. The movie consists of three magical tales in which a contemporary French high school student encounters Jupiter, Bacchus, and Orpheus. “A remarkably beautiful film.” –Film...

Bolivia, United States | 2016 | Werner Herzog

Michael Shannon, Gael García Bernal, and former CWRU physics professor Lawrence Krauss star in Werner Herzog’s new film, a thriller in which three ecologists investigating an environmental disaster in South America are kidnapped by the CEO of the corporation that caused the debacle. Soon they find themselves in the Bolivian salt flats near a dormant volcano. “Like all of Herzog’s output, it casts its own strange spell.” –The Guardian. DCP. 98 min.

United States | 2008 | Barry Jenkins

The only other feature made by Moonlight director Barry Jenkins is an acclaimed, poetic tale of two African American urban hipsters (Wyatt Cenac, Tracey Heggens) who spend the day after a one-night stand talking and walking around San Francisco. “An exciting debut.” –A.O. Scott, The NY Times. “Tender, smart, soulful.” –The Village Voice. Blu-ray. 88 min.

Italy | 1983 | Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini’s stunningly stylized snapshot of European society on the cusp of World War I is set on a luxury ocean liner. Opera singers, statesmen, aristocrats, and a rhinoceros (!) sail from Naples to an island where the ashes of the world’s greatest soprano will be scattered. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see one of the maestro’s most ravishing color films in an imported 35mm print that’s in the U.S. only temporarily! Subtitles. 127...

2016 | Richard Dewey, Timothy Marrinan

The controversial late installation/performance artist and sculptor Chris Burden—who repeatedly risked his health and life in the name of art (he was famously “crucified” on a Volkswagen Beetle in 1974)—is profiled in this new documentary. Includes archival film clips and interviews with Marina Abramovic, Vito Acconci, Frank Gehry, et al. Adults only! DCP. 88 min.

Italy | 1983 | Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini’s stunningly stylized snapshot of European society on the cusp of World War I is set on a luxury ocean liner. Opera singers, statesmen, aristocrats, and a rhinoceros (!) sail from Naples to an island where the ashes of the world’s greatest soprano will be scattered. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see one of the maestro’s most ravishing color films in an imported 35mm print that’s in the U.S. only temporarily! Subtitles. 127...

United States | 2008 | Barry Jenkins

The only other feature made by Moonlight director Barry Jenkins is an acclaimed, poetic tale of two African American urban hipsters (Wyatt Cenac, Tracey Heggens) who spend the day after a one-night stand talking and walking around San Francisco. “An exciting debut.” –A.O. Scott, The NY Times. “Tender, smart, soulful.” –The Village Voice. Blu-ray. 88 min.

2016 | Richard Dewey, Timothy Marrinan

The controversial late installation/performance artist and sculptor Chris Burden—who repeatedly risked his health and life in the name of art (he was famously “crucified” on a Volkswagen Beetle in 1974)—is profiled in this new documentary. Includes archival film clips and interviews with Marina Abramovic, Vito Acconci, Frank Gehry, et al. Adults only! DCP. 88 min.

Thailand | 2016 | Anocha Suwichakornpong

The lingering trauma of a 1976 government-sanctioned murder of student demonstrators in Bangkok is obliquely investigated in this acclaimed, poetic Thai feature from the director of Mundane History. Beginning straightforwardly as the tale of a filmmaker interviewing an older activist whose life was transformed by the 40-year-old Thammasat University massacre, this sensuous work soon expands into a shape-shifting, multi-character narrative full of memories, fictions, politics, and cinematics. “You’ll be lucky to find a more ambitious...

Denmark, France, United States | 2016 | Nicolas Winding Refn

The latest loved/hated film from the director of Drive and Only God Forgives is a transgressive, visually staggering horror story about an aspiring young model (Elle Fanning) who moves to L.A. There her youth, beauty, and vitality are coveted by older, vampirish fashion models who will stop at nothing to get it. Jena Malone, Christina Hendricks, and Keanu Reeves co-star in this future cult classic. “Imagine an issue of Vogue with Maleficent as guest editor.”...

