Dedicated to screening rare & significant films in their original format
The Melbourne Cinémathèque is a not-for-profit, volunteer-run film society. We hold screenings at The Australia Centre for the Moving image every Wednesday night for most of the year. Admission is by membership, which can be obtained on a monthly or yearly basis.
7.00 . LA CHIENNE
Jean Renoir (1931) 91 mins
Renoir transforms the melodramatic subject of Georges de La Fouchardière’s original novel – about an unhappily married clerk who becomes the pawn of a prostitute and her pimp – into a work of unaffected naturalism.
Renowned for its sophisticated, gritty characterisations, and its status as one of the key progenitors of poetic realism, Renoir’s first sound feature was filmed on the noisy streets of Montmartre without the use of dubbing and was later memorably remade by Fritz Lang as Scarlet Street. Stars Michel Simon.
35mm print courtesy of The British Film Institute.
8.40 . ZÉRO DE CONDUITE
Jean Vigo (1933) 44 mins M
Vigo’s fable-like tale of the unsentimental education, imaginary lives and rebellion of the students of a boys boarding school, tinged by both the surreal and universally familiar impulses of anti-authoritarianism and escape, remains a beloved classic of ’30s French cinema and an immediate precursor to the lyricism of the director’s remarkable single feature, L’Atalante.
Brilliantly shot by Boris Kaufman and scored by Maurice Jaubert.
35mm print courtesy of L’Institut Français.
9.35 . PÉPÉ LE MOKO
Julien Duvivier (1937) 94 mins PG
High-powered jewel thief Pépé longs for his native Paris but cannot leave the Algerian Casbah without being arrested.
The quintessential loner at his most attractively roguish, Jean Gabin created one of the cinema’s greatest anti-heroes in the title role. Duvivier’s seminal film is a true classic of its genre and provides an extraordinarily detailed and evocative representation of its exotic setting. A fascinating portrait of colonial Africa, it was quickly remade (as Algiers [1938]) by Hollywood and massively influenced almost all the similarly themed films made in its wake.
35mm print courtesy of L’Institut Français.
Trailer:
As the stalemate in the US government has not been resolved we will be required to shuffle the programs screening. The new order is:
October 23
7:00pm THE CROWD
8:50pm THE FOUNTAINHEAD
October 30
7:00pm THE PATSY
8:30pm NORTHWEST FRONTIER
NOVEMBER 6
7:00pm BEYOND THE FOREST
8:35pm THE BIG PARADE