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

September 27

7:00pm SWEETIE
Jane Campion (1989) 97 mins M

Taking inspiration from the suburban weirdness of Lynch’s Blue Velvet and the themes and aesthetics of photographer Diane Arbus, Campion’s strangely beautiful debut feature film about the dysfunctional relationships of a Sydney family is told with disturbingly deadpan whimsy. Creating a dreamlike, off-centre mood, Campion’s iconoclastic visual style is already evident as dramatic compositions and unsettlingly angled shots make the ordinary seem strange.

Trailer:

Preceded by

An Exercise in Discipline: Peel Jane Campion (1982) 9 mins. Unclassified 15 + (unless accompanied by an adult). Campion’s 1986 Palme d’Or-winner is a study of discipline involving a family road trip and an orange peel made while she was a student at AFTRS.

Courtesy of the National Film & Sound Archive, Australia.

9:00pm IN THE CUT
Jane Campion (2003) 119 mins R

A teacher (Meg Ryan) engages in a dangerous flirtation with a homicide detective (Mark Ruffalo) in this noir-inflected exploration of sexual curiosity and desire based on Susanna Moore’s controversial novel. Cinematographer Dion Beebe fuses bright and muted colours with the seedy streets of downtown Manhattan in ways that are at once welcoming and threatening and allude to the contradictions of female urban experience. The luminous sensory palette, refracted through an intense female gaze, is characteristic of Campion’s attention to materiality, marking this as a key work in her career. With Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Trailer:

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.

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