Cinematheque Film Schedule

United States | 1985 | Peter Bogdanovich

We resume theatrical screenings (after a 15½-month intermission!) with an Oscar-winning classic in its extended director’s cut that’s never been shown theatrically in Cleveland and is unavailable on any streaming service. Released the year the Cinematheque started showing movies and sporting a title that could not be more timely (make sure you familiarize yourself with our new Covid protocols, by the way), Peter Bogdanovich’s Mask proved an irresistible choice for our reopening feature. Plus it’s...

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United States | 2019 | Beth B

The brash, confrontational career of 1970s No Wave musician and spoken word artist Lydia Lunch is recounted in this new documentary by veteran indie filmmaker Beth B, who co-directed Lunch in her 1982 neo-noir Vortex. Shot during one of the artist’s recent tours, the film explores how Lunch survived sexual abuse to become a fearless, outspoken punk icon. With Thurston Moore, Henry Rollins, and others. Cleveland premiere. 77 min. Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never...

United States | 2020 | Alexandre Rockwell

Indie stalwart Alexandre Rockwell (In the Soup) casts his daughter Lana, son Nico, and wife Karyn Parsons in his poetic new movie, evocatively shot on 16mm b&w film in and around New Bedford, MA. Fleeing both their alcoholic father (Will Patton) and their wayward mother (and her abusive boyfriend), a teen girl and her kid brother run away to have their own summertime adventure. “One of the most powerful new films I’ve seen in years.”...

Denmark | 2020 | Anders Thomas Jensen

Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, Pusher) stars in this quirky action comedy that was nominated for 15 (!) 2021 Danish Film Awards, winning four. (It lost Best Picture to another Mikkelsen vehicle, Another Round.) Set at Christmastime, the movie is an occasionally violent but good-hearted revenge drama in which a solider with PTSD is convinced by some egghead misfits that the train crash that killed his wife was no accident. From the director of Adam’s Apple...

United States | 1973/2019 | George A. Romero

This newly rediscovered “lost” film by George A. Romero was made in Pittsburgh five years after his groundbreaking zombie classic Night of the Living Dead. Commissioned by the Lutheran Service Society of Western PA as a movie addressing ageism and elder abuse (but rejected by them for being too disturbing and never released), it’s an allegorical tale about an elderly man (Lincoln Maazel, father of former Cleveland Orchestra Music Director Lorin Maazel) whose visit to...

United States | 1973/2019 | George A. Romero

This newly rediscovered “lost” film by George A. Romero was made in Pittsburgh five years after his groundbreaking zombie classic Night of the Living Dead. Commissioned by the Lutheran Service Society of Western PA as a movie addressing ageism and elder abuse (but rejected by them for being too disturbing and never released), it’s an allegorical tale about an elderly man (Lincoln Maazel, father of former Cleveland Orchestra Music Director Lorin Maazel) whose visit to...

Denmark | 2020 | Anders Thomas Jensen

Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, Pusher) stars in this quirky action comedy that was nominated for 15 (!) 2021 Danish Film Awards, winning four. (It lost Best Picture to another Mikkelsen vehicle, Another Round.) Set at Christmastime, the movie is an occasionally violent but good-hearted revenge drama in which a solider with PTSD is convinced by some egghead misfits that the train crash that killed his wife was no accident. From the director of Adam’s Apple...

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Tunisia | 2018 | Abdelhamid Bouchnak

When did you last see an Arabic-language horror film? In this creepy North African chiller, three bumbling journalism students interview a dangerous madwoman at a local asylum. They decide to investigate the mysterious, traumatic incident that got her institutionalized over 20 years ago, which leads them to a remote, eerie village full of goats, strange women, and sinister children. “Dachra delivers its unsavory thrills.” –Hollywood Reporter. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. 114 min. Dachra, a Cinematheque streaming...

South Korea | 2020 | Hong Sang-soo

The 24th film in 24 years by prolific S. Korean master Hong Sang-soo is a female-centric, three-part comedy-drama in which a young florist (Hong’s current partner and muse Kim Min-hee) visits separately with three women friends while her husband is away on business—the first time they’ve been separated in five years of marriage. Though her three reunions—with a divorcee who now raises chickens, a pilates instructor, and a manager of an art house movie theater—are...

