The Cinematheque JULY+AUG 2016

EXPERIENCE ESSENTIAL CINEMA

y

A TOUCH OF ZEN

JULY+ AUGUST 2016 1131 Howe Street | Vancouver | theCinematheque.ca

SOUNDS GREAT! TWO BY KING HU FILM NOIR SHAKESPEARE 400

AUGUST 4–22

KISS OF DEATH

y JULY + AUGUST 2016

AUGUST 4–22

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oomed romanticism, dark city streets, double-crossing dames, disillusioned anti-heroes, murderous hoodlums, cynical cops, hard-boiled dialogue, head-spinning Expressionist style – it’s time for The Cinematheque’s annual summer celebration of the giddy, gloomy, seductive glories of Film Noir!

One of Golden-Age Hollywood’s richest and most creative (and most pitiless and pessimistic) periods, Film Noir picks up the shiny rock of the mid-20th-century American Dream, turns it over, and finds underneath a grubby American nightmare: a sordid, sleazy, fatalistic world teaming with greed, crime, corruption, cruelty, and sexual betrayal.

Our 2016 Noir season includes nine vintage noir gems, five of which we’ve never screened before (Kiss of Death, Johnny O’Clock, Thieves’ Highway, The Reckless Moment, and Underworld U.S.A.), plus two sensational sidebars spotlighting the legacy of this most influential of American film styles. Abandon hope - but expect great entertaining cinema! – all ye who enter here.

OPENING NIGHT Thursday, August 4 Reception + Entertainment 6:00pm - Doors 7:00pm - The Killers 9:05pm - Kiss of Death

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THE KILLERS

The Killers

Where the Sidewalk Ends

USA 1946. Dir: Robert Siodmak. 105 min. DCP

USA 1950. Dir: Otto Preminger. 95 min. DCP

Directed by noir luminary Robert Siodmak (Criss Cross, Phantom Lady), The Killers is one of film noir’s defining works – a master class in the criminality, corruption, and cynicism of the noir universe; the moody, menacing Expressionism of its visual style; and the haunted fatalism and pessimism of its thematic. Elaborating on a Hemingway short story about a man who offers no resistance when hired killers come to slay him, the film casts Burt Lancaster (in his star-making screen debut) as Swede, a world-weary ex-boxer passively murdered as the film opens.

Edmond O’Brien (D.O.A.) is Riordan, an insurance investigator probing Swede’s death. Ava Gardner is double-crossing dame Kitty Collins – one of noir’s quintessential femmes fatales. The narrative unfolds as a series of Citizen Kane-style flashbacks recounting Swede’s downfall. Miklós Rózsa’s memorable score was later used in the Dragnet TV series.

Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews, stars of Otto Preminger’s chic noir classic Laura, reunited with the director in the grittier Where the Sidewalk Ends, “one of Preminger’s great films on obsession and anguish” (Chris Fujiwara). Andrews is a standout as brutal, belligerent Mark Dixon, a New York cop who roughs up and accidentally kills a suspect during the course of an investigation.

Dixon seeks to implicate a mobster in the death, but suspicion falls instead on an innocent cabbie. Thing gets more complicated – and more desperate – when Dixon becomes romantically involved with the cabbie’s daughter, played by Tierney. Celebrated screenwriter Ben Hecht (Scarface, His Girl Friday, Notorious) wrote the deliciously hard-boiled script. Tierney’s then-husband, fashion designer Oleg Cassini (who would design for Jackie Kennedy in the 1960s), did the costumes and has a cameo.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 4 – 7:00 PM Opening night with Refreshments + Entertainment Doors 6:00pm / Screening 7:00pm

FRIDAY, AUGUST 5 – 8:25 PM WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10 – 6:30 PM

Kiss of Death

FRIDAY, AUGUST 5 – 6:30 PM SATURDAY, AUGUST 6 – 8:30 PM SUNDAY, AUGUST 7 – 6:30 PM

Johnny O’Clock

USA 1947. Dir: Henry Hathaway. 98 min. DCP

USA 1947. Dir: Robert Rossen. 95 min. DCP

Henry Hathaway’s nasty New York-shot noir is famed for iconic tough-guy Richard Widmark’s sensational (and Oscar-nominated) screen debut. Widmark plays cackling, sadistic hoodlum Tommy Udo. Victor Mature, headlining, is criminal and convict Nick Bianco, whose decision to turn stool pigeon for the sake of his kids sends him on a collision course with the psychopathic Udo. The hard-hitting script is by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer. The cinematography, contrasting documentary-like exteriors with highly-stylized interiors, is by Norbert Brodine, who shortly afterwards shot Jules Dassin’s Thieves’ Highway (also screening in this series). Widmark’s maniacal performance, apparently inspired by The Joker in Batman comics, likely influenced Heath Ledger’s take on The Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, “Tense, terrifying . . . with an unusually authentic seamy atmosphere” (Pauline Kael).

