Cinematheque Film Schedule

South Korea | 2017 | Hong Sang-soo

Hong Sang-soo’s third film of 2017 (after On the Beach at Night Alone and Claire’s Camera) is another melancholy comedy of booze and infidelity with a scrambled time structure. Here the philanderer is a publisher who has damaged his marriage by having an affair with an office assistant who has since left his employ. He pours out his heart to her replacement (Kim Min-hee, star of all three of Hong’s 2017 features and the director’s...

France | 1948 | Jean Cocteau

Jean Marais and Josette Day, who played the two lovers in Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast, reunited with the director two years later for this film version of a Cocteau stage play. The movie charts the emotional turmoil that ensues within a dysfunctional middle-class family when the son announces his intention to marry. His jealous mother (who harbors incestuous feelings for her child) is absolutely distraught—while his father is distressed that his own mistress...

France, Switzerland | 2017 | Xavier Beauvois

Nathalie Baye and her real-life daughter Laura Smet star in this highly acclaimed new film from the director of Of Gods and Men (2010). Set in 1916, this painterly period piece focuses on three women who toil to maintain a farm on the home front while their men are away fighting WWI. “Unassumingly powerful…One of the year’s most affecting love stories.” –Village Voice. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP.138 min.

United States | 1947 | Allan Dwan

The New Yorker calls this little known but fascinating and unusual movie an “electrifying, eccentric masterwork.” Young Natalie Wood plays a nine-year-old orphan who was raised by her preacher great-grandfather in a Western ghost town. She arrives in a different small town where her unfiltered outspokenness and sense of biblical morality upset the hypocritical locals. A collie and an epidemic heighten the drama. With Ruth Warrick, Walter Brennan, and Dean Jagger. Cleveland revival premiere. DCP....

France | 1953 | Henri-Georges Clouzot

Yves Montand stars in this classic French thriller, one of the most suspenseful movies ever made! Set in a Central American petroleum republic, the film follows four down-on-their-luck drifters who take on a veritable suicide mission: driving two truckloads of volatile nitroglycerine across 300 miles of perilous mountain roads. Original, uncut version! Subtitles. 147 min.

United States | 1977 | William Friedkin

Roy Scheider stars in William Friedkin’s big-budget reimagining of The Wages of Fear (see 8/4 at 6:50). Four desperate men of differing nationalities come together in South America to transport explosive nitroglycerine by truck across 300 miles of treacherous jungle roads. A huge critical and box office flop when first released, Friedkin’s follow-up to The Exorcist is now regarded by some as a masterpiece. (Friedkin himself ranks this nail-biter as one of his best movies.)...

France, Switzerland | 2017 | Xavier Beauvois

Nathalie Baye and her real-life daughter Laura Smet star in this highly acclaimed new film from the director of Of Gods and Men (2010). Set in 1916, this painterly period piece focuses on three women who toil to maintain a farm on the home front while their men are away fighting WWI. “Unassumingly powerful…One of the year’s most affecting love stories.” –Village Voice. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP.138 min.

France | 1948 | Jean Cocteau

Jean Marais and Josette Day, who played the two lovers in Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast, reunited with the director two years later for this film version of a Cocteau stage play. The movie charts the emotional turmoil that ensues within a dysfunctional middle-class family when the son announces his intention to marry. His jealous mother (who harbors incestuous feelings for her child) is absolutely distraught—while his father is distressed that his own mistress...

South Korea | 2017 | Hong Sang-soo

Hong Sang-soo’s third film of 2017 (after On the Beach at Night Alone and Claire’s Camera) is another melancholy comedy of booze and infidelity with a scrambled time structure. Here the philanderer is a publisher who has damaged his marriage by having an affair with an office assistant who has since left his employ. He pours out his heart to her replacement (Kim Min-hee, star of all three of Hong’s 2017 features and the director’s...

United States | 1977 | William Friedkin

Roy Scheider stars in William Friedkin’s big-budget reimagining of The Wages of Fear (see 8/4 at 6:50). Four desperate men of differing nationalities come together in South America to transport explosive nitroglycerine by truck across 300 miles of treacherous jungle roads. A huge critical and box office flop when first released, Friedkin’s follow-up to The Exorcist is now regarded by some as a masterpiece. (Friedkin himself ranks this nail-biter as one of his best movies.)...