Italy | 1969 | Jacques Deray

In this sexy French crime classic, Alain Delon and Romy Schneider play lovers whose steamy summertime vacation in a luxury villa on the sunny French Riviera is complicated by the arrival of her ex-lover (Maurice Ronet) and his nubile young daughter (Jane Birkin). Insecurities and rivalries surface, leading to generally bad behavior all around. “Erotic languor turns gradually into fear and then horror in this gripping and superbly controlled thriller...The pool is a primordial swamp...

South Korea | 2020 | Hong Sang-soo

The 24th film in 24 years by prolific S. Korean master Hong Sang-soo is a female-centric, three-part comedy-drama in which a young florist (Hong’s current partner and muse Kim Min-hee) visits separately with three women friends while her husband is away on business—the first time they’ve been separated in five years of marriage. Though her three reunions—with a divorcee who now raises chickens, a pilates instructor, and a manager of an art house movie theater—are...

Italy | 1969 | Jacques Deray

In this sexy French crime classic, Alain Delon and Romy Schneider play lovers whose steamy summertime vacation in a luxury villa on the sunny French Riviera is complicated by the arrival of her ex-lover (Maurice Ronet) and his nubile young daughter (Jane Birkin). Insecurities and rivalries surface, leading to generally bad behavior all around. “Erotic languor turns gradually into fear and then horror in this gripping and superbly controlled thriller...The pool is a primordial swamp...

Italy | 1969 | Jacques Deray

In this sexy French crime classic, Alain Delon and Romy Schneider play lovers whose steamy summertime vacation in a luxury villa on the sunny French Riviera is complicated by the arrival of her ex-lover (Maurice Ronet) and his nubile young daughter (Jane Birkin). Insecurities and rivalries surface, leading to generally bad behavior all around. “Erotic languor turns gradually into fear and then horror in this gripping and superbly controlled thriller...The pool is a primordial swamp...

Japan | 2017 | Nobuhiko Obayashi

The late Japanese filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi (1938-2020) wanted to make this anti-war epic even before he directed his first feature, the cult classic House (Hausu), in 1977! He finally realized his dream at age 80, after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and given six months to live. Based on a 1937 novella by Kazuo Dan and set in a Japanese coastal village a few months before Pearl Harbor, the film focuses on a...

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South Korea | 2020 | Hong Sang-soo

The 24th film in 24 years by prolific S. Korean master Hong Sang-soo is a female-centric, three-part comedy-drama in which a young florist (Hong’s current partner and muse Kim Min-hee) visits separately with three women friends while her husband is away on business—the first time they’ve been separated in five years of marriage. Though her three reunions—with a divorcee who now raises chickens, a pilates instructor, and a manager of an art house movie...

Japan | 2017 | Nobuhiko Obayashi

The late Japanese filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi (1938-2020) wanted to make this anti-war epic even before he directed his first feature, the cult classic House (Hausu), in 1977! He finally realized his dream at age 80, after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and given six months to live. Based on a 1937 novella by Kazuo Dan and set in a Japanese coastal village a few months before Pearl Harbor, the film focuses on a...

United States | 2020 | John Gianvito

The radical views of author, lecturer, and crusader Helen Keller (who could neither see nor hear) have been largely suppressed or sanitized over the years. A pioneering leftist thinker who fervently and eloquently advocated for many progressive causes (from the rights of women and the disabled to international socialism and world peace), Keller is restored to her rightful place in American political discourse in this new film essay by John Gianvito (Profit Motive and the...

United States | 2020 | Tom Hurwitz, Rosalynde LeBlanc

This lyrical new documentary employs interviews and archival material to trace the history and legacy of one of the most important works of art to come out of the age of AIDS—Bill T. Jones' tour de force ballet "D-Man in the Waters". This 1989 work gave physical expression to the fear, anger, grief, and hope for salvation felt by the emerging Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company as they were embattled by the AIDS pandemic. In...

