Cinematheque Film Schedule

United States | 2018 | Rob Garver

In his 2001 obituary for Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert argued that this brilliant, controversial film critic for The New Yorker from the late 1960s through the early 1990s “had a more positive influence on the climate for film in America than any other single person over the last three decades.” And during the 1970s and 1980s, there was no denying the force of her opinions, the fury of her enemies, or the fawning of her...

United States | 2018 | Rob Garver

In his 2001 obituary for Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert argued that this brilliant, controversial film critic for The New Yorker from the late 1960s through the early 1990s “had a more positive influence on the climate for film in America than any other single person over the last three decades.” And during the 1970s and 1980s, there was no denying the force of her opinions, the fury of her enemies, or the fawning of her...

Japan | 1961 | Akira Kurosawa

Probably the wittiest samurai movie ever made! Kurosawa’s celebrated black comedy, remade as the Clint Eastwood spaghetti western A Fistful of Dollars, tells of an unemployed samurai (Toshiro Mifune) who wanders into a small town divided by a deadly blood feud between two rival clans. Seeing an opportunity to make some money, the cynical swordsman shrewdly sells his services to both camps, then sits back to watch these mortal enemies kill each other off. With...

United States | 1953 | Edward D. Wood

Ed (Plan 9 from Outer Space) Wood’s directorial debut is at once a mind-bogglingly inept piece of moviemaking, a pioneering “trans” film, and an earnest plea for tolerance and understanding. Glen (Wood himself) harbors a terrible secret that could ruin his relationship with his girlfriend: there’s another woman. But it’s more complicated than that, for Glen is that woman! Bela Lugosi plays an all-knowing but totally inscrutable commentator who (hilariously) sheds light on the proceedings....

United States | 1953 | Edward D. Wood

Ed (Plan 9 from Outer Space) Wood’s directorial debut is at once a mind-bogglingly inept piece of moviemaking, a pioneering “trans” film, and an earnest plea for tolerance and understanding. Glen (Wood himself) harbors a terrible secret that could ruin his relationship with his girlfriend: there’s another woman. But it’s more complicated than that, for Glen is that woman! Bela Lugosi plays an all-knowing but totally inscrutable commentator who (hilariously) sheds light on the proceedings....

Japan | 1961 | Akira Kurosawa

Probably the wittiest samurai movie ever made! Kurosawa’s celebrated black comedy, remade as the Clint Eastwood spaghetti western A Fistful of Dollars, tells of an unemployed samurai (Toshiro Mifune) who wanders into a small town divided by a deadly blood feud between two rival clans. Seeing an opportunity to make some money, the cynical swordsman shrewdly sells his services to both camps, then sits back to watch these mortal enemies kill each other off. With...

United States | 1952 | Howard Hawks

Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, and a young Marilyn Monroe star in Howard Hawks’ madcap farce that involves a genius chemist, a miraculous youth elixir, and a mischievous chimp. “[An] immaculate screwball comedy by its greatest practitioners.” –Time Out Film Guide. DCP. 97 min.

South Korea | 2018 | Hong Sang-soo

In the latest work by prolific South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo, two concurrent stories rub elbows and occasionally intersect at a riverside hotel one snowy winter. The first concerns an aging poet who, sensing death may be near, summons his two estranged sons to help him tie up his life’s loose ends. In another room, a beautiful young woman (Hong’s current muse Kim Min-hee) nurses a broken heart while being consoled by an equally attractive...

South Korea | 2018 | Hong Sang-soo

In the latest work by prolific South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo, two concurrent stories rub elbows and occasionally intersect at a riverside hotel one snowy winter. The first concerns an aging poet who, sensing death may be near, summons his two estranged sons to help him tie up his life’s loose ends. In another room, a beautiful young woman (Hong’s current muse Kim Min-hee) nurses a broken heart while being consoled by an equally attractive...

United States | 1952 | Howard Hawks

Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, and a young Marilyn Monroe star in Howard Hawks’ madcap farce that involves a genius chemist, a miraculous youth elixir, and a mischievous chimp. “[An] immaculate screwball comedy by its greatest practitioners.” –Time Out Film Guide. DCP. 97 min.

United States | 1943 | Howard Hawks

A B-17 bomber and its melting-pot crew confront Japanese forces in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor. This rousing, exciting, moving WWII drama—Howard Hawks’ contribution to the national war effort—boasts a strong cast (John Garfield, Arthur Kennedy, Gig Young, et al.) and dialogue by an uncredited William Faulkner. It’s a superior example of flag-waving, “why we fight” propaganda, full of Hawks’ favorite themes (loyalty, professionalism, camaraderie, group dynamics). Film preserved by Library of Congress. 124...

