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.

Wednesday 5 February
OPENING NIGHT 2025

12–26 February
BALLETIC SWORDFIGHTS, FLYING HEROINES AND BAMBOO FORESTS: KING HU, MASTER OF WUXIA

5–19 March
THE PAST IS ALWAYS PRESENT: THE EVOLUTIONARY CAREER OF ROBERTO ROSSELLINI

26 March – 9 April
OUT OF THE PAST AND INTO FLARES: NEO-NOIR IN 1970s AMERICA

16–30 April
CONTINENTAL DIVIDE: THE UNFLINCHING VISION OF MICHAEL HANEKE

7–21 May
BARABARA STEELE: THE QUEEN OF SCREAM

28 May – 11 June
VÍCTOR ERICE: COME TOWARDS THE LIGHT

18 June – 2 July
REBELLIOUS MUSE: DELPHINE SEYRIG AS ACTOR, DIRECTOR AND ACTIVIST

Wednesday 9 July
DEEP DIVE: THE RESTLESSLY INVENTIVE WORK OF DIRK DE BRUYN

16–30 July
APPETITE FOR DECONSTRUCTION: SEIJUN SUZUKI

3–17 September
CINE DE ORO: TREASURES OF MEXICAN CINEMA’S GOLDEN AGE

24 September – 8 October
ONE FOR THE AGES: THE BALLADIC, PAINTERLY CINEMA OF FRANTIŠEK VLÁČIL

15–22 October
“ON THE EDGE OF FICTION”: ELIA SULEIMAN’S CINEMA OF BELONGING

29 October – 5 November
MARX, MELODRAMA AND MARCOS: LINO BROCKA FROM THE MID-1970s TO THE EARLY 1980s

12–19 November
IT’S TIME: AUSTRALIAN CINEMA IN 1975

Wednesday 26 November
MOTHER TONGUE: AUSTRALIAN WOMEN IN ANIMATION

3–17 December
THE COURAGE TO TAKE THINGS SERIOUSLY: JOHN M. STAHL’S UNIRONIC MELODRAMAS