Cinematheque Film Schedule

Hungary | 1990 | Márta Mészáros

The conclusion to Márta Mészáros’ autobiographical trilogy (see 4/14 at 6:45 & 4/23 at 5:00) is a mix of newsreel footage and fictionalized drama. Film student Juli returns from Moscow to Budapest in the wake of the failed 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Brutality, fear, anxiety, and resentment suffuse her shattered nation, now firmly in the grip of the Soviets. “Mészáros creates an at once epic and intimate portrait of history as she experienced it, bearing witness...

Canada | 1987 | Patricia Rozema

Polly (Sheila McCarthy), a gauche, scatterbrained young woman who lapses into daydreams and aspires to be a photographer, gets a temp job as a secretary at a trendy Toronto art gallery. She develops a crush on the gallery’s sophisticated French owner, Gabrielle, but soon learns that Gabrielle is not all she seems. Patricia Rozema’s whimsical indie comedy is a landmark Canadian film. “[Polly] is, perhaps, the most memorable, genuinely likeable screen creation in years, and...

United States | 1973 | Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese’s breakthrough movie also announced the arrival of Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. Set in NYC’s Little Italy, it’s a propulsive crime drama about a conflicted small-time hood and a reckless, delinquent friend for whom he feels responsible. One of the seminal American films. 35mm. 110 min. Special admission $13; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $10. No passes or twofers.

United States | 1979 | Stewart Bird, Deborah Shaffer

Added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry last year, this rousing labor documentary chronicles the history of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World, known as “The Wobblies”), which was founded in Chicago in 1905 and tried to organize a vast array of unskilled laborers—factory workers, field hands, miners, dockworkers, et al.—into one big union. The film is a rich tapestry of newsreels, photographs, songs, and testimonials. “One emerges stunned and angry, admiring...

Taiwan | 1994 | Tsai Ming-liang

The sophomore feature by the director of The Hole and Goodbye, Dragon Inn won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, cementing Tsai’s int’l reputation. Evoking Antonioni in its wordless formal elegance, the movie is a deadpan, erotic comedy in which three lonely Taipei residents—a funeral salesperson (Lee Kang-sheng), a real estate agent, and a street vendor who is one of her lovers—use the same empty high-rise apartment for their own sexual/recreational escapades, unbeknownst...

Japan | 2021 | Yoshida Kôta

Three sexually frustrated adults—one woman and two men—find titillation, pleasure, and release in their private food fetishes. This wry, three-part Japanese movie explores the connection between individuals’ culinary and carnal appetites. “Consistently intriguing and occasionally hilarious…Does not depict sex itself.” –NY Times. Adults only! Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. 70 min. Sexual Drive, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can be viewed online from 5/6 thru at least 5/26 via the link below. Doing so supports the Cinematheque. Screening fee...

United States | 1981 | Lawrence Kasdan

Kathleen Turner and the late William Hurt star in this sexy, influential neo-noir about a Florida lawyer who falls for a sultry, scheming married woman. She soon induces him to bump off her wealthy husband (Richard Crenna). With Mickey Rourke. 35mm. 113 min.

Japan | 1953 | Kinuyo Tanaka

Kinuyo Tanaka’s directorial debut stars Masayuki Mori (Rashomon) as a repatriated Japanese war veteran searching for his lost love while also earning money translating romantic letters from Japanese women to American GIs. The film shows how former Japanese soldiers had to come to terms with the painful fact that many Japanese women had sexual relationships with their old enemies. Co-written by prominent Japanese moviemaker Keisuke Kinoshita; Tanaka has a small role. “Exquisitely sensitive.” –Wall St....

France | 2020 | Pierre Pinaud

In this delightful new French comedy, a once successful rose grower (Catherine Frot) must depend on three ex-prisoners with no horticultural experience to try to save her failing business. “A buoyant romp.” –L.A. Times. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 94 min.

