Cinematheque Film Schedule

United Kingdom | 2016 | Stuart A. Staples

Tindersticks, the alternative rock band that has scored six films for Claire Denis, provides new music for a series of silent nature films made in the early 1900s by pioneering British naturalist and documentarian F. Percy Smith (1880-1945). Recently restored by the British Film Institute, Smith’s short movies feature remarkable time-lapse micro-cinematography of plants, insects, microbes, et al. DCP. 55 min.

Finland, France, Germany, Poland | 2017 | Marta Prus

The punishing training regimen of Olympics-bound Russian rhythmic gymnast Margarita Mamun is captured in this intense, unsparing, often horrific nonfiction film by a former gymnast. “The Black Swan of sports documentaries.” –Variety. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 74 min.

United States | 2018 | Michael Dweck

Riverhead Raceway, the last of over 40 stock car tracks once found on Long Island, struggles to survive in a world of NASCAR and rising real estate prices. It and its colorful denizens are profiled in this acclaimed new documentary. “A high art film about a blue-collar subject…See[s] beauty in the everyday.” –L.A. Times. DCP. 75 min.

Italy | 1971 | Luchino Visconti

Dirk Bogarde plays a repressed, aging composer who, while vacationing in Venice, finds his ideal in beauty in an adolescent boy staying at his hotel. He develops an all-consuming, fatal attraction for the youth. Visconti’s sumptuously decadent adaptation of Thomas Mann’s novella memorably employs music by Gustav Mahler. Cleveland revival premiere. In English. DCP. 130 min.

United States | 1933 | Frank R. Strayer

Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Melvyn Douglas, and Dwight Frye star in this low budget, pre-Code horror movie produced by Majestic Pictures and shot on sets borrowed from Universal. It tells of a mad doctor who lives in a village where bodies are turning up mysteriously drained of blood. Preceded at showtime by Hearst Metrotone News, Vol. 4, No. 250 (1933) and Ub Iwerks’ 1934 cartoon Jack Frost (1934). Cleveland revival premiere. All films digitally restored...

United States | 1933 | Frank R. Strayer

Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Melvyn Douglas, and Dwight Frye star in this low budget, pre-Code horror movie produced by Majestic Pictures and shot on sets borrowed from Universal. It tells of a mad doctor who lives in a village where bodies are turning up mysteriously drained of blood. Preceded at showtime by Hearst Metrotone News, Vol. 4, No. 250 (1933) and Ub Iwerks’ 1934 cartoon Jack Frost (1934). Cleveland revival premiere. All films digitally restored...

Japan | 1954 | Akira Kurosawa

Recently voted the greatest foreign-language film of all time in a poll conducted by BBC Culture, Akira Kurosawa’s stirring epic is set in 16th-century Japan. A ragtag bunch of out-of-work samurai band together to protect a poor farming village from marauding bandits. Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura star. Subtitles. 207 min.

Italy | 1971 | Luchino Visconti

Dirk Bogarde plays a repressed, aging composer who, while vacationing in Venice, finds his ideal in beauty in an adolescent boy staying at his hotel. He develops an all-consuming, fatal attraction for the youth. Visconti’s sumptuously decadent adaptation of Thomas Mann’s novella memorably employs music by Gustav Mahler. Cleveland revival premiere. In English. DCP. 130 min.

Finland, France, Germany, Poland | 2017 | Marta Prus

The punishing training regimen of Olympics-bound Russian rhythmic gymnast Margarita Mamun is captured in this intense, unsparing, often horrific nonfiction film by a former gymnast. “The Black Swan of sports documentaries.” –Variety. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 74 min.

United States | 2018 | Michael Dweck

Riverhead Raceway, the last of over 40 stock car tracks once found on Long Island, struggles to survive in a world of NASCAR and rising real estate prices. It and its colorful denizens are profiled in this acclaimed new documentary. “A high art film about a blue-collar subject…See[s] beauty in the everyday.” –L.A. Times. DCP. 75 min.

United Kingdom | 2016 | Stuart A. Staples

Tindersticks, the alternative rock band that has scored six films for Claire Denis, provides new music for a series of silent nature films made in the early 1900s by pioneering British naturalist and documentarian F. Percy Smith (1880-1945). Recently restored by the British Film Institute, Smith’s short movies feature remarkable time-lapse micro-cinematography of plants, insects, microbes, et al. DCP. 55 min.

