April 06

THE BITTER TEARS OF RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER: A COLLABORATION WITH THE MELBOURNE QUEER FILM FESTIVAL

7:00PM – QUERELLE

Rainer Werner Fassbinder
 (1982) 108 mins R18+

Fassbinder’s final film—a multinational production released posthumously just months after his tragic death—is an adaptation of one of Jean Genet’s most lurid and scandalous novels depicting the murderous, criminal and sexual exploits of a young psychopathic sailor (Brad Davis) in the port of Brest. Eschewing the characteristically blunt and direct naturalistic style that defined his filmmaking throughout the 1970s, Fassbinder further develops his experiments with colourful, Anger-esque expressionism initiated in Lola. With Jeanne Moreau and Franco Nero.

CTEQ ANNOTATION
The Betrayals of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s ‘Querelle’ by Claire Henry.


9:00PM – THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT

Rainer Werner Fassbinder
 (1972) 122 mins M

Fassbinder adapts his own play about an emotionally sadistic fashion designer and the handful of women who visit her in the garish bedroom in which she holds court. The film’s long takes, deep focus cinematography and dispassionate, faux-theatrical style work against the melodrama of the material, creating a dissonance that allows Fassbinder’s searingly critical self-portrait to show up in sharp relief. The all-female ensemble of Fassbinder regulars (Margit Carstensen, Hanna Schygulla and Irm Hermann) creates a memorable gallery of desperate grotesques.

Whose are the Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant? by Cerise Howard.


The Melbourne Cinémathèque is pleased to continue its collaboration, inaugurated in 2015, with the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Australia’s preeminent queer film event and Melbourne’s second biggest film festival. This partnership presents a chance to explore the rich historical roots of the queer cinematic canon through the festival’s first ‘Pioneers’ program.

mqff

8 February – 22 February
“THE ART IS VERY JEALOUS”: TONINO GUERRA, WRITING IMAGES

1 March – 15 March
MODEL AND SOUL: THE UNCOMPROMISING CINEMA OF ROBERT BRESSON

22 March – 5 April
CRYING ON THE INSIDE: THE EMPATHETIC STARDOM OF TONY LEUNG CHIU-WAI

12 April – 26 April
RETURN FIRE: MARILYN MONROE, ACTOR AND ICON

3 May – 17 May
SOFT AND HARD: THE HIGH-WIRE CAREER OF BURT LANCASTER

24 May
“THE STUFF OF CINEMA”: THE PROLIFIC INDEPENDENCE OF BILL MOUSOULIS

31 May – 14 June
ONE DAY AT A TIME: THE CINEMA OF TSAI MING-LIANG

21 June – 5 July
EVERYONE HAS THEIR REASONS: THE FILMS OF PETER BOGDANOVICH

12 July – 19 July
MAGIC, WHIMSY AND LIGHTBULB MOMENTS: ILDIKÓ ENYEDI’S TRANSPORTIVE CINEMA

26 July
POWER IN THE COLLECTIVE: THE KEY WORKS OF MERATA MITA

30 August – 13 September
GANGSTERS, GUNS AND GAULOISES: FRENCH CRIME CINEMA, 1945–60

20 September
LOTTIE LYELL, AUSTRALIA’S FIRST FILM STAR

27 September – 11 October
“ALL THE WORLD’S BEDLAM”: SCREWBALL, CZECHOSLOVAK STYLE

18 October – 1 November
NOW! CRIME, POLITICS AND REVOLUTION IN 1960s BRAZILIAN CINEMA

8 November
TEMENOS: THE SHARED VISIONS OF GREGORY J. MARKOPOULOS AND ROBERT BEAVERS

15–22 November
BEHIND THE SCREEN: KINUYO TANAKA, TRAILBLAZING FILMMAKER

29 November
COMING TO AUSTRALIA: WOMEN FILMMAKERS AND THE MIGRANT EXPERIENCE

6–20 December
OSTERN POWERS: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE EASTERN EUROPEAN WESTERN