Cinematheque Film Schedule

USSR | 1925 | Sergei Eisenstein

Voted one of the 10 best films of all time in six of the seven previous decennial Sight & Sound magazine polls (1952-2002), this landmark Soviet silent is an electrifying, groundbreaking re-creation of a 1905 mutiny on a Czarist Russian battleship. The work contains perhaps the most famous single sequence in cinema history—the “Odessa Steps” massacre. A recording of Edmund Meisel’s original music score provides the soundtrack. Subtitles. 35mm. 75 min.

Australia, Greece, Poland, Slovenia | 2020 | Christos Nikou

The latest “Greek Weird Wave” standout is a deadpan, absurdist tale taking place during a global pandemic causing amnesia in those infected. One middle-aged victim at a rehabilitation center gets a chance to start his life over by using cassette tapes and cameras to create and document a set of new memories. “A meditation on memory, identity, grief and loss…Hugely accomplished…Really something special.” –Screen Daily. Cleveland theatrical premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 91 min.

Belgium, France | 2020 | Caroline Vignal

Dubbed Eat, Bray, Love by The Guardian, this warm, droll, winning tale of female enlightenment focuses on Antoinette, a French elementary school teacher (Laure Calamy of Call My Agent!) who impulsively decides to spend part of her summer vacation on the same arduous, weeklong mountain hike—accompanied by a donkey—that her married lover is doing with his wife, child, and another donkey. (He’s unaware that his girlfriend is trailing him.) Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s Travels...

Australia, Greece, Poland, Slovenia | 2020 | Christos Nikou

The latest “Greek Weird Wave” standout is a deadpan, absurdist tale taking place during a global pandemic causing amnesia in those infected. One middle-aged victim at a rehabilitation center gets a chance to start his life over by using cassette tapes and cameras to create and document a set of new memories. “A meditation on memory, identity, grief and loss…Hugely accomplished…Really something special.” –Screen Daily. Cleveland theatrical premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 91 min.

France, Poland, Switzerland | 1993 | Krzysztof Kieślowski

Juliette Binoche plays a woman who retreats from the world when her composer husband and young child are killed in a car crash. The first of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s three films inspired by the principles symbolized in the tricolor French flag is an elegant, haunting take on “liberty.” Emmanuelle Riva co-stars. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 98 min

USSR | 1925 | Sergei Eisenstein

Voted one of the 10 best films of all time in six of the seven previous decennial Sight & Sound magazine polls (1952-2002), this landmark Soviet silent is an electrifying, groundbreaking re-creation of a 1905 mutiny on a Czarist Russian battleship. The work contains perhaps the most famous single sequence in cinema history—the “Odessa Steps” massacre. A recording of Edmund Meisel’s original music score provides the soundtrack. Subtitles. 35mm. 75 min.

France | 2021 | Claire Denis

Juliette Binoche, Vincent Lindon, Grégoire Colin, and Bulle Ogier star in the new film by Claire Denis (Beau Travail). It’s a complex, emotional tale of a 10-year relationship that is threatened by the sudden reappearance of the woman’s former lover (also the man’s best friend). “Claire Denis and Juliette Binoche, who have now made three films together, are a match made in a gloriously idiosyncratic heaven. –Time. Cleveland theatrical premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 116 min.

Belgium, France | 2020 | Caroline Vignal

Dubbed Eat, Bray, Love by The Guardian, this warm, droll, winning tale of female enlightenment focuses on Antoinette, a French elementary school teacher (Laure Calamy of Call My Agent!) who impulsively decides to spend part of her summer vacation on the same arduous, weeklong mountain hike—accompanied by a donkey—that her married lover is doing with his wife, child, and another donkey. (He’s unaware that his girlfriend is trailing him.) Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s Travels...

France | 2021 | Claire Denis

Juliette Binoche, Vincent Lindon, Grégoire Colin, and Bulle Ogier star in the new film by Claire Denis (Beau Travail). It’s a complex, emotional tale of a 10-year relationship that is threatened by the sudden reappearance of the woman’s former lover (also the man’s best friend). “Claire Denis and Juliette Binoche, who have now made three films together, are a match made in a gloriously idiosyncratic heaven. –Time. Cleveland theatrical premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 116 min.