Johnny O’Clock, suave ladies’ man and junior partner in a New York gambling den owned by a mobster, is in a heap of trouble: the boss’s wife is in love with him; a crooked cop is out to get him; and the casino’s hat-check girl has just turned up dead. And that’s for starters! Screenwriter Robert Rossen’s directorial debut is a hard-boiled noir thriller replete with seedy atmosphere, complex plotting, moody visuals (by prolific noir cameraman and Bonnie and Clyde Oscar-winner Burnett Guffey), and an array of colourful characters. Dick Powell (Murder My Sweet) has the lead; the fine cast includes Evelyn Keyes, Ellen Drew, Nina Foch, and a cigar-chomping Lee J. Cobb. Rossen, blacklisted in the 1950s, would go on to direct Body and Soul (also 1947), All the King’s Men, and The Hustler.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 4 – 9:05 PM SATURDAY, AUGUST 6 – 6:30 PM MONDAY, AUGUST 8 – 8:25 PM

SUNDAY, AUGUST 7 – 8:25 PM MONDAY, AUGUST 8 – 6:30 PM THURSDAY, AUGUST 11 – 8:45 PM

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Thieves’ Highway

The Big Sleep

USA 1949. Dir: Jules Dassin. 94 min. DCP

USA 1946. Dir: Howard Hawks. 114 min. 35mm

A California trucker seeks revenge against the racketeer who crippled his father in this high-octane, hard-as-nails (and underrated) noir from American neo-realist Jules Dassin (Brute Force, The Naked City, Night and the City), a champion of on-location shooting and social drama. Richard Conte is war veteran and rig driver Nick; Lee J. Cobb is ruthless San Francisco fruit-and-vegetable dealer Figlia; Hollywood newcomer Valentina Cortesa is streetwalker Rica, with whom Nick has a steamy relationship. Dassin’s feverish film was made from a novel and screenplay by noir writer A . I. Bezzerides (Desert Fury, On Dangerous Ground). “Brilliantly volatile . . .

Dassin’s best American movie” (Michael Sragow, The Criterion Collection). “You will never be able to eat an apple or tomato again without calling up visions of trickery, mayhem, vandalism, and violent death” (Bosley Crowther, New York Times).

Many of the best films noir were made-on-the-cheap B-movies, but some favourites (Double Indemnity, for instance) were prestigious productions. The Big Sleep is big-budget noir with a big-time pedigree: a William Faulkner script, based on a Raymond Chandler novel, directed by Howard Hawks, with Bogart and Bacall in the leads – and, of course, the legendary convoluted plot that even director, novelist, and screenwriter professed themselves unable to follow! Bogart is tough-talking private dick Philip Marlowe; Bacall is seductive socialite Vivian Sternwood, older sister of a mixed-up young woman Marlowe is hired to protect. The sexual attraction between Marlowe and Vivian sizzles; the cynical, slangy, hard-boiled dialogue astounds. “The film catches the lurid Chandler atmosphere.

The characters are a collection of sophisticated monsters . . . All of them talk in innuendoes, as if that were a new stylization of the American language” (Pauline Kael).

