Cleveland Cinematheque January/February 2016 Schedule

[Press release from the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

 

New films by Laurie Anderson, Frederick Wiseman, and Matthew Barney are among the big-screen offerings that the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque will premiere locally during January and February in its new state-of-the-art Peter B. Lewis Theater, 11610 Euclid Avenue in the Uptown District of University Circle.  The new year will also introduce a new weekly series, “The Medium Is the Message,” consisting of 35mm film prints of classic movies. And one of the “holy grails” of world cinema, Jacques Rivette’s legendary, long unseen, 13-hour 1971 French New Wave classic OUT 1, will show over four Thursdays in January. The complete two-month schedule is below.

 

Unless noted, admission to each Cinematheque film is $9; Cinematheque members, those with Cleveland Institute of Art or Cleveland State University I.D.’s (this is new), and those age 25 & under $7. A second film on the same day costs an additional $7 (or the prevailing member price). Free parking for filmgoers is available in two CIA lots accessed from E. 117^th Street: Lot 73 (behind the building and adjacent to Cinematheque entrance C) and the CIA Annex lot (on the other side of E. 117^th). For further information, call John Ewing or Tim Harry at (216) 421-7450, send an email to cinema@cia.edu, or visit cia.edu/cinematheque. Cinematheque programs are supported by a grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

 

JANUARY 7-10

 

Thursday, January 7, at 6:45 pm

OUT 1: NOLI ME TANGERE (Episodes 1 & 2)

France, 1971, Jacques Rivette

One of the “holy grails” of world cinema can now be seen! The fourth film by French New Wave master Jacques Rivette is a 12-hour and 55-minute opus (in eight episodes) featuring an all-star cast of Nouvelle Vague icons: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Juliet Berto, Bulle Ogier, Françoise Fabian, Bernadette Lafont, Michael Lonsdale, Erich Rohmer, Barbet Schroeder, et al. Inspired by the epic narratives of Balzac (with a tip of the mad hat to Lewis Carroll), the movie focuses on two experimental theater groups, each rehearsing an Aeschylus play, and on some peripheral Parisians—most notably a “deaf mute” busker and a cunning con woman who both may have accidentally uncovered a citywide conspiracy involving a secret society (“the Thirteen”). The characters in these different spheres cross paths and interact in an ever-expanding web of performance; eventually, according to Rivette, “the fiction swallows everything up and then self-destructs.” Out 1 was originally envisioned as a TV mini-series. But when French television rejected it, Rivette edited his footage down to a four-hour version (with a totally different vision) entitled Out 1: Spectre, released in 1974. His original 775-minute movie, given the name Out 1: Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not), was projected only once—in 1971—and then did not resurface until 1989. Given only a handful of special screenings around the world since then, Out 1: Noli Me Tangere has now been digitally restored and released to theaters. It’s one of the cinema events of the decade! Cleveland theatrical premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 199 min. Out 1 will be shown in four parts over four successive Thursdays. Admission to all four parts is $25; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, age 25 & under $20. Admission to individual parts is $9; members, etc. $7. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Friday, January 8, at 7:15 pm &

Sunday, January 10, at 8:35 pm

OFFICE

HUA LI SHANG BAN ZU

China/Hong Kong, 2015, Johnnie To

Chinese superstars Chow Yun-fat and Sylvia Chang star in this elaborate musical extravaganza set in the world of corporate high finance, about a billion-dollar company that is going public. Office, with a score by Chinese pop icon Lo Ta-yu, marks a striking change of pace for virtuoso HK action master Johnnie To, but he is more than up to the task. “One of the most original and imaginative musicals of the last decade.” –Ignatiy Vishnevetsky. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 119 min.

 

Friday, January 8, at 9:35 pm &

Saturday, January 9, at 7:15 pm

HEART OF A DOG

France/USA, 2015, Laurie Anderson

The first film in almost three decades by musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson begins as an ode to her late pet (a rat terrier named Lolabelle) but eventually expands into a general meditation on love, loss, language, and mortality. Alternately goofy, lyrical, and enchanting, this free-associative cine-essay touches upon many things—from life in post-9/11 New York to the 2013 death of Anderson’s longtime partner, musician Lou Reed. “A celebration of life.” –San Francisco Chronicle. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 75 min. www.heartofadogfilm.com

 

Saturday, January 9, at 5:00 pm &

Sunday, January 10, at 4:00 pm

Film Classics in 35mm!

50^th Anniversary!

BLOW-UP

UK/Italy/USA, 1966, Michelangelo Antonioni

Antonioni’s biggest commercial success was an adults-only sensation when first released, and went on to become one of the most discussed and debated movies of its era. (It was spoofed in Austin Powers 2.) Set in “mod” London during the swinging sixties, it tells of a shallow fashion photographer (David Hemmings) who captures what may or may not be evidence of a murder in one of his outdoor shots. This colorful critique of soulless hipsters is actually a meditation on appearance, illusion, and the elusive nature of truth. With Vanessa Redgrave. 111 min. Special admission $10; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, age 25 & under $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners. For a related film, see Blow Out on 1/16 & 17.