France, Italy | 1961 | Jacques Demy

Composer Michel Legrand’s first collaboration with filmmaker Jacques Demy (a few years before their The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort) is a dream-like account of love lost and found. It’s not a musical but has the enchanted tone of one. Anouk Aimée plays a cabaret dancer who pines for the man who left her and their young child years before. Lola is dedicated to Max Ophüls but also evokes von Sternberg’s...

Germany, India, United Kingdom | 1928 | Franz Osten

A fictionalized telling of the grand 17th-century love story that inspired the Taj Mahal, Shiraz is a lavish silent melodrama shot in India with an all-Indian cast. Fully restored by the British Film Institute with a new music score by Grammy-nominated sitarist Anoushka Shankar (Ravi’s daughter), this rousing tale of potters, bandits, slavers, and nobles is an altogether exhilarating big-screen adventure. “I’ll never forget the first time I saw Shiraz, and if you take a...

Germany, India, United Kingdom | 1928 | Franz Osten

A fictionalized telling of the grand 17th-century love story that inspired the Taj Mahal, Shiraz is a lavish silent melodrama shot in India with an all-Indian cast. Fully restored by the British Film Institute with a new music score by Grammy-nominated sitarist Anoushka Shankar (Ravi’s daughter), this rousing tale of potters, bandits, slavers, and nobles is an altogether exhilarating big-screen adventure. “I’ll never forget the first time I saw Shiraz, and if you take a...

United States | 1979 | Glenn Silber, Barry Alexander Brown

Arguably the best film ever made about the 1960s student protests in America, this Oscar-nominated documentary chronicles (through original news footage and extensive interviews) the anti-Vietnam War activities that rocked the University of Wisconsin starting in 1963, making Madison one of the country’s key counterculture battlegrounds. “One of the best documentaries ever made…THE film about resistance…A must see!” –Michael Moore. Cleveland revival premiere. DCP. 100 min.

France, Italy | 1961 | Jacques Demy

Composer Michel Legrand’s first collaboration with filmmaker Jacques Demy (a few years before their The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort) is a dream-like account of love lost and found. It’s not a musical but has the enchanted tone of one. Anouk Aimée plays a cabaret dancer who pines for the man who left her and their young child years before. Lola is dedicated to Max Ophüls but also evokes von Sternberg’s...

France | 1950 | Jean Genet

The only movie by novelist and playwright Jean Genet was once banned in the U.S. (Even the Supreme Court found it obscene!) It’s a short, poetic, black-and-white silent film about two male prisoners in solitary confinement. Yearning for companionship and love, they do what they can to overcome their sexual deprivation. No one under 18 admitted! Preceded at 7:15 by After Apocalypse (Ultra pulpe, France, 2018, subtitles, DCP), a new short fantasy by Bertrand (The...

Belgium, United Kingdom, United States | 2018 | Panos Cosmatos

Nicolas Cage stars in this instant cult classic, a phantasmagoric revenge drama set in 1983, about a Pacific Northwest logger who brutally avenges the kidnapping of his artist girlfriend (Andrea Riseborough) by a deviant hippie cult and murderous motorcycle gang. The surrreal, psychedelic visuals evoke the trippy work of David Lynch and Nicolas Winding Refn, and the demonic mood is enhanced by a menacing score by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson (his last). Adults only! DCP....

France, Italy | 1974 | Alain Resnais

A Gershwinesque score by Stephen Sondheim and glistening, white-on-white Art Deco visuals highlight Alain Resnais’ elegant account of a debonair charmer and swindler (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who corrupted—and almost brought down—the French government shortly before WWII. With Charles Boyer. “A deceptively ruminative entertainment with a fizzy melancholy, and awash in sensory pleasures.” –L.A. Times (2018). Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 120 min.

Belgium, United Kingdom, United States | 2018 | Panos Cosmatos

Nicolas Cage stars in this instant cult classic, a phantasmagoric revenge drama set in 1983, about a Pacific Northwest logger who brutally avenges the kidnapping of his artist girlfriend (Andrea Riseborough) by a deviant hippie cult and murderous motorcycle gang. The surrreal, psychedelic visuals evoke the trippy work of David Lynch and Nicolas Winding Refn, and the demonic mood is enhanced by a menacing score by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson (his last). Adults only! DCP....

