Cinematheque Film Schedule

United States | 1970 | Carl Reiner

George Segal and Ruth Gordon (Harold and Maude) star in Carl Reiner’s brazen, politically incorrect black comedy about a single New York City attorney living with his overbearing, widowed, 87-year-old mom. Despite a deathbed promise to his late father that he would never put his mother into a nursing home, the lawyer is discovering that his dementia-stricken mom is ruining his love life. So when an attractive new caretaker (Trish Van Devere) shows up, he...

United States | 1977 | David Lynch

David Lynch’s unsettling and indelible first feature is a surreal nightmare set in a crummy apartment in a throbbing industrial city. There a nondescript nebbish struggles to adapt to married life and care for the mewling, puking creature that is his newborn child. Not for the squeamish! 35mm. 85 min.

United States | 1970 | Carl Reiner

George Segal and Ruth Gordon (Harold and Maude) star in Carl Reiner’s brazen, politically incorrect black comedy about a single New York City attorney living with his overbearing, widowed, 87-year-old mom. Despite a deathbed promise to his late father that he would never put his mother into a nursing home, the lawyer is discovering that his dementia-stricken mom is ruining his love life. So when an attractive new caretaker (Trish Van Devere) shows up, he...

United States | 1977 | David Lynch

David Lynch’s unsettling and indelible first feature is a surreal nightmare set in a crummy apartment in a throbbing industrial city. There a nondescript nebbish struggles to adapt to married life and care for the mewling, puking creature that is his newborn child. Not for the squeamish! 35mm. 85 min.

Greece | 2015 | Athina Rachel Tsangari

Once again the Cinematheque is a community partner on one of the new films showing in this year’s Cleveland International Film Festival. This year we have selected one of the most acclaimed and talked about movies of the last six months. It’s the latest feature by Greek new waver Athina Rachel Tsangari (Attenberg) and it focuses on six men on a yacht in the Aegean Sea who engage in all manner of outlandish, macho contests...

Greece | 2015 | Athina Rachel Tsangari

Once again the Cinematheque is a community partner on one of the new films showing in this year’s Cleveland International Film Festival. This year we have selected one of the most acclaimed and talked about movies of the last six months. It’s the latest feature by Greek new waver Athina Rachel Tsangari (Attenberg) and it focuses on six men on a yacht in the Aegean Sea who engage in all manner of outlandish, macho contests...

United States | 1940 | Edward F. Cline

W.C. Fields, in perhaps his funniest film, plays Egbert Sousé, a henpecked, hard-drinking husband and father who becomes a security guard after accidentally stopping a bank robbery one day. In a 1963 poll, Stanley Kubrick ranked this comedy #8 on his Top Ten movies of all time. With Franklin Pangborn and Shemp Howard. 35mm print from the Universal Pictures studio archive! 72 min. Preceded at showtime by Fields’ surrealistic 21-min. short The Dentist (USA, 1932,...

United Kingdom | 1971 | Ken Russell

Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave star in Ken Russell’s most extreme and outrageous film—an overwrought tale of sexual repression, demonic possession, and mass hysteria among a group of 17th-century nuns in Loudon, France. We will show the original X-rated American release version of this film, which has never been issued on DVD here. Sets by Derek Jarman. No one under 18 admitted! 35mm color & scope print! Approx. 110 min.

United States | 1940 | Edward F. Cline

W.C. Fields, in perhaps his funniest film, plays Egbert Sousé, a henpecked, hard-drinking husband and father who becomes a security guard after accidentally stopping a bank robbery one day. In a 1963 poll, Stanley Kubrick ranked this comedy #8 on his Top Ten movies of all time. With Franklin Pangborn and Shemp Howard. 35mm print from the Universal Pictures studio archive! 72 min. Preceded at showtime by Fields’ surrealistic 21-min. short The Dentist (USA, 1932,...

United Kingdom | 1971 | Ken Russell

Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave star in Ken Russell’s most extreme and outrageous film—an overwrought tale of sexual repression, demonic possession, and mass hysteria among a group of 17th-century nuns in Loudon, France. We will show the original X-rated American release version of this film, which has never been issued on DVD here. Sets by Derek Jarman. No one under 18 admitted! 35mm color & scope print! Approx. 110 min.

China | 2015 | Jia Zhangke

China/France/Japan, 2015, Jia Zhangke Master Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke (A Touch of Sin, Still Life) is the foremost chronicler of his country’s recent shift from communism to capitalism. His acclaimed new film, which is in three distinct parts, focuses on a young woman (Jia’s regular muse and real-life wife Zhao Tao) and her suitors, husband, and child as they negotiate the fast-changing Chinese cultural and economic landscape during the years 1999, 2014, and 2025. “Essential viewing.”...

Thailand | 2015 | Apichatpong Weerasethakul

The extravagantly praised new film from the director of Cannes Palme d’Or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is another gentle, lyrical, spiritual reverie that bridges the past and the present, the personal and the political, the material and the magical, the living and the dead. The film is set in a makeshift hospital built on ancient royal burial grounds. There a volunteer nurse cares for comatose soldiers suffering from a mysterious...

Chile | 2015 | Pablo Larraín

Communal life in a secluded Chilean seaside house where four scandal-plagued priests and a similarly disgraced nun have been quietly “retired” by the Church is suddenly disrupted by two uninvited guests. Variety calls the darkly funny fifth feature by the supremely talented director of Tony Manero, Post Mortem,and the Oscar-nominated No (all shown at the Cinematheque) “an original and brilliantly acted chamber drama” set in “what just might be the most haunted lodging this side...

Chile | 2015 | Pablo Larraín

Communal life in a secluded Chilean seaside house where four scandal-plagued priests and a similarly disgraced nun have been quietly “retired” by the Church is suddenly disrupted by two uninvited guests. Variety calls the darkly funny fifth feature by the supremely talented director of Tony Manero, Post Mortem,and the Oscar-nominated No (all shown at the Cinematheque) “an original and brilliantly acted chamber drama” set in “what just might be the most haunted lodging this side...

Thailand | 2015 | Apichatpong Weerasethakul

The extravagantly praised new film from the director of Cannes Palme d’Or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is another gentle, lyrical, spiritual reverie that bridges the past and the present, the personal and the political, the material and the magical, the living and the dead. The film is set in a makeshift hospital built on ancient royal burial grounds. There a volunteer nurse cares for comatose soldiers suffering from a mysterious...

United Kingdom | 1969 | Ken Loach

Voted the fourth best British film of all time in a 2011 poll conducted by Time Out magazine (following a 1999 British Film Institute survey in which it finished #7), Ken Loach's debut feature tells of a troubled and troublesome 15-year-old working-class boy who is abused at home and at school. He finds solace and sustenance in raising and training a pet kestrel (falcon). Unmissable! 110 min.

United States | 1940 | John Ford

We open our presentation of the UCLA Festival of Preservation with a beautiful and moving John Ford adaptation of four one-acts by Eugene O’Neill that the playwright regarded it as the finest film version of his work. Cleveland Institute of Art President + CEO Grafton Nunes, a Ford expert, will introduce it. John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ward Bond, and Barry Fitzgerald star in the movie, a tale of courage and camaraderie among a group of...

France | 1964 | Jean-Luc Godard

This long neglected, little-known Godard film, made during his greatest decade, is a study of a chic, bourgeois French woman who vacillates between her pilot husband and actor lover while following the dictates of fashion magazines and consumer culture. Initially banned by French censors for its sex scenes and its implication that adultery was common in France, the film ultimately won release after Godard made a few minor changes. “The best Godard I have ever...

United States | 1967 | J. L. Anderson

Shot on 35mm in southeast Ohio, this 1967 independent film is the only feature directed by J. L. (Joseph L.) Anderson, best known as the co-author (with Donald Richie) of the classic film book The Japanese Film: Art and Industry. Made when Anderson was a film professor at Ohio University, this singular work of American neorealism takes place in impoverished rural Appalachia, where a half-brother and half-sister begin a taboo love affair that leads to...

France | 1964 | Jean-Luc Godard

This long neglected, little-known Godard film, made during his greatest decade, is a study of a chic, bourgeois French woman who vacillates between her pilot husband and actor lover while following the dictates of fashion magazines and consumer culture. Initially banned by French censors for its sex scenes and its implication that adultery was common in France, the film ultimately won release after Godard made a few minor changes. “The best Godard I have ever...

United Kingdom | 1969 | Ken Loach

Voted the fourth best British film of all time in a 2011 poll conducted by Time Out magazine (following a 1999 British Film Institute survey in which it finished #7), Ken Loach's debut feature tells of a troubled and troublesome 15-year-old working-class boy who is abused at home and at school. He finds solace and sustenance in raising and training a pet kestrel (falcon). Unmissable! 110 min.

United States | 1957 | Anthony Mann

This Korean War drama from an acclaimed director best known for his psychological Westerns and crime films tells of an American platoon commander (Robert Ryan) whose weary soldiers are cut off behind enemy lines. Ordered to rejoin the main division to take Hill 465, the lieutenant tries to commandeer a truck to transport his men’s weapons, but meets resistance from a sergeant (Aldo Ray) who is using the vehicle to drive his revered,...

Iceland | 2015 |

This highly praised new drama that blends absurdist humor with tragedy focuses on two feuding, bearded, unmarried Icelandic brothers, both sheep herders living on adjoining farms, who haven’t spoken to each other in 40 years. But the two eccentrics come together to save their prized ancestral animals from a deadly new virus that is decimating flocks across the country. “This low-key charmer of a movie packs an unexpected emotional punch.” -Time Out London. Cleveland premiere....

United States | 1932 | Alfred L. Werker

The surprise hit of the 2014 Cinefest (a weekend classic-movie convention held annually since 1978 in Syracuse, NY), this virtually unknown Fox Pre-Code comedy stars Adolph Menjou as a wealthy, middle-aged, long-single playboy who marries a bubblegum-brained blonde bombshell in her 20s. But the young bride’s insatiable appetite for fun proves too much even for him, so he looks for another sap to take her off his hands. Newly restored 35mm print! 64 min.

Iceland | 2015 |

This highly praised new drama that blends absurdist humor with tragedy focuses on two feuding, bearded, unmarried Icelandic brothers, both sheep herders living on adjoining farms, who haven’t spoken to each other in 40 years. But the two eccentrics come together to save their prized ancestral animals from a deadly new virus that is decimating flocks across the country. “This low-key charmer of a movie packs an unexpected emotional punch.” -Time Out London. Cleveland premiere....

United States | 1932 | Frank Tuttle

Bing Crosby croons, Cab Calloway performs “Kickin’ the Gong Around,” and Burns and Allen crack wise in this Pre-Code revue movie about an all-star show intended to save a floundering radio station. This was Crosby’s first starring movie role, and the film proved so popular that three more Big Broadcast films (of 1936, 1937, 1938) followed. With Kate Smith, the Mills Brothers, et al. Newly restored 35mm print! 80 min. Preceded at 5:00 by Victor...

United States | 1983 | Martin Scorsese

Robert De Niro plays Rupert Pupkin, a world-class loser who hatches a hilariously bizarre scheme to become famous as a stand-up comic on a late-night talk show. This edgy black comedy by Martin Scorsese co-stars Jerry Lewis, Tony Randall, and Sandra Bernhard. 35mm. 109 min.

United States | 1954 | George Cukor

Judy Garland and James Mason star in one of Hollywood’s grandest romantic epics—a color and Cinemascope musical melodrama about the rise of a young singing star and the simultaneous descent into alcoholism of the actor she loves. Shorn of nearly 30 minutes when first released, the film will be seen here in Ron Haver’s painstaking 1980s restoration. Garland’s celebrated musical numbers include “The Man That Got Away.” 4K DCP. 181 min.

United States | 1927 | Sam Taylor

Chicago silent film musician David Drazin (he’s the regular film accompanist at the Gene Siskel Film Center) returns to the Cinematheque—and to his hometown—to play for one of Mary Pickford’s best romantic comedies, and the only one in which she co-starred with her future husband Buddy Rogers. It’s a 1920s version of Undercover Boss in which a spunky department store stock girl falls for a stockroom co-worker, unaware that he is the owner’s son. Pickford...