Denmark, France, United States | 2016 | Nicolas Winding Refn

The latest loved/hated film from the director of Drive and Only God Forgives is a transgressive, visually staggering horror story about an aspiring young model (Elle Fanning) who moves to L.A. There her youth, beauty, and vitality are coveted by older, vampirish fashion models who will stop at nothing to get it. Jena Malone, Christina Hendricks, and Keanu Reeves co-star in this future cult classic. “Imagine an issue of Vogue with Maleficent as guest editor.”...

Iran | 2011 | Asghar Farhadi

Iranian master Asghar Farhadi (The Salesman) won the first of his two Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film for this rich, multifaceted work. At once a domestic drama, a suspense thriller, a whodunit, and a social critique, the film focuses on an Iranian married couple, already at odds over whether to leave the country and live elsewhere, who find their decision further complicated by a parent who’s suffering from Alzheimer’s and by their sudden, unexpected...

Austria, Germany, Romania, Switzerland | 2016 | Maren Ade

This epic-length German comedy was unquestionably the foreign-language film of 2016. Toni Erdmann was named best movie of the year by four respected international film magazines (Britain’s Sight & Sound, France’s Cahiers du Cinema, America’s Film Comment, and Canada’s Cinema Scope); was voted Best Foreign Language Film by the National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Circle, and the London Film Critics Circle; and was awarded five European Film Awards (Best Picture,...

Bosnia, Herzegovina, United States | 2016 | Sean Bloomfield

Seven strangers—among them, two atheists, a young mother suffering from cancer, and a drug addict—travel to the small village of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina where sightings, signs, and miracles have been reported ever since six schoolchildren in 1981 claimed they saw a vision of the Virgin Mary on a local mountain. These individuals join many others who make pilgrimages to this allegedly transformative spot. “It is fascinating seeing people come to a holy place—a place that’s...

Iran | 2011 | Asghar Farhadi

Iranian master Asghar Farhadi (The Salesman) won the first of his two Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film for this rich, multifaceted work. At once a domestic drama, a suspense thriller, a whodunit, and a social critique, the film focuses on an Iranian married couple, already at odds over whether to leave the country and live elsewhere, who find their decision further complicated by a parent who’s suffering from Alzheimer’s and by their sudden, unexpected...

Thailand | 2016 | Anocha Suwichakornpong

The lingering trauma of a 1976 government-sanctioned murder of student demonstrators in Bangkok is obliquely investigated in this acclaimed, poetic Thai feature from the director of Mundane History. Beginning straightforwardly as the tale of a filmmaker interviewing an older activist whose life was transformed by the 40-year-old Thammasat University massacre, this sensuous work soon expands into a shape-shifting, multi-character narrative full of memories, fictions, politics, and cinematics. “You’ll be lucky to find a more ambitious...

Czech Republic, France, Poland, Slovakia | 2016 | Petr Kazda, Tomás Weinreb

Michalina Olszanska (The Lure) is chilling as the lonely, troubled lesbian who, in 1973 at the tender age of 22, killed eight people, becoming the last Czech woman to be executed. “An austere, hypnotic story of sadness, madness and murder.” –The NY Times. Adults only! Subtitles. DCP. 105 min.

France, Morocco, Qatar, Romania, Spain | 2016 | Oliver Laxe

In this “religious Western” that won the Critics Week Grand Prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, a caravan carrying a dying sheikh to his tribe’s ancestral burial ground turns to pure faith to help them traverse the inhospitable desert and Morocco’s forbidding Atlas Mountains. “Inspired by Sufi mysticism, Roberto Rossellini’s The Flowers of St. Francis and Andrei Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev…An elliptical and adventurous odyssey.” –Sight & Sound. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 96 min. ...