 

Saturday, January 9, at 7:15 pm

HEART OF A DOG

See 1/8 at 9:35 for description

 

Saturday, January 9, at 8:50 pm &

Sunday, January 10, at 6:30 pm

Wim Wenders: Portraits Along the Road

New 4K Digital Restoration!

WRONG MOVE

aka WRONG MOVEMENT, FALSE MOVE

FALSCHE BEWEGUNG

West Germany, 1975, Wim Wenders

Made between Alice in the Cities and Kings of the Road, Wim Wenders’ color road movie stars Hanna Schygulla, Rüdiger Vogler, and a 13-year-old Nastassja Kinski (her screen debut). Inspired by Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, the film follows a discontented writer as he travels across 1970s Germany, befriending a variety of individuals (a singer, an actress, an industrialist, a poet, etc.) amid echoes of the country’s Nazi past. Screenplay by Peter Handke; cinematography by Robby Müller. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 103 min. www.janusfilms.com

 

Sunday, January 10, at 4:00 pm

BLOW-UP

See 1/9 at 5:00 for description

 

Sunday, January 10, at 6:30 pm

WRONG MOVE

See 1/9 at 8:50 for description

 

Sunday, January 10, at 8:35 pm

OFFICE

See 1/8 at 7:15 for description

 

JANUARY 14-17

 

Thursday, January 14, at 6:45 pm

OUT 1: NOLI ME TANGERE (Episodes 3 & 4)

See 1/7 at 6:45 for description. 215 min.

 

Friday, January 15, at 7:30 pm &

Sunday, January 17, at 8:40 pm

SAND DOLLARS

DÓLARES DE ARENA

Dominican Republic/Mexico/Argentina, 2015, Israel Cárdenas, Laura Amelia Guzmán

Geraldine Chaplin is superb in this touching, understated film about an elderly white woman vacationing on the beaches of the Dominican Republic, where she falls in love with a twentyish local black woman who works in the tourist sex trade. This sensitive drama is the Dominican submission for this year’s foreign-film Oscar. “[A] remarkably sensitive, nonjudgmental portrait of an unequal lesbian relationship.” –Variety. Adults only! Cleveland theatrical premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 84 min.

 

Friday, January 15, at 9:15 pm &

Saturday, January 16, at 7:15 pm

THE WONDERS

LE MERAVIGLIE

Italy/Switzerland/Germany, 2014, Alice Rohrwacher

The highly acclaimed second film from the director of Corpo Celeste focuses on a family of traditional beekeepers—father, mother, and four daughters—living in the Tuscan countryside. The stern, German paterfamilias wants to keep the modern world at bay, but enterprising oldest daughter Gelsomina thinks they should participate in a rural-oriented reality TV show in order to make some much-needed cash. Grand Prix, 2014 Cannes Film Festival. With Monica Bellucci. “A wistful but no-tears swan song recounting the disappearance of traditional rural lifestyle in Italy.” –Hollywood Reporter. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 110 min. thewonders.oscilloscope.net

 

Saturday, January 16, at 5:00 pm

Wim Wenders: Portraits Along the Road

New 4K Digital Restoration!

THE LEFT-HANDED WOMAN

DIE LINKSHÄNDIGE FRAU

West Germany, 1978, Peter Handke

The final film in our three-month Wim Wenders series was produced by Wenders but written and directed by his longtime screenwriter Peter Handke. Edith Clever, Bruno Ganz, Michael Lonsdale, Gerard Dépardieu, and Rüdiger Vogler star in the movie, a laconic, painterly account of an unsettled German wife living in Paris who withdraws from her husband and family and tries to rediscover her place in the universe. Cinematography by Robby Müller. “A hymn to a woman’s liberating private growth.” –Time Out Film Guide. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 115 min.

 

Saturday, January 16, at 7:15 pm

THE WONDERS

See 1/15 at 9:15 for description

 

Saturday, January 16, at 9:25 pm &

Sunday, January 17, at 6:30 pm

Film Classics in 35mm!

BLOW OUT

USA, 1981, Brian De Palma

Inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up (see 1/9 & 10), this celebrated Brian De Palma thriller stars John Travolta as a motion picture sound recordist who unintentionally captures an automobile accident on audio tape, and learns later that the crash might have been part of a plot to assassinate a Presidential candidate. With Nancy Allen and John Lithgow. Cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond. 107 min. Special admission $10; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, age 25 & under $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Sunday, January 17, at 3:00 pm

A Special Event!

Pre-film discussion & post-film Q&A!