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10 – 8:35 PM FRIDAY, AUGUST 12 – 6:45 PM SUNDAY, AUGUST 14 – 8:25 PM

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THURSDAY, AUGUST 11 – 6:30 PM FRIDAY, AUGUST 12 – 8:40 PM SATURDAY, AUGUST 13 – 6:45 PM MONDAY, AUGUST 15 – 8:40 PM

The Reckless Moment

Shadow of a Doubt

USA 1949. Dir: Max Ophüls. 81 min. 35mm

USA 1943. Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. 108 min. DCP

Mise-en-scène virtuoso and master romanticist Max Ophüls (The Earrings of Madame de…, Lola Montès) directs Joan Bennett and James Mason in a superb noir melodrama. Bennett plays a prosperous suburban housewife who tries to cover up her daughter’s involvement in the death of a shady suitor. Mason is the crook who shows up to blackmail the family, but falls for Bennett instead. The shadowy cinematography is by noir notable Burnett Guffey (Johnny O’Clock, In a Lonely Place); the fluid camera and long takes are Ophüls specialties. The film was the expat director’s last in Hollywood, and his second noir in 1949 with Mason (Caught was the other). “A subtle, subversive critique of American ambitions and class structure . . . A marvellous, tantalising thriller, [with] never-better performances from Mason and Bennett” (Geoff Andrew, Time Out).

Alfred Hitchcock’s favourite Hitchcock film (and one of ours) is a disturbing noir drama peering into the dark heart of small-town, white-picket-fence America. Set in sleepy Santa Rosa, California, Shadow of a Doubt pivots on the unusually close bond between young Charlie (Teresa Wright) and her suave, urbane Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten). Uncle Charlie’s extended visit home is welcomed by niece Charlie as an exciting reprieve from the exasperating boredom of her American-as-apple-pie family. To her growing horror, however, she begins to suspect that her darling uncle may be the man responsible for a series of grisly murders. Hitchcock’s superb film – carefully crafted, well observed, subtle, understated, suspenseful, and subversive – is something of a 1940s precursor to David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. Our Town playwright Thornton Wilder collaborated on the screenplay. “Hitchcock’s first indisputable masterpiece” (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader).

SATURDAY, AUGUST 13 – 9:00 PM SUNDAY, AUGUST 14 – 6:45 PM THURSDAY, AUGUST 18 – 6:30 PM

MONDAY, AUGUST 15 – 6:30 PM THURSDAY, AUGUST 18 – 8:10 PM FRIDAY, AUGUST 19 – 6:30 PM

Underworld U.S.A. USA 1961. Dir: Samuel Fuller. 99 min. DCP

“Every shot is a smack in the eye” (V. K. Perkins) in Underworld U.S.A., a ruthless, relentless revenge noir from pulp-fiction primitivist Sam Fuller (Pickup on South Street, The Naked Kiss). The film transforms the G-Men-versus-gangsters thriller into something akin to a war movie – another violent genre for which Fuller had sensational, lurid flare. Cliff Robertson is pitiless anti-hero Tolly Devlin. As a boy, he witnessed his hoodlum father murdered by the Mob. Now he works both sides of the war between the FBI and the Syndicate – and exploits blonde babe Cuddles (Dolores Dom), who loves him – in a single-minded quest for vengeance. The film likely influenced Boorman’s Point Blank (also screening in this program). “The masterpiece among Fuller’s crime films, this marries a penetrating analysis of organized crime to the shock-therapy of Fuller’s style” (BFI Companion to Crime).

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19 – 8:40 PM SUNDAY, AUGUST 21 – 6:30 PM MONDAY, AUGUST 22 – 8:35 PM

THE KILLERS

5

TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.

NOIR SIDEBAR

A

central reason why classic film noir of the 1940s and 1950s is not considered a genre, the American film historian David Bordwell wrote in 1985, is that “nobody set out to make or see a film noir in the sense that people deliberately chose to make a Western, a comedy, or a musical.” By 1985, however, it was indisputable that neo-noir had become a self-conscious “genre” in itself – and a ripe, rich, and rewarding one, as Blood Simple and To Live and Die in L.A., two memorable (and memorably violent) films from 1985, demonstrate. Both screen in brand-new restorations.

New Restoration! Director’s Cut!

New Restoration!

Blood Simple

To Live and Die in L.A.

USA 1985. Dir: Joel Coen. 96 min. DCP

USA 1985. Dir: William Friedkin. 116 min. DCP

“I don’t care if you’re the Pope of Rome, President of the United States, or even Man of the Year – something can always go wrong.” The Coen brothers became indie cinema heroes with their outrageously stylish, shockingly violent debut: a neo-noir thriller with a title derived from Dashiell Hammett, a plot distilled from James M. Cain, and an arsenal of film tricks worthy of Orson Welles. When a Texas bar owner (Dan Hedaya) hires an unsavoury private eye (M. Emmet Walsh) to kill his cheating wife (Frances McDormand) and her lover (John Getz), it sets off a spiralling series of doublecrosses, dangerous misunderstandings, and gruesome twists of fate. This delirious introduction to the darkly-comic Coen universe also marked the debut of favourite leading-lady McDormand (Fargo). “Maliciously entertaining . . . The most inventive and original thriller in many a moon” (David Ansen, Newsweek).

