Cinematheque Film Schedule

Belgium | 2021 | Laura Wandel

One of the 15 films shortlisted for this year’s Academy Award for Best Int’l Feature Film, this acclaimed new child’s-eye drama focuses on a seven-year-old girl who witnesses the bullying of her beloved older brother at school. She wants to tell their father about it, but her sibling swears her to silence. 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes (as of 3/25). “An ordinary primary school becomes a terrifying psychological battleground in [this] deeply unnerving first...

United States | 1973/2000 | William Friedkin

In one of the scariest, most shocking movies ever made, two Catholic priests are summoned to an affluent suburb to perform an exorcism on a 12-year-old girl possessed by the devil. Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Jason Miller, and Max von Sydow star in this classic chiller that will be shown in a version 11 minutes longer than the original cut. Adults only! DCP. 132 min.

United States | 1988 | John Waters

John Waters’ most family-friendly film inspired the award-winning Broadway and movie musical of the same name. Set in 1962 Baltimore, the comedy stars Ricki Lake, Divine (in her final role), Debbie Harry, and Sonny Bono in a tale of a “pleasantly plump” teen whose efforts to land a spot on a popular TV dance show soon give way to working to integrate the program. “A family movie both the Bradys and the Mansons could adore."...

Hungary | 1971 | Miklós Jancsó

There are only 30 shots in this amazing and unique film, in which an 1890s revolt by landless Hungarian farm workers is rendered as a kind of folk tale with songs and choreographed dances. This balletic masterpiece with symbolic color and ample nudity “may well be the greatest Hungarian film of the 60s and 70s” (Jonathan Rosenbaum). Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 84 min.

United States | 1988 | John Waters

John Waters’ most family-friendly film inspired the award-winning Broadway and movie musical of the same name. Set in 1962 Baltimore, the comedy stars Ricki Lake, Divine (in her final role), Debbie Harry, and Sonny Bono in a tale of a “pleasantly plump” teen whose efforts to land a spot on a popular TV dance show soon give way to working to integrate the program. “A family movie both the Bradys and the Mansons could adore."...

United States | 1973/2000 | William Friedkin

In one of the scariest, most shocking movies ever made, two Catholic priests are summoned to an affluent suburb to perform an exorcism on a 12-year-old girl possessed by the devil. Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Jason Miller, and Max von Sydow star in this classic chiller that will be shown in a version 11 minutes longer than the original cut. Adults only! DCP. 132 min.

Germany | 2021 | Hauke Wendler

This new documentary takes an in-depth look at the world’s best-selling piece of furniture—the stackable plastic chair of the film’s title. (It is estimated that there are more than a billion units worldwide.) Filmed over five continents, the movie explores the history, uses, and economic and environmental costs of this ubiquitous chair that was invented in the 1970s and which many Westerners disparage as bland, cheap, and ugly. But to impoverished peoples in the developing...

Australia | 2021 | Justin Kurzel

Sweeping the 2021 Australian Academy Awards with eight wins including Best Film, Director, Lead Actor (Caleb Landry Jones), Lead Actress (Judy Davis), Supporting Actor (Anthony LaPaglia), Supporting Actress (Essie Davis), and Original Screenplay, the shattering new movie from the maker of 2015’s Macbeth details the run-up to a real-life 1996 mass killing in Tasmania. And it does so without on-screen violence. “An intensely disquieting tone poem.” –The Guardian. Adults only! Cleveland theatrical premiere. DCP. 112...

United Kingdom | 1972 | Alfred Hitchcock

A “necktie killer” terrorizes London in this terrific late Hitchcock thriller (his penultimate film) that has a script by Anthony Shaffer (Sleuth) as well as dazzling camerawork, classic set pieces, black comedy, thrills, shudders, and a nightmarish “wrong man” subplot. 35mm. 116 min.

Iran | 2021 | Panah Panahi

Winner of the award for Best Film at the 2021 London Film Festival, the crowd-pleasing debut feature by the son of beleaguered, long-banned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi follows an Iranian family of four—two middle-aged parents, their grown son, and a six-year-old second son—as they (and their sick dog) barrel across the Iranian countryside in the family car, heading toward an unspoken destination. This comic road movie is warm and funny, mysterious and moving; Tripadvisor would...

Hungary | 1974 | Miklós Jancsó

Electra, still seething over the murder of her father King Agamemnon by the tyrant Aegisthus 15 years ago, plots to overthrow and kill this usurper of the throne. Jancsó’s update of the ancient Greek myth, which resonated with Hungary’s post-WWII political status as part of the Soviet Bloc, consists of only 12 intricately choreographed, continuous takes. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 71 min.