THE COTTON CLUB

USA, 1984, Francis Coppola

Today the Cinematheque and The Musical Theater Project team up to present a special screening of the music and crime film that reunited the producer (Robert Evans), director (Francis Ford Coppola), and co-screenwriter (Mario Puzo) of The Godfather. Centered around the legendary Harlem nightclub of the 1920s and 1930s where black performers entertained white patrons, The Cotton Club is a tale of jazz musicians, mobsters, and molls, and mixes musical numbers with scenes of underworld activities. The all-star cast includes Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane, Lonette McKee, Bob Hoskins, Nicholas Cage, Fred Gwynne, and Gwen Verdon. TMTP artistic director Bill Rudman and Cinematheque director John Ewing will discuss the film before it screens at 3:30. They will also answer questions after the movie. 35mm. Total program time 180 min. Special admission $15; Cinematheque and TMTP members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, age 25 & under $10. No passes, twofers, or radio winners. TMTP presents a multimedia concert, “Curtain Up at The Cotton Club,” on 1/30 & 31 at the Hanna Theatre. Visit musicaltheaterproject.org for details.

 

Sunday, January 17, at 6:30 pm

BLOW OUT

See 1/16 at 9:25 for description

 

Sunday, January 17, at 8:40 pm

SAND DOLLARS

See 1/15 at 7:30 for description

 

JANUARY 21-24

 

Thursday, January 21, at 6:45 pm

OUT 1: NOLI ME TANGERE (Episodes 5 & 6)

See 1/7 at 6:45 for description. 190 min.

 

NO FILMS FRI., 1/22

 

Saturday, January 23, at 5:00 pm &

Sunday, January 24, at 8:30 pm

Film Classics in 35mm!

THE SCARLET EMPRESS

USA, 1934, Josef von Sternberg

The most sumptuous, excessive, and flamboyant of the seven Marlene Dietrich/Josef von Sternberg collaborations chronicles the 18th-century rise of Catherine the Great from German princess to wife of the mad Grand Duke Peter (Sam Jaffe) to empress of Russia. Unsurpassed visual spectacle—majestic, operatic, delirious, and grotesque. “Among the most bewildering and bizarre films ever to emerge from a major Hollywood studio…The most imaginative film of the sound era prior to Citizen Kane.” ­–Cult Movies. “A visual orgy.” –Leonard Maltin. Vault print from the Universal Pictures studio archive. 109 min. Special admission $10; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, age 25 & under $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Saturday, January 23, at 7:10 pm

THE ASSASSIN

NIE YIN NIANG

Taiwan/China/Hong Kong/France, 2015, Hou Hsiao-hsien

Voted best film of 2015 in Sight & Sound magazine’s poll of 168 international film critics, the first feature in eight years by Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-hsien (and his only “martial arts” movie) is easily one of the most beautiful color motion pictures ever made. Set in 8th-century China, the film follows a deadly female killer who has compassion/empathy issues that impair her work. To overcome them, she is ordered to eliminate a political enemy who is also her cousin, and someone to whom she was once betrothed. Leads Shu Qi and Chang Chen previously starred in Hou’s Three Times. Best Director, Cannes 2015. Subtitles. DCP. 105 min. wellgousa.com/theatrical/the-assassin

 

Saturday, January 23, at 9:15 pm &

Sunday, January 24, at 6:30 pm

World War I + 100

THEEB

UAE/Qatar/Jordan/UK, 2014, Naji Abu Nowar

This exciting, handsomely photographed drama, set (like Lawrence of Arabia) in Ottoman-controlled Arabia during WWI, is one of the most auspicious directorial debuts of the year. It’s also Jordan’s entry for this year’s foreign-film Oscar and won the Best Director prize at last year’s Venice Film Festival. It tells of two Bedouin brothers who escort a British military officer to a well across the desert, dodging mercenaries, rebels, and bandits along the way. “A classic adventure film of the best kind.” –Variety. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 100 min. www.filmmovement.com

 

Sunday, January 24, at 4:15 pm

THE ARMOR OF LIGHT

USA, 2015, Abigail Disney, Kathleen Hughes

How can someone who is pro-life also be pro-gun? That is the question addressed in this electrifying new documentary, which follows Reverend Rob Schenck, evangelical minister, anti-abortion activist, and fixture on the political far right, as he catches flak from friends and followers when he preaches about the growing toll of gun violence in America. Schenck is eventually joined by Lucy McBath, a pro-choice Christian whose unarmed teen son, Jordan Davis, was murdered in FL. “A dual portrait in courage.” –Christian Science Monitor. “Puts a human face on the perpetually divisive topic.” –Hollywood Reporter. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 88 min. www.armoroflightfilm.com

 

Sunday, January 24, at 6:30 pm

THEEB

See 1/23 at 9:15 for description

 

Sunday, January 24, at 8:30 pm

THE SCARLET EMPRESS

See 1/23 at 5:00 for description

 

JANUARY 28-31

 

Thursday, January 28, at 6:45 pm

OUT 1: NOLI ME TANGERE (Episodes 7 & 8)

See 1/7 at 6:45 for description. 171 min.

 

Friday, January 29, at 7:00 pm &

Sunday, January 31, at 8:30 pm

Film Classics in 35mm!