France | 2021 | Julien Faraut

As a warm-up to this year's Tokyo Olympics, we look back to 1964, the last time the summer games were held in Tokyo. This new sports documentary from the director of John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection chronicles the thrilling rise of Japan’s 1964 women's volleyball team—a group of humble factory workers who became the pride of their nation with an unbelievable 258-game winning streak culminating in Olympic gold. Disparaged by some as "oriental...

Czechoslovakia | 1963 | Jindřich Polák

Here’s the acclaimed original version of a sixties Czech sci-fi film that was heavily edited and altered (and dubbed into English) for U.S. release as Voyage to the End of the Universe. Based on Stanisław Lem’s novel The Magellanic Cloud and set in 2163, the film follows a group of multinational astronauts on a 15-year voyage to another planet. Along the way, they encounter assorted hazards and perils while confronting their own...

Poland, Sweden | 2021 | Magnus von Horn

In this new film that deftly punctures the social media bubble, a picture-perfect Polish fitness influencer with 600,000 Instagram followers (as well as endorsement deals, magazine spreads, etc.) has two big problems: she’s lonely and her authentic, non-public persona is fast fading away in the bright, relentless media spotlight. The second feature by Sweden’s Magnus von Horn was selected for Cannes 2020 and has a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “Accomplished and satisfyingly hard-edged.”...

Czechoslovakia | 1963 | Jindřich Polák

Here’s the acclaimed original version of a sixties Czech sci-fi film that was heavily edited and altered (and dubbed into English) for U.S. release as Voyage to the End of the Universe. Based on Stanisław Lem’s novel The Magellanic Cloud and set in 2163, the film follows a group of multinational astronauts on a 15-year voyage to another planet. Along the way, they encounter assorted hazards and perils while confronting their own...

France, Spain, United Kingdom | 2020 | Pedro Almodóvar/Florian Zeller

Two of 2020’s most acclaimed art films in one program, for one price! In Almodóvar’s short gem (shot during the lockdown), a perfect Tilda Swinton plays a distressed woman talking on the phone. She tries to convince a lover not to leave her as she walks around a swank apartment containing his luggage and his dog. Based on Jean Cocteau’s theatrical monologue of the same name, The Human Voice is Almodóvar’s first film in English....

France, Spain, United Kingdom | 2020 | Pedro Almodóvar/Florian Zeller

Two of 2020’s most acclaimed art films in one program, for one price! In Almodóvar’s short gem (shot during the lockdown), a perfect Tilda Swinton plays a distressed woman talking on the phone. She tries to convince a lover not to leave her as she walks around a swank apartment containing his luggage and his dog. Based on Jean Cocteau’s theatrical monologue of the same name, The Human Voice is Almodóvar’s first film in English....

Poland, Sweden | 2021 | Magnus von Horn

In this new film that deftly punctures the social media bubble, a picture-perfect Polish fitness influencer with 600,000 Instagram followers (as well as endorsement deals, magazine spreads, etc.) has two big problems: she’s lonely and her authentic, non-public persona is fast fading away in the bright, relentless media spotlight. The second feature by Sweden’s Magnus von Horn was selected for Cannes 2020 and has a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “Accomplished and satisfyingly hard-edged.”...

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France | 1993-95 | Chris Marker

French filmmaker Chris Marker, whom The Guardian has called “the most poetic and original of documentarists,” was born 100 years ago on July 29. (He died in 2012.) To mark the occasion, we present three newly available short films of his and one popular short film collection. Program includes: Berliner Ballade (France, 1995), a tribute to Berlin filmed after the fall of the Wall; Blue Helmet (France, 1995), in which a United Nations peacekeeper recounts...

United States | 2020 | Dana Brown

The life and legacy of indie filmmaker Bruce Brown (1937-2017), whose seminal documentaries The Endless Summer (about surfing) and On Any Sunday (about motorcycle racing) inspired thousands and boosted both sports, are celebrated by his filmmaker son Dana in this new movie. Dana convinces his dad, late in life, to make a cross-country road trip (along with his dog Rusty) to visit some of the longtime friends—surfers, motorcyclists, inventors, and other free spirits—he made while...

United Kingdom, United States | 2020 | Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan’s latest big-screen head trip—showing here on film, for the first time in Cleveland—is a mind-blowing, time-bending sci-fi spectacle in which a CIA agent tries to save the world from a Russian oligarch with nefarious designs. Even if you can’t make out what the characters are saying, or don’t know what the hell is going on, you’ll long remember the movie’s bold premise and awe-inspiring action sequences. With John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth...