United States | 2018 | Jim Cummings

A clueless Texas cop reeling from recent losses—deceased mother, divorced wife, detached daughter—stumbles toward a total meltdown in this tragicomic portrait of middle-American male powerlessness and rage. Jim Cummings produced, wrote, directed, and stars in this widely acclaimed, indie tour de force, an expansion of his 2016 Sundance award-winning short film of the same title. Grand Jury Award, 2018 SXSW Film Festival. “Introduces a major talent…The indie film you need to see this year.” –Rolling...

United States | 2017 | Joseph Kahn

A Ph.D. candidate researching battle rap soon becomes an obsessed competitor himself, hurling rhymed, politically incorrect insults at a variety of opponents. The free-wheeling, provocative third feature by veteran music video director Joseph Kahn is “a feverishly entertaining spectacle” (Variety) that was produced by Eminem and won the People’s Choice award in the “Midnight Madness” section of the 2017 Toronto Film Festival. DCP. 120 min.

United States | 2017 | Joseph Kahn

A Ph.D. candidate researching battle rap soon becomes an obsessed competitor himself, hurling rhymed, politically incorrect insults at a variety of opponents. The free-wheeling, provocative third feature by veteran music video director Joseph Kahn is “a feverishly entertaining spectacle” (Variety) that was produced by Eminem and won the People’s Choice award in the “Midnight Madness” section of the 2017 Toronto Film Festival. DCP. 120 min.

United States | 2018 | Jim Cummings

A clueless Texas cop reeling from recent losses—deceased mother, divorced wife, detached daughter—stumbles toward a total meltdown in this tragicomic portrait of middle-American male powerlessness and rage. Jim Cummings produced, wrote, directed, and stars in this widely acclaimed, indie tour de force, an expansion of his 2016 Sundance award-winning short film of the same title. Grand Jury Award, 2018 SXSW Film Festival. “Introduces a major talent…The indie film you need to see this year.” –Rolling...

United States | 1933 | Phil Goldstone

One of the major pre-Code discoveries of recent years, this lurid melodrama “may be the best B-film of the 1930s,” according to the UCLA Film Archive. It’s a hallucinatory fever-dream of flashbacks, flash-forwards, and flashbacks-within-flashbacks in which a victimized young woman proves willing to go to the electric chair for those she loves. Preceded at showtime by Hearst Metrotone News, Vol. 4, No. 269 (1933) and Ub Iwerks’ 1935 cartoon Balloon Land (1935). All films...

France, Italy | 1967 | Luchino Visconti

Marcello Mastroianni and Anna Karina star in Luchino Visconti’s rarely revived color adaptation of Albert Camus’ literary masterpiece—about an impassive Frenchman in sultry 1930s Algeria who dispassionately murders a man, then ponders his existence while awaiting his fate. “Makes the senseless sensuous.” –J. Hoberman. “Great passages.” –Pauline Kael. Imported print! Subtitles. 104 min.

United States | 2018 | Jeremy Workman

This acclaimed “walkumentary” focuses on a man who sold his residence and abandoned an engineering job to spend six years walking every one of the 8000 miles of streets and paths that traverse New York City. Matt Green’s five-borough odyssey proved an unprecedented journey of discovery, humanity, beauty, and wonder. “[The film] isn’t about New York so much as it is about an unusual idea seen to fruition.” –RogerEbert.com. DCP. 95 min.

United States | 1953 | George Sidney

Two once-married actors who now hate each other (Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel) find themselves co-starring in a stage musical based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Their mutual animosity threatens to sink the show, until some gangsters who have a financial stake in the production step in. This clever, hilarious musical farce contains some of Cole Porter’s best songs, including “So in Love,” “Too Darn Hot,” “Wunderbar,” “I Hate Men,” and “Brush Up Your...

United States | 2018 | Jeremy Workman

This acclaimed “walkumentary” focuses on a man who sold his residence and abandoned an engineering job to spend six years walking every one of the 8000 miles of streets and paths that traverse New York City. Matt Green’s five-borough odyssey proved an unprecedented journey of discovery, humanity, beauty, and wonder. “[The film] isn’t about New York so much as it is about an unusual idea seen to fruition.” –RogerEbert.com. DCP. 95 min.