United Kingdom | 1972 | Alfred Hitchcock

A “necktie killer” terrorizes London in this terrific late Hitchcock thriller (his penultimate film) that has a script by Anthony Shaffer (Sleuth) as well as dazzling camerawork, classic set pieces, black comedy, thrills, shudders, and a nightmarish “wrong man” subplot. 35mm. 116 min.

Germany, United States | 1999 | David Fincher

The late Meat Loaf co-stars with Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter in David Fincher’s dark, subversive comedy about a disaffected office drone who comes alive when he reconnects with pain and violence courtesy of a mysterious, id-like mentor. “The defining cult movie of our time.” –NY Times. Adults only! DCP. 139 min.

Iran | 2021 | Panah Panahi

Winner of the award for Best Film at the 2021 London Film Festival, the crowd-pleasing debut feature by the son of beleaguered, long-banned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi follows an Iranian family of four—two middle-aged parents, their grown son, and a six-year-old second son—as they (and their sick dog) barrel across the Iranian countryside in the family car, heading toward an unspoken destination. This comic road movie is warm and funny, mysterious and moving; Tripadvisor would...

France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Ukraine | 2018 | Sergei Loznitsa

This prescient, previously unreleased-in-America film by pre-eminent contemporary Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa (Maidan, State Funeral) is a biting black comedy in which Ukrainian nationalists battle Putin-backed separatists in the disputed, war-ravaged region of eastern Ukraine referenced by the film’s title. Set during 2014-15, the movie consists of 13 loosely connected episodes based on real stories of soldiers, civilians, and journalists. As civility and civilization crumble, truth becomes not only the first casualty of the conflict...

Germany, United States | 1999 | David Fincher

The late Meat Loaf co-stars with Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter in David Fincher’s dark, subversive comedy about a disaffected office drone who comes alive when he reconnects with pain and violence courtesy of a mysterious, id-like mentor. “The defining cult movie of our time.” –NY Times. Adults only! DCP. 139 min.

Australia | 2021 | Justin Kurzel

Sweeping the 2021 Australian Academy Awards with eight wins including Best Film, Director, Lead Actor (Caleb Landry Jones), Lead Actress (Judy Davis), Supporting Actor (Anthony LaPaglia), Supporting Actress (Essie Davis), and Original Screenplay, the shattering new movie from the maker of 2015’s Macbeth details the run-up to a real-life 1996 mass killing in Tasmania. And it does so without on-screen violence. “An intensely disquieting tone poem.” –The Guardian. Adults only! Cleveland theatrical premiere. DCP. 112...

Hungary | 1984 | Márta Mészáros

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, the first of Márta Mészáros’ autobiographical “diary” trilogy (showing over the next three weekends) is set in Hungary during the immediate post-WWII years. After her father becomes a victim of the Stalinist purges, Juli, a Hungarian teen living in the USSR, returns to a changed Budapest. She goes to live with her aunt, a cold woman who works as a rigid Communist Party official and who becomes...

Russia | 2018 | Kirill Sokolov

In this film festival favorite whose U.S. theatrical release got scotched by the pandemic, a young man bent on revenge and an older police detective try to kill each other during an ever-escalating series of outrageous attacks inside the cop’s Moscow apartment. If you think you had a bad day, then see this painfully raucous black comedy that has echoes of Tarantino and Martin McDonagh. “A clever, bloody as hell, often hilarious virtuoso exercise in...

France | 1962 | James Blue

A young Frenchman of European descent who grew up in Algeria returns to his North African hometown to tend to his dying father. The Algerian War is raging, lending a surreal aspect to his homecoming and tempering his nostalgia with feelings of being a stranger in his native land. This Cannes award winner was the only narrative film by Oscar-nominated American documentarian James Blue, as well as the only French movie shot during the Algerian...

Canada | 1981 | Brigitte Berman

Jazz cornetist, pianist, and composer Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke (1903-1931) was the James Dean, Jim Morrison, or Kurt Cobain of the 1920s. Though he died at age 28, Beiderbecke’s music and playing influenced generations of jazzmen who followed him. This classic documentary includes archival photographs, rare film clips, and interviews with jazz greats like Hoagy Carmichael, Doc Cheatham, and Artie Shaw. Another fan, Louis Armstrong, is the source for the quotation in the movie’s title. “The...

