Dedicated to screening rare & significant films in their original format.
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 Australian 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.
6:30pm – CITIZEN HAVEL
Pavel Koutecký and Miroslav Janek (2008) 119 mins Unclassified 15+*
An unprecedentedly intimate, long-term chronicle of the public, political and private life of a world leader, this fascinating and often funny observational documentary follows absurdist playwright and jailed dissident-cum-Czech President Václav Havel from 1992 for over 10 years. After the accidental death of director Koutecký in 2006, the film was completed by his collaborator Janek and features cameos from The Rolling Stones and Bill Clinton.
Preceded by
At the Prague Castle
Alexander Hammid (1931) 11 mins.
Conceived under the working title of “The Music of Architecture”, Hammid here “argued the case for films in which image and music would be composed at the same time” (Peter Hames).
Digital print courtesy of the National Film Archive in Prague.
8:50pm – KATKA
Helena Třeštíková (2010) 90 mins Unclassified 15+*
One of the prolific Třeštíková’s most celebrated time-lapse documentaries is also one of her most ethically complex and reflexive. With its genesis in an episode of her 2001 TV series “Women at the Turn of the Century”, Třeštíková’s film spans 14 years of the straitened existence of her eponymous subject, an addict eking out a desperate life on Prague’s margins. Returning to her at intervals, not only does Katka’s condition appreciably change with each visit, but so too the technologies used to capture her image.
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 the Melbourne Cinémathèque.
Curatorial Committee: Michael Koller, Adrian Danks, Eloise Ross and Cerise Howard, with Associate Curator Michelle Carey
Supported by Film Victoria, RMIT University & The City of Melbourne
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© The Melbourne Cinémathèque
ABN 59 987 473 440
Supported by Film Victoria, RMIT University & City of Melbourne.