United States | 1981 | Lawrence Kasdan

Kathleen Turner and the late William Hurt star in this sexy, influential neo-noir about a Florida lawyer who falls for a sultry, scheming married woman. She soon induces him to bump off her wealthy husband (Richard Crenna). With Mickey Rourke. 35mm. 113 min.

France | 2020 | Pierre Pinaud

In this delightful new French comedy, a once successful rose grower (Catherine Frot) must depend on three ex-prisoners with no horticultural experience to try to save her failing business. “A buoyant romp.” –L.A. Times. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 94 min.

Japan | 1955 | Kinuyo Tanaka

The great Yasujiro Ozu co-wrote the screenplay for Kinuyo Tanaka’s second directorial outing—a comic family saga about a prosperous widower (Ozu regular Chishu Ryu) with three unmarried grown daughters. When the youngest decides to become secret matchmaker for her elder sister, she messes with her own chances for matrimony. Tanaka makes a cameo appearance. “Charming and vivid…A delicate fable of growing up.” –Time Out Film Guide. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 102 min.

Taiwan | 1994 | Tsai Ming-liang

The sophomore feature by the director of The Hole and Goodbye, Dragon Inn won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, cementing Tsai’s int’l reputation. Evoking Antonioni in its wordless formal elegance, the movie is a deadpan, erotic comedy in which three lonely Taipei residents—a funeral salesperson (Lee Kang-sheng), a real estate agent, and a street vendor who is one of her lovers—use the same empty high-rise apartment for their own sexual/recreational escapades, unbeknownst...

United Kingdom | 1970 | Barney Platts-Mills

This rediscovered and newly restored British gem is a kitchen sink drama with a punk rock spirit. Shot in b&w, and in English with English subtitles, the movie focuses on Del, a 17-year-old delinquent living in London’s East End. Del and his friend Bronco Bullfrog, a reform school alum, commit petty robberies until Del meets and falls for Irene. He decides to run off with her. “An auspicious first feature…A British equivalent of Italian neo-realism:...

USSR | 1964 | Sergei Paradjanov

Perhaps the most celebrated Ukrainian film ever made, this star-crossed romance gave the world its first glimpse of the extravagant visual poetry and unbridled imagination of Sergei (The Color of Pomegranates) Paradjanov, a “troublemaker” who would be imprisoned by Soviet authorities on trumped-up charges a few years later. Shadows is a roiling brew of mythology, religious iconography, and pagan magic. Sometimes called a Carpathian Romeo and Juliet, this delirious folk spectacle tells of a peasant...

Lithuania, Ukraine | 2020 | Iryna Tsilyk

Trauma is transformed into poetry in this multi-award-winning nonfiction film that focuses on a single mother and her four children living in a small town in the war-ravaged Donbass region of Ukraine during 2014-15. The whole clan is passionate about cinema, so they collaborate on this film inspired by their surreal lives, turning their home into a creative refuge from the destructive war raging outside. “An intimate and surprisingly playful family’s eye view of life...

Taiwan, United States | 1991 | Ang Lee

Ang Lee’s award-winning debut feature is an amiable comedy-drama about an elderly tai chi master who relocates from Beijing to his Americanized son’s home in Westchester, New York. There, while trying to find his place in this unfamiliar new world, he clashes with his Caucasian daughter-in-law. “A lovingly observed human comedy.” –L.A. Times. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. Restored DCP. 105 min.

United Kingdom | 1970 | Barney Platts-Mills

This rediscovered and newly restored British gem is a kitchen sink drama with a punk rock spirit. Shot in b&w, and in English with English subtitles, the movie focuses on Del, a 17-year-old delinquent living in London’s East End. Del and his friend Bronco Bullfrog, a reform school alum, commit petty robberies until Del meets and falls for Irene. He decides to run off with her. “An auspicious first feature…A British equivalent of Italian neo-realism:...

