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 – NEAR DARK
Kathryn Bigelow (1987) 94 mins R18+
Originally conceived as a Western – and retaining the genre’s sensibility for lawlessness, marauders and open spaces, despite its translation to a modern milieu – Bigelow’s first solo outing as feature-film director has grown in stature from its initial tepid release to a critically well-regarded and respected genre classic. Ostensibly a vampire road movie, the film offers a disarmingly tender and strangely poetic portrait of human relationships whilst never shying away from kinetic action scenes and bloody violence.
Featuring a score by Tangerine Dream.
Bigelow’s once maligned big-budget box-office failure, a heightened science-fiction thriller delving into the near futuristic worlds of virtual reality and urban malaise, is now widely regarded as a fascinating, troubling and prescient film maudit based on a script by James Cameron and Scorsese collaborator, Jay Cocks. A teeming, millennial, baroque and richly detailed vision of a decaying Los Angeles torn apart by race riots and crime, Bigelow’s discomforting neo-noir is a “visionary triumph” (Todd McCarthy) starring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett and Juliette Lewis.
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.