United States | 2017 | Tommy Haines, Andrew Sherburne

William Franklin Brinton was an Iowa farmboy who, from 1897 until his death in 1908, traveled throughout the American heartland showing motion pictures to eager Midwestern audiences. According to the makers of this surprising new documentary, Brinton was “America’s greatest barnstorming movieman.” Yet the central figure in Saving Brinton is actually another Iowan, hirsute former history teacher Mike Zahs. It was Zahs who discovered Brinton’s original nitrate show reels in the basement of an Iowa...

United States | 2017 | Tommy Haines, Andrew Sherburne

William Franklin Brinton was an Iowa farmboy who, from 1897 until his death in 1908, traveled throughout the American heartland showing motion pictures to eager Midwestern audiences. According to the makers of this surprising new documentary, Brinton was “America’s greatest barnstorming movieman.” Yet the central figure in Saving Brinton is actually another Iowan, hirsute former history teacher Mike Zahs. It was Zahs who discovered Brinton’s original nitrate show reels in the basement of an Iowa...

Denmark, Sweden, United States | 2017 | Göran Hugo Olsson

The new film from the maker of The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011) uncovers another treasure trove of forgotten vintage film footage. In this case, it’s a previously unassembled portrait of Jackie O’s reclusive aunt and cousin Edith and Edie Beale—immortalized in Grey Gardens—that was shot on 16mm film by photographer Peter Beard at their decaying East Hampton estate three years before the Maysles’ 1975 classic! The result is a one-of-a-kind family portrait bursting with...

France | 1949 | Henri-Georges Clouzot

Winner of the top prize at the 1949 Venice Film Festival, this Clouzot rarity transposes Abbé Prévost’s 1731 novel Manon Lescaut to post-WWII France. It tells of a French Resistance fighter (Michel Auclair) who rescues a young woman accused of being a Nazi collaborator (Cécile Aubry) from villagers who want to do her harm. Falling for her, he takes her to Paris. But there she is further tainted by her shady brother (Serge Reggiani). Subtitles....

United Kingdom | 1957 | Basil Dearden

The ticket seller is surly, the projectionist is tipsy, the shabby auditorium is a flea-pit, and business is lousy. If this sounds like the old Cinematheque, it isn’t. It’s the Bijou Kinema, a run-down British movie house newly inherited by a young couple (Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers) who have also inherited the cinema’s eccentric staff. (Projectionist Peter Sellers and box office worker Margaret Rutherford are among them.) Shall the new owners shutter the theater and...

France, South Korea | 2005 | Hong Sang-soo

Undistributed theatrically in the U.S. until now, the celebrated sixth film by master South Korean moviemaker Hong Sang-soo integrates assorted characters and incidents—two men involved with the same woman, a night of drinking and failed sex, a suicide pact—into a surprising and sometimes disorienting narrative at once wry, moving, and profound. The less you know about this movie before you see it, the better. 100% critics rating on RottenTomatoes.com. “Has a sheer simplicity and clarity—plus...

United States | 1946 | Alfred Santell

The opening night film in February’s “Republic Rediscovered” series at MoMA was this obscure but affecting tale of sin and redemption. The film focuses on an unloved teenager (Mona Freeman) who learns unhelpful life lessons from her prostitute mother before falling in with a charming con man (James Dunn) and growing up to be an unfit mother herself. Stylishly directed, this was the final movie by the underrated Alfred Santell. Cleveland revival premiere. DCP. 95...

Denmark, Sweden, United States | 2017 | Göran Hugo Olsson

The new film from the maker of The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011) uncovers another treasure trove of forgotten vintage film footage. In this case, it’s a previously unassembled portrait of Jackie O’s reclusive aunt and cousin Edith and Edie Beale—immortalized in Grey Gardens—that was shot on 16mm film by photographer Peter Beard at their decaying East Hampton estate three years before the Maysles’ 1975 classic! The result is a one-of-a-kind family portrait bursting with...

France, South Korea | 2005 | Hong Sang-soo

Undistributed theatrically in the U.S. until now, the celebrated sixth film by master South Korean moviemaker Hong Sang-soo integrates assorted characters and incidents—two men involved with the same woman, a night of drinking and failed sex, a suicide pact—into a surprising and sometimes disorienting narrative at once wry, moving, and profound. The less you know about this movie before you see it, the better. 100% critics rating on RottenTomatoes.com. “Has a sheer simplicity and clarity—plus...

