Cinematheque Film Schedule

USSR | 1985 | Elem Klimov

Here’s a new digital restoration of a movie now widely regarded as one of the great films of all time! It’s a savage WWII drama in which a sensitive adolescent becomes an emotionally numbed killer after witnessing the Nazis’ wholesale destruction of his beloved Belarusian village in 1943. Klimov’s epic has an hallucinatory, nightmarish quality that is not soon shaken. “The best war movie I’ve ever seen.” –J.G. Ballard. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles....

|

United States | 2020 | Frederick Wiseman

You can’t fight city hall, so Frederick Wiseman decided to film it. For his 45th movie, America’s foremost chronicler of American institutions decided to document the inner workings of the municipal government in his native Boston, led by progressive mayor Martin Walsh. After a bruising presidential election, it’s perhaps restorative to be reminded that local government has more of an impact on our lives than does the federal one. Wiseman captures dedicated civil servants wrestling...

France, Luxembourg, Spain | 2019 | Oliver Laxe

In this beautiful and brooding rural fable with a mesmeric power, an inscrutable arsonist newly released from prison returns to live with his elderly mother in her Galician mountain village. Time goes by and tensions mount until there is another wildfire. In the March 2020 Sight & Sound magazine, guest editor Bong Joon-ho (Parasite) named director Oliver Laxe one of his 20 emerging filmmakers to watch during the 2020s. Bong called Fire Will Come, Laxe’s...

Hong Kong, Taiwan | 1979 | King Hu

Martial arts, mysticism, and magnificent scenery merge in this newly restored historical spectacle by King Hu (Dragon Inn, A Touch of Zen). Set at a secluded Buddhist monastery during the Ming Dynasty, the film focuses on an aging abbot who asks an aristocrat and a general to help him pick his successor. But both of these advisors prove corrupt and self-serving—interested only in stealing the temple’s handwritten sacred scroll. “Has all the magic of a...

United States | 2019 | Julio Vincent Gambuto

In this delightful family comedy, Marco, a 12-year-old boy who’s obsessed with video games and hardly ever leaves the house, is introduced to bocce ball by his Italian grandfather. Pretty soon Marco and his young friends are challenging local seniors at their own sport. Cleveland premiere. 92 min. Team Marco, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can be viewed online from 11/6 thru at least 11/26 via the link below (coming soon). (Doing so supports the Cinematheque.)...

Denmark, Sweden | 2019 | Johannes Nyholm

This surreal, psychological horror film focuses on a grieving married couple on a camping getaway intended to be therapeutic for them. But in the woods they find themselves caught up in an endless loop of torture and humiliation administered by macabre, menacing nursery rhyme characters -- figures on their late daughter’s music box who have strangely come to life. “Works as a parable for what happens to grief when it is left unexorcised and unexpressed.”...

United States | 2020 | Allen Farst

One of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll pianists and keyboardists of the last 40 years is profiled in this new documentary. But Chuck Leavell, long associated with the Allman Brothers and The Rolling Stones, is more than a musicians’ musician; he is also a major figure in environmental forestry and was once selected the U.S.’s Tree Farmer of the Year. Features Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Dickey Betts, and President Jimmy Carter, among many others. Cleveland...

United States | 2020 | Jacob Koestler, Michael McDermit

The new short film by CIA Photography + Video instructor Jacob Koestler (Casual Water) is an impressionistic portrait of a Pennsylvania man, Tim McDermit, who fell 40 feet from his college dorm roof 50 years ago, suffered a traumatic brain injury, and lost his ability to speak. But over the decades, Tim clawed his way back—heroically relearning speech, finding love, and attaining a measure of “normal life” that is celebrated here by his grown son...

United States | 2019 | Manfred Kirchheimer

The NY Times calls Manny Kirchheimer “an indispensable New York filmmaker, a noticer and listener without peer.” The latest “city symphony” by this 88-year-old documentarian is a snapshot (actually a series of snapshots) of a vanished NYC, set to music by Ravel, Bach, Eisler, and Count Basie. Culled from candid, b&w footage of kids, grown-ups, and neighborhoods shot on 16mm film by Kirchheimer and Walter Hess between 1958 and 1960, this evocative work captures urban...

Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico | 2018-19 | various directors

This program’s seven brilliant Spanish-language shorts for ages 8+ include animated, live action, and non-fiction works. Boasting a range of kids’ perspectives, they speak volumes in any tongue. See the complete line-up here. Presented in partnership with New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. 65 min. NYICFF ¡Viva Kid Flicks!, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can be viewed online from 11/12 thru at least 12/31 via the link below. (Doing so supports the...

|

United States | 1989 | John Stewart

Not every classic movie accorded a 4K restoration is a La Strada or a Beau Travail. A case in point is this forgotten, Texas-shot indie action flick and drive-in programmer that marked the directorial debut of a veteran Hollywood stuntman. The flimsy plot—the FBI protects a woman from gangsters pursuing stolen diamonds—is just a frame on which to hang a series of ridiculously mind-blowing stunts. So if you like car chases, car flips, car jumps,...

Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Uruguay | 2019 | Gabriel Mascaro

In a slightly futuristic Brazil of dance parties and Christian fundamentalism, a deeply religious civil servant in the divorce registration office does her best to reconcile estranged spouses. This includes inviting them to join Divine Love, an evangelical, cult-like couples group that augments its prayers and services with partner swapping and group sex. This sci-fi film from the director of Neon Bull critiques his country’s right-wing regime. "Shocking, wonderfully acted and surprisingly erotic." –RogerEbert.com. Adults...

United Kingdom | 2019 | Hong Khaou

Henry Golding of Crazy Rich Asians plays a British Vietnamese man who returns to his native country three decades after fleeing it as one of the post-war “boat people” when he was a child. Traveling from Saigon to Hanoi with his parents’ ashes, he eventually meets and falls for an American man whose father had fought in the conflict. “An intimate drama of surprising depth.” –Hollywood Reporter. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. 86 min. Monsoon, a Cinematheque...

United States | 2019 | Deborah Shaffer, Rachel Reichman

Artist Audrey Flack is a celebrated American painter and a sculptor known for her pioneering work in photorealism. Now 89, she has also been a mother, feminist, teacher, and rebel. In this new portrait, she discusses (among other things) her long-term struggles as the mother of a child with autism. “The artist finally gets her due in this documentary about her life.” –Forbes. Cleveland premiere. 75 min. Queen of Hearts: Audrey Flack, a Cinematheque...

United States | 1985 | Joyce Chopra

Laura Dern and Treat Williams star in this coming-of-age drama about a teenage girl, eager for her sexual awakening, who enters into an ambiguous relationship with a mysterious, macho, menacing stranger she meets one summer day. Based on the Joyce Carol Oates short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? “The film's power is enormous…A drama that seems to have been filmed holding its breath.” –The New Yorker (2020). With Mary Kay Place...

Portugal | 1981 | Manoel de Oliveira

It only took four decades for one of the greatest works by Portugal’s prodigious master Manoel de Oliveira to get a U.S. release! Francisca chronicles a perverse, mutually destructive love affair in which a 19th-century novelist and one of his closest friends pursue the same woman. This lush, color movie teems with stylistic and formal innovations. “A masterpiece.” –J. Hoberman. “A masterpiece of modern cinema.” –Dave Kehr. “Oliveira’s masterpiece.” –Int’l Dictionary of Films and...

United States | 2019 | Tania Cypriano

This acclaimed new documentary focuses on New York City’s life-changing Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery, America’s first major hospital for transition-related healthcare. There we meet Dr. Jess Ting and some of his very diverse patients. “Deeply moving and humane.” –Hollywood Reporter. Cleveland premiere. 92 min. Born To Be, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can be viewed online from 11/18 thru at least 12/10 via the link below. (Doing so supports the Cinematheque.) Screening...

|

Japan, United States | 2019 | Ema Ryan Yamazaki

There is crying in baseball for some of the players on the nearly 4000 Japanese teams who fail to contend for the country’s annual national high school baseball tournament. Known as “Koshien” because it takes place in the Hanshin Koshien Stadium. the hugely popular contest boasts alumni that include U.S. baseball stars Shohei Ohtani and former Yankee Hideki Matsui. This fascinating new documentary about the 100th annual Koshien is an emotional ride that also reveals...

Luxembourg, Romania | 2019 | Alexander Nanau

Romania’s official entry for Best Int’l Feature Film at the 2021 Academy Awards is a gripping nonfiction thriller that serves as a potent paean to investigative journalism. In the movie, whistleblowers, newspaper reporters, government officials, and burn victims help to uncover deadly corruption within Romania’s healthcare industry in the wake of 2015’s Colectiv nightclub fire. (The Bucharest catastrophe killed or injured over 200 people.) “A full on masterpiece.” –Rolling Stone. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. 109 min. ...

