Cinematheque Film Schedule

United States | 2019 | Louie Schwartzberg

One of the most unexpected art house hits of 2019 -- and our most popular movie of all time -- is a mind-blowing, beautifully photographed look at the world of mushrooms and how they can help save the planet. With Paul Stamets, Michael Pollan, and Andrew Weil; narrated by Brie Larson. 81 min. Fantastic Fungi, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can be watched online thru 1/31 via the link below. Doing so supports the Cinematheque. Screening...

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United States | 2020 | Tom Putnam

David Cross and Debra Messing star in this spirited tale of a renowned butterfly expert who, in 1995, makes a perilous but life-changing expedition through Washington's untamed Gifford Pinchot National Forest to search for a new species of the insect. Inspired by the life of Dr. Robert Pyle with music by the Avett Brothers, the film has a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. "For a movie about a lepidopterist, The Dark Divide is awfully...

Germany, United Kingdom | 2018 | Marcus H. Rosenmüller

This moving romantic drama tells of a German POW in England who remains in Britain after the end of WWII to play football. The ex-soldier’s relationship with a local soccer coach and the coach’s daughter helps him battle the overt prejudice and hostility he encounters. Inspired by the life of Bert Trautmann (1923-2013). “Excellent! A heartfelt blend of romance and football, more substantial than most sports movies and postwar dramas.” –The Guardian. 120 min. The...

Cuba, United Kingdom | 2020 | Edesio Alejandro, Mo Fini

In this winning Cuban film that features musicians from the Buena Vista Social Club, a resourceful farmer who moonlights as a music producer and promoter risks his entire livelihood on an offer that may be too good to be true. "Perfectly charming...The people, places, music and food of Cuba make one long for the day when 'the gringo embargo' and travel ban are gone." –Movie Nation. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. 82 min. Mambo Man, a Cinematheque...

Australia | 2018 | Thomas M. Wright

A bookish young journalist writing a biography of celebrated (but unstable) Australian painter Adam Cullen (1965-2012) soon finds himself entrapped in the artist’s seductive, self-destructive orbit and victimized by his volatile behavior. Daniel Henshall and Toby Wallace star. “One of the year's most striking and accomplished directorial debuts.” –Hollywood Reporter. Cleveland premiere. 91 min. Acute Misfortune, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can be viewed online from 10/2 thru at least 10/22 via the link below. (Doing...

China, Hong Kong | 2006 | Jia Zhang-ke

Winner of the top prize at the 2006 Venice Film Festival, the fifth feature from the maker of The World, A Touch of Sin, and Ash Is Purest White remains one of Jia Zhang-ke’s greatest works.It’s a poignant tale in which two Chinese people return to their ancient village of Fengjie as it is being destroyed and submerged during the construction of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. (This massive hydroelectric project displaced...

United States | 1972 | Charles B. Pierce

Our first-ever drive-in show finds us presenting a pair of retro indie chillers on a night that itself might be chilly. So dress accordingly (and bring a mask, which is required at the box office, concession stand, and restrooms). First up, at 7:50 pm, is a new 4K restoration of one of the most successful American independent movies of all time! Charles B. Pierce’s spooky docudrama is based on sightings of a hulking, humanoid, Bigfoot-style...

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Canada, Gabon, United Kingdom, United States | 2019 | Tyler Chandler

Fantastic Fungi fans should check out this new documentary about the therapeutic potential of magic mushrooms and iboga. The movie focuses on a young woman suffering from chronic depression, anxiety, and drug addiction who turns to underground healers and illegal psychedelic medicine after prescription medications fail her. The film features mycologist Paul Stamets, trauma specialist Dr. Gabor Maté, and Rick Doblin, founder of MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies). Cleveland premiere. 84 min. Dosed, a...

Belgium, France, Portugal | 1993 | Chantal Akerman

Here’s a new digital restoration of one of the greatest works of the late Belgian trailblazer Chantal Akerman (Jeanne Dielman), which has never before been shown at the Cinematheque. Ranging from East Germany to Moscow and spanning late summer to deepest winter, the film is a subjective, poetic look at life in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union, captured “before it was too late.” “An elegant masterpiece." –J. Hoberman. “Monumental.” –Artforum. “If...