United States | 1933 | Phil Goldstone

One of the major pre-Code discoveries of recent years, this lurid melodrama “may be the best B-film of the 1930s,” according to the UCLA Film Archive. It’s a hallucinatory fever-dream of flashbacks, flash-forwards, and flashbacks-within-flashbacks in which a victimized young woman proves willing to go to the electric chair for those she loves. Preceded at showtime by Hearst Metrotone News, Vol. 4, No. 269 (1933) and Ub Iwerks’ 1935 cartoon Balloon Land (1935). All films...

United States | 2017 | John Anderson

This new film traces the life and career of Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer Paul Butterfield (1942-1987), a white harmonica player from Chicago’s south side who learned the blues from Muddy Waters and other black masters and then brought the music to new audiences. Butterfield was the only artist to perform at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, 1967’s Monterey Pop Festival, and 1969’s Woodstock. With Elvin Bishop, B.B. King, et al. “Exhilarating.”...

United States | 1932 | Lowell Sherman

Lowell Sherman (co-star of Griffith’s Way Down East) directs and stars in this unclassifiable mix of sophisticated comedy and grotesque horror, playing an unscrupulous surgeon whose innovative face-lifting technique still has some significant shortcomings. Preceded at showtime by Hearst Metrotone News, Vol. 4, No. 226 (1932) and Dave Fleischer’s Betty Boop cartoon classic Snow White (1933). All films digitally restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. DCP. Total 97 min.

United States | 1985 | Will Vinton

The last and most elaborate Claymation feature by the late Oscar- and Emmy-winning animator Will Vinton (creator of the California Raisins) finds Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, and Becky Thatcher joining their creator, Mark Twain, on an airship headed for Halley’s Comet. Numerous Twain stories are brought to life en route. With the voice of James Whitmore. 86 min.

United States | 2018 | Cameron Yates

This new documentary charts the meteoric rise of California teen food prodigy Flynn McGarry, who transformed his bedroom into a fully functioning kitchen and his house into a supper club by the time he was 12. Now 20, he runs his own restaurant in Manhattan. “Beyond the shots of luscious dishes, there's a pretty interesting character study here as well.” –Hollywood Reporter. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 82 min.

Italy, United Kingdom | 1973 | Nicolas Roeg

One of the scariest, sexiest, and most stylish films ever made! Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie play bereaved parents who travel to off-season Venice after the drowning death of their young daughter. There they become entangled in a deadly parapsychological web involving a mysterious figure in a red raincoat and two old sisters who claim to be in touch with their dead child. Adults only! Blu-ray. 110 min.

Italy | 1943 | Luchino Visconti

This unauthorized adaptation of James M. Cain’s crime classic The Postman Always Rings Twice was both Luchino Visconti’s debut feature and the first film to be labeled as “Italian neorealism.” Banned and ultimately destroyed by the Fascist government (Visconti retained a duplicate negative), this downbeat drama tells of a drifter who falls in love with the wife of a Po Valley gas station owner, whom they proceed to murder. “Stunning.” –Time Out Film Guide. Subtitles....

United States | 1932 | Lowell Sherman

Lowell Sherman (co-star of Griffith’s Way Down East) directs and stars in this unclassifiable mix of sophisticated comedy and grotesque horror, playing an unscrupulous surgeon whose innovative face-lifting technique still has some significant shortcomings. Preceded at showtime by Hearst Metrotone News, Vol. 4, No. 226 (1932) and Dave Fleischer’s Betty Boop cartoon classic Snow White (1933). All films digitally restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. DCP. Total 97 min.

United States | 2018 | Cameron Yates

This new documentary charts the meteoric rise of California teen food prodigy Flynn McGarry, who transformed his bedroom into a fully functioning kitchen and his house into a supper club by the time he was 12. Now 20, he runs his own restaurant in Manhattan. “Beyond the shots of luscious dishes, there's a pretty interesting character study here as well.” –Hollywood Reporter. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 82 min.

United States | 1945 | Edgar G. Ulmer

An out-of-work nightclub pianist (Tom Neal) traveling cross-country with a false identity and guilty knowledge of a newly dead man finds his troubles compounded when he picks up a ruthless femme fatale (Ann Savage). Edgar G. Ulmer’s Poverty Row masterpiece, “the essence of low-budget filmmaking and a landmark of film noir” (NY Times), has been newly restored after decades of being shown and seen in substandard public domain prints. Cleveland revival premiere. DCP. 68 min.