Canada | 2019 | Matthew Rankin

Guy Maddin, John Waters, and German Expressionism meet 1940s melodramas and wartime propaganda movies in this fictionalized, phantasmagoric account of the rise to power of former Canadian politician William Lyon Mackenzie King, who served three non-consecutive terms as Prime Minister between 1921 and 1948. With color-blind casting and cross-gender acting, this bizarre, funny, irreverent spectacle creates a stylized, artificial universe light years away from staid biopics of yesteryear. “Clever animation, wacky puppets, painted backdrops and...

France, Italy | 1968; 1962 | Federico Fellini; Chris Marker

These two European fantasies from the 1960s are two of the best short films ever made! Toby Dammit is Federico Fellini’s episode from the 1968 omnibus film Spirits of the Dead, which consisted of three adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe short stories. Terence Stamp plays an alcoholic British movie star in Rome who is plagued by diabolical visions. This color chiller is one of the maestro’s most stylish movies, and has music by Nino Rota....

France, Portugal | 2018 | Valeria Sarmiento

An orphan and his nurse have a series of romantic adventures in late 18th-century Europe in this lush, opulent costume melodrama that director Valeria Sarmiento conceived as an appendix to 2010’s expansive Mysteries of Lisbon by her late husband Raúl Ruiz. (Both movies are based on novels by 19th-century Portuguese writer Camilo Castelo Branco, who is depicted in Manoel de Oliveira’s Francisca.) Sarmiento’s yarn strides the continent from Rome and Venice to Paris and London,...

Great Britain | 1976-2020 | various directors

For a number of years, we have presented an annual program of witty, inventive commercials that won British Arrows, the UK’s advertising awards. This year we offer a special show consisting mostly of standout selections from previous programs—the best of the best— including ads directed by Wes Anderson, Jonathan Glazer, Michel Gondry, and the late Alan Parker. (For the complete retrospective line-up, visit https://walkerart.org/calendar/2020/british-arrows-greatest-hits.) There are also seven new commercials made during the global...

|

United States | 2019 | Matt Kliegman

Shot over ten years, this complex and compassionate documentary focuses on Mark Wenzel, a seven-foot-tall fundamentalist Baptist minister who decides at age 46 to come out as a transgender woman named Markie. This momentous decision ends her 20-year marriage, estranges her from three children and grandchildren, and alienates her from her faith, church, and community. Eight years of emotional pain proves so great that Markie, who just wants to be a good person and lead...

United States | 2020 | Alex Winter

This intimate and expansive look at the life and work of visionary musician Frank Zappa is the first movie to have unfettered access to the Zappa family trust and archive. It features interviews with Zappa’s wife and musical collaborators and includes bonus footage from deep in the family vaults, available nowhere else. Filmmaker Winter is Bill of Bill & Ted fame. “You will learn way more about the man than you could possibly imagine. Let...

Brazil, France | 2019 | Sandra Kogut

Set over three summers (2015-2017) during Brazil’s Christmas holidays, this buoyant, blistering social satire tells of a resourceful middle-aged woman (Regina Casé) who manages some luxury seaside condos for a rich, condescending Rio de Janeiro family. But she shrewdly sidesteps the clan’s travails when things start to go wrong. “Cleverly written and staged.” –Hollywood Reporter. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. 94 min. Three Summers, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can be viewed online from 11/27 thru at least...

Taiwan | 1998 | Hou Hsiao-hsien

Widely regarded as one of the best movies of the 1990s, this modern classic by Hou Hsiao-hsien focuses on the denizens of an upper-class brothel in 19th-century Shanghai and their romantic intrigues. Bathed in a golden glow from oil lamps, fluidly shot in lush interiors, and wreathed in an opium haze, the film is a serene, haunting work that perfectly captures the isolated, circumscribed existences of five elegant “flower girls” who spend their lives catering...

United States | 2019 | Luca Severi

Legendary photographer Douglas Kirkland (b. 1934), renowned for his portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, and others, is himself the subject of this new documentary. Kirkland’s 60-year career—for such publications as Look and Vanity Fair—encompasses photojournalism and fashion as well as portraits of the Hollywood elite. This has kept him on the cutting edge of pop culture for decades. With Nicole Kidman, Sharon Stone, Baz, Luhrmann, Luca Guadagnino, et al. “Filled with mesmerising,...