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 Australia 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 – THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE
Luis Buñuel (1972) 102 mins M
Widely regarded as one of the crowning achievements of Buñuel’s career, this sly, deceptive and very funny film focusing on the failed and aborted attempts of a group of bourgeois friends to hold a “dinner party” is “probably the most relaxed and controlled film” Buñuel “ever made, and arguably the first contemporary, global masterpiece to come from France in the seventies” (Jonathan Rosenbaum). This serene, distilled, accessible and Oscar-winning work is, nevertheless, a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Co-scripted by Jean-Claude Carrière and starring Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Stéphane Audran, Bulle Ogier and Jean-Pierre Cassel.
Trailer:
8.55PM – THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL
Luis Buñuel (1962) 95 mins M
Buñuel’s claustrophobic surrealist masterpiece epitomises Sartre’s famous assertion that “hell is other people”. An absurd, macabre satire, the film slowly reveals the true nature of a group of bourgeois partygoers mysteriously trapped at a dinner party. Dispersed with dreamlike surreal moments, the enigma created is open to a wealth of interpretations.
Trailer:
Followed by
Las Hurdes
Luis Buñuel (1933) 27 mins.
Buñuel’s controversial surrealist “documentary” presents a withering and self-consciously sensationalist portrait of poverty-stricken life in the Las Hurdes region of western Spain.
Print courtesy of the National Film & Sound Archive, Australia.
The new Friends of Cinémathèque membership is a way for you to support the vitality of the Melbourne Cinémathèque, an independently organised, not-for-profit organisation.
In addition to annual membership you will receive:
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1 complimentary ticket for an ACMI-programmed cinema session
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3 x single passes to bring a friend to a Cinémathèque screening any time in the calendar year
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Discounted member prices for ACMI-programmed cinema sessions
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15% discount at Optic Kitchen + Bar and the ACMI Store
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Exclusive invitations to cinema events, previews and screenings
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Subscription to the ACMI Film Member e-news
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An ACMI Film Membership card that can be used to scan into Cinémathèque sessions
The first 30 new members to sign up for 2014 will also receive a discount code for online Madman purchases, and a new release DVD or Bluray courtesy of Madman.
See our Ticketing page for info.