Dedicated to screening rare & significant films in their original format.

The Melbourne Cinémathèque is a not-for-profit, volunteer-run film society.

The Melbourne Cinémathèque is a membership-based film society based in Melbourne, Australia.

We hold screenings at The Australian Centre for the Moving image every Wednesday night for most of the year.

This year we are screening repeat programs on Monday and Wednesday nights at limited capacity until COVID restrictions ease. Booking is essential.

Admission is by membership, which can be obtained on a short-term or yearly basis.

All Melbourne Cinémathèque annual memberships valid when we closed in March 2020 are being extended by 13 months, matching the period we were closed. Mini passes with either one or two weeks remaining at the time of our 2020 closure will also be honoured.

We are a volunteer-run, not-for-profit organisation.

NEXT SCREENING

Monday April 12 & Wednesday April 14

7.00pm A FOREIGN AFFAIR
Billy Wilder (1948) 116 mins – PG

Wilder, Richard L. Breen and Charles Brackett’s wicked and pointed satire about a congressional investigation into GI morals portrays bombed-out Berlin as a supremely corrupt black marketeers’ paradise. Although it stars Jean Arthur as a fish-out-of-water congresswoman negotiating the moral and cultural quagmire of the emerging Cold War, Dietrich steals the film as a slippery, Mephisto-like chanteuse. A knowing reversal of the star’s renowned anti-fascism, it includes a wonderful score by Friedrich Hollaender who also features as Dietrich’s accompanist.

CTEQ ANNOTATION:
Rubble romance: A Foreign Affair by Jeremy Carr

9:10pm I KISS YOUR HAND, MADAME
Robert Land (1929) 66 mins – Unclassified 15 +

In one of her final “silent films”, Dietrich stars as a divorcee in Paris luxuriating in her freedom and a circle of adoring men. This divine comedy is marked by elegant set design and the exquisite appeal of Parisian high life, beautifully captured by cinematographers Carl Drews and Gotthardt Wolf. While mostly silent, this was the first German film to use synchronised sound technology, giving a platform to established lead Harry Liedtke and the titular song. However, it is Dietrich who emerges as the clear star, displaying early signs of her extraordinary performative sensuality.

35mm print courtesy of Deutsche Kinemathek.

ABOUT

The Melbourne Cinémathèque started out as the Melbourne University Film Society (MUFS) in 1948 and changed its name to Cinémathèque in 1984.

The Melbourne Cinémathèque aims to present films in the medium they were created and as closely as possible to screen films the way they would have originally screened (i.e. big screen, celluloid prints, not video or DVD).

Programmes include a diverse selection of classic and contemporary films showcasing director retrospectives, special guest appearances and thematic series including archival material and new or restored prints.

We have on occasion hosted numerous seminars featuring renowned film scholars such as David Bordwell, Adrian Martin and Ian Christie. We are also dedicated to providing new annotations on the films we screen via the CTEQ annotations, hosted as a part of the quarterly online film journal Senses of Cinema.

The Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered and membership-driven relying on support from individuals, foundations, corporations and government funding to maintain its high standard of excellence. If you would like to be involved, or to offer donations or sponsorship, please contact us.

Presented by The Melbourne Cinémathèque with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.

Curated by Michael Koller, Adrian Danks, Eloise Ross and Cerise Howard for the Melbourne Cinémathèque

Subtitling Logistics: Lorenzo Rosa

Music Synchronisation: Michael Koller

Supported by Film Victoria, RMIT University & The City of Melbourne Arts Grants Program.

NEWS

For all the latest news including program changes follow us via Twitter & Facebook.

LATEST FROM TWITTER