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.
7:00pm – VERA CRUZ
Robert Aldrich (1954) 94 mins PG
Aldrich’s fourth feature is one of the most influential, expressive and prescient Westerns of the 1950s. Shot largely in Mexico, and paving the way for the more cynical, self-conscious and critical approaches to the genre found in The Professionals, The Wild Bunch and many Spaghetti Westerns, it focuses on US mercenaries helping to transport a precious cargo for Emperor Maximilian. An often-wry post-Civil War tale of double-cross and porous allegiances, it features a stellar cast including Burt Lancaster, Gary Cooper, Ernest Borgnine and Charles Bronson.
8:45pm – TOO LATE THE HERO
Robert Aldrich (1970) 145 mins M
This intense, action-packed and circumspect war film provides a fascinating companion piece to the massively successful The Dirty Dozen made by Aldrich in 1967. Shot in harsh conditions in the Philippines, and resonating with contemporary US experience in Vietnam, it focuses on a ragbag collection of misfits, cynics and cowards assigned to an outlying British commando unit tasked with destroying a radio transmitter on a largely Japanese occupied island. One of the director’s most underrated films it stars Michael Caine, Cliff Robertson, Henry Fonda and Ken Takakura.
35mm print courtesy of the British Film Institute Archive.
CTEQ ANNOTATION
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.
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