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 25

7:00pm – WARNING SHADOWS
Arthur Robison (1923) 85 mins – Unclassified 15 +

Celebrated for its outrageous visual style and controversial lack of intertitles, Robison’s classic tale of psychological horror has long been considered a landmark of German Expressionist cinema. Passions overtake reason and reality is not what it appears to be when a mysterious traveller and illusionist arrives to provide entertainment at an otherwise routine dinner party. Shadows, reflections and silhouettes dominate each frame in the formidable camerawork of Fritz Arno Wagner, a cinematographer renowned for his work with Fritz Lang.  “Its supreme value as an example of unity of purpose, of time, of place, of theme, cannot be over-estimated” (Paul Rotha).

CTEQ ANNOTATION
“Half Sick of Shadows”: Voyeurism and Psychosis in ‘Warning Shadows’ by David Melville.

8:35pm – ASPHALT
Joe May (1929) 94 mins – Unclassified 15 +

Made at UFA just before the full arrival of sound, May’s extraordinarily dexterous and strikingly visual silent “street film” – shot by Günther Rittau (Die Nibelungen and The Blue Angel) – is an Expressionist-inflected “love” story set amidst the teeming traffic of late 1920s modernist Berlin. This important transitional work presents a nimble hybrid of sensibilities that fuses noir, city film, urban comedy and social realism into a story of a straight-laced traffic cop (played by Metropolis’ Gustav Fröhlich) undone by a fun-loving femme fatale (the wonderful Betty Amann).

CTEQ ANNOTATION
‘Asphalt’ by Shari Kizirian.

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, Michelle Carey, Adrian Danks, Eloise Ross and Cerise Howard.

Supported by Screen Australia and Film Victoria.

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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