France, Poland, Switzerland | 1993 | Krzysztof Kieślowski

Juliette Binoche plays a woman who retreats from the world when her composer husband and young child are killed in a car crash. The first of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s three films inspired by the principles symbolized in the tricolor French flag is an elegant, haunting take on “liberty.” Emmanuelle Riva co-stars. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 98 min

United States | 2017 | Leigh Ledare

The influential artist film The Task was “shot by a film crew in a single room over several days. The camera observes real-life Tavistock group-therapy participants as they work toward the abstract ‘task’ of articulating the conscious and unconscious relationships between the people in the room. As they negotiate their individual positions and try to name complex gender, class, and racial dynamics, they are guided and sometimes thwarted by a set of professional yet inscrutable...

United States | 1932 | Frank Capra

Frank Capra’s Pre-Code classic (never before shown at the Cinematheque) stars Walter Huston as an upstanding bank president during the Great Depression who becomes embroiled in a scandal that leads to a run on his institution. Capra’s longtime collaborator Robert Riskin (It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Meet John Doe, et al.) wrote the original screenplay. “[A] breathtaking film from Capra’s golden period.” –Time Out Film Guide. 79 min. American Madness,...

France, Poland, Switzerland | 1994 | Krzysztof Kieślowski

In this amusing and unsettling black comedy that ponders France’s bedrock principle of “equality,” a Polish hairdresser loses everything when his French wife (Julie Delpy) divorces him. He retreats to Warsaw vowing revenge. “The best of [Kieślowski’s] trilogy.” –Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 91 min.

United States | 1994 | Ayoka Chenzira

Rainbow, a teenage Black girl and part-time dancer living in 1990s Brooklyn with her mother Alma, is conflicted about her future. Should she follow the practical, prosaic path personified by her strait-laced mom, a beauty salon owner? Or is Alma’s free-spirited sister Ruby, an artist newly arrived from Paris after 10 years of living there, a more appealing role model—especially given Rainbow’s artistic leanings? Three decades after its debut, this neglected gem by an African-American...

China, Colombia, France, Germany, Mexico, Qatar, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom | 2021 | Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Tilda Swinton stars in the immersive, dreamy new feature by the Cannes Palme d’Or-winning Thai director of Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Swinton plays a Scottish woman in Medellin who embarks on a sensory, sonic journey into Colombia’s cities and jungles to trace the origin of a mysterious bang that interrupted her sleep one morning. Here’s another opportunity to see an essential art film that, according to its U.S. distributor Neon, will...

France, Italy | 1960 | Michelangelo Antonioni

Voted one of the 10 best films of all time in the 1972 and 1982 Sight & Sound polls, Antonioni’s breakthrough movie remains his most celebrated and influential work—re-defining cinematic concepts of time and space and creating a new language of cinema. Monica Vitti stars in this tale in which some wealthy, carefree young Italian socialites yacht to a barren Sicilian island. There a woman from their party mysteriously disappears. Her fiancé and best friend...

Italy | 2021 | Mauro Russo Rouge

This new documentary presents an honest, sensual, sex-positive look at the swinger lifestyle—profiling a happily-married, middle-aged Italian couple who run a pet store by day and organize elaborate sex parties at night. “More emotionally than sexually voyeuristic.” –Screen Daily. No one under 18 admitted! Cleveland theatrical premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 88 min.

France, Poland, Switzerland | 1994 | Krzysztof Kieślowski

In this amusing and unsettling black comedy that ponders France’s bedrock principle of “equality,” a Polish hairdresser loses everything when his French wife (Julie Delpy) divorces him. He retreats to Warsaw vowing revenge. “The best of [Kieślowski’s] trilogy.” –Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 91 min.

United Kingdom | 2021 | Mark Cousins

In this three-hour “coda” to his 15-hour, 15-episode nonfiction epic The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2010), indefatigable British filmmaker Mark Cousins explores world cinema from 2010-2021. While others have predicted the death of cinema this century, Cousins sees hope and innovation—new talents emerging from previously under-represented populations, and new technologies changing moviemaking and moviegoing. Film clips abound—from Joker and Black Panther to Parasite and Cemetery of Splendor, including many movies shown at the Cinematheque!...

United States | 1994 | Ayoka Chenzira

Rainbow, a teenage Black girl and part-time dancer living in 1990s Brooklyn with her mother Alma, is conflicted about her future. Should she follow the practical, prosaic path personified by her strait-laced mom, a beauty salon owner? Or is Alma’s free-spirited sister Ruby, an artist newly arrived from Paris after 10 years of living there, a more appealing role model—especially given Rainbow’s artistic leanings? Three decades after its debut, this neglected gem by an African-American...

