Dedicated to screening rare & significant films in their original format.

The Melbourne Cinémathèque is a not-for-profit, volunteer-run film society.

The Melbourne Cinémathèque is a membership-based film society based in Melbourne, Australia.

We hold screenings at ACMI, Fed Square every Wednesday night for most of the year.

Admission is by membership, which can be obtained on a short-term or yearly basis.

We are a volunteer-run, not-for-profit organisation.

NEXT SCREENING

Wednesday 13 November

7:00pm THE LAST OF ENGLAND

Derek Jarman (1987) 87 mins – M

Named after Ford Madox Brown’s iconic painting, Jarman’s bleakest vision is a violent howl against both the loss of traditional English culture and the Thatcher government’s creation of totalitarian anti-LGBTQI+ legislation. Jarman’s layered small-gauge images of a world in ruin are tied together by his own poetic narration, Christopher Hobbs’ audacious production design, Sandy Powell’s indelible costumes and Simon Fisher Turner’s hypnotic soundscape of blended score and sound design, pre-empting their final collaboration on 1993’s Blue. With Tilda Swinton. Winner of the Teddy for Best Feature at the Berlin International Film Festival.

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

CTEQ ANNOTATION
Derek Jarman’s The Last of England
Danica van de Velde

8:40pm THE GARDEN

Derek Jarman (1990) 95 mins – M

In many ways a companion piece to The Last of England, Jarman’s first feature of the 1990s is a highly personal, almost dialogue-free film reflecting on the hostility and violence faced by gay, queer and trans people in the aftermath of the AIDS epidemic. Drawing together a collage of home movies of Jarman’s cottage in Dungeness, numerous references to classical and popular culture, and a bold retelling of the Passion of the Christ featuring a gay couple in the lead role, it is one of Jarman’s most startling meditations on mortality, loss and queer politics. With Tilda Swinton and a voiceover by Michael Gough.

Followed by In the Shadow of the Sun Derek Jarman (1981) 54 mins – Unclassified 15+. Jarman alchemically combines and superimposes super 8 footage of friends shot between 1972 and 1975 and a road trip to Avebury in 1980 into an eerie, deeply atmospheric and disturbing ambient opus scored by Geneses P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti’s Throbbing Gristle.

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 Michael Koller, Adrian Danks, Eloise Ross, Cerise Howard and Andréas Giannopoulos for the Melbourne Cinémathèque

Subtitling Logistics: Lorenzo Rosa

Music Synchronisation: Michael Koller

Supported by VicScreen & RMIT University.

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