Russia | 2018 | Kirill Sokolov

In this film festival favorite whose U.S. theatrical release got scotched by the pandemic, a young man bent on revenge and an older police detective try to kill each other during an ever-escalating series of outrageous attacks inside the cop’s Moscow apartment. If you think you had a bad day, then see this painfully raucous black comedy that has echoes of Tarantino and Martin McDonagh. “A clever, bloody as hell, often hilarious virtuoso exercise in...

Hungary | 1984 | Márta Mészáros

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, the first of Márta Mészáros’ autobiographical “diary” trilogy (showing over the next three weekends) is set in Hungary during the immediate post-WWII years. After her father becomes a victim of the Stalinist purges, Juli, a Hungarian teen living in the USSR, returns to a changed Budapest. She goes to live with her aunt, a cold woman who works as a rigid Communist Party official and who becomes...

United States | 1935 | Karl Freund

German émigré Peter Lorre made his American acting debut in this sick, bizarre chiller directed by Austrian émigré Karl Freund. (Freund was also an eminent cinematographer who shot Metropolis and Dracula and directed The Mummy.) Lorre plays a brilliant but unbalanced Paris surgeon infatuated with a stage actress. When this woman’s concert pianist husband suffers a crippling accident, Lorre’s prowess with a scalpel provides him an opportunity to ingratiate himself with her. Co-shot by Citizen...

Canada | 1981 | Brigitte Berman

Jazz cornetist, pianist, and composer Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke (1903-1931) was the James Dean, Jim Morrison, or Kurt Cobain of the 1920s. Though he died at age 28, Beiderbecke’s music and playing influenced generations of jazzmen who followed him. This classic documentary includes archival photographs, rare film clips, and interviews with jazz greats like Hoagy Carmichael, Doc Cheatham, and Artie Shaw. Another fan, Louis Armstrong, is the source for the quotation in the movie’s title. “The...

United States | 1972 | William Crain

Shakespearean actor William Marshall lends a touch of class to this seminal blaxploitation horror movie. Marshall (later the King of Cartoons on Pee-wee’s Playhouse) plays an 18th-century African prince who is transformed into a vampire after failing to convince Count Dracula to help him suppress the transatlantic slave trade. Two centuries later, he turns up in modern L.A. to wreak havoc. With Vonetta McGee. 35mm. 92 min.

United States | 1978 | Walon Green

Celebrate Earth Day weekend with this largely unknown nature documentary that has an original Stevie Wonder score! Virtually unreleased in its day and seemingly never put out on home video or DVD, the movie was made by the Oscar-winning director of the 1971 insect documentary The Hellstrom Chronicle, Walon Green, who also wrote the screenplay for The Wild Bunch (!). Based on a best-selling 1973 book, The Secret Life of Plants argues (and demonstrates—through a...

France, Germany, Israel | 2021 | Nadav Lapid

An acclaimed Israeli filmmaker about to screen his latest movie at a library in a remote desert town bristles when he must sign a document from the Ministry of Culture, the event sponsor, limiting what he talks about during the session. Recently shown as part of CIFF46, the new film by the fast-rising Israeli director of The Kindergarten Teacher and Synonyms is both a withering critique of his native country and an exciting work of...

United States | 1922 | Robert Flaherty

New England’s energetic and ebullient silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis, who blogs about his travels and performances at jeffrapsis.com, returns to the Cinematheque only three months after his last appearance. (If you missed him in January, don’t do the same this time around.) On this visit, Jeff will provide live electronic keyboard accompaniment to two silent movies marking their centennials this year. First up is Buster Keaton’s The Frozen North, a 17-min. spoof of...

Hungary | 1987 | Márta Mészáros

In the second part of Márta Mészáros’ autobiographical trilogy (see 4/14 at 6:45), her alter ego Juli, now 18, defies her apparatchik aunt and attends film school in Moscow. The film’s time frame encompasses both the death of Stalin and the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. “A stirring depiction of a young woman finding her voice in a world intent on stifling it.” –Janus Films. “A bold melding of vérité newsreel, psychology and emotional truths.” –The Rough...

United States | 1978 | Walon Green

Celebrate Earth Day weekend with this largely unknown nature documentary that has an original Stevie Wonder score! Virtually unreleased in its day and seemingly never put out on home video or DVD, the movie was made by the Oscar-winning director of the 1971 insect documentary The Hellstrom Chronicle, Walon Green, who also wrote the screenplay for The Wild Bunch (!). Based on a best-selling 1973 book, The Secret Life of Plants argues (and demonstrates—through a...

