Cinematheque Film Schedule

United States | 1963 | Francis Coppola

This early film from the director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now is a Roger Corman-produced Psycho knock-off that was shot in and around a creepy Irish castle. It’s an atmospheric thriller about a mysterious axe murderer and a coveted family fortune. Patrick Magee co-stars. It will be preceded at showtime by the film’s original prologue—a test to determine whether the audience has the moral fortitude to watch Dementia 13! Cleveland revival premiere. Total 70...

France | 1933 | Jean Vigo

Four boys organize an uprising at a repressive French boarding school in Jean Vigo’s first feature (see 9/29 at 6:50), a lyrical, anarchic classic. Banned in France from 1933 to 1945, it inspired Lindsay Anderson’s anti-establishment 1968 classic If… This new restoration includes shots that were cut from subsequent release prints because of length or censorship. Zero for Conduct will be preceded at showtime by Vigo’s two short films, the mini city symphony À...

United States | 1916 | Lois Weber, Phillips Smalley

A hit in NYC but banned in Pennsylvania, this inflammatory “social problem” film by the prolific and proficient Lois Weber (see 9/8 at 5:00 pm) addresses the still timely issues of birth control and abortion (and touches, uncomfortably, on eugenics). A district attorney butts heads with an abortionist after the D.A.’s brother-in-law impregnates a family servant. The film was added to the National Film Registry in 1993. Preceded at 5:00 by Mabel Normand’s 23-min. comedy...

France | 1933 | Jean Vigo

Four boys organize an uprising at a repressive French boarding school in Jean Vigo’s first feature (see 9/29 at 6:50), a lyrical, anarchic classic. Banned in France from 1933 to 1945, it inspired Lindsay Anderson’s anti-establishment 1968 classic If… This new restoration includes shots that were cut from subsequent release prints because of length or censorship. Zero for Conduct will be preceded at showtime by Vigo’s two short films, the mini city symphony À...

Romania | 2016 | Radu Jude

Radu Jude’s follow-up to his arthouse hit Aferim! is set at a Romanian sanitarium on the Black Sea in 1937. There a young Jewish man suffering from spinal tuberculosis embraces life as much as he can while sick and in a body cast. He smokes and drinks; interacts with caretakers, other patients, and former patients; and even falls in love. Outside the hospital, society drifts toward anti-Semitism, Fascism, and war. From the semi-autobiographical book...

United States | 1936 | James Whale

Paul Robeson’s rendition of “Ol’ Man River” is just one of many highlights in James Whale’s definitive film version of the classic Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein musical about life on a Mississippi riverboat from the 1880s to the 1920s. Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Helen Morgan, and Hattie McDaniel co-star. The movie, co-presented by The Musical Theater Project, will be introduced at 3:00 by TMTP Artistic Director Bill Rudman, who will also lead a post-film discussion. A...

United States | 1936 | George Stevens

This is very possibly the best of the ten Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musicals, containing a superb Jerome Kern/Dorothy Fields score and such classic dance numbers as “A Fine Romance,” “Never Gonna Dance,” “Bojangles of Harlem,” and the Oscar-winning “The Way You Look Tonight.” At 6:30, film scholar and Cleveland Institute of Art President Grafton Nunes will introduce the movie, one of his all-time favorites, which is co-presented by The Musical Theater Project. He will also...

United States | 1963 | Francis Coppola

This early film from the director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now is a Roger Corman-produced Psycho knock-off that was shot in and around a creepy Irish castle. It’s an atmospheric thriller about a mysterious axe murderer and a coveted family fortune. Patrick Magee co-stars. It will be preceded at showtime by the film’s original prologue—a test to determine whether the audience has the moral fortitude to watch Dementia 13! Cleveland revival premiere. Total 70...

United States | 1968 | Peter Bogdanovich

Peter Bogdanovich’s prescient first feature intercuts the story of a psychopathic sniper with that of a has-been horror movie star (Boris Karloff) who has retired because scary films can no longer compete with the terrors of everyday life. The two narratives converge in an edge-of-your-seat climax at a drive-in movie theater. “A contemporary horror classic.” –Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film. Adults only! 90 min.

Iran | 2017 | Vahid Jalilvand

The socially and psychologically penetrating films of Asghar Farhadi are evoked in this acclaimed new Iranian feature about a medical examiner haunted by the unexpected death of a child that he possibly could have prevented. “A handsomely made, exceptionally well-played drama…Explores questions of culpability and responsibility in a society constantly playing on the edge of the rule of law.” –Variety. Subtitles. DCP. 104 min.

Italy | 1911 | Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, Giuseppe de Liguoro

Goblin keyboardist Maurizio Guarini presents a live performance of his original score to the first-ever feature film produced in Italy—a surreal and still-shocking adaptation of the most infamous section of Dante’s The Divine Comedy! This milestone silent movie features a series of spectacular scenes, as Virgil leads Dante through the nine circles of Hell. Almost Bosch-like in its grotesquerie, the film boasts striking and unusual visual effects, astounding sets, and a huge cast of extras,...