France, Sweden | 1966 | Alain Resnais

Yves Montand, Ingrid Thulin, and Geneviève Bujold star in this major film by the director of Last Year at Marienbad that was unavailable for our 21-film Alain Resnais retrospective in 2000. Written by Jorge Semprún (Z), the movie is a psychological thriller in which a weary, aging Spanish revolutionary living in Paris three decades after the Spanish Civil War becomes involved in an extremist plot to overthrow Franco and his rightwing government. The New York...

United States | 1942 | Orson Welles

Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane topped the decennial Sight & Sound “greatest films” poll for 50 years—from 1962 until 2012. In two of those polls (1972, 1982) it was joined in the top 10 by Welles’ second feature The Magnificent Ambersons, which some find superior to Kane. This is remarkable because Ambersons was mutilated by the studio, with more than an hour of footage cut (all of it remains lost) and Welles’ ending altered and re-shot....

United States | 1942 | Orson Welles

Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane topped the decennial Sight & Sound “greatest films” poll for 50 years—from 1962 until 2012. In two of those polls (1972, 1982) it was joined in the top 10 by Welles’ second feature The Magnificent Ambersons, which some find superior to Kane. This is remarkable because Ambersons was mutilated by the studio, with more than an hour of footage cut (all of it remains lost) and Welles’ ending altered and re-shot....

France, Lebanon, Norway, Qatar | 2019 | Oualid Mouaness

An 11-year-old East Beirut schoolboy who has finally decided to express his love for a female classmate is suddenly upstaged by Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. Taking place all in one day, this acclaimed, semi-autobiographical, emotionally satisfying coming-of-age film offers a unique perspective on a nation’s trauma. With Nadine Labaki. “This often-intuitive piece with a strong observational eye personifies the notion of the calm before the storm.” –L.A. Times. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 100 min.

France, Poland, Switzerland | 1994 | Krzysztof Kieślowski

The life of a young student and model (Irène Jacob) becomes entwined with that of a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s magnificent, moving conclusion to his “Three Colors” trilogy, inspired by the principles symbolized on the tricolor French flag. This look at “fraternity” has a rare, perfect “100” rating on Metacritic. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 99 min.

Poland | 2022 | Tomasz Magierski

Painter Julian Stanczak (1928-2017), who taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art for over three decades, was a pioneering abstract artist whose 1964 exhibition “Optical Paintings” at NYC’s Martha Jackson Gallery prompted Time magazine to coin the term “Op Art.” Born in Poland shortly before WWII, Stanczak lived an eventful, peripatetic life that saw him relocating from Poland to Siberia, Iran, Uganda, and the UK before finally settling in the U.S. in 1950. While in...

France, Poland, Switzerland | 1994 | Krzysztof Kieślowski

The life of a young student and model (Irène Jacob) becomes entwined with that of a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s magnificent, moving conclusion to his “Three Colors” trilogy, inspired by the principles symbolized on the tricolor French flag. This look at “fraternity” has a rare, perfect “100” rating on Metacritic. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 99 min.

France, Lebanon, Norway, Qatar | 2019 | Oualid Mouaness

An 11-year-old East Beirut schoolboy who has finally decided to express his love for a female classmate is suddenly upstaged by Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. Taking place all in one day, this acclaimed, semi-autobiographical, emotionally satisfying coming-of-age film offers a unique perspective on a nation’s trauma. With Nadine Labaki. “This often-intuitive piece with a strong observational eye personifies the notion of the calm before the storm.” –L.A. Times. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 100 min.

Brazil, Portugal | 2021 | Aly Muritiba

Brazil’s official entry for the 2022 Oscar for Best Int’l Feature Film focuses on a disgraced policeman who drives 2000 miles across Brazil to find his online “lover” Sara, whom he has never met in person but who has suddenly gone missing. Shown at the 46th Cleveland Int’l Film Festival. “A welcome and assured intervention into [Brazil’s] calcified ideals about desire and masculinity…Achingly beautiful—and incredibly erotic.” –Variety. Adults only! Subtitles. 121 min. Private Desert,...

France | 1934 | Jean Vigo

Voted one of the 10 best films of all time in the 1962 and 1992 Sight & Sound “greatest films” polls, this lyrical, funny, rhapsodic French classic by the great Jean Vigo is a romantic masterpiece about a river barge captain who takes a wife. The bride comes to live with him on the boat he shares with a salty, eccentric old mate (an indelible Michel Simon), but it’s not smooth sailing for the young...

