| | New Cinematheque director Bilgesu Sisman to present Chris Marker's peripatetic 1983 essay film SANS SOLEIL (SUNLESS)
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The Cinematheque’s new director, Bilgesu Sisman, will introduce and answer audience questions after a screening of SANS SOLEIL (SUNLESS), one of her favorite movies, Saturday at 6:45 pm. Regarded as the feature-length masterpiece of French documentarian Chris (La Jetée) Marker, and voted the 59th greatest film of all time in the 2022 Sight and Sound magazine poll, Sans Soleil is an evocative collage of sights captured by the globe-trotting filmmaker in Japan, Africa, Iceland, Paris, and San Francisco. Marker's insights about memory, history, society, and technology accompany his images. According to The Time Out Film Guide, "Marker, the cinema’s greatest essayist, sums up a lifetime’s travels, speculations and passions." This 1983 movie has English narration. Here's the trailer.
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| | The sound version of Alfred Hitchcock's 1929 BLACKMAIL was Britain's first all-talkie
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BLACKMAIL, Alfred Hitchcock’s first sound feature, was also Britain’s first all-talking picture. One of Hitch’s best, the innovative 1929 film tells of a young woman who is blackmailed after killing an attempted rapist. Blackmail also exists as a silent feature that’s ten minutes shorter than the sound version, but you can see the extended version in 35mm Friday at 7:00 pm or Saturday at 5:00 pm. Special admission is $14; members, CIA/CSU I.D. holders, age 25 & under $11. No passes will be honored or accepted. Here's the trailer.
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| | SCALA!!!, about London's legendary/notorious cinema, is a tribute to all repertory movie theaters, including the Cinematheque
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Subtitled Or the Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World's Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-up Generation of Weirdos and Misfits, the new documentary SCALA!!! is a tribute to London’s legendary Scala Cinema, which from 1978 to 1993 presented a changing-daily program of double-bills and all-nighters to more than a million moviegoers. Offering everything from high art to horror, sexploitation to kung fu, this seedy, notorious picture palace (where sex, drugs, and even deaths were not unknown) catered to a non-conformist audience that included many future filmmakers, musicians, writers, actors, activists, and artists. New interviews, archive material, movie clips, animation, graphics, and a score by Barry Adamson all add up to a hilarious and joyous celebration of cinema-going. Since there’s no documentary about the Cleveland Cinematheque, this movie will have to suffice. The Guardian calls Scala!!! "a very entertaining madeleine for movie-going of the analogue age." Catch its Cleveland premiere Friday at 8:45 pm. Here's the trailer.
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| | Agnieszka Holland's refugee drama GREEN BORDER, our partnered film in CIFF48, returns to Cleveland on our own screen
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GREEN BORDER is the acclaimed, award-winning new epic from Agnieszka Holland, the master Polish director of Europa Europa, The Secret Garden, In Darkness, and others. It has been denounced by Polish government officials as "a collection of blatant lies," Nazi-like propaganda, and more. Addressing the current migrant crisis with anger and empathy, the film dramatizes the plight of a Syrian refugee family trying to enter the European Union but trapped in a treacherous forest region and no man’s land created as a buffer between autocratic Belarus and democratic Poland. This "stunning, harrowing film" (Time Out) shows Thursday at 6:45 pm. Special admission is $13; members, CIA/CSU I.D. holders, age 25 & under $10. No passes will be honored or accepted. Here's the trailer.
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| | Once More with Feelings On Sunday, June 30, his last day as Cinematheque director, John Ewing presents big-screen showings of his three all-time favorite movies. Join us!
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| | #3: THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS
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John Ewing’s favorite movie by his favorite filmmaker, Orson Welles, is not Citizen Kane but the director’s follow-up to that masterpiece, THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. This 1942 work is an elegiac chronicle of the decline of a wealthy Midwestern family at the beginning of the 20th century, during the rise of the automobile. Mutilated by the studio, with more than an hour of footage (including Welles’ original ending) cut and lost, the film remains sublime. Tim Holt, Joseph Cotten, Anne Baxter, and Agnes Moorehead star, and Bernard Herrmann composed the music. It showing on Sunday at 2:00 pm will be will be preceded by John Ewing’s 3-min. silent comedy The First Picture Show (USA, 1972). Here's the trailer for The Magnificent Ambersons.
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LATE SPRING is John Ewing’s favorite movie by his second-favorite filmmaker, Yasujiro Ozu. In this piercingly beautiful 1949 Japanese family drama, an elderly widower tries to marry off his devoted grown daughter—who doesn’t want to leave him. Ozu’s two greatest actors—Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara—star, and they are radiant. It shows Sunday at 4:00 pm and will be preceded by John Ewing’s 4-min. silent comedy The Vending Machine (USA, 1972).
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SHANE, John Ewing’s all-time favorite film, is the one that hooked him on movies almost 60 years ago. George Stevens’ celebrated 1953 western tells of a feud between cattlemen and homesteaders in late 19th-century Wyoming—and a mysterious stranger who sides with the "sodbusters." Based on a novel by Cleveland-born Jack Schaefer, this tense, exciting movie tells an archetypal story that is at once frontier actioner, coming-of-age saga, love story, and metaphysical allegory. Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon de Wilde, and Jack Palance star. It shows Sunday at 7:00 pm, preceded at showtime by John Ewing’s 8-min. silent comedy The Myth of Narcissus (USA, 1972). Here's the spoiler-laden trailer for Shane.
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You can engage with the Cinematheque in ways beyond attending one of our screenings. For example, you can become a member here. You can make an online donation here. You can order a t-shirt here. And you can urge your friends to subscribe to these weekly eblasts by having them email cinema@cia.edu. Thanks! (Above photo of John Ewing by Brandon Baker)
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| This Week
Thu., June 27, 6:45 pm
Agnieszka Holland's
potent refugee drama
GREEN BORDER
$13/$10
Fri., June 28, 7:00 pm
Sat., June 29, 5:00 pm
Unfinished Business / Parting Glances
Alfred Hitchcock's
first sound film
BLACKMAIL
In 35mm!
$14/$11
Fri., June 28, 8:45 pm
Movie Crazy
Portrait of London's
unique picture palace
SCALA!!!
$12/$9
Sat., June 29, 6:45 pm
Meet the New Director!
Bilgesu Sisman presents
Chris Marker's essay-film masterwork
SANS SOLEIL (SUNLESS)
$12/$9
Sun., June 30
Once More
with Feelings
On his last day as Cinematheque director, John Ewing presents big-screen showings of his three all-time favorite movies. Join us!
Sun., June 30, 2:00 pm
Orson Welles'
Midwest family saga
THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSON
Preceded by John Ewing's 1972 short "The First Picture Show"
$12/$9
Sun., June 30, 4:00 pm
Yasujiro Ozu's
family drama
LATE SPRING
Preceded by John Ewing's 1972 short "The Vending Machine"
$12/$9
Sun., June 30, 7:00 pm
George Stevens'
great western
SHANE
Preceded by John Ewing's 1972 short "The Myth of Narcissus"
$12/$9
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Next Week
THE PEOPLE’S JOKER
HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS
YOU’RE A BIG BOY NOW
CASINO
NOWHERE SPECIAL
REVIVAL69: THE CONCERT THAT ROCKED THE WORLD
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