THE BLACK CAT

USA, 1934, Edgar G. Ulmer

Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi were paired for the first time in one of the creepiest and strangest movies ever to come out of Hollywood—an expressionistic tale of devil worship and futuristic architecture set in the aftermath of WWI. “A nightmare that involves necrophilia, ailurophobia, drugs, a deadly game of chess, torture, flaying, and a black mass with a human sacrifice...[A] bizarre, utterly irrational masterpiece.” –Philip French. Vault print from the Universal Pictures studio archive. 65 min. Special admission $10; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, age 25 & under $8. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Friday, January 29, at 8:20 pm

IN JACKSON HEIGHTS

USA, 2015, Frederick Wiseman

The latest film by master documentarian Frederick Wiseman (a Cinematheque guest last year) is a sprawling portrait of a Queens neighborhood that is one of the most culturally diverse communities in America. (Reputedly 167 different languages are spoken there.) In Jackson Heights, people of varied colors, religions, national origins, ages, income levels, and sexual orientation work together to try to solve some of the neighborhood’s pressing problems—protecting small businesses from gentrification, acclimating new immigrants, etc. Wiseman has long been the cinema’s foremost chronicler of American life and institutions; here he humanizes the fabled melting pot. “A deeply stirring ode to the immigrant experience and American identity.” –NY Times. Best Nonfiction Film of 2015, New York Film Critics Circle. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 190 min.

 

Saturday, January 30, at 6:00 pm &

Sunday, January 31, at 1:30 pm

A Special Event!

RIVER OF FUNDAMENT (Act 1)

USA, 2014, Matthew Barney

The indescribable but visually stupendous new film by artist and filmmaker Matthew Barney (the Cremaster cycle, Drawing Restraint 9) is a five-hour-and-19-min. opera (music by Jonathan Bepler) in three acts. (It will be shown with two 20-min. intermissions on Saturday, and a 20-min. intermission and a one-hour dinner break on Sunday.) Inspired by Norman Mailer’s 1983 novel Ancient Evenings (set in ancient Egypt) and featuring an all-star cast (Paul Giamatti, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ellen Burstyn, Aimee Mullins, Elaine Stritch, Debbie Harry, et al., with cameos by Dick Cavett, Salman Rushdie, James Toback, etc.), the film is a tale of regeneration and rebirth in which Mailer’s soul, aided by deceased Pharoaohs and Egyptian deities, seeks reincarnation and immortality. Much of the movie is set in the writer’s Brooklyn Heights brownstone during his wake. There New York’s cultural elite rubs elbows with the unseen dead while Mailer’s soul struggles to be reborn from a mystical River of Feces flowing beneath his house. A separate “subplot” finds the hero’s journey paralleled by the rise and fall of the American automobile industry. “Matthew Barney's scatological epic threads Norman Mailer, Egyptian gods and anthropomorphized Chryslers together for six hours of jaw-dropping cinematic art.” –Hollywood Reporter. Not for the squeamish. No one under 18 admitted! Cleveland premiere. 4K DCP. 7.1 digital sound. Act 1 running time: 115 min. Special admission to the whole film (all 3 acts on the same day) $30; Cinematheque & MOCA Cleveland members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, age 25-18 $20. Tickets to individual acts $15, members, etc. $10. No passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Saturday, January 30, at 8:15 pm &

Sunday, January 31, at 3:45 pm

RIVER OF FUNDAMENT (Act 2)

See 1/30 at 6:00 for description. 108 min.

 

Saturday, January 30, at 10:25 pm &

Sunday, January 31, at 6:30 pm

RIVER OF FUNDAMENT (Act 3)

See 1/30 at 6:00 for description. 96 min.

 

Sunday, January 31, at 1:30 pm

RIVER OF FUNDAMENT (Act 1)

See 1/30 at 6:00 for description. 115 min.

 

Sunday, January 31, at 3:45 pm

RIVER OF FUNDAMENT (Act 2)

See 1/30 at 6:00 for description. 108 min.

 

Sunday, January 31, at 6:30 pm

RIVER OF FUNDAMENT (Act 3)

See 1/30 at 6:00 for description. 96 min.

 

Sunday, January 31, at 8:30 pm

THE BLACK CAT

See 1/29 at 7:00 for description

 

FEBRUARY 4-7

 

Thursday, February 4, at 6:45 pm &

Friday, February 5, at 9:10 pm

Film Classics in 35mm!

SABOTAGE

aka A WOMAN ALONE

UK, 1936, Alfred Hitchcock

One of Alfred Hitchcock’s most exciting and cited films (made before he emigrated to Hollywood) tells of a London cinema manager who is actually a bomb-planting foreign saboteur. “May be just about the best of [Hitchcock’s] English thrillers.” –Pauline Kael. With Sylvia Sidney and Oscar Homolka; not to be confused with Hitchcock’s Secret Agent, which preceded it, or Saboteur, which followed six years later. 35mm. 76 min. Special admission $10; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, age 25 & under $8; no passes, twofers, or radio winners. See next blurb for a related film.