Brazil | 2021 | Anita Rocha da Silveira

The morally upright and immaculately attired and presented members of an all-female pop band at an evangelical Christian college become a scary gang of masked vigilantes at night, terrorizing sinners and other transgressors in the name of Jesus. This stylish horror film nods to Argento, Carpenter, and Kubrick as it skewers the church, social media, and Brazil’s turn to the right. “Nimbly flows between comedy, mystery and discomforting satire.” –Screen Daily. ”An electrifying work of...

France | 1934 | Jean Vigo

Voted one of the 10 best films of all time in the 1962 and 1992 Sight & Sound “greatest films” polls, this lyrical, funny, rhapsodic French classic by the great Jean Vigo is a romantic masterpiece about a river barge captain who takes a wife. The bride comes to live with him on the boat he shares with a salty, eccentric old mate (an indelible Michel Simon), but it’s not smooth sailing for the young...

United States | 2022 | Louie Schwartzberg

An epic journey 40 years in the making, the new documentary from Louie Schwartzberg, director of our all-time biggest hit Fantastic Fungi, takes the viewer on a transformational, cinematic journey exploring how to live a more meaningful life. Schwartzberg’s intimate conversations with everyday people, thought leaders, and personalities have revealed that gratitude is a proven pathway back from any disconnection we feel in our lives, our planet, and each other. With Norman Lear, Jack Kornfield,...

Hong Kong | 2002 | Andrew Lau, Alan Mak

One of the all-time great Hong Kong action movies (it spawned two sequels), the celebrated crime film that inspired The Departed (see 9/25 at 6:30) is an equally electrifying thriller—and tighter than Scorsese’s Oscar-winning epic. Tony Leung plays a policeman who is embedded with a criminal gang, and Andy Lau is a gang member who has infiltrated the police. Mirror images of each other, the two men work to bring down (or protect) a notorious...

United Kingdom, United States | 2021 | Every Ocean Hughes

“One Big Bag (2021) is a 40-minute single channel video that uses a ‘mobile corpse kit’—a bag filled with everyday objects that death doulas have to care for the newly dead—as both the visual structure and narrative driver of the video. With a matter-of-fact demeanor and intense physicality, the performer guides the viewer into the largely uncharted waters of corpse care—practical, political, and spiritual” (description courtesy of FRONT Int’l). Cleveland premiere.

United States | 2022 | Louie Schwartzberg

An epic journey 40 years in the making, the new documentary from Louie Schwartzberg, director of our all-time biggest hit Fantastic Fungi, takes the viewer on a transformational, cinematic journey exploring how to live a more meaningful life. Schwartzberg’s intimate conversations with everyday people, thought leaders, and personalities have revealed that gratitude is a proven pathway back from any disconnection we feel in our lives, our planet, and each other. With Norman Lear, Jack Kornfield,...

Hong Kong | 2002 | Andrew Lau, Alan Mak

One of the all-time great Hong Kong action movies (it spawned two sequels), the celebrated crime film that inspired The Departed (see 9/25 at 6:30) is an equally electrifying thriller—and tighter than Scorsese’s Oscar-winning epic. Tony Leung plays a policeman who is embedded with a criminal gang, and Andy Lau is a gang member who has infiltrated the police. Mirror images of each other, the two men work to bring down (or protect) a notorious...

Hong Kong, United States | 2006 | Martin Scorsese

To help bring down a Boston Irish mob boss (Jack Nicholson), a young undercover cop (Leonardo DiCaprio) infiltrates the crime lord’s syndicate. Meanwhile, another gang member (Matt Damon) has become a mole in the Massachusetts Police. Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of the 2002 Hong Kong action classic Infernal Affairs (see 9/24 at 8:35) won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. The great supporting cast includes Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Vera Farmiga. 35mm scope....

Germany, United States | 2022 | Asad Raza; Robert Banks

A program of new artist films, presented as part of FRONT International 2022: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art (on view thru 10/2). According to FRONT, “[Asad Raza’s] Ge is an endless and evolving video work that blends fiction and documentary as it moves around the planet. The first iteration explored a bioscope surrounding the Dorset home of James Lovelock, originator of the Gaia hypothesis, which proposes that all living organisms work together in a synergistic...

United States | 1924 | Erich von Stroheim

Voted one of the 10 best films of all time in the first two Sight & Sound “greatest films” polls (1952 & 1962), Erich von Stroheim’s unsparing silent film version of Frank Norris’ novel McTeague chronicles how the love of money destroys the lives of three friends in 19th-century California. Originally 9-10 hours long, Greed remains the most mutilated masterpiece in screen history. Although the complete version is forever lost, what survives is impressive, indelible,...