February 5

OPENING NIGHT

The opening night of our 2020 program features recent restorations of key works by two of the towering figures of post-World War II European cinema: Bernardo Bertolucci and Jacques Rivette.

Both filmmakers emerged as key figures in the 1960s, each betraying and confirming their strong affinity with the history of cinema and other art forms. This program profiles two of their less widely seen but central works from this seminal period, opening with Bertolucci’s appropriately labyrinthine and mercurial adaptation of a short story by Jorge Luis Borges.

Released within months of The Conformist, The Spider’s Stratagem demonstrates both the full range of Bertolucci’s work and his characteristic preoccupation with the legacies of history, place and identity. The exquisite recent restoration of Rivette’s La religieuse profiles an extraordinary central performance by Anna Karina, while also highlighting the Melbourne Cinémathèque’s overriding goal of profiling challenging works of film history in optimal conditions.

February 5

6:30pm – THE SPIDER’S STRATAGEM
Bernardo Bertolucci (1970) 100 mins – Unclassified 15 +

The son of a martyred anti-fascist hero travels to a small Italian village searching for the truth behind his father’s death, only to unravel a web of myths, mysteries and lies. In this intimate, mesmeric film based on a short story by Jorge Luis Borges and exquisitely shot in vibrant shades by Franco Di Giacomo and Vittorio Storaro, Bertolucci’s delicately elusive and deftly non-linear style grapples with themes of historical legacy, cultural inheritance and the intersection of sex, violence and ideology. With Alida Valli.

35mm print courtesy of Cinecittà Luce.

CTEQ ANNOTATION:
Into the Web: The Spider’s Stratagem by Wheeler Winston Dixon.


8:25pm – LA RELIGIEUSE
Jacques Rivette (1966) 140 mins – Unclassified 15 +

Rivette’s bold second feature is a controversial adaptation of Denis Diderot’s late 18th-century novel detailing the virtual incarceration of a young woman forced to enter a convent. Initially condemned by the Catholic church, partly for its critical and honest portrayal of various high officials, Rivette’s characteristically precise, formally adventurous, devastatingly affective and physically palpable portrait of the sad fate of Suzanne Simonin (in an extraordinary incarnation by Anna Karina) is also “one of the greatest prison movies ever made” (Justin Chang).

CTEQ ANNOTATION:
Behind the Veil: The Nun by Danica van de Velde.

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