United States | 1966 | Howard Hawks

An aging gunfighter (John Wayne) comes to the aid of an old friend, now an alcoholic sheriff (Robert Mitchum), when the lawman must take on a powerful cattle baron and his hired killers. Essentially a reworking of Hawks’ 1959 western masterpiece Rio Bravo, this amiable and effortlessly entertaining comedy-drama features James Caan as a young, knife-throwing gambler. “An elegy on lost youth assuaged by friendship…A witty, exciting and deeply moving masterpiece.” –Time Out Film Guide....

United Kingdom | 1971 | Reginald Mills

Elaborately costumed members of Britain’s Royal Ballet bring the beloved stories of Beatrix Potter to life via dance and pantomime in this unique, dialogue-free film for the entire family. Choreography by Frederick Ashton. Cleveland revival premiere. DCP. 90 min.

France, Italy | 1974 | Alain Resnais

A Gershwinesque score by Stephen Sondheim and glistening, white-on-white Art Deco visuals highlight Alain Resnais’ elegant account of a debonair charmer and swindler (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who corrupted—and almost brought down—the French government shortly before WWII. With Charles Boyer. “A deceptively ruminative entertainment with a fizzy melancholy, and awash in sensory pleasures.” –L.A. Times (2018). Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 120 min.

Turkey | 2018 | Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s first film since winning the Palme d’Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for Winter Sleep is another essential work. A recent college graduate and aspiring writer returns from the city to the rural town where he grew up. Though he doesn’t want to “rot” in this backwater, he discovers that, while trying to get his first book published, he must deal with his father’s gambling debts. “Masterful.” –Variety. Subtitles....

Turkey | 2018 | Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s first film since winning the Palme d’Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for Winter Sleep is another essential work. A recent college graduate and aspiring writer returns from the city to the rural town where he grew up. Though he doesn’t want to “rot” in this backwater, he discovers that, while trying to get his first book published, he must deal with his father’s gambling debts. “Masterful.” –Variety. Subtitles....

United States | 1964 | Howard Hawks

Howard Hawks’ final screwball comedy stars Rock Hudson as a prominent fishing expert and stellar seller of sporting goods. But when his company’s PR director (Paula Prentiss) enters him in an angling competition, it turns out he can’t fish at all—or do much else in the great outdoors! “A marvellous film.” –Time Out Film Guide. Color print from the Universal Pictures studio archive! 120 min.

France, Switzerland | 1977 | Claude Goretta

This is the film that introduced Isabelle Huppert to America as a leading actress. She plays Pomme, a shy, plain, reticent young Paris hairdresser who goes on holiday in Normandy with a girlfriend. There she has her first love affair, with unforeseen results. A touching, observant gem. Subtitles. 107 min.

Italy, United Kingdom | 1973 | Nicolas Roeg

One of the scariest, sexiest, and most stylish films ever made! Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie play bereaved parents who travel to off-season Venice after the drowning death of their young daughter. There they become entangled in a deadly parapsychological web involving a mysterious figure in a red raincoat and two old sisters who claim to be in touch with their dead child. Adults only! Blu-ray. 110 min.

United States, West Germany | 1979 | Milos Forman

John Savage, Treat Williams, and Beverly D’Angelo star in Milos Forman’s film version of the famous “American tribal love-rock musical” that celebrates hippies and helped usher in the Age of Aquarius. Choreography by Twyla Tharp. Hair is co-presented by The Musical Theater Project; TMTP Founding Director Bill Rudman will introduce the film at 3:30 and lead a post-film discussion. DCP. 121 min.

United States | 1959 | Roger Corman

Late cult actor Dick Miller first played Walter Paisley (a character name he would have again in five other films) in this delightfully demented horror comedy from the writer and director of The Little Shop of Horrors (their next film). Miller plays a hapless busboy at a beatnik coffeehouse that is frequented by artists, writers, and poets. He yearns to be part of the hipster “in crowd,” and finally succeeds when he turns a cat...

West Germany, Yugoslavia | 1971 | Dušan Makavejev

The wild theories of renegade American sexologist Wilhelm Reich (WR), proponent of “orgone energy,” are the basis for this funny, sexy, sardonic collage film—a cinematic pop-art masterpiece about the relationship between sex, power politics, and freedom. The baseline story is a romance between a liberated Yugoslavian woman and a repressed Russian ice skater, but cutaways to a 1946 Stalinist propaganda movie and to documentary footage of 1960s America subvert and amplify the narrative. No one...