William Friedkin, director of The French Connection, ups the high-voltage, high-violence ante in To Live and Die in L.A., a sun-bleached neo-noir thriller so slick and stylish “it’s like an episode of Miami Vice directed by Helmut Newton” (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader). William Petersen (CSI) is federal agent Chance, who’ll stop at nothing – certainly not the bounds of the law – to bring down master counterfeiter and tormented artist Masters, played by Willem Dafoe.

The luminous cinematography, by Wim Wenders mainstay Robby Müller (Paris, Texas), renders with astonishing beauty Friedkin’s cruel, claustrophobic (and often erotic) world of anxiety, obsession, cynicism, and corruption. The director hazards a hair-raising car-chase sequence that actually outdoes the famous one in The French Connection.

The new wave soundtrack is by Wang Chung. The film, underappreciated and ripe for reappraisal, screens here in the new restoration debuted at Cannes in May.

Program note: This 96-minute Director’s Cut is a trim three minutes shorter than the original release version!

WEDNESDAY, JULY 27 – 8:25 PM THURSDAY, JULY 28 – 6:30 PM FRIDAY, JULY 29 – 8:40 PM SUNDAY, JULY 31 – 6:30 PM

WEDNESDAY, JULY 27 – 6:30 PM THURSDAY, JULY 28 – 8:45 PM SATURDAY, JULY 30 – 6:30 PM SUNDAY, JULY 31 – 4:30 PM MONDAY, AUGUST 1 – 8:40 PM

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BLOOD SIMPLE

NOIR SIDEBAR

POINT BLANK

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merican film noir was, of course, a primary influence on the French New Wave. The influence runs the other way in these two harrowing, hallucinatory, exhilaratingly stylish 1960s thrillers, both brain-twisting neo-noir nightmares set in a paranoidpsychedelic California. Neither was a box-office success originally; each has since attained the status of cult classic and critics’ darling. Either would also make a darn fine (and suitably dark and delirious) double-bill with Godard’s Alphaville or Pakula’s The Parallax View.

Seconds

Point Blank

USA 1966. Dir: John Frankenheimer. 106 min. DCP

USA 1967. Dir: John Boorman. 92 min. 35mm

Director John Frankenheimer had an extraordinary run in the early-to-mid 1960s, notably with the loose “trilogy of paranoia” made up of The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, and this dark, offbeat, ultra-stylish sci-fi/neo-noir thriller. Employing an arsenal of 1960s European art-cinema flourishes, Seconds concerns Wilson, an aging, unhappy banker who hires a sinister corporation to surgically transform him into a new, younger man. Wilson emerges as beefy Californian bohemian Rock Hudson, but discovers that happiness is not so easily purchased. The dazzling, disorientating visuals, by celebrated Hollywood (and frequent noir) cinematographer James Wong Howe, were Oscar nominated. Seconds is also famed as the film that pushed unstable Beach Boy Brian Wilson over the edge during the original Smile sessions! The titles are by Saul Bass. The nude hippie orgy was a Hollywood first.

John Boorman’s fabulous, fractured 1967 thriller is a key link between vintage noir and the great paranoid conspiracy films of the 1970s. Lee Marvin gives a slambang performance as Walker, a hard-nosed hoodlum double-crossed by his confederates after a daring heist: he’s shot point-blank and left for dead. Walker survives the assault (or does he?) and sets out to exact revenge.

Boorman’s expressive, rhythmic film, informed by the European experiments of Resnais and Godard, and subverting linear time with its complex flashbacks and flashforwards, is both a terrific (and terrifically violent) thriller and, perhaps, a dazzling, dreamy evocation of consciousness. Scorsese and Schrader were admirers; Soderbergh’s The Limey, Nolan’s Memento, and Fincher’s Zodiac are all in its debt. The stunning widescreen cinematography, making play with architectural compositions, is by Phillip Lathrop. Angie Dickinson co-stars.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17 – 6:30 PM SATURDAY, AUGUST 20 – 8:25 PM MONDAY, AUGUST 22 – 6:30 PM

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17 – 8:35 PM SATURDAY, AUGUST 20 – 6:30 PM SUNDAY, AUGUST 21 – 8:30 PM

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Sounds Great!

