Cinematheque Film Schedule

United States | 1989 | Michael Roemer

Shot in 1969 but unreleased until 1989 (when it earned rave reviews), this droll, deadpan NYC comedy focuses on put-upon Jewish racketeer Harry Plotnick, who gets out of prison only to learn that his criminal world has been upended by Black and Hispanic upstarts. Meanwhile, his private life is overrun with well-meaning friends and relatives trying to reform him. Michael Roemer’s follow-up to his 1964 race relations classic Nothing but a Man is a vivid,...

Chile | 2023 | Pablo Larraín

Made to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Chilean coup d’état that toppled President Salvador Allende and elevated General Augusto Pinochet, the acclaimed new film from the director of Spencer and Jackie is a satirical horror-comedy that reimagines the monstrous Chilean dictator Pinochet as a 250-year-old vampire. Larraín regular Alfredo Castro co-stars. “Beneath all the genre theatrics, what comes through most vividly in El Conde are Larraín’s sadness and rage at what happened to...

United States | 1986 | Randal Kleiser

Hollywood filmmaker Randal Kleiser appears in person tonight to answer audience questions after two of his films (in two separate screenings). Though best known for Grease (see next blurb), Kleiser has directed many other popular movies, including The Blue Lagoon; Flight of the Navigator; Honey, I Blew Up the Kid; and the Emmy-winning 1977 TV Christmas movie (shot in Chagrin Falls and Hudson) The Gathering. Kleiser’s Big Top Pee-wee was the follow-up to Pee-wee’s Big...

United States | 1978 | Randal Kleiser

Hollywood director Randal Kleiser (see previous blurb) will answer audience questions after a screening of his most famous and popular film, the 1950s-era, rock-n-roll musical-comedy juggernaut Grease. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John play the high-school lovers at the center of Kleiser’s high-spirited spectacle (he’s a greaser, she’s a pretty Australian exchange student), and Stockard Channing, Eve Arden, Sid Caesar, Joan Blondell, and Frankie Avalon stand out in a great supporting cast. 4K DCP. 110 min. Kleiser...

United States | 1989 | Michael Roemer

Shot in 1969 but unreleased until 1989 (when it earned rave reviews), this droll, deadpan NYC comedy focuses on put-upon Jewish racketeer Harry Plotnick, who gets out of prison only to learn that his criminal world has been upended by Black and Hispanic upstarts. Meanwhile, his private life is overrun with well-meaning friends and relatives trying to reform him. Michael Roemer’s follow-up to his 1964 race relations classic Nothing but a Man is a vivid,...

Armenia, Germany, Lithuania | 2022 | Inna Sahakyan

The incredible life of Aurora Mardiganian (1901-1994), an Armenian genocide survivor who became a silent film star in Hollywood, is the subject of this animated documentary that was Armenia’s submission for the 2023 Best Int’l Feature Film Oscar. Though mostly animated, this account of how Aurora lost her family, was kidnaped and sold into slavery, and eventually escaped to America also includes clips of archival interviews with her late in life, as well as surviving...

Japan | 1966 | Yasuzō Masumura

In Edo-period Japan, a merchant’s daughter (Ayako Wakao) is abducted and sold into prostitution, and a giant spider is tattooed on her back. The spirit of the arachnid seeps into her soul, and pretty soon she becomes an absolutely venomous avenger. Yasuzō Masumura’s elegant (but violent) period melodrama was shot in color by the great Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon, Ugetsu). From a novel by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki. “[Wakao] delivers one of the screen’s great ‘bad girl’ performances.”...

France, Nigeria, United Kingdom | 2023 | C.J. “Fiery” Obasi

A visually-striking fusion of West African folklore and Afrofuturism, this modern fable is set in a seaside African village that’s long paid obeisance to the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. But a mysterious man appears one day, and he proves a rebel whose promises of technological progress foment a spiritual crisis that threatens the matriarchal order. “Critic’s Pick…A distinctly economical masterpiece…Both haunting and ravishing.” –NY Times. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 107 min.

Latvia, Luxembourg, United States | 2022 | Signe Baumane

Seven years in the making, the new, largely hand-drawn feature by Latvian animator Signe Baumane (Rocks in My Pockets) is a semi-autobiographical comedy-drama-musical about a feisty, free-spirited young woman who spends many years seeking perfect love and lasting marriage. Eventually, she finds the strength to follow her own path as an artist and independent person. Michele Pawk, Stephen Lang, and Matthew Modine supply some of the English-language voices. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 107 min.