Israel | 2015 | Harvey Stein

The humanistic teachings of the late Israeli peacemaker Rabbi Menachem Froman are the focus of this new documentary by an American-born writer and filmmaker who has lived in Israel since 2006. The film follows a tiny West Bank movement of settlers and Palestinians who have decided that, whatever the future brings, they want to get to know the strangers who are their neighbors. Despite resistance from their own communities (and possible danger), these pioneers decide...

United States | 1954 | George Cukor

Judy Garland and James Mason star in one of Hollywood’s grandest romantic epics—a color and Cinemascope musical melodrama about the rise of a young singing star and the simultaneous descent into alcoholism of the actor she loves. Shorn of nearly 30 minutes when first released, the film will be seen here in Ron Haver’s painstaking 1980s restoration. Garland’s celebrated musical numbers include “The Man That Got Away.” 4K DCP. 181 min.

United States | 1951 | Douglas Sirk

Made a few years before the flamboyant color “women’s pictures” that would cement his reputation and inspire Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Douglas Sirk’s b&w drama focuses on a Jesuit priest (Charles Boyer) who doubts that a “miracle” that has happened to one of his fellow brothers. With William Demarest and Barbara Rush. “Keeps skepticism and faith in a delicate balance, equal parts Ace in the Hole and Ordet.” –Martin Rubin, Gene Siskel Film Center. Newly restored...

United States | 1946 | Edgar G. Ulmer

The “Poverty Row” director of the cult classics The Black Cat and Detour had a relatively big budget for this little-known drama. A young woman is impregnated by a soldier before he leaves for WWII. But when she doesn’t hear from him again, she gives the child to her married sister to raise. “[A] feverishly romantic, visually resplendent war-at-home melodrama.” –The New Yorker. Newly restored 35mm print! 86 min.

Germany | 1929 | Josef von Sternberg

Marlene Dietrich made her screen debut in this classic film that was also her first collaboration with director Josef von Sternberg (The Scarlet Empress). She plays a sexy cabaret singer who corrupts an upstanding university professor (Emil Jannings), leading him down a path to shame and degradation. This restored version also includes Dietrich’s original Blue Angel screen test. Subtitles. 107 min.

France | 2015 | Aleksandr Sokurov

Fourteen years after Russian Ark, his single-shot exploration of St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, Russian master Aleksandr Sokurov turns his attention to Paris’ Louvre. Francofonia, which won the top prize at last year’s Venice Film Festival, is a visually stunning meditation on this great institution that Sokurov sees as the repository of European art and culture. Ghosts (like Napoleon) walk the halls, and ample screen time is devoted to dramatizing the unlikely WWII-era alliance between then...

France | 1946 | Jean Cocteau

Cocteau’s enchanting film version of the classic fairy tale is one of the most magical movies ever made! It is now also the recipient of a lustrous 4K digital restoration. With Jean Marais and Josette Day. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. 4K DCP. 93 min.

France | 2015 | Aleksandr Sokurov

Fourteen years after Russian Ark, his single-shot exploration of St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, Russian master Aleksandr Sokurov turns his attention to Paris’ Louvre. Francofonia, which won the top prize at last year’s Venice Film Festival, is a visually stunning meditation on this great institution that Sokurov sees as the repository of European art and culture. Ghosts (like Napoleon) walk the halls, and ample screen time is devoted to dramatizing the unlikely WWII-era alliance between then...

United States | 1932, 1935 | Victor Halperin, John H. Auer

Two neglected 1930s horror films, both in newly restored 35mm prints! The first is a trancelike independent production often called the screen’s first zombie movie. (It’s something of a bridge between Universal’s classic horror films of the 1930s and Val Lewton’s suggestive, poetic productions of the 1940s, and inspired musician and filmmaker Rob Zombie.) Bela Lugosi plays a Haitian voodoo master who turns a young American bride into one of the walking dead. The Crime...