United States | 1972 | William Crain

Shakespearean actor William Marshall lends a touch of class to this seminal blaxploitation horror movie. Marshall (later the King of Cartoons on Pee-wee’s Playhouse) plays an 18th-century African prince who is transformed into a vampire after failing to convince Count Dracula to help him suppress the transatlantic slave trade. Two centuries later, he turns up in modern L.A. to wreak havoc. With Vonetta McGee. 35mm. 92 min.

Hungary | 1987 | Márta Mészáros

In the second part of Márta Mészáros’ autobiographical trilogy (see 4/14 at 6:45), her alter ego Juli, now 18, defies her apparatchik aunt and attends film school in Moscow. The film’s time frame encompasses both the death of Stalin and the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. “A stirring depiction of a young woman finding her voice in a world intent on stifling it.” –Janus Films. “A bold melding of vérité newsreel, psychology and emotional truths.” –The Rough...

Denmark | 1955 | Carl Theodor Dreyer

For the next-to-last selection in his year-long “carte blanche” series, retiring Cleveland Institute of Art President + CEO Grafton Nunes has selected a mesmerizing masterpiece of spiritual cinema. It’s a late work by the great Danish director of The Passion of Joan of Arc and Vampyr. In Ordet, a rural farm family riven by religious differences experiences a collective tragedy followed by a crippling crisis of faith. Can these individuals find transcendence and come together...

France, Poland, United States | 2006 | David Lynch

David Lynch’s last completed theatrical feature is a movie industry thriller that veers off Mulholland Drive to take an even twistier and more treacherous path into the dark unknown. Laura Dern plays an actress who lands a dream part in a prestigious new movie that also happens to be cursed. As she prepares for the role, she goes down a rabbit hole that’s suffused with dread and full of dangerous visions. Her identity splinters and...

Bosnia, Croatia, France, Germany, Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia | 2020 | Srdan Golubovic

In this powerful drama featured at CIFF45, Goran Bogdan of TV’s Fargo plays a destitute, desperate Serbian man who, after being deemed an unfit father by the state, embarks on a cross-country “pilgrimage” to wrest his two children away from social services. 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes (as of 4/21). “Tough but compelling.” –Variety. Subtitles. 120 min. Father, a Cinematheque streaming exclusive, can be viewed online from 4/29 thru at least 5/31 via the...

United States | 2021 | Jane Schoenbrun

In this unsettling and acclaimed indie horror film, an isolated teen girl who’s alone in her attic bedroom one night decides to take the plunge and participate in an ominous online role-playing game, World’s Fair. As she documents changes that seem to be happening to her, she meets a mysterious man—but soon can’t tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not. “An unusually intimate, interior coming-of-age study.” –Variety. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 86 min.

France, Poland, United States | 2006 | David Lynch

David Lynch’s last completed theatrical feature is a movie industry thriller that veers off Mulholland Drive to take an even twistier and more treacherous path into the dark unknown. Laura Dern plays an actress who lands a dream part in a prestigious new movie that also happens to be cursed. As she prepares for the role, she goes down a rabbit hole that’s suffused with dread and full of dangerous visions. Her identity splinters and...

Hungary | 1990 | Márta Mészáros

The conclusion to Márta Mészáros’ autobiographical trilogy (see 4/14 at 6:45 & 4/23 at 5:00) is a mix of newsreel footage and fictionalized drama. Film student Juli returns from Moscow to Budapest in the wake of the failed 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Brutality, fear, anxiety, and resentment suffuse her shattered nation, now firmly in the grip of the Soviets. “Mészáros creates an at once epic and intimate portrait of history as she experienced it, bearing witness...

United States | 1973 | Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese’s breakthrough movie also announced the arrival of Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. Set in NYC’s Little Italy, it’s a propulsive crime drama about a conflicted small-time hood and a reckless, delinquent friend for whom he feels responsible. One of the seminal American films. 35mm. 110 min. Special admission $13; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $10. No passes or twofers.

United States | 2021 | Jane Schoenbrun

In this unsettling and acclaimed indie horror film, an isolated teen girl who’s alone in her attic bedroom one night decides to take the plunge and participate in an ominous online role-playing game, World’s Fair. As she documents changes that seem to be happening to her, she meets a mysterious man—but soon can’t tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not. “An unusually intimate, interior coming-of-age study.” –Variety. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 86 min.