L

isten up! We know you and our comfy new seats are feeling the love. But are you hearing the glories of our brand-new sound system, now shouting out in Dolby Surround 7.1?

Thrilled up to his ears is Al Reid, The Cinematheque’s Head Projectionist, who has selected three 1970s classics, to be presented in all-new restorations, for a primo aural experience at The Cinematheque.

Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, a movie in which sound and sound recording are central parts of the plot, was groundbreaking for its strikingly creative, strikingly formalist use of the film-production technologies of sound editing and sound mixing.

The Conversation earned pioneering sound designer Walter Murch his first Oscar nomination – and credit from many observers (or listeners!) as one of the “authors” of the film.

Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, also featuring sound by Murch, further revolutionized cinematic audio: it was the first major motion picture in surround sound and the film that established the term “sound designer” (a coinage that has been attributed to Murch but also to Coppola). It earned Murch his first Academy Award.

Both The Conversation and Apocalypse Now will screen in new DCP restorations with Dolby Surround 5.1 sound mixes.

Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, the landmark blockbuster, sociological phenomenon, and summer-movie favourite, makes masterfully suspenseful use of sound, and features a now-iconic Oscar-winning score (by John Williams) and an Oscar-winning sound mix. Jaws will screen with a newly remastered Dolby Surround 7.1 sound mix. The 7.1 format otherwise remains, for the most part, restricted to movies (and primarily big-budget “event” movies) released from 2010 onwards.

New Restoration! Original Release Version!

Apocalypse Now

USA 1979. Dir: Francis Ford Coppola. 153 min. DCP

Apocalypse Now’s behind-the scenes journey from crazed, cursed production to milestone and masterpiece is nearly as epic and operatic as the film itself. But the film itself! Updating Conrad’s Heart of Darkness to the Vietnam War era, Coppola’s phantasmagoric tour de force ventures upriver into the apocalyptic absurdity of America’s Southeast Asia misadventure, and arrives deep into the human capacity for evil. Among its many astonishments – the opening helicopter-blades-to-ceilingfan segue set to The Doors; Robert Duvall loving the smell of napalm in the morning; Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” strafing a village; Marlon Brando bemoaning the horror, the horror; Martin Sheen’s phenomenal performance – is Walter Murch’s game-changing sound design, which pioneered the use of surround sound in cinema. Apocalypse Now won Coppola his second Palme d’Or of the 1970s (the first was for The Conversation). The film screens here in a new restoration, with a Dolby 5.1 sound mix, of its original release version.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 20 – 7:00 PM FRIDAY, JULY 22 – 7:00 PM SATURDAY, JULY 23 – 3:30 PM SUNDAY, JULY 24 – 7:00 PM

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THE CONVERSATION

New Dolby Surround 7.1 Sound Mix!

Jaws

USA 1975. Dir: Steven Spielberg. 124 min. DCP

The modern blockbuster starts here! Spielberg’s electrifying tale of a resort town terrorized by a great white shark was a blood-in-the-water game-changer: Jaws (along with Star Wars two years later) sparked a feeding-frenzy of high-concept, big-budget, megamarketed event movies, now the cornerstone of Hollywood’s business model. Based on Peter Benchley’s bestseller, this amped-up creature-feature is directed with a deft, Hitchcockian approach to suspense. Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss are, respectively, the lawman, shark hunter, and marine biologist who join forces to battle the man-eating monster.

Spielberg’s shark’s-eye camera makes us all complicit in the mayhem; not since Hitchcock’s Psycho (which also played with viewer voyeurism) has a film made moviegoers so afraid to get wet! John Williams’s striking score, Verna Fields’s sensational editing, and the killer sound design all won Oscars. Jaws screens here with a new Dolby Surround 7.1 sound mix.

THURSDAY, JULY 21 – 6:30 PM SATURDAY, JULY 23 – 8:45 PM MONDAY, JULY 25 – 8:45 PM

New Restoration!

