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

July 26

7:00pm THE MARRIAGE CIRCLE
Ernst Lubitsch (1924) 85 mins
Unclassified 15+ (unless accompanied by an adult)

Lubitsch’s breakthrough American film established the sophisticated style and sensibility that marked his greatest work in Hollywood. This highly influential comedy of manners, itself inspired by Chaplin’s A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate and remade as One Hour With You, fixates on the flirtations, indiscretions and infidelities of a “circle” of well-heeled married couples in licentious Vienna. Lubitsch’s elegant roundelay features knowing performances by a wonderful array of silent-era talent including Florence Vidor, Monte Blue, Marie Prevost and the impossibly suave, Adolphe Menjou.

Preserved by The Museum of Modern Art with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation and The Film Foundation.

CTEQ ANNOTATION:
Nuanced Complexity: The Marriage Circle and the Early Days of the ‘Lubitsch Touch’ by Isabella McNeill

8:35pm A WOMAN OF PARIS: A DRAMA OF FATE
Charles Chaplin (1923) 78 mins PG

A commercial failure on its initial release, Chaplin’s bold and subtle romantic drama is now widely regarded as one of the key works of his long career. This sophisticated, groundbreakingly complex drama of manners involves a French girl (Chaplin favourite Edna Purviance) who, due to a misunderstanding, fails to marry her sweetheart and ends up in Paris as the mistress of a perennial sophisticate (Adolphe Menjou). One of only two features Chaplin directed and didn’t star in, it was a key influence on Lubitsch’s American career.

35mm print courtesy of the National Film & Sound Archive, Australia.

CTEQ ANNOTATION:
A Woman of Paris by James L. Neibaur

10:00pm THE OYSTER PRINCESS
Ernst Lubitsch (1919) 48 mins
Unclassified 15+ (unless accompanied by an adult)

This exuberant, extravagant romp represents the director’s famous “touch” in its earliest embryonic incarnation. In true screwball style, the film is laden with mistaken identities, romantic rivalries and good-natured digs at the rich, both ancien and nouveau. Over-the-top set pieces involving crazed foxtrots and multitudes of servants prefigure The Love Parade a decade later. Features a winning performance by popular star Ossi Oswalda, a key actor in Lubitsch’s early work, widely known as “the German Mary Pickford.”

35mm print courtesy of the National Film & Sound Archive, Australia.

CTEQ ANNOTATION:
Die Austernprinzessin by Michael Ewins

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 and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.

Curated by the Melbourne Cinémathèque.

Curatorial Committee: Michael Koller, Michelle Carey, Adrian Danks and Eloise Ross with assistance from Cerise Howard.

Supported by Screen Australia and Film Victoria.

NEWS

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

PROGRAM CHANGES

MARCH 16, 7:00PM Douglas Sirk’s ALL I DESIRE to be replaced by Billy Wilder’s DOUBLE INDEMNITY as part of the Barbara Stanwyck program.

LATEST FROM TWITTER