Japan | 1953 | Kinuyo Tanaka

Widely regarded as Kinuyo Tanaka’s directorial masterpiece, this surprisingly frank drama about breast cancer centers on an unhappily married woman and mother who is able to channel her misfortunes into powerful poetry. It was inspired by the real-life story of the poet Fumiko Nakajo. With Masayuki Mori (Rashomon) and, in a small role, Tanaka herself. “One of the great movies about a writer.” –New Yorker. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 110 min.

United States | 2022 | Ted Braun

In this new documentary full of great music, the charismatic, 41-year-old Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel (who’s Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) addresses social unrest in his home country with a series of uplifting concerts around the world. “A terrifically exciting conductor.” –Anthony Tommasini, NY Times. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 99 min.

Italy, Spain, United States | 2020 | Woody Allen

Woody Allen’s latest comedy is for fans of classic European art house cinema. Wallace Shawn plays an insecure, hypochondriacal film professor who visits the San Sebastian Film Festival with his movie publicist wife (Gina Gershon) because her current client, a hot French film director (Louis Garrel), may prove a rival for her affections. Contains amusing fantasy sequences that riff on movies by Truffaut, Bergman, Godard, et al. Luminous cinematography by Vittorio Storaro. DCP. 88 min.

USSR | 1964 | Sergei Paradjanov

Perhaps the most celebrated Ukrainian film ever made, this star-crossed romance gave the world its first glimpse of the extravagant visual poetry and unbridled imagination of Sergei (The Color of Pomegranates) Paradjanov, a “troublemaker” who would be imprisoned by Soviet authorities on trumped-up charges a few years later. Shadows is a roiling brew of mythology, religious iconography, and pagan magic. Sometimes called a Carpathian Romeo and Juliet, this delirious folk spectacle tells of a peasant...

Italy, Spain, United States | 2020 | Woody Allen

Woody Allen’s latest comedy is for fans of classic European art house cinema. Wallace Shawn plays an insecure, hypochondriacal film professor who visits the San Sebastian Film Festival with his movie publicist wife (Gina Gershon) because her current client, a hot French film director (Louis Garrel), may prove a rival for her affections. Contains amusing fantasy sequences that riff on movies by Truffaut, Bergman, Godard, et al. Luminous cinematography by Vittorio Storaro. DCP. 88 min.

United States | 2022 | Ted Braun

In this new documentary full of great music, the charismatic, 41-year-old Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel (who’s Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) addresses social unrest in his home country with a series of uplifting concerts around the world. “A terrifically exciting conductor.” –Anthony Tommasini, NY Times. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 99 min.

Argentina, France, Italy | 2021 | Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis

The films of Werner Herzog and Sergio Leone are evoked in this two-part saga inspired by a folktale told by some elderly Italian hunters. This late 19th-century, magical realist legend centers on an ornery village drunk who is exiled to Tierra del Fuego after a violent dispute with the local prince. In Argentina, this exile searches for a fabled Spanish treasure with the help of a giant crab. “An engaging and thought-provoking film.” –Screen Int’l....

United States | 1986 | Juliet Bashore

This queer classic is a quasi-documentary that plunges into the 1980s San Francisco porn industry, taking an unsparing look at the issues of misogyny, drug abuse, and exploitation. The film tells the story of two women—naïve newcomer Tigr and her partner, the magnetic, imperious porn veteran Sharon “Mitch” Mitchell—who find themselves in a toxic romance further strained by their working together. “A startlingly potent and continuously riveting film with no taboos left to break.” –Village...

Ukraine | 2021 | Valentyn Vasyanovych

The new film from the director of the 2019 Ukrainian stunner Atlantis (which we streamed in 2021) focuses on a Kiev surgeon traumatized by his time as a POW during the 2014-15 conflict with Russia over the contested Donbass region. Returning to his middle-class civilian existence after the war, the doctor tries to restore his relationship with his daughter and ex-wife. Vasyanovych’s transcendent tale of pain and healing is realized with medium long shots, extreme...