The Conversation

USA 1974. Dir: Francis Ford Coppola. 113 min. DCP

Coppola’s 1974 Palme d’Or winner, an exemplar of the 1970s paranoid conspiracy thriller, arrived at the height of Watergate. Gene Hackman is repressed, guilt-ridden Harry Caul, a San Francisco surveillance expert known as “the best bugger on the West Coast.” Hired by a mysterious businessman (Robert Duvall) to eavesdrop on a young couple (Frederic Forrest, Cindy Williams), Harry records what may or may not be evidence of a murder plot.

Harrison Ford, John Cazale, and Terri Garr also appear. Inspired by Antonioni’s Blow Up (as was De Palma’s Blow Out), The Conversation stands as one of Coppola’s finest works – and one of the great films of the 1970s – but remains overshadowed by the director’s first two Godfather films and Apocalypse Now. Coppola, busy with his next project, allowed editor and soundman Walter Murch to oversee postproduction. Murch’s magnificent, multi-layered sound design, integral to the film’s brilliance, is a cinema landmark.

THURSDAY, JULY 21 – 8:50 PM SATURDAY, JULY 23 – 6:30 PM SUNDAY, JULY 24 – 4:30 PM MONDAY, JULY 25 – 6:30 PM

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SUN

MON

TUES

WED

THURS

1

TICKETS

3 HOW TO BUY TICKETS Day–of tickets go on sale at the Box Office 30 minutes before the first show of the evening.

Advance tickets are available for credit card purchase at theCinematheque.ca ($1 service charge applies). Events, times, and prices are subject to change without notice.

The Cinematheque is recognized as an exempt non–profit film society under the B.C. Motion Picture Act, and as such is able to screen films that have not been reviewed by the B.C. Film Classification Office. Under the act, all persons attending cinematheque screenings must be members of the Pacific Cinémathèque Pacifique Society and be 18 years of age or older, unless otherwise indicated.

FRI

Shakespeare 400

The Taming of the Shrew – 4:30 pm

4

Shakespeare 400

11

Shakespeare 400

18

King Hu

The Taming of the Shrew – 7:00 pm

5

6

12

13

Shakespeare 400

19

20

Sounds Great!

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DIM Cinema

,000, and A Public Lecture & Exhumation – 7:30 pm

JULY Shakespeare 400

Ran – 7:00 pm

SAT

2

Shakespeare 400

Shakespeare 400

The Taming of the Shrew – 6:30 pm

Much Ado About Nothing – 4:30 pm

Much Ado About Nothing – 8:50 pm

West Side Story – 7:00 pm

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Shakespeare 400

15

King Hu

22

Sounds Great!

9

Ran – 7:00 pm

Shakespeare 400

Ran – 7:00 pm

West Side Story – 7:00 pm

10

Shakespeare 400

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Sci-Fi Cinema Sunday

ALL SCREENINGS ARE RESTRICTED TO 18+

Richard III – 7:00 pm

The Iron Giant: Signature Edition – 1:00 pm

Richard III – 7:00 pm

A Touch of Zen – 7:00 pm

Richard III – 7:00 pm

Apocalypse Now – 7:00 pm

14

King Hu

21

Sounds Great!

A Touch of Zen – 7:00 pm

Jaws – 6:30 pm

16

A Touch of Zen – 7:00 pm

Apocalypse Now – 7:00 pm

23

The Conversation – 8:50 pm

A Touch of Zen – 7:00 pm

Sounds Great!

Apocalypse Now – 3:30 pm The Conversation – 6:30 pm

King Hu

UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED

King Hu

Jaws – 8:45 pm

A Touch of Zen – 7:00 pm

$3 ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP REQUIRED FOR THOSE 18+

theCinematheque.ca

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Sounds Great!

The Conversation – 4:30 pm

25

Apocalypse Now – 7:00 pm

26

Sounds Great!