 

Thursday, February 4, at 8:20 pm &

Friday, February 5, at 7:30 pm

HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT

France/USA, 2015, Kent Jones

In 1962 30-year-old French film critic and budding auteur François Truffaut conducted an in-depth, eight-day interview with 63-year-old Alfred Hitchcock at Universal Studios. This resulted in a book that regarded the commercially successful Hollywood director, for the first time, as an artist. The tome became a cornerstone of 1960s/1970s cinephilia. In his new film that The Hollywood Reporter calls “catnip for film buffs,” Kent Jones, programming director of the New York Film Festival, looks back at that momentous meeting (which was recorded but not filmed) and asks other cinema luminaries (Wes Anderson, David Fincher, Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese, Richard Linklater, Peter Bogdanovich, Olivier Assayas, et al.) to reflect on the impact of the book and Hitchcock’s genius. Choice film clips illustrate their points. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 80 min. cohenmedia.net See previous blurb for a related film.

 

Friday, February 5, at 9:10 pm

SABOTAGE

See 2/4 at 6:45 for description

 

Saturday, February 6, at 5:00 pm &

Sunday, February 7, at 6:30 pm

Four by Claude Sautet

New Digital Restoration!

LES CHOSES DE LA VIE (THE THINGS OF LIFE)

France, 1970, Claude Sautet

Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider star in this Claude Sautet drama about an architect, separated from his wife and son, who is having an affair with another woman. But he can’t commit fully to his new love because he discovers he is still emotionally attached to his family. “Difficult to make a film about banality without being boring in the process, but Sautet pulls it off.” –Time Out Film Guide. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 85 min. www.rialtopictures.com

 

Saturday, February 6, at 6:45 pm &

Sunday, February 7, at 8:15 pm

ARABIAN NIGHTS: VOLUME 1 – THE RESTLESS ONE

AS MIL E UMA NOITES: VOLUME 1, O INQUIETO

Portugal/France/Germany/Switzerland, 2015, Miguel Gomes

One of the film events of the year! The latest work from the acclaimed Portuguese director of 2012’s celebrated Tabu is either one very long film (381 min.) or a trilogy; Gomes says it is both. (We will show its three “volumes” over the next three weekends.) Inspired by the literary classic One Thousand and One Nights, in which the virgin Scheherazade indefinitely delays her morning death by strangulation by regaling her sultan husband (and would-be killer) with enthralling tales that don’t conclude until the next night, Gomes sets his three films in his beleaguered Portugal, currently crippled by layoffs, strikes, unemployment, and imposed austerity. Gomes channels his rage over the current situation into a series of fantastical, interlocking stories inspired by recent headlines and introduced by his own Scheherazade. One highlight of Volume 1 is the satirical “The Men with Hard-Ons,” in which European big shots demanding drastic cuts to Portugal’s public expenditures mellow when a wizard bestows them with enormous, everlasting erections. “By turns surreal, giddy, erotic, didactic, righteous, exhausting, boundlessly creative and a thousand and one other things…[A] shape-shifting colossus.” –Time Out Film Guide.  “A tapestry of frustration, melancholy, and burlesque.” ­–Variety.

Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 125 min. www.kinolorber.com

 

Saturday, February 6, at 9:10 pm &

Sunday, February 7, at 3:45 pm

New Digital Restoration!

CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

aka FALSTAFF

Spain/Switzerland, 1965, Orson Welles

Long out of release, this Shakespearean comedy/drama that Orson Welles regarded as his greatest film (some critics concur) can now been seen again! Welles compiled text from five different Shakespeare plays to chronicle the almost-father-and-son friendship between rotund, dissipated, disreputable Sir John Falstaff (Orson Welles) and young Prince Hal (Keith Baxter), the man who would be King Henry V. According to Pauline Kael, Welles' direction of the grim battle of Shrewsbury “ranks with the finest of Griffith, John Ford, Eisenstein, Kurosawa.” With John Gielgud, Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford, et al. Cleveland revival premiere. In English. DCP. 116 min. www.janusfilms.com

 

Sunday, February 7, at 6:30 pm

LES CHOSES DE LA VIE (THE THINGS OF LIFE)

See 2/6 at 5:00 for description

 

Sunday, February 7, at 8:15 pm

ARABIAN NIGHTS: VOLUME 1 – THE RESTLESS ONE

See 2/6 at 6:45 for description

 

FEBRUARY 11-14

 