France | 1956 | Robert Bresson

For the final film in his year-long “carte blanche” series, soon-to-retire Cleveland Institute of Art President + CEO Grafton Nunes has picked another masterpiece of “transcendental” cinema. Robert Bresson’s spare, intense suspense classic focuses on a French Resistance fighter whose painstaking escape from a Nazi prison fortress becomes a mesmerizing metaphysical journey. In Bresson’s hands, mundane objects (spoons, wires, etc.) become precious instruments of deliverance in a meticulously composed symphony of salvation. A reception open...

Japan | 1960 | Kinuyo Tanaka

Tanaka’s first film in both color and Cinemascope is an epic about a woman caught in the torrents of history. Machiko Kyô (Rashomon) plays a Japanese aristocrat who, at the outset of World War II, is forced to marry the younger brother of the Chinese Emperor who is nominally ruling Japanese-controlled Manchuria. “Impressive in its sweep and humane vision.” –Film Comment. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 102 min.

United States | 2022 | A. B. Zax

The small town of Lenox, MA, rallies to save its local independent bookstore when Covid threatens this beloved institution that has been run for over 40 years by poetry-spouting Matt Tannenbaum. (“Hello, Bookstore” is how he answers the phone.) Cleveland premiere. DCP. 86 min.

Argentina, France, Italy | 2021 | Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis

The films of Werner Herzog and Sergio Leone are evoked in this two-part saga inspired by a folktale told by some elderly Italian hunters. This late 19th-century, magical realist legend centers on an ornery village drunk who is exiled to Tierra del Fuego after a violent dispute with the local prince. In Argentina, this exile searches for a fabled Spanish treasure with the help of a giant crab. “An engaging and thought-provoking film.” –Screen Int’l....

United States | 2022 | A. B. Zax

The small town of Lenox, MA, rallies to save its local independent bookstore when Covid threatens this beloved institution that has been run for over 40 years by poetry-spouting Matt Tannenbaum. (“Hello, Bookstore” is how he answers the phone.) Cleveland premiere. DCP. 86 min.

United States | 1986 | Juliet Bashore

This queer classic is a quasi-documentary that plunges into the 1980s San Francisco porn industry, taking an unsparing look at the issues of misogyny, drug abuse, and exploitation. The film tells the story of two women—naïve newcomer Tigr and her partner, the magnetic, imperious porn veteran Sharon “Mitch” Mitchell—who find themselves in a toxic romance further strained by their working together. “A startlingly potent and continuously riveting film with no taboos left to break.” –Village...

United Kingdom | 2021 | Charlie Shackleton

Film as a repository of memory—and as a transient medium itself—is the combined focus of this new collage film by British conceptual artist and experimental filmmaker Charlie Shackleton (who will be present to answer audience questions after tonight’s screening). Archival fragments from hundreds of films around the world bring together an ensemble cast of stellar screen actors with one big thing in common: each is no longer alive. These famous faces and voices now exist...

Romania | 2021 | Radu Muntean

Three young, idealistic, well-meaning Budapest aid workers are delivering food in the impoverished, remote Întregalde area of Transylvania. But as these do-gooders drive deeper into this unfamiliar, dangerous region, their humanitarian impulses and goodwill erode. Part suspense thriller, part social satire, the latest comedy-drama by a Romanian New Wave veteran is one of the best-reviewed films of the year. “Critic’s Pick…A movie that, with humor, tenderness and flashes of filmmaking brilliance, looks at what happens...

France, Italy | 1964 | Michelangelo Antonioni

Antonioni’s first color feature, gorgeous to behold, found the Italian maestro painting and dyeing grass, trees, sand, buildings, fruit, and hair to enhance his film’s mood and complement his characters’ neuroses. A tone poem set in a soulless and stifling industrial landscape, Red Desert focuses on an electrical engineer’s wife (Antonioni’s frequent muse Monica Vitti) who has an affair with her husband’s best friend (Richard Harris) just to maintain some human contact. “Perhaps the most...

