Cinematheque Schedule

Italy | 1960 | Federico Fellini

One of the landmark films of the modern era, Fellini’s expansive survey of “the sweet life” focuses on a gossip columnist (Marcello Mastroianni) who is both attracted and repelled by the decadence and excesses of Rome’s fashionable but soulless jet-set. Contains many iconic sequences, including Anita Ekberg in the Trevi Fountain. With Anouk Aimée. Restored scope DCP! Subtitles. 175 min.

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Japan | 2020 | Sion Sono

Prolific, subversive Japanese cult director Sion Sono (Suicide Club, Love Exposure) is finally starting to find an audience in the U.S. (His first English-language film, Prisoners of the Ghostland starring Nicolas Cage, was released on 9/17.) Red Post, the film Sono made right before Ghostland, is a madcap comedy-drama in which a bevy of aspiring actresses audition for parts in a new movie by a prominent and acclaimed arthouse filmmaker. But life impinges upon art....

Ethiopia, Qatar, United States | 2021 | Jessica Beshir

Khat is Ethiopia’s biggest cash crop and a plant that Sufi Muslims chew to aid meditation and transcendence. It is also the subject of this mesmerizing new nonfiction film. Shot in sumptuous b&w with emphasis on light, textures, and sounds, this languid movie tries to replicate the mellow, woozy euphoria induced by the drug. “[Constructs] a loose intergenerational narrative around the elder harvesters for whom khat is both their daily bread and daily escape, and...

United States | 1978 | Claudia Weill

This landmark indie film, three years in the making and largely funded by grants, stars Melanie Mayron as a young Jewish photographer in NYC who must fend for herself when her best friend/roommate leaves to get married. Stanley Kubrick called Claudia Weill’s feminist, slice-of-life comedy-drama “one of the very rare American films that I would compare with the serious, intelligent, sensitive writing and filmmaking that you find in the best directors in Europe.” With Eli...

United States | 2021 | Connie Hochman

This new documentary revisits the glory years of George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet. Former dancers remember their time with Balanchine, explaining how they tried to fulfill the vision of a genius who was at once a groundbreaking choreographer, taskmaster, mad scientist, and spiritual teacher. The film is filled with never-before-seen archival footage of Balanchine at work during rehearsals and classes in preparation for his seminal works. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 88 min.