France, Morocco, Qatar, Romania, Spain | 2016 | Oliver Laxe

In this “religious Western” that won the Critics Week Grand Prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, a caravan carrying a dying sheikh to his tribe’s ancestral burial ground turns to pure faith to help them traverse the inhospitable desert and Morocco’s forbidding Atlas Mountains. “Inspired by Sufi mysticism, Roberto Rossellini’s The Flowers of St. Francis and Andrei Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev…An elliptical and adventurous odyssey.” –Sight & Sound. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 96 min. ...

Czech Republic, France, Poland, Slovakia | 2016 | Petr Kazda, Tomás Weinreb

Michalina Olszanska (The Lure) is chilling as the lonely, troubled lesbian who, in 1973 at the tender age of 22, killed eight people, becoming the last Czech woman to be executed. “An austere, hypnotic story of sadness, madness and murder.” –The NY Times. Adults only! Subtitles. DCP. 105 min.

France | 1949 | Jean-Pierre Melville

Jean-Pierre Melville’s first feature introduces one of his favorite themes: the French Resistance during WWII. An aristocratic German officer lodging with a French farmer and his grown niece during the Occupation discovers that his defiant hosts refuse to talk to him. However, the young woman can’t stop her romantic feelings for the unwanted houseguest. This daring, low budget, “uncinematic” compendium of looks and gestures had a major impact on Robert Bresson and the French New...

United States | 2016 | John Scheinfeld

The life and times of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane (1926-1967) are explored in this definitive new documentary that was made with the full support of the musician’s family and record labels. Denzel Washington supplies Coltrane’s voice, and the film includes archival clips and new interviews with Common, Bill Clinton, Cornel West, Wynton Marsalis, and others. DCP. 99 min.

France | 1967 | Jean-Pierre Melville

Alain Delon plays a solitary, mostly silent contract killer in this spare, stylish Jean-Pierre Melville masterpiece that, for five decades now, has influenced other major filmmakers—from Martin Scorsese and Jim Jarmusch to John Woo, who once called it “the closest thing to a perfect movie that I have ever seen.” Delon’s hit man is wanted by both his employers and the police, and his only “friend” is a female eyewitness to his crime. Has a...

United States | 2016 | John Scheinfeld

The life and times of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane (1926-1967) are explored in this definitive new documentary that was made with the full support of the musician’s family and record labels. Denzel Washington supplies Coltrane’s voice, and the film includes archival clips and new interviews with Common, Bill Clinton, Cornel West, Wynton Marsalis, and others. DCP. 99 min.

France | 1967 | Jean-Pierre Melville

Alain Delon plays a solitary, mostly silent contract killer in this spare, stylish Jean-Pierre Melville masterpiece that, for five decades now, has influenced other major filmmakers—from Martin Scorsese and Jim Jarmusch to John Woo, who once called it “the closest thing to a perfect movie that I have ever seen.” Delon’s hit man is wanted by both his employers and the police, and his only “friend” is a female eyewitness to his crime. Has a...

France | 1949 | Jean-Pierre Melville

Jean-Pierre Melville’s first feature introduces one of his favorite themes: the French Resistance during WWII. An aristocratic German officer lodging with a French farmer and his grown niece during the Occupation discovers that his defiant hosts refuse to talk to him. However, the young woman can’t stop her romantic feelings for the unwanted houseguest. This daring, low budget, “uncinematic” compendium of looks and gestures had a major impact on Robert Bresson and the French New...

Belgium, United States | 1966 | Thomas White

Ornette Coleman and two members of his trio, David Izenzon and Charles Moffett, provide the memorable musical accompaniment to this mid-1960s curiosity that was considered a lost film until the sole surviving 35mm print was found in the director’s garage in 2015, having languished there for decades (perhaps since its Cannes debut). It’s a Dadaesque work in which members of New York’s experimental stage troupe, the Living Theatre, play escaped mental patients who take over...

France | 1966 | Jean-Pierre Melville

A veteran gangster (Lino Ventura) breaks out of prison and takes part in a daring highway robbery on his way to leaving the country. But a dogged police detective (Paul Meurisse) and double-crossing gangsters complicate his escape plan. Has a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes! “[Jean-Pierre Melville’s] most elaborate and intricately plotted film noir, a labyrinthine exploration of loyalties and betrayals in the French underworld.” –Time Out Film Guide. Uncut print from France! Subtitles....

