Featured
3 - 29 May 2018: Close-Up on Pier Paolo Pasolini
Celebrated as one of the central figures of the postwar Italian cinema, Pasolini is recognized in his native land as arguably the most important Italian artist and intellectual of the twentieth century. An outspoken but unorthodox leftist, Pasolini attracted controversy from all sides of the political spectrum, with his often sexually explicit and willingly perverse films drawing the frequent ire of Italian censors.
Showing Tonight
8.15pm: Amateur
Setting forth what is perhaps the apex of Hartley’s uncanny misalliances, Amateur convenes an ex-nun-cum-pornographic-novelist (Huppert), an amnesiac hustler (Donovan), and his prostitute wife (Löwensohn) in a roundelay of trouble and desire as each tries to escape from the illicit sex-and-drugs demimonde of lower Manhattan.
Showing This Week
Friday 27 April, 6pm: The Unbelievable Truth
Shot in a mere eleven days, The Unbelievable Truth contains many of the attributes that have come to be associated with Hartley’s work: a wry and decidedly off-beat sense of humour; a predominantly young cast creating colourful, quirky characters; and a sensuous awareness of how to render colour, movement, and space into cinematic expression. This affectionate satire on the shortcomings of small-town life reflects on how hearsay and bias can shape a community’s sense of reality.
Friday 27 April, 8pm: Lift to the Scaffold
Taking place over the course of one restless Paris night, Malle’s richly atmospheric crime thriller Lift to the Scaffold stars Moreau and Maurice Ronet as lovers whose plan to murder her husband (his boss) goes awry, setting off a chain of events that seals their fate.
Saturday 28 April, 6pm: The Return
The father of two teenage boys suddenly reappears, without an explanation, after a 12-year absence. While shocked and puzzled, the boys are eager to make up for lost time, and the three embark on a road trip to rekindle their bond. Something sinister hangs in the air in this enigmatic thriller, which combines mysteries with religious allusions, signalling the arrival of a bright new Russian auteur.
Saturday 28 April, 8pm: Loveless
A beautiful, affluent home in Moscow offers everything a family needs, but what if there is no love? When their child suddenly disappears, a divorcing couple must overcome their bitter acrimony to search for the missing boy. This harrowing tale, which unfolds like a thriller punctuated by a pounding and sombre musical score, looks at modern life with a piercing gaze.
Sunday 28 April, 6pm: Lift to the Scaffold
Taking place over the course of one restless Paris night, Malle’s richly atmospheric crime thriller Lift to the Scaffold stars Moreau and Maurice Ronet as lovers whose plan to murder her husband (his boss) goes awry, setting off a chain of events that seals their fate.
Sunday 28 April, 8pm: Take Two: Zero for Conduct / The 400 Blows
Based on the director's own experiences as a youth, Zero for Conduct presents childhood as a time of unfettered imagination and brazen rule-flouting. Directly influenced by Vigo's film, The 400 Blows sensitively re-creates the trials of Truffaut’s own childhood, unsentimentally portraying aloof parents, oppressive teachers, and petty crime.
Showing Next Week
Monday 30 April, 6pm: Dekalog: 9 & 10
This masterwork by Krzysztof Kieślowski is one of the twentieth century’s greatest achievements in visual storytelling. Originally made for Polish television, Dekalog focuses on the residents of a housing complex in late-Communist Poland, whose lives become subtly intertwined as they face emotional dilemmas that are at once deeply personal and universally human.
Monday 30 April, 8.15pm: Three Colours: Red
Krzysztof Kieślowski closes his Three Colours trilogy in grand fashion, with an incandescent meditation on fate and chance, starring Irène Jacob as a sweet-souled yet sombre runway model in Geneva whose life dramatically intersects with that of a bitter retired judge, played by Jean‑Louis Trintignant. Red is an intimate look at forged connections and a splendid final statement from a remarkable filmmaker at the height of his powers.
Tuesday 1 May, 7.30pm: Jaap Pieters: The Long Gaze
Jaap Pieters, the “eye of Amsterdam,” began shooting films in Super8 in 1985. Much of his work concentrates on urban subjects – trams, crossroads, city dwellers and drifters – to which Pieters directs his voyeuristic gaze to capture their everyday existence. This hour-long, spontaneously selected, programme will include Stringless, Taksimtree and Clear Views and will be followed by a Q&A with Pieters.