France, Italy | 1964 | Michelangelo Antonioni

Antonioni’s first color feature, gorgeous to behold, found the Italian maestro painting and dyeing grass, trees, sand, buildings, fruit, and hair to enhance his film’s mood and complement his characters’ neuroses. A tone poem set in a soulless and stifling industrial landscape, Red Desert focuses on an electrical engineer’s wife (Antonioni’s frequent muse Monica Vitti) who has an affair with her husband’s best friend (Richard Harris) just to maintain some human contact. “Perhaps the most...

Romania | 2021 | Radu Muntean

Three young, idealistic, well-meaning Budapest aid workers are delivering food in the impoverished, remote Întregalde area of Transylvania. But as these do-gooders drive deeper into this unfamiliar, dangerous region, their humanitarian impulses and goodwill erode. Part suspense thriller, part social satire, the latest comedy-drama by a Romanian New Wave veteran is one of the best-reviewed films of the year. “Critic’s Pick…A movie that, with humor, tenderness and flashes of filmmaking brilliance, looks at what happens...

Japan | 1961 | Kinuyo Tanaka

With the closing of brothels and the outlawing of prostitution in 1958 Japan, a former streetwalker turns to “respectable” employment. But soon she finds she misses the freedom and money of sex work. One of the first Japanese films both written and directed by women, Kinuyo Tanaka’s complex treatment of a troubling subject is more empathetic than moralistic. The writer was Sumie Tanaka (no relation to Kinuyo), who also penned Forever a Woman (see 5/14...

Belgium, France, Monaco | 2021 | Gaspar Noé

Dario Argento (director of Suspiria) and Françoise Lebrun (co-star of The Mother and the Whore) star in the subdued, sobering new film by French provocateur Gaspar Noé (Irreversible, Enter the Void). The two play an elderly couple living out their last days in a cluttered Paris apartment. Argento is a film critic trying to finish a book on dreams and cinema; Lebrun is a former psychiatrist struggling with dementia. Though they muddle through their days...

France | 2019 | Gaspar Noé

Béatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg star in this cheeky, assaultive art film by Gaspar Noé (I Stand Alone, Climax, Vortex). They play versions of themselves—two veteran performers who are acting in (or directing) a new movie about witches. But technical problems, interpersonal tensions, and emotional outbursts soon plunge the production into chaos. “Visual and aural opulence.” –Hollywood Reporter. Adults only! Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 51 min.

Japan | 1962 | Kinuyo Tanaka

In 16th-century feudal Japan, Ogin, the daughter of Japanese tea ceremony master Sen no Rikyu, falls in love with Ukon Takayama (Tatsuya Nakadai), a Christian lord and samurai who is already married. Ogun tries to remain chaste and faithful to Ukon even as she marries a wealthy merchant and later becomes the shogun’s concubine. Kinuyo Tanaka’s final film as a director (her second in both color and Cinemascope) is another historical saga told from a...

France | 2019 | Gaspar Noé

Béatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg star in this cheeky, assaultive art film by Gaspar Noé (I Stand Alone, Climax, Vortex). They play versions of themselves—two veteran performers who are acting in (or directing) a new movie about witches. But technical problems, interpersonal tensions, and emotional outbursts soon plunge the production into chaos. “Visual and aural opulence.” –Hollywood Reporter. Adults only! Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 51 min.

Belgium, France, Monaco | 2021 | Gaspar Noé

Dario Argento (director of Suspiria) and Françoise Lebrun (co-star of The Mother and the Whore) star in the subdued, sobering new film by French provocateur Gaspar Noé (Irreversible, Enter the Void). The two play an elderly couple living out their last days in a cluttered Paris apartment. Argento is a film critic trying to finish a book on dreams and cinema; Lebrun is a former psychiatrist struggling with dementia. Though they muddle through their days...