France | 2009 | Serge Bromberg, Ruxandra Medrea

The story of a film that was never made, this fascinating documentary chronicles the ill-fated attempt by celebrated French director of The Wages of Fear and Diabolique to shoot a long-planned movie entitled Inferno during the 1960s. Starring Romy Schneider and Serge Reggiani, the movie, a tale of pathological jealousy, was going to incorporate some radical visual and sonic experiments worthy of the op-art era. Fortunately, among the 15 hours of footage that survive from...

Canada, Iran, Qatar | 2017 | Sadaf Foroughi

Iranian teen Ava lives in Tehran with her middle-class parents. She is both a model student and a typical adolescent interested in music, friends, and social life. But when Ava’s mistrustful and overprotective mother questions her relationship with a boy — going so far as to take her to a gynecologist — Ava is filled with rage and begins rebelling against her parents, her school, and her society. This acclaimed debut feature by an Iranian...

Canada, Iran, Qatar | 2017 | Sadaf Foroughi

Iranian teen Ava lives in Tehran with her middle-class parents. She is both a model student and a typical adolescent interested in music, friends, and social life. But when Ava’s mistrustful and overprotective mother questions her relationship with a boy — going so far as to take her to a gynecologist — Ava is filled with rage and begins rebelling against her parents, her school, and her society. This acclaimed debut feature by an Iranian...

France | 2009 | Serge Bromberg, Ruxandra Medrea

The story of a film that was never made, this fascinating documentary chronicles the ill-fated attempt by celebrated French director of The Wages of Fear and Diabolique to shoot a long-planned movie entitled Inferno during the 1960s. Starring Romy Schneider and Serge Reggiani, the movie, a tale of pathological jealousy, was going to incorporate some radical visual and sonic experiments worthy of the op-art era. Fortunately, among the 15 hours of footage that survive from...

United States | 1946 | Frank Borzage

We conclude our short Republic Pictures tribute with the most expensive film ever made by the studio up to its time. I’ve Always Loved You is a lavish romantic drama, fueled by the music of Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Beethoven, and others, about a promising Pennsylvania pianist (Catherine McLeod) who must choose between two men—her worldly, sophisticated concert pianist tutor (Philip Dorn) and a loyal family farmhand (William Carter) who has loved her for years. “With color...

United States | 2017 | Jim McKay

The first theatrical feature in 13 years by the acclaimed director of such indie classics as Our Song and Girls Town focuses on a group of undocumented immigrant workers in Brooklyn, NY. These men work six days a week at a variety of low-level jobs and savor their weekly soccer game on Sunday. But a crisis arises when their team reaches the league finals and their captain and star, a bike delivery person, suddenly has...

France | 1977 | Agnès Varda

Agnès (Faces Places) Varda’s romantic feminist musical charts the consciousness raising and liberation of two young French women—one a globe-trotting singer, the other a stay-at-home single mother—during the turbulent political years of 1962 to 1976. This enchanting ode to sisterhood comes from one of the cinema’s most pioneering, outspoken, and durable women directors, who was awarded an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement last year. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 120 min.

France | 1977 | Agnès Varda

Agnès (Faces Places) Varda’s romantic feminist musical charts the consciousness raising and liberation of two young French women—one a globe-trotting singer, the other a stay-at-home single mother—during the turbulent political years of 1962 to 1976. This enchanting ode to sisterhood comes from one of the cinema’s most pioneering, outspoken, and durable women directors, who was awarded an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement last year. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 120 min.

West Germany | 1951 | Peter Lorre

The only film written and directed by Peter Lorre (who also stars) is a noir drama about a German scientist, working for the Nazis during WWII, who discovers that his lover has been selling his findings to the Allies. “Absolutely phenomenal.” –Time Out Film Guide. Subtitles. 98 min.

United States | 2017 | Jim McKay

The first theatrical feature in 13 years by the acclaimed director of such indie classics as Our Song and Girls Town focuses on a group of undocumented immigrant workers in Brooklyn, NY. These men work six days a week at a variety of low-level jobs and savor their weekly soccer game on Sunday. But a crisis arises when their team reaches the league finals and their captain and star, a bike delivery person, suddenly has...