Sweden | 1973 | Ingmar Bergman

Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson star in Ingmar Bergman’s raw, penetrating, semi-autobiographical dissection of a disintegrating marriage. Spanning ten years, the film delineates how the relationship between two affluent professionals is undermined by the husband’s affair with a younger woman (Bibi Andersson). Cleveland even factors into the drama! We will show the original six-episode TV version of this chamber masterpiece, in two parts. All together, it’s 132 minutes longer than the 168-min. theatrical cut released...

France | 2017 | Eric Barbier

Charlotte Gainsbourg and Pierre Niney (Frantz) star in this rousing, opulent adaptation of French writer Romain Gary’s autobiographical novel. Gary (1914-80) lived an extraordinary life. He was a decorated military officer and two time winner of the Prix Goncourt (France’s highest literary award) as well as the director of two movies starring his wife Jean Seberg. Eric Barbier’s sweeping film, which encompasses Gary’s childhood in Poland, his years as a student in Paris, and his...

Sweden | 1973 | Ingmar Bergman

Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson star in Ingmar Bergman’s raw, penetrating, semi-autobiographical dissection of a disintegrating marriage. Spanning ten years, the film delineates how the relationship between two affluent professionals is undermined by the husband’s affair with a younger woman (Bibi Andersson). Cleveland even factors into the drama! We will show the original six-episode TV version of this chamber masterpiece, in two parts. All together, it’s 132 minutes longer than the 168-min. theatrical cut released...

Iran | 2017 | Vahid Jalilvand

The socially and psychologically penetrating films of Asghar Farhadi are evoked in this acclaimed new Iranian feature about a medical examiner haunted by the unexpected death of a child that he possibly could have prevented. “A handsomely made, exceptionally well-played drama…Explores questions of culpability and responsibility in a society constantly playing on the edge of the rule of law.” –Variety. Subtitles. DCP. 104 min.

United States | 1968 | Peter Bogdanovich

Peter Bogdanovich’s prescient first feature intercuts the story of a psychopathic sniper with that of a has-been horror movie star (Boris Karloff) who has retired because scary films can no longer compete with the terrors of everyday life. The two narratives converge in an edge-of-your-seat climax at a drive-in movie theater. “A contemporary horror classic.” –Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film. Adults only! 90 min.

France | 2017 | Valérie Massadian

“Milla is a major achievement, a film that is at once as delicate as it is strong, a fitting testament to motherhood, to survival.” So says The NY Times about this new French movie that charts—in a series of quiet, naturalistic, oblique, often tender, poetic scenes—a young woman’s drift from carefree, penniless teen living with her boyfriend on the margins of society to poor working mother facing responsibility and compelled to engage with society. This...

Canada, Germany, Norway | 2016 | Rob Tregenza

This deliberately paced, meticulously shot (in 35mm color & scope) new art film is a tale of grief, love, friendship, and literature. The movie focuses on two couples—a German widower and his Chinese translator wife, and a Norwegian tour guide and his pregnant girlfriend—who are brought together by the poetry of Norwegian writer Tarjei Vesaas (1897-1970) to traverse a series of majestic, haunted Nordic landscapes. The film’s title is a foreign word that illustrates the...

France, Italy | 1953 | Jean-Pierre Melville

Never before translated into English or released in the U.S., this missing link in the Melville filmography stars French singer and actress Juliette Gréco as a devout and morally upright nun-in-training who leaves the convent to return home and attend to a family emergency. She soon becomes embroiled in sexual assault, attempted suicide, and blackmail—all revolving around a womanizing, ne’er-do-well boxer and mechanic (Philippe Lemaire). Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 104 min.

Canada, Germany, Norway | 2016 | Rob Tregenza

This deliberately paced, meticulously shot (in 35mm color & scope) new art film is a tale of grief, love, friendship, and literature. The movie focuses on two couples—a German widower and his Chinese translator wife, and a Norwegian tour guide and his pregnant girlfriend—who are brought together by the poetry of Norwegian writer Tarjei Vesaas (1897-1970) to traverse a series of majestic, haunted Nordic landscapes. The film’s title is a foreign word that illustrates the...

China, Hong Kong | 2018 | Tsui Hark

The third film in Tsui Hark’s popular “Detective Dee” series is a lavish mystery fantasy thriller set in 7th-century China, during the Tang dynasty. In this installment, ace sleuth Di Renjie (Detective Dee) must protect the all-powerful Dragon-Taming Mace, presented to him by the Emperor, from a band of sorcerers working for the scheming, ambitious Empress Wu. Swordplay, acrobatics, and CGI abound. “On the level of pure popcorn entertainment, there’s not a thing one can...