Thursday, February 11, at 6:45 pm

FIELD NIGGAS

USA, 2015, Khalik Allah

In this immersive documentary that “seeks to give a voice to the voiceless and a face to the faceless” (Hollywood Reporter), acclaimed NYC street photographer Khalik Allah trains his digital video camera on the impoverished nighttime denizens who hang out at the corner of 125^th Street and Lexington Avenue in Harlem. Employing slow motion and non-synchronous sound, Allah’s hallucinatory nocturne captures these unfortunates (many of them homeless and drug addicted) in the glare of streetlamps and storefront neon, often enveloped in a haze of K2 smoke. The provocative title derives from a speech by Malcolm X. “The most striking sort of urban portraiture.” –Village Voice.  “An intimate movie with a metaphysical grandeur.” –The New Yorker. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 60 min. khalikallah.tumblr.com/ Preceded at 6:45 by the four four-min. short films commissioned from emerging and established artists by Frieze Projects in London for 2015. This year’s filmmakers are Charles Atlas, Gery Georgieva, the art collective Thirteen Black Cats, and Xavier Cha. Cha's film, abduct, in which actors battle conflicting emotions, was co-commissioned by MOCA Cleveland, where an expanded version is on view from 1/29 through 5/8. Visit mocacleveland.org for more info. MOCA members $7. Your ticket stub from this screening will entitle you to half-price admission to MOCA thru 2/29. Thanks to Rose Bouthillier.

 

Thursday, February 11, at 8:25 pm &

Friday, February 12, at 9:15 pm

ON WAR

DE LA GUERRE

France, 2008, Bertrand Bonello

Mathieu Amalric, Asia Argento, Guillaume Depardieu, Léa Seydoux, and Michel Piccoli star in this provocative dramedy made by French writer/director/composer Bertrand Bonello  just before his international breakthroughs, House of Tolerance and Saint Laurent. Amalric plays a film director who, after accidentally spending a life-changing night locked inside a coffin, joins a strange cult of pleasure seekers based at a remote mansion.  There he and others touch each other, swim naked, participate in raves, and wear masks in pursuit of unfiltered spiritual, mental, and physical pleasure and “pure existence.” The film gets even stranger and dreamier with the introduction of guns and swords, visions of warfare, and references to Apocalypse Now. Adults only! Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 128 min. www.indicanpictures.com

 

NO EARLY FILM FRI., 2/12

 

Friday, February 12, at 9:15 pm

ON WAR

See 2/11 at 8:25 for description

 

Saturday, February 13, at 5:00 pm &

Sunday, February 14, at 4:30 pm

Film Classics in 35mm!

For Valentine’s Day

BRIEF ENCOUNTER

Britain, 1945, David Lean

Voted the most romantic film of all time in a poll of 101 film industry experts conducted by London’s Time Out Magazine (Casablanca finished #2), David Lean’s celebrated drama has long been one of the cinema’s great love stories. Written by Noël Coward, with music by Rachmaninoff, the film stars Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson as decent, respectable, middle-class Brits, both married with children, who meet by chance at a train station, fall in love, and contemplate adultery. Unmissable! 86 min. Special admission $10; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, age 25 & under $8; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Saturday, February 13, at 6:45 pm &

Sunday, February 14, at 8:35 pm

ARABIAN NIGHTS: VOLUME 2 – THE DESOLATE ONE

AS MIL E UMA NOITES: VOLUME 2, O DESOLADO

Portugal/France/Germany/Switzerland, 2015, Miguel Gomes

Part two of Miguel Gomes’ collection of sad, hilarious, fantastic tales illustrating the ill effects of economic belt-tightening in Portugal (see 2/6 at 6:45) is the Portuguese entry for this year’s foreign-language film Academy Award. Three stories are told in this installment, starting with the intriguingly titled “Chronicle of the Escape of Simão Without Bowels,” about a fugitive killer. “May be austerity-themed, but it’s a sensual and intellectual feast.” –Variety. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 131 min. www.kinolorber.com

 

Saturday, February 13, at 9:20 pm &

Sunday, February 14, at 6:30 pm

Four by Claude Sautet

New Digital Restoration!

CÉSAR AND ROSALIE

CÉSAR ET ROSALIE

France/Italy/West Germany, 1972, Claude Sautet

In Claude Sautet’s unconventional comic drama, a successful and jovial scrap metal dealer (Yves Montand) finds his comfortable relationship with a beautiful divorcée (Romy Schneider) threatened when one of her first loves, a soft-spoken cartoonist (Sami Frey), turns up unexpectedly one day. With Isabelle Huppert in one of her first screen roles. “A fluky, wry ode on the imperfect, haphazard nature of romantic love.” –Pauline Kael. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 107 min. www.rialtopictures.com

 

Sunday, February 14, at 4:30 pm

BRIEF ENCOUNTER

See 2/13 at 5:00 for description

 

Sunday, February 14, at 6:30 pm

CÉSAR AND ROSALIE

See 2/13 at 5:00 for description

 

Sunday, February 14, at 8:35 pm

ARABIAN NIGHTS: VOLUME 2 – THE DESOLATE ONE

See 2/13 at 6:45 for description

 

FEBRUARY 18-21

 