1964 | Lester James Peries

In a career that spanned over 50 years and encompassed over 30 films, the late Sri Lankan filmmaker Lester James Peries established a Sinhalese cinema of international repute on a small island nation that resides in the shadow of a mighty, movie-producing neighbor, India. We have never shown a movie by this director who is frequently likened to Satyajit Ray, but that changes tonight with a rare screening of the film that first established Peries’...

Japan | 2017 | Hirokazu Kore-eda

Before he won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for his latest film Shoplifters, Japan’s humanistic master Hirokazu Kore-eda (After the Storm, Our Little Sister) directed The Third Murder, his first courtroom drama and first movie in ‘scope. The film follows an accomplished Japanese lawyer as he defends an accused murderer in an alleged open-and-shut case. (The accused is an ex-con who had killed previously, so the goal is to get him...

United States | 1970 | Barbara Loden

The only film written and directed by Elia Kazan’s wife Barbara Loden is a work of American neorealism and one of the great one-offs in cinema history. (Loden died from cancer before she could make a second movie.) Shot in 16mm, this unadorned indie classic also stars Loden as the timid, bedraggled title character—a divorced, destitute housewife from a Pennsylvania mining town. Prone to looking for love in all the wrong places, Wanda eventually hooks...

France, Italy | 1960 | Henri-Georges Clouzot

Brigitte Bardot delivers her best performance in this Clouzot rarity.She plays Dominique, a modern, uninhibited young woman on trial for the murder of her sister’s fiancé who was also Dominique’s lover. Flashbacks re-create the events that led to this tragedy, and in time it becomes apparent that what’s really on trial is Dominique’s carefree, liberated, “immoral” lifestyle—a threat to the established social order. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 130 min.

United States | 1970 | Barbara Loden

The only film written and directed by Elia Kazan’s wife Barbara Loden is a work of American neorealism and one of the great one-offs in cinema history. (Loden died from cancer before she could make a second movie.) Shot in 16mm, this unadorned indie classic also stars Loden as the timid, bedraggled title character—a divorced, destitute housewife from a Pennsylvania mining town. Prone to looking for love in all the wrong places, Wanda eventually hooks...

Japan | 2017 | Hirokazu Kore-eda

Before he won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for his latest film Shoplifters, Japan’s humanistic master Hirokazu Kore-eda (After the Storm, Our Little Sister) directed The Third Murder, his first courtroom drama and first movie in ‘scope. The film follows an accomplished Japanese lawyer as he defends an accused murderer in an alleged open-and-shut case. (The accused is an ex-con who had killed previously, so the goal is to get him...

United States | 1926 | Victor Seastrom (Sjöström)

New England’s foremost silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis, who blogs about his career at jeffrapsis.com, returns to the Cinematheque to provide live keyboard accompaniment to this potent drama made by Lillian Gish and the great Swedish director Victor Sjöström/Seastrom (star of Bergman’s Wild Strawberries). Released two years before their immortal The Wind, Gish and Sjöström’s adaptation of Hawthorne’s literary classic—about adultery and intolerance in 17th-century Salem—has a real feel for rural America and is also...

Belgium, France, Spain | 2016 | Fabrizio Terranovo

Feminist thinker and science historian Donna Haraway breaks down the boundaries among humans, animals, and machines in her seminal works “A Cyborg Manifesto” and Primate Visions. This film captures Haraway in her hand-built California home, talking about her life, influences, and ideas, with topics ranging from capitalism, Catholicism, and colonialism to sex and marriage, sci-fi, and dogs. “An ode to this thinker’s expansive mind and life.” –Vice Magazine. DCP. 81 min.

Canada, Spain, Sweden, United States | 2017-18 | various directors

The Sundance Film Festival's Short Film Program has long been the place to discover rising filmmakers of unusual talent. Alums include Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Damien Chazelle, Jay and Mark Duplass, Lynne Ramsay, Dee Rees, Jill Soloway, and Taika Waititi, among many others. Which director of the seven films in this year’s touring program will become the next household name? The program includes fiction, animation, and documentary, and features three Jury Award winners as...