The Conversation – 6:30 pm

27

Jaws – 8:45 pm

Noir Sidebar

Blood Simple – 6:30 pm

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Noir Sidebar To Live and Die in L.A. – 6:30 pm

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Blood Simple – 8:45 pm

To Live and Die in L.A. – 8:25 pm

IN THIS ISSUE FILM NOIR 2–5 FILM NOIR SIDEBARS 6–7

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1

Noir Sidebar

Blood Simple – 4:30 pm

Dragon Inn – 4:00 pm Dragon Inn – 6:30 pm

To Live and Die in L.A. – 6:30 pm

SOUNDS GREAT! 8–9

Noir Sidebar

Blood Simple – 8:40 pm

King Hu

KING HU 12–13

Dragon Inn – 8:45 pm

NEW CINEMA 12–13 SHAKESPEARE 400 14–15 TONY CONRAD 16

7

8

Film Noir

Where the Sidewalk Ends – 6:30 pm

2

King Hu

3

AUGUST

Film Noir

Johnny O’Clock – 6:30 pm

9

10

Kiss of Death – 8:25 pm

DIM Cinema

Gabriel Abrantes and Benjamin Crotty

4

5

11

Thieves’ Highway – 8:35 pm

Film Noir

The Big Sleep – 6:30 pm

12

Johnny O’Clock – 8:45 pm

Johnny O’Clock – 8:25 pm

DIM CINEMA 17 SCI-FI CINEMA SUNDAY 18

14

New Cinema

How Heavy This Hammer – 5:00 pm

15

Film Noir

Shadow of a Doubt – 6:30 pm

16

17

The Big Sleep – 8:40 pm

18

Noir Sidebar

Seconds – 6:30 pm Point Blank – 8:35 pm

Film Noir

The Reckless Moment – 6:30 pm

Dragon Inn – 6:30 pm

19

Shadow of a Doubt – 8:10 pm

Noir Sidebar

Blood Simple – 6:30 pm

Noir Sidebar

King Hu

To Live and Die in L.A. – 8:40 pm

Dragon Inn – 8:25 pm

6

Film Noir

Where the Sidewalk Ends – 6:30 pm

Film Noir

Kiss of Death – 6:30 pm Where the Sidewalk Ends – 8:30 pm

The Killers – 8:25 pm

Kiss of Death - 9:05pm

Program II – 9:00 pm

The Killers – 6:30 pm

Doors - 6:00pm The Killers - 7:00pm

Program I – 7:30 pm

Film Noir

Film Noir Opening Night

30

King Hu

13

New Cinema

How Heavy This Hammer – 5:00 pm

New Cinema

How Heavy This Hammer – 5:00 pm

Film Noir

Film Noir

Thieves’ Highway – 6:45 pm

The Big Sleep – 6:45 pm

The Big Sleep – 8:40 pm

The Reckless Moment – 9:00 pm

Film Noir

20

Noir Sidebar

Shadow of a Doubt – 6:30 pm

Point Blank – 6:30 pm

Underworld U.S.A. – 8:40 pm

Seconds – 8:25 pm

Film Noir

The Reckless Moment – 6:45 pm Thieves’ Highway – 8:25 pm

Rated G

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Rated PG Rated 14A Rated 18A BACKGROUND IMAGE:

A TOUCH OF ZEN

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22

Sci-Fi Cinema Sunday Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind – 1:00 pm Film Noir Underworld U.S.A. – 6:30 pm Noir Sidebar Point Blank – 8:30 pm

Noir Sidebar

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24

Seconds – 6:30 pm

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Tony Conrad

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27

2

3

Premiere Screening – 7:00 pm

Dream Technologies: Early Works of Tony Conrad – 7:30 pm

Film Noir

The Indie Filmmakers Lab 2016

Underworld U.S.A. – 8:35 pm

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30

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Vancouver Latin American Film Festival August 26–September 4 vlaff.org

SEPTEMBER Vancouver’s story begins here.

20 rare, beautiful, and unconventional collections - now on view!

1100 Chestnut St. @ Vanier Park

SUN

MON

TUES

WED

THURS

1

TICKETS

3 HOW TO BUY TICKETS Day–of tickets go on sale at the Box Office 30 minutes before the first show of the evening.

Advance tickets are available for credit card purchase at theCinematheque.ca ($1 service charge applies). Events, times, and prices are subject to change without notice.

The Cinematheque is recognized as an exempt non–profit film society under the B.C. Motion Picture Act, and as such is able to screen films that have not been reviewed by the B.C. Film Classification Office. Under the act, all persons attending cinematheque screenings must be members of the Pacific Cinémathèque Pacifique Society and be 18 years of age or older, unless otherwise indicated.

FRI

Shakespeare 400

The Taming of the Shrew – 4:30 pm

4

Shakespeare 400

11

Shakespeare 400

18

King Hu

The Taming of the Shrew – 7:00 pm

5

6

12

13

Shakespeare 400

19

20

Sounds Great!