Thursday, February 18, at 6:45 pm &

Saturday, February 20, at 9:35 pm

Chantal Akerman, 1950-2015

NO HOME MOVIE

Belgium/France, 2015, Chantal Akerman

Topping some critics’ Ten Best lists for 2015, and appearing on many others, the final film by innovative Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman is an uncompromising portrait of the person who was the most important figure in her life: her mother. Natalia (Nelly) Akerman, a Polish immigrant and Auschwitz survivor who died in Brussels in April 2014 at age 86 (65-year-old Chantal took her own life 16 months later), figured prominently in many of her daughter’s films, and partly inspired Chantal’s groundbreaking 1975 masterpiece Jeanne Dielman, about the daily routine of a Belgian housewife living in a small but tidy apartment. Nelly Akerman’s well-kept apartment is one of the stars of No Home Movie, and she is captured there (or should we say imprisoned there? preserved there?) for posterity in raw, grainy video footage shot by her rootless daughter. Chantal also engages her mom in conversation about her long life, but Nelly remains stubbornly reticent when it come to the Holocaust. “[A] formally demanding and impossibly intimate video essay.” –Variety. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 115 min. Special admission $10; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, age 25 & under $8; no passes, twofers, or radio winners. www.icarusfilms.com

 

Thursday, February 18, at 9:00 pm &

Friday, February 19, at 7:30 pm

THE SUMMER OF SANGAILE

SANGAILES VASARA

Lithuania/France/Netherlands, 2015, Alanté Kavaïté

Lithuania’s first lesbian romance is a sensuous summertime saga about the relationship between two teenagers who meet at a rural air show. Sangaile, the more troubled and introverted of the two, is enamored of stunt flying and dreams of becoming a pilot. But it’s the confident, artistic, ebullient local girl Auste who really knocks her for a loop. “[A] heartfelt snapshot of summer love and self-discovery, enhanced by lots of breathtaking scenery and two hugely appealing lead performances.” –Variety. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 88 min. www.strandreleasing.com

 

Friday, February 19, at 9:20 pm &

Sunday, February 21, at 6:30 pm

Four by Claude Sautet

New Digital Restoration!

VINCENT, FRANÇOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS

VINCENT, FRANÇOIS, PAUL…ET LES AUTRES

France/Italy, 1974, Claude Sautet

Yves Montand, Michel Piccoli, Gérard Depardieu, Serge Reggiani, and Stéphane Audran star in this drama about three longtime chums—a businessman, a doctor, and a writer—who face assorted mid-life crises: bankruptcy, loss of ideals, writer’s block, marital discord, etc. Can the men continue to find strength and sustenance in their friendship? “«««« (highest rating)…Enormously satisfying.” –Leonard Maltin. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 118 min. www.rialtopictures.com

 

Saturday, February 20, at 5:00 pm

Film Classics in 35mm!

Setsuko Hara, 1920-2015

LATE SPRING

BANSHUN

Japan, 1949, Yasujiro Ozu

One of the most perfect of Yasujiro Ozu’s family dramas, this piercingly beautiful movie delineates the attempts of an elderly widower (Chishu Ryu) to marry off his devoted grown daughter (Setsuko Hara) who is reluctant to leave him. Sublime! Subtitles. 108 min. Special admission $10; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, age 25 & under $8; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.

 

Saturday, February 20, at 7:10 pm &

Sunday, February 21, at 8:50 pm

ARABIAN NIGHTS: VOLUME 3 – THE ENCHANTED ONE

AS MIL E UMA NOITES: VOLUME 3, O ENCANTADO

Portugal/France/Germany/Switzerland, 2015, Miguel Gomes

The final part of Miguel Gomes’ collection of sad, hilarious, fantastic tales illustrating the ill effects of economic belt-tightening in Portugal (see 2/6 at 6:45) has a split personality. The film opens with a lushly imagined color segment in which the storyteller Scheherazade takes center stage, wandering though opulent settings and landscapes in exotic Orientalist garb, encountering lovers, bandits, and singers. Then the focus switches to Portugal’s unemployed, working class bird trappers, who catch and train finches for birdsong competitions. Entitled “The Inebriated Chorus of the Chaffinches,” it is virtually a documentary about this obscure subculture. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 125 min. www.kinolorber.com

 

Saturday, February 20, at 9:35 pm

NO HOME MOVIE

See 2/18 at 6:45 for description

 

Sunday, February 21, at 4:00 pm

A Special Event!

Filmmaker in Person!

Post-film discussion!