Germany, Greece | 2016 | Argyris Papadimitropoulos

A lonely, flabby, middle-aged man becomes the new doctor on a small, sleepy Greek island that comes alive in the summer with hordes of gorgeous, unclothed, hedonistic young people. While treating one of these nubile young vacationers for a slight injury, he becomes instantly smitten with her. Soon he is ingratiating himself into her youthful circle and eventually humiliating himself. “A bull’s-eye…A festival must-have…Captures [the] explosive aura of youth…Astonishing sexuality.” –Variety. Adults only! Cleveland premiere....

France | 1950 | Jean-Pierre Melville

Jean Cocteau’s tale of a teenage brother and sister who play erotically charged games in their own enclosed, private world receives exemplary treatment in Jean-Pierre Melville’s celebrated tragicomedy. Music by Vivaldi and Bach. Subtitles. DVD. 106 min.

France | 1950 | Jean-Pierre Melville

Jean Cocteau’s tale of a teenage brother and sister who play erotically charged games in their own enclosed, private world receives exemplary treatment in Jean-Pierre Melville’s celebrated tragicomedy. Music by Vivaldi and Bach. Subtitles. DVD. 106 min.

France, Germany | 2016 | Bruno Dumont

Juliette Binoche, Fabrice Luchini, and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi star in Bruno (Humanité) Dumont’s second foray into screen comedy (following 2014’s wonderful Li’l Quinquin). Slack Bay is set during the summer of 1910 on France’s scenic north coast, where a haughty upper-class family returns to its elaborate holiday home just as two local Laurel-and-Hardyesque police inspectors are investigating the mysterious disappearance of some other tourists and vacationers. “Very strange and very funny.” –The Guardian (UK). Subtitles....

Germany, Greece | 2016 | Argyris Papadimitropoulos

A lonely, flabby, middle-aged man becomes the new doctor on a small, sleepy Greek island that comes alive in the summer with hordes of gorgeous, unclothed, hedonistic young people. While treating one of these nubile young vacationers for a slight injury, he becomes instantly smitten with her. Soon he is ingratiating himself into her youthful circle and eventually humiliating himself. “A bull’s-eye…A festival must-have…Captures [the] explosive aura of youth…Astonishing sexuality.” –Variety. Adults only! Cleveland premiere....

France, Germany | 2016 | Bruno Dumont

Juliette Binoche, Fabrice Luchini, and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi star in Bruno (Humanité) Dumont’s second foray into screen comedy (following 2014’s wonderful Li’l Quinquin). Slack Bay is set during the summer of 1910 on France’s scenic north coast, where a haughty upper-class family returns to its elaborate holiday home just as two local Laurel-and-Hardyesque police inspectors are investigating the mysterious disappearance of some other tourists and vacationers. “Very strange and very funny.” –The Guardian (UK). Subtitles....

Belgium, United States | 1966 | Thomas White

Ornette Coleman and two members of his trio, David Izenzon and Charles Moffett, provide the memorable musical accompaniment to this mid-1960s curiosity that was considered a lost film until the sole surviving 35mm print was found in the director’s garage in 2015, having languished there for decades (perhaps since its Cannes debut). It’s a Dadaesque work in which members of New York’s experimental stage troupe, the Living Theatre, play escaped mental patients who take over...

France | 1966 | Jean-Pierre Melville

A veteran gangster (Lino Ventura) breaks out of prison and takes part in a daring highway robbery on his way to leaving the country. But a dogged police detective (Paul Meurisse) and double-crossing gangsters complicate his escape plan. Has a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes! “[Jean-Pierre Melville’s] most elaborate and intricately plotted film noir, a labyrinthine exploration of loyalties and betrayals in the French underworld.” –Time Out Film Guide. Uncut print from France! Subtitles....