Canada, United States | 1933 | Edgar G. Ulmer

In this controversial STD drama that was originally censored in Ohio, a young businessman returns from a debauched night on the town and transmits VD to his fiancée. Edgar G. Ulmer’s pioneering exploitation film benefits from lush production values thanks to underwriting by the Canadian Social Health Council. Preceded at showtime by Hearst Metrotone News, Vol. 4, No. 252 (1933) and Dave Fleischer’s cartoon Dancing on the Moon (1935). All films digitally restored by the...

France, Italy | 1963 | Luchino Visconti

Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, and Alain Delon star in this sumptuous historical epic set in 19th-century Sicily at the time of Garibaldi’s unification of Italy. It tells of a prince and family patriarch whose aristocratic lifestyle is about to be swept away by the tide of history. Martin Scorsese hails it as “one of the greatest visual experiences in cinema.” Music by Nino Rota. Subtitles. DCP. 186 min.

Canada, United States | 1933 | Edgar G. Ulmer

In this controversial STD drama that was originally censored in Ohio, a young businessman returns from a debauched night on the town and transmits VD to his fiancée. Edgar G. Ulmer’s pioneering exploitation film benefits from lush production values thanks to underwriting by the Canadian Social Health Council. Preceded at showtime by Hearst Metrotone News, Vol. 4, No. 252 (1933) and Dave Fleischer’s cartoon Dancing on the Moon (1935). All films digitally restored by the...

United States | 1945 | Edgar G. Ulmer

An out-of-work nightclub pianist (Tom Neal) traveling cross-country with a false identity and guilty knowledge of a newly dead man finds his troubles compounded when he picks up a ruthless femme fatale (Ann Savage). Edgar G. Ulmer’s Poverty Row masterpiece, “the essence of low-budget filmmaking and a landmark of film noir” (NY Times), has been newly restored after decades of being shown and seen in substandard public domain prints. Cleveland revival premiere. DCP. 68 min.

United States | 2017 | Austin Lynch, Matthew Booth

David Lynch’s director son Austin collaborates with photographer and filmmaker Matthew Booth on this non-narrative feature that brings together a silent fisherman in Texas, a blazing oil field in North Dakota, a mysterious community in Virginia, a women’s prison in Oregon, and a modernist home in California. The result is a singular blend of documentary and narrative that explores sound, image, and cinematic time while meditating on nature, isolation, decadence, and destitution. With Denis Lavant....

Denmark | 2018 | Gustav Möller

A disgraced Danish cop demoted to the emergency dispatch desk finds himself dealing with a life-and-death kidnap crisis. He tries to resolve it with only phones and a computer at his disposal. This clever, riveting thriller never leaves the confines of a single room, but the suspense it generates ripples through the theater. One of the best films we saw at last year’s Cleveland Int’l Film Festival. “Couldn’t be more gripping and involving.” –L.A. Times....

Netherlands | 1986 | Fons Rademakers

Here’s one of the hardest to see of all Oscar winners for Best Foreign Language Film! (It’s never been released on DVD in the U.S.) The Assault is an epic thriller that traces the decades-long repercussions of a traumatic act of Nazi violence witnessed by a 12-year-old Dutch boy during the German occupation. Subtitles. 148 min.

Denmark | 2018 | Gustav Möller

A disgraced Danish cop demoted to the emergency dispatch desk finds himself dealing with a life-and-death kidnap crisis. He tries to resolve it with only phones and a computer at his disposal. This clever, riveting thriller never leaves the confines of a single room, but the suspense it generates ripples through the theater. One of the best films we saw at last year’s Cleveland Int’l Film Festival. “Couldn’t be more gripping and involving.” –L.A. Times....

United States | 2017 | Austin Lynch, Matthew Booth

David Lynch’s director son Austin collaborates with photographer and filmmaker Matthew Booth on this non-narrative feature that brings together a silent fisherman in Texas, a blazing oil field in North Dakota, a mysterious community in Virginia, a women’s prison in Oregon, and a modernist home in California. The result is a singular blend of documentary and narrative that explores sound, image, and cinematic time while meditating on nature, isolation, decadence, and destitution. With Denis Lavant....