GHOST TOWN: THE HEBRON STORY

USA/Palestine, 2015, Ellie Bernstein

Martin Sheen narrates this new documentary about the West Bank town of Hebron, which UNESCO, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch consider to be the most violent city in occupied Palestine. The movie profiles some of the families living there, and explores how Jewish settlements in Hebron have hurt chances for peace in the Middle East. Filmmaker Ellie Bernstein will answer audience questions after the screening, and so will Sister Paulette Schroeder of the Christian Peacemakers Team, Hebron, who appears in the film. Co-sponsored by Cleveland Peace Action Education Fund; Interfaith Council for Peace in the Middle East; Jewish Voice for Peace, Cleveland Chapter; and Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. Blu-ray. 80 min. www.thehebronstory.com

 

Sunday, February 21, at 6:30 pm

VINCENT, FRANÇOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS

See 2/19 at 9:20 for description

 

Sunday, February 21, at 8:50 pm

ARABIAN NIGHTS: VOLUME 3 – THE ENCHANTED ONE

See 2/20 at 7:10 for description

 

FEBRUARY 25-28

 

Thursday, February 25, at 7:00 pm &

Saturday, February 27, at 5:00 pm

Four by Sautet

New Digital Restoration!

NELLY & MONSIEUR ARNAUD

France/Italy/Germany, 1995, Claude Sautet

Emmanuelle Béart and Michel Serrault star in this César-winning French film, about a young woman burdened with debt and a ne’er-do-well husband who goes to work for a wealthy, retired businessman 40-50 years her senior. An unusual relationship ensues. “An exquisitely witty, beautifully moving film…Classical French filmmaking par excellence.” –Time Out Film Guide. Cleveland revival premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 106 min. www.rialtopictures.com

 

Thursday, February 25, at 9:05 pm &

Friday, February 26, at 7:30 pm

THE PEARL BUTTON

EL BOTÓN DE NÁCAR

Chile/Switzerland/France/Spain, 2015, Patricio Guzmán

Master Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán says his new film is part of a diptych with Nostalgia for the Light, his sublime 2011 documentary of remembrance that linked astronomy, archaeology, and Chile’s traumatic political history. The Pearl Button is similarly interdisciplinary. Focused at first on water and on the oceans that border his country, Guzmán soon expands his view to include the extermination of the indigenous coastal tribes of Patagonia and the countless victims of torture who were “disappeared” into watery graves during the Pinochet regime. “By turns lyrical, impressionistic and profound.” –L.A. Times. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP. 82 min. www.kinolorber.com

 

Friday, February 26, at 9:15 pm &

Sunday, February 28, at 5:35 pm

THEORY OF OBSCURITY: A FILM ABOUT THE RESIDENTS

USA/Austria/Germany/Netherlands, 2015, Don Hardy Jr.

Devo, Matt Groening, and Penn Jillette are among the fans interviewed in this new film about The Residents, the avant-garde sound and video collective that has released 60+ albums and numerous music videos, short films, and DVD’s during the last four decades. And all this time the band members have remained anonymous, thanks to the iconic eyeball masks they wear when performing. This new documentary includes archival film clips and performance footage, as well as interviews with members of their management company, The Cryptic Corporation. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 87 min. residentsmovie.com

 

Saturday, February 27, at 5:00 pm

NELLY & MONSIEUR ARNAUD

See 2/25 at 7:00 for description

 

Saturday, February 27, at 7:10 pm &

Sunday, February 28, at 2:00 pm

CENSORED VOICES

Israel/Germany, 2015, Mor Loushy

Winner of the Ophir Award (Israel’s Oscar) for Best Documentary, this revelatory movie takes another look at 1967’s Six-Day War, during which the young nation of Israel decisively defeated Egypt, Jordan, and Syria and nearly tripled its size with the occupation of the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights. One week after the war, Amos Oz (soon to become Israel’s most famous writer) recorded frank conversations with returning soldiers, who expressed misgivings about the treatment of Arab POW’s and the forced evacuations of Palestinian villages. They worried about the future prospects for peaceful coexistence. These recordings were partially suppressed by the Israeli Defense Forces, but now can be heard. And in this movie, newsreel footage and vintage photographs augment scenes of veterans, now in their 70s, listening to their younger selves. Cleveland premiere. Subtitles. DCP.  87 min. www.musicboxfilms.com

 

Saturday, February 27, at 9:00 pm &

Sunday, February 28, at 3:50 pm

Film Classics in 35mm!

SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT

USA, 1986, Spike Lee

Spike Lee’s groundbreaking first feature stars Tracy Camilla Johns as a liberated Brooklyn woman with three lovers—the earnest Jamie, the vain Greer, and the irrepressible Mars (Lee)—each of whom wants her solely for himself. According to The NY Times , this modern classic “ushered in (along with Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise) the American independent film movement of the 1980s. It was also a groundbreaking film for African-American filmmakers and a welcome change in the representation of blacks in American cinema.” 35mm. 84 min. Special admission $10; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, age 25 & under $8; no passes, twofers, or radio winners. Co-presented by the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival.

 

Sunday, February 28, at 2:00 pm

CENSORED VOICES

See 2/27 at 7:10 for description

 

Sunday, February 28, at 3:50 pm

SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT

See 2/27 at 9:00 for description

 

Sunday, February 28, at 5:35 pm

THEORY OF OBSCURITY: A FILM ABOUT THE RESIDENTS

See 2/26 at 9:15 for description