Thursday 3 May, 7.30pm: Oedipus Rex
Three years after The Gospel According to Matthew, Pier Paolo Pasolini resumed his series of classical adaptations with a savage, highly personal take on Sophocles’ ancient Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex. As his first colour feature, Oedipus Rex makes brilliant use of wildly alternating Moroccan landscapes to transpose collective myth into a particular vision that is at once tender, sensual, and wholly unsparing.
Friday 4 May, 7.30pm: Pierrot le fou
In this stunning exploration of personal and global violence, Godard depicts the picaresque journey across France of a disaffected Everyman and his girlfriend, who become involved in criminal activities along the way.
Saturday 5 May, 6pm: Take Two: The Passion of Joan of Arc / Vivre sa vie
Chronicling the trial of Joan of Arc in the hours leading up to her execution, Danish master Carl Theodor Dreyer depicts her torment with startling immediacy, immersing viewers in her subjective experience. In Godard's Vivre sa vie Anna Karina plays Nana, a young Parisian who aspires to be an actress but instead ends up a prostitute, her downward spiral depicted in a series of discrete tableaux of daydreams and dances.
Sunday 6 May, 6pm: Take Two: Mouchette / Blood
Calendar
Fri 27 Apr 6:00pm
The Unbelievable Truth
The Unbelievable Truth
Fri 27 Apr 8:00pm
Lift to the Scaffold
Lift to the Scaffold
Sat 28 Apr 6:00pm
The Return
The Return
Sat 28 Apr 8:00pm
Loveless
Loveless
Sun 29 Apr 6:00pm
Lift to the Scaffold
Lift to the Scaffold
Sun 29 Apr 8:00pm
Zero for Conduct + The 400 Blows
Zero for Conduct + The 400 Blows
Mon 30 Apr 6:00pm
Dekalog 9 & 10
Dekalog 9 & 10
Mon 30 Apr 8:15pm
Three Colours: Red
Three Colours: Red
Tue 01 May 7:30pm
Jaap Pieters: The Long Gaze
Jaap Pieters: The Long Gaze
Thu 03 May 7:30pm
Oedipus Rex
Oedipus Rex
Fri 04 May 7:30pm
Pierrot le fou
Pierrot le fou
Sat 05 May 6:00pm
The Passion of Joan of Arc
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Sat 05 May 8:15pm
Vivre sa vie
Vivre sa vie
Sun 06 May 6:00pm
Mouchette
Mouchette
Sun 06 May 8:00pm
Blood
Blood
Mon 07 May 7:30pm
Medea
Medea
Tue 08 May 7:30pm
Theorem
Theorem
Wed 09 May 7:30pm
The Gospel According to Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew
Thu 10 May 7:30pm
Le mépris
Le mépris
Fri 11 May 7:30pm
Vivre sa vie
Vivre sa vie
Sun 13 May 6:00pm
Love Meetings
Love Meetings
Sun 13 May 8:00pm
Accattone
Accattone
Thu 17 May 7:30pm
Accattone
Accattone
Fri 18 May 7:30pm
Breathless
Breathless
Sat 19 May 6:00pm
The Passion of Joan of Arc
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Sat 19 May 8:00pm
Le mépris
Le mépris
Sun 20 May 6:00pm
Oedipus Rex
Oedipus Rex
Sun 20 May 8:00pm
Medea
Medea
Mon 21 May 7:00pm
Sex, Politics, Art and Revolution: French Cinema in 1968
Sex, Politics, Art and Revolution: French Cinema in 1968
Tue 22 May 7:30pm
Theorem
Theorem
Wed 23 May 7:30pm
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom
Thu 24 May 7:30pm
Breathless
Breathless
Fri 25 May 7:30pm
Pierrot le fou
Pierrot le fou
Sun 27 May 6:00pm
Scouting in Palestine
Scouting in Palestine
Sun 27 May 7:30pm
The Gospel According to Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew
