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.

NEXT SCREENING

March 20

7:00pm – NIGHT OF THE DEMON
Jacques Tourneur (1957) 95 mins PG

A sceptical American psychologist (Dana Andrews) investigates a mysterious occult related death in southern England. Tourneur’s first venture into horror since working so memorably with Val Lewton at RKO in the 1940s (Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie) is one of the most unsettling, convincing, atmospheric and ominously beautiful of all supernatural thrillers. Based on a seminal short story by M. R. James, “Casting the Runes”, this cult horror classic features an expert script co-written by frequent Hitchcock collaborator Charles Bennett, evocative misty English locations and a spectacular monster finale. With Peggy Cummins (Gun Crazy).

35mm print courtesy of the British Film Institute Archive.

8:45pm – NIGHT OF THE EAGLE
Sidney Hayers (1962) 90 mins PG

A professor’s wife, who is obsessed by witchcraft and the occult, believes she must die in her husband’s stead. Scriptwriters Richard Matheson (‘I Am Legend’), George Baxt and Charles Beaumont hone and shape Fritz Leiber’s novel into a remarkable, psychologically ambiguous work. Melding the brooding horror of Dreyer and Val Lewton, the inspired Hayers builds a portentous atmosphere of superstition through judicious framing and camera movement, producing a taut, genuinely frightening witchcraft chiller. With Peter Wyngarde, Kathleen Byron and Janet Blair.

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 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

NEWS

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

MAY ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2018

NOTICE: The committee of The Melbourne Cinémathèque wishes to make some changes to our constitution, however, to do that we now have to conform to the model constitution in the 2012 Act, so a number of other changes are also required.

Here is a copy of the constitution with the changes on RED.

The Melbourne Cinémathèque Constitution 2018.

We wish to pass these changes at the AGM on Wednesday May 30, at 6:40pm.

Please read the RED stuff and consider. It won’t take long. Then come along to the AGM.

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