Ireland | 2020 | David Freyne

In this funny and touching coming-of-age comedy set in mid-1990s Ireland, two gay teens—a boy (Fionn O’Shea) and a girl (Lola Petticrew)—begin a sham relationship in order to keep their true sexual preferences hidden from their schoolmates and parents. “A gentle, bittersweet Irish charmer.” –Variety. Cleveland premiere. 92 min. Dating Amber, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can be viewed online from 10/9 thru at least 10/29 via the link below. (Doing so supports the Cinematheque.) Screening...

United States | 2019 | Catherine Gund

Cleveland-born art collector and philanthropist Agnes “Aggie” Gund, who has connected the visual arts world with social justice concerns (most visibly by establishing the Art for Justice Fund with the proceeds from the sale of a Roy Lichtenstein painting in 2017), is profiled in this new documentary by her Emmy-nominated filmmaker daughter. President Emerita of the Museum of Modern Art, Gund also has deep roots and ongoing professional relationships with arts institutions in her hometown,...

France, Japan, Switzerland | 2019 | Hirokazu Kore-eda

Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, and Ethan Hawke star in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s first film since his 2018 Cannes top prize winner Shoplifters. (It’s also his first film to be shot outside Japan, and the first not in his native language.) Deneuve plays Fabienne, a celebrated (and self-centered) French movie star whose daughter (Binoche), son-in-law (Hawke), and young granddaughter come to visit from New York. They arrive at the time of the publication of Fabienne’s...

Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, United States | 2018-20 | various directors

Seven inspiring short films (for ages 5+) from the 2020 New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival include six animated works (with subjects ranging from cats to chameleons) and one documentary (on chess). For the complete line-up, visit https://nyicff.org/programs/kid-flicks-one-3/. All films are in English, have no dialogue, or have brief English subtitles. Presented in partnership with New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival. Cleveland premiere. 58 min. NYICFF Kid Flicks One, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can be...

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France | 1995 | Mathieu Kassovitz

Here’s a new 4K restoration of Mathieu Kassovitz’ simmering urban drama that could hardly be more timely (though its 25 years old). Taking place the day after a riot in one of the impoverished banlieue districts on the outskirts of Paris, the film focuses on three young immigrant men—a Jew, an African, and an Arab—who have possession of a lost police revolver that the cops are actively searching for. With Vincent Cassel. Has a 100%...

United States | 2019 | Alexandra Kotcheff, Hannah Leder

In this thoroughly DIY indie comedy written by and starring the thirtysomething filmmakers, a struggling telemarketer living alone in the desert (where she also buries, or plants, “treasure”) is befriended by a vagrant woman with multiple personalities. “A slice of delightfully idiosyncratic comedic genius.” –Film Threat. 78 min. The Planters, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can be viewed online from 10/16 thru at least 11/5 via the link below. (Doing so supports the Cinematheque.) Screening fee...

France, Germany, Italy | 2019 | Pietro Marcello

This passionate cinematic fresco, based on a 1909 Jack London novel that has been transposed to 20th-century Naples, evokes the sweeping Italian historical and political epics of yesteryear. The film focuses on a working class sailor (Luca Marinelli of Netflix’s The Old Guard) who aspires to be a writer and thinker. He self-educates himself in order to elevate his station in life and also marry a young noblewoman he has fallen in love with. "An...

United Kingdom | 2019 | Rubika Shah

This galvanizing documentary focuses on Rock Against Racism (RAR), a London protest movement founded in 1976 when punk musicians (including The Ruts, Steel Pulse, the Tom Robinson Band, eventually The Clash) banded together to thwart a rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment and far-right, neo-fascist ideology in Britain. Staging concerts and publishing an influential fanzine, RAR soon spread to other European countries. Includes archival footage and new interviews. “A thrilling, incendiary look at punk’s influence on...

Italy, West Germany | 1970 | Vittorio De Sica

The Cinematheque is the Community Partner on this special virtual offering being presented for a limited time, free of charge, as part of this year’s online Mandel JCC Cleveland Jewish FilmFest. Winner of the 1972 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, this late-career triumph for the celebrated director of Bicycle Thieves and Shoeshine focuses on a family of aristocratic northern Italian Jews who shield themselves from Mussolini’s Fascism and anti-Semitic views by holing up...

France, Italy | 2009 | Pietro Marcello

This early gem from the director of Martin Eden (see 10/16) won major prizes at the Berlin and Turin film festivals. A hauntingly beautiful blend of documentary and fiction, the film interweaves a long-term love story (between a Sicilian criminal and the transsexual lover who waits for him to get out of prison) with a poetic reverie centered on the Italian port town of Genoa, captured in all its mysterious, fading glory. “Critic's Pick! Impressionistic,...