7

DIM Cinema

,000, and A Public Lecture & Exhumation – 7:30 pm

JULY Shakespeare 400

Ran – 7:00 pm

SAT

2

Shakespeare 400

Shakespeare 400

The Taming of the Shrew – 6:30 pm

Much Ado About Nothing – 4:30 pm

Much Ado About Nothing – 8:50 pm

West Side Story – 7:00 pm

8

Shakespeare 400

15

King Hu

22

Sounds Great!

9

Ran – 7:00 pm

Shakespeare 400

Ran – 7:00 pm

West Side Story – 7:00 pm

10

Shakespeare 400

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Sci-Fi Cinema Sunday

ALL SCREENINGS ARE RESTRICTED TO 18+

Richard III – 7:00 pm

The Iron Giant: Signature Edition – 1:00 pm

Richard III – 7:00 pm

A Touch of Zen – 7:00 pm

Richard III – 7:00 pm

Apocalypse Now – 7:00 pm

14

King Hu

21

Sounds Great!

A Touch of Zen – 7:00 pm

Jaws – 6:30 pm

16

A Touch of Zen – 7:00 pm

Apocalypse Now – 7:00 pm

23

The Conversation – 8:50 pm

A Touch of Zen – 7:00 pm

Sounds Great!

Apocalypse Now – 3:30 pm The Conversation – 6:30 pm

King Hu

UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED

King Hu

Jaws – 8:45 pm

A Touch of Zen – 7:00 pm

$3 ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP REQUIRED FOR THOSE 18+

theCinematheque.ca

24

Sounds Great!

The Conversation – 4:30 pm

25

Apocalypse Now – 7:00 pm

26

Sounds Great!

The Conversation – 6:30 pm

27

Jaws – 8:45 pm

Noir Sidebar

Blood Simple – 6:30 pm

28

Noir Sidebar To Live and Die in L.A. – 6:30 pm

29

Blood Simple – 8:45 pm

To Live and Die in L.A. – 8:25 pm

IN THIS ISSUE FILM NOIR 2–5 FILM NOIR SIDEBARS 6–7

31

1

Noir Sidebar

Blood Simple – 4:30 pm

Dragon Inn – 4:00 pm Dragon Inn – 6:30 pm

To Live and Die in L.A. – 6:30 pm

SOUNDS GREAT! 8–9

Noir Sidebar

Blood Simple – 8:40 pm

King Hu

KING HU 12–13

Dragon Inn – 8:45 pm

NEW CINEMA 12–13 SHAKESPEARE 400 14–15 TONY CONRAD 16

7

8

Film Noir

Where the Sidewalk Ends – 6:30 pm

2

King Hu

3

AUGUST

Film Noir

Johnny O’Clock – 6:30 pm

9

10

Kiss of Death – 8:25 pm

DIM Cinema

Gabriel Abrantes and Benjamin Crotty

4

5

11

Thieves’ Highway – 8:35 pm

Film Noir

The Big Sleep – 6:30 pm

12

Johnny O’Clock – 8:45 pm

Johnny O’Clock – 8:25 pm

DIM CINEMA 17 SCI-FI CINEMA SUNDAY 18

14

New Cinema

How Heavy This Hammer – 5:00 pm

15

Film Noir

Shadow of a Doubt – 6:30 pm

16

17

The Big Sleep – 8:40 pm

18

Noir Sidebar

Seconds – 6:30 pm Point Blank – 8:35 pm

Film Noir

The Reckless Moment – 6:30 pm

Dragon Inn – 6:30 pm

19

Shadow of a Doubt – 8:10 pm

Noir Sidebar

Blood Simple – 6:30 pm

Noir Sidebar

King Hu

To Live and Die in L.A. – 8:40 pm

Dragon Inn – 8:25 pm

6

Film Noir

Where the Sidewalk Ends – 6:30 pm

Film Noir

Kiss of Death – 6:30 pm Where the Sidewalk Ends – 8:30 pm

The Killers – 8:25 pm

Kiss of Death - 9:05pm

Program II – 9:00 pm

The Killers – 6:30 pm

Doors - 6:00pm The Killers - 7:00pm

Program I – 7:30 pm

Film Noir

Film Noir Opening