USSR | 1969 | Sergei Paradjanov

Episodes from the life of 18th-century Armenian poet and minstrel Sayat-Nova are rendered as a series of gorgeous color tableaux teeming with religious and regional iconography in Sergei Paradjanov’s one-of-a-kind visual spectacle. Banned for years in the USSR, where it hastened the director’s subsequent arrest and imprisonment on trumped-up charges, this movie has been newly restored to the cut closest to Paradjanov’s original vision. Voted the 84th greatest film of all time in Sight &...

United States | 1972 | Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese’s second feature and first Hollywood film stars Barbara Hershey as an Arkansas farm girl who becomes a Robin Hood-style train robber during the Great Depression. (She steals from the railroad bosses and gives to the railway union.) David Carradine, John Carradine, Barry Primus, and Bernie Casey co-star. Produced by Roger Corman. “Superior formula stuff.” –Time Out Film Guide. 88 min.

France, Italy | 1953 | Jean-Pierre Melville

Never before translated into English or released in the U.S., this missing link in the Melville filmography stars French singer and actress Juliette Gréco as a devout and morally upright nun-in-training who leaves the convent to return home and attend to a family emergency. She soon becomes embroiled in sexual assault, attempted suicide, and blackmail—all revolving around a womanizing, ne’er-do-well boxer and mechanic (Philippe Lemaire). Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 104 min.

Italy, West Germany | 1970 | Dario Argento

Dario Argento’s directorial debut, a key work in the giallo genre, has music by Ennio Morricone and color & scope cinematography by Vittorio Storaro. Tony Musante plays an American writer in Rome who witnesses an attempted murder in an art gallery. This gets him and his girlfriend (Suzy Kendall) added to the killer’s hit list. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 98 min.

Italy, West Germany | 1971 | Dario Argento

Karl Malden, James Franciscus, and Catherine Spaak star in Dario Argento’s second feature, a stylish thriller in which a blind man teams up with a reporter to solve a series of killings at a medical institute. Music by Ennio Morricone. Original, uncut version (20 minutes longer than the original U.S. cut)! Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 115 min.

Italy, West Germany | 1971 | Dario Argento

Karl Malden, James Franciscus, and Catherine Spaak star in Dario Argento’s second feature, a stylish thriller in which a blind man teams up with a reporter to solve a series of killings at a medical institute. Music by Ennio Morricone. Original, uncut version (20 minutes longer than the original U.S. cut)! Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 115 min.

Italy, West Germany | 1970 | Dario Argento

Dario Argento’s directorial debut, a key work in the giallo genre, has music by Ennio Morricone and color & scope cinematography by Vittorio Storaro. Tony Musante plays an American writer in Rome who witnesses an attempted murder in an art gallery. This gets him and his girlfriend (Suzy Kendall) added to the killer’s hit list. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 98 min.

United States | 1980 | John Carpenter

Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Janet Leigh star in John Carpenter’s follow-up to Halloween. It’s an atmospheric thriller in which a California coastal community celebrating its centennial is swallowed up by a dense, glowing fog that brings with it ghosts from the town’s traumatic past. Not shown in our John Carpenter series last year. Cleveland revival premiere. DCP. 89 min.

United States | 1981 | Sam Raimi

Five vacationing college students staying at a remote cabin in the woods unwittingly unleash murderous demons who possess their bodies and create a bloody mess. This seminal horror comedy by young Sam Raimi is a gory, stylish classic that launched the career of cult actor Bruce Campbell. No one under 18 admitted! 85 min.

United States | 1987 | Sam Raimi

Sam Raimi’s first sequel to The Evil Dead is less a continuation of the original story than a reworking of it—with the comedy ramped up. Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams arrives at a remote cabin with his girlfriend for a romantic sojourn. But those darn resurrected demons put a damper on his plans. “Raimi drags us screaming into his cinematic funhouse. Delirious, demented and diabolically funny.” –Time Out Film Guide. Adults only! Cleveland revival premiere. 84...

United States | 1981 | Sam Raimi

Five vacationing college students staying at a remote cabin in the woods unwittingly unleash murderous demons who possess their bodies and create a bloody mess. This seminal horror comedy by young Sam Raimi is a gory, stylish classic that launched the career of cult actor Bruce Campbell. No one under 18 admitted! 85 min.

United States | 1987 | Sam Raimi

Sam Raimi’s first sequel to The Evil Dead is less a continuation of the original story than a reworking of it—with the comedy ramped up. Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams arrives at a remote cabin with his girlfriend for a romantic sojourn. But those darn resurrected demons put a damper on his plans. “Raimi drags us screaming into his cinematic funhouse. Delirious, demented and diabolically funny.” –Time Out Film Guide. Adults only! Cleveland revival premiere. 84...

United States | 1980 | John Carpenter

Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Janet Leigh star in John Carpenter’s follow-up to Halloween. It’s an atmospheric thriller in which a California coastal community celebrating its centennial is swallowed up by a dense, glowing fog that brings with it ghosts from the town’s traumatic past. Not shown in our John Carpenter series last year. Cleveland revival premiere. DCP. 89 min.