South Korea | 2020 | Kim Yong-Hoon

A Louis Vuitton bag full of cash is found in a sauna, setting off a chain-reaction of attempts to snag it by a group of intersecting low-lifes and hard-ups. This pitch-black neo-noir crime thriller with a scrambled chronology is a bloody good blend of the Coen brothers, Quentin Tarantino, and What’s Up, Doc? Has a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. 108 min. Beasts Clawing at Straws, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can...

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Italy | 2019 | Gianni Di Gregorio

In the genial new comedy from the director of 2008’s Mid-August Lunch, a former classics professor living in Rome (writer-director Di Gregorio) and his two retired seventysomething pals decide to move to another country where their meager pensions will go further. But where? Has a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “Low-key but also undeniably heartwarming…A gentle celebration of good company, good wine and good intentions.” –Time Out. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. 92 min. Citizens of...

South Korea, United States | 2019 | Wayne Wang

The new film from the director of Chan Is Missing and The Joy Luck Club is based on a New Yorker essay about a first generation Korean-American man who returns to his San Francisco home to care for his ailing Korean mother. As he prepares a traditional Korean New Year’s Eve dinner, memories of his mom and conflicted feelings about their relationship come to the fore. “Sensitively observed.” –Variety. Cleveland premiere. 86 min. Coming Home...

United States | 1973/2020 | William Greaves

This long-lost nonfiction film covers the National Black Political Convention of 1972, when 10,000 Black politicians, activists and artists convened in Gary, IN, to forge a national unity platform in advance of the Republican and Democratic presidential conventions. The delegates included a wide array of political thinkers and cultural celebrities—from Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale, poet Amiri Baraka, and PUSH founder Jesse Jackson to Coretta Scott King, Dr. Betty Shabazz, Dick Gregory, and Isaac Hayes....

United States | 2019 | Tyler Taormina

Spoofing and ultimately subverting John Hughes-style teen comedies and end-of-school-year movies, this off-kilter indie imagines a bizarre rite-of-passage at a local deli on the last day of high school. Graduating seniors gather to dance, flirt, eat, and also learn their individual fates and futures. It’s the most important night of these kids’ lives, determining who will leave their suburban town and who will remain behind. (And you thought the prom was traumatic!) The expansive ensemble...

Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Iran, Qatar, United States | 2018-19 | various directors

Nine inspiring short films for ages 8+ from the 2020 New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival include six animated works (two set on unknown planets) and three live-action works (about kites, soccer, and a first date). For the complete line-up, visit https://nyicff.org/programs/kid-flicks-two-3/. All films are in English or have English subtitles. Presented in partnership with New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival. Cleveland premiere. 66 min. NYICFF Kid Flicks Two, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can...

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United States | 2018 | Lydia Dean Pilcher, Ginny Mohler

Two teen sisters in 1920s New Jersey who paint glow-in-the-dark watch dials at the American Radium factory begin to experience mysterious health problems. They soon discover they are not alone so set out to learn more. With Joey King and Abby Quinn; produced by Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner. Cleveland premiere. 80 min. Radium Girls, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can be viewed online from 10/30 thru at least 12/3 via the link below. (Doing...

Hungary | 1988 | Béla Tarr

Here’s a new 4K restoration of the last feature Béla Tarr made prior to his 1994 magnum opus Sátántangó. Sharing the subsequent film’s screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, composer, and lead actor, Damnation can be seen as something of a prologue or an overture to that seven-hour masterpiece. Like it, the film centers around a group of downtrodden dreamers who hang out at a local bar (fittingly named the Titanik) and hope for a break that will...

Italy | 1954 | Federico Fellini

The first of four Federico Fellini films to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film is also reputedly Pope Francis’s all-time favorite movie. Anthony Quinn and Fellini’s wife Giulietta Masina star in this moving fable that charts the tragicomic relationship between a brutish, itinerant circus strongman and the simple, naive waif he employs as an assistant as they traverse rural Italy. Music by Nino Rota. New 4K restoration! Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. 108 min. ...

France, Spain | 2019 | Rodrigo Sorogoyen

A Spanish mother whose six-year-old son disappeared ten years ago on a French beach now works at a seaside restaurant near that beach. One day she encounters a teenager who reminds her of her lost child, and they begin to meet regularly. Is this the beginning an unseemly relationship, or is the still-distraught mom in search of something else? And what does the teen derive from his association with an attractive adult twice his age?...