United States | 2019 | Louie Schwartzberg

Our biggest box office hit of all time (four successive sellout shows in January & February 2020, and a subsequent ten-month virtual run) is a mind-blowing, beautifully photographed look at mushrooms and how they can help save the planet. It deserves two more screenings on the big screen. With Paul Stamets, Michael Pollan, and Andrew Weil; narrated by Brie Larson. DCP. 81 min.

United Kingdom, United States | 2020 | Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan’s latest big-screen head trip—showing here on film, for the first time in Cleveland—is a mind-blowing, time-bending sci-fi spectacle in which a CIA agent tries to save the world from a Russian oligarch with nefarious designs. Even if you can’t make out what the characters are saying, or don’t know what the hell is going on, you’ll long remember the movie’s bold premise and awe-inspiring action sequences. With John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth...

United States | 2020 | Dana Brown

The life and legacy of indie filmmaker Bruce Brown (1937-2017), whose seminal documentaries The Endless Summer (about surfing) and On Any Sunday (about motorcycle racing) inspired thousands and boosted both sports, are celebrated by his filmmaker son Dana in this new movie. Dana convinces his dad, late in life, to make a cross-country road trip (along with his dog Rusty) to visit some of the longtime friends—surfers, motorcyclists, inventors, and other free spirits—he made while...

United States | 2019 | Louie Schwartzberg

Our biggest box office hit of all time (four successive sellout shows in January & February 2020, and a subsequent ten-month virtual run) is a mind-blowing, beautifully photographed look at mushrooms and how they can help save the planet. It deserves two more screenings on the big screen. With Paul Stamets, Michael Pollan, and Andrew Weil; narrated by Brie Larson. DCP. 81 min.

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Germany, Netherlands, Poland | 2020 | Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert

The official Polish entry for this year's Oscar for Best Int'l Feature Film is a comedy-drama about a Russian-speaking immigrant from the East who works as a masseur in a Polish gated community, where he exerts a strange, otherworldly sway over the wealthy residents. “Somewhere between Twin Peaks and Pasolini’s Teorema." –Screen Daily. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. 113 min. Never Gonna Snow Again, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can be viewed online from 7/30 thru at least 8/19...

Germany, Netherlands, Poland | 2020 | Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert

The official Polish entry for this year's Oscar for Best Int'l Feature Film is a comedy-drama about a Russian-speaking immigrant from the East who works as a masseur in a Polish gated community, where he exerts a strange, otherworldly sway over the wealthy residents. “Somewhere between Twin Peaks and Pasolini’s Teorema." –Screen Daily. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 113 min.

South Korea | 2003 | Bong Joon-ho

The second feature by Parasite director Bong Joon-ho is a taut police thriller turned Keystone Cops comedy now regarded as one of Bong’s greatest works. Based on a true case that was solved just recently, the movie follows two woefully out-of-their-depths lawmen, a country bumpkin and a city hotshot, as they clumsily try to solve a string of grisly murders. Their hapless investigation drags on for years. With Song Kang-ho. “[A] singular mix of gallows...

United Kingdom | 2020 | Lisa Rovner

Laurie Anderson narrates this new documentary that profiles some of the 20th century's female pioneers of electronic music, including Delia Derbyshire, Daphne Oram, theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore, and Wendy Carlos. Includes new and vintage interviews, wild archival film clips, and (of course) amazing music. "A vital historical corrective, inscribing the names of these women into history as the innovators, independent thinkers and trailblazers they were." –L.A. Times. DCP. 84 min.

South Korea | 2003 | Bong Joon-ho

The second feature by Parasite director Bong Joon-ho is a taut police thriller turned Keystone Cops comedy now regarded as one of Bong’s greatest works. Based on a true case that was solved just recently, the movie follows two woefully out-of-their-depths lawmen, a country bumpkin and a city hotshot, as they clumsily try to solve a string of grisly murders. Their hapless investigation drags on for years. With Song Kang-ho. “[A] singular mix of gallows...