Brazil | 1964 | Glauber Rocha

Voted the second best Brazilian film ever made in a 2015 poll conducted by the Brazilian Film Critics Association, this seminal sociopolitical work by 1960s Cinema Novo firebrand Glauber Rocha tells of a ranch hand, living in poor, parched Northeast Brazil during the 1940s, who kills his dishonest employer. He and his wife flee and become outlaws, joining up with a self-proclaimed “saint” who preaches violence, and later with a gang of bandits, while avoiding...

France, Nigeria, United Kingdom | 2023 | C.J. “Fiery” Obasi

A visually-striking fusion of West African folklore and Afrofuturism, this modern fable is set in a seaside African village that’s long paid obeisance to the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. But a mysterious man appears one day, and he proves a rebel whose promises of technological progress foment a spiritual crisis that threatens the matriarchal order. “Critic’s Pick…A distinctly economical masterpiece…Both haunting and ravishing.” –NY Times. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 107 min.

Latvia, Luxembourg, United States | 2022 | Signe Baumane

Seven years in the making, the new, largely hand-drawn feature by Latvian animator Signe Baumane (Rocks in My Pockets) is a semi-autobiographical comedy-drama-musical about a feisty, free-spirited young woman who spends many years seeking perfect love and lasting marriage. Eventually, she finds the strength to follow her own path as an artist and independent person. Michele Pawk, Stephen Lang, and Matthew Modine supply some of the English-language voices. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 107 min.

United States | 1996 | Campbell Scott, Stanley Tucci

One of the most beloved “foodie” movies ever made! Two immigrant brothers from Calabria—Primo (Tony Shaloub), a superb but uncompromising chef, and Secondo (Stanley Tucci), an aspiring entrepreneur—open an Italian restaurant in 1950s New Jersey. Despite their best efforts, the business struggles. So when they learn that popular singer (and influencer) Louis Prima will be dining at their establishment, they go all out—planning a grand evening that will make or break the place. Minnie Driver,...

United States | 1978 | George Gage

The first feature film to capitalize on the 1970s skateboard craze stars the once-ubiquitous comic actor Allen Garfield as a debt-ridden schlub who organizes a competitive skateboard team to make some much-needed money. This low-budget, feel-good movie, sometimes likened to The Bad News Bears, co-stars '70s teen idol Leif Garrett, skateboarding legend Tony Alva, and iconic female freestyler and Skateboarding Hall of Fame member Ellen O’Neal. “A thoroughly infectious comedy.” –L.A. Times. Cleveland revival premiere....

United States | 1978 | George Gage

The first feature film to capitalize on the 1970s skateboard craze stars the once-ubiquitous comic actor Allen Garfield as a debt-ridden schlub who organizes a competitive skateboard team to make some much-needed money. This low-budget, feel-good movie, sometimes likened to The Bad News Bears, co-stars '70s teen idol Leif Garrett, skateboarding legend Tony Alva, and iconic female freestyler and Skateboarding Hall of Fame member Ellen O’Neal. “A thoroughly infectious comedy.” –L.A. Times. Cleveland revival premiere....

United States | 1996 | Campbell Scott, Stanley Tucci

One of the most beloved “foodie” movies ever made! Two immigrant brothers from Calabria—Primo (Tony Shaloub), a superb but uncompromising chef, and Secondo (Stanley Tucci), an aspiring entrepreneur—open an Italian restaurant in 1950s New Jersey. Despite their best efforts, the business struggles. So when they learn that popular singer (and influencer) Louis Prima will be dining at their establishment, they go all out—planning a grand evening that will make or break the place. Minnie Driver,...

Japan | 1966 | Yasuzō Masumura

Amid the bloody horrors of a Japanese field hospital during the second Sino-Japanese War, a selfless nurse (Ayako Wakao) decides to attend to the sexual needs of her seriously-injured patients—and of an emotionally-crippled colleague. A harrowing examination of sex and death under extreme circumstances. “Arguably [Masumura’s] strongest movie…A piercing howl of rage against Japan’s military machine…An anti-war classic urgently deserving rediscovery.” –Time Out Film Guide. Adults only! Subtitles. Scope DCP. 95 min.

United States | 2023 | Errol Morris

The life and career of English author John le Carré, whose screen-worthy espionage novels include The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, are explored in the acclaimed new film by master documentarian Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War). Born David John Moore Cornwell in 1931, le Carré (his pen name) was a real-life British secret agent before turning best-selling novelist during the 1960s. Morris’ film...

United Kingdom | 1960 | Michael Powell

1960 saw the release of two groundbreaking horror films that would change the course of modern cinema. But while Hitchcock’s Psycho was a huge hit, Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom was condemned and censored, essentially ending the career of the revered co-director of The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, and A Matter of Life and Death. Subsequently re-evaluated and its reputation rehabilitated, Peeping Tom endures as a landmark work. The movie focuses on a lonely, sexually-repressed film-lab...

France, United States | 2021 | Ellie Foumbi

A surprise nominee for the 2023 Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature, this riveting moral thriller tells of an African refugee woman who is happily working at a retirement home in France when an African priest from a nightmarish episode in her past turns up one day. He begins endearing himself to residents and staff while she struggles to figure out how to respond. “The enigmatic drama goes places you almost certainly won’t expect—and, once...

United States | 1953 | Howard Hawks

Grafton Nunes, film scholar and former President + CEO of the Cleveland Institute of Art, introduces Howard Hawks’ iconic musical comedy that stars Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe. In the film, two vivacious showgirls get mixed up with men—and men with money—during an eventful transatlantic cruise. Marilyn sings (and immortalizes) “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” The movie was a personal favorite of the late philanthropist Peter B. Lewis, the namesake of our beautiful, state-of-the-art...

United States | 1944 | Vincente Minnelli

Judy Garland and little Margaret O’Brien star in one of the all-time great screen musicals, which has also become a holiday classic. Set in St. Louis in 1903, the movie focuses on a happy family that is devastated to learn that they must leave their beloved hometown and move to New York, where father is being transferred. Memorable musical numbers include “The Trolley Song,” “The Boy Next Door,” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”...

Finland, Germany | 2023 | Aki Kaurismäki

The first feature in six years from Finland’s mordantly funny master moviemaker is one of his most acclaimed films, winning the Jury prize at Cannes this year. The fourth entry in Kaurismäki’s intermittent “Proletariat” series (begun in 1986), the movie focuses on two single, middle-aged Helsinki sad sacks—a supermarket worker and an alcoholic—who together find love for the first time in their lives. “The most consistent filmmaker working today might be Aki Kaurismäki…Even by his...

United Kingdom | 1960 | Michael Powell

1960 saw the release of two groundbreaking horror films that would change the course of modern cinema. But while Hitchcock’s Psycho was a huge hit, Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom was condemned and censored, essentially ending the career of the revered co-director of The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, and A Matter of Life and Death. Subsequently re-evaluated and its reputation rehabilitated, Peeping Tom endures as a landmark work. The movie focuses on a lonely, sexually-repressed film-lab...

United States | 1944 | Vincente Minnelli

Judy Garland and little Margaret O’Brien star in one of the all-time great screen musicals, which has also become a holiday classic. Set in St. Louis in 1903, the movie focuses on a happy family that is devastated to learn that they must leave their beloved hometown and move to New York, where father is being transferred. Memorable musical numbers include “The Trolley Song,” “The Boy Next Door,” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”...

Finland, Germany | 2023 | Aki Kaurismäki

The first feature in six years from Finland’s mordantly funny master moviemaker is one of his most acclaimed films, winning the Jury prize at Cannes this year. The fourth entry in Kaurismäki’s intermittent “Proletariat” series (begun in 1986), the movie focuses on two single, middle-aged Helsinki sad sacks—a supermarket worker and an alcoholic—who together find love for the first time in their lives. “The most consistent filmmaker working today might be Aki Kaurismäki…Even by his...

Japan | 1969 | Yasuzō Masumura

One of Yasuzō Masumura’s most extreme films concerns a young model who is kidnaped by a blind sculptor, taken to his warehouse studio (which is bedecked with sculpted female body parts), and forced to be the unwilling nude muse for his greatest work of “touch art.” Based on a story by Edogawa Ranpo (Japan’s Poe), this account of an evolving captor/captive relationship also evokes John Fowles’ The Collector. “[A] fascinating curiosity.” –Sight & Sound. “A...

United Kingdom, United States | 2023 | Christos Nikou

Jessie Buckley (Women Talking) and Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal) star in the offbeat new sci-fi film from the “Greek Weird Wave” director of Apples. Set in a world where a new technology can determine whether a couple’s feelings for each other constitute true love, the movie tells of a woman in a relationship that has passed the test but who still has doubts about her partner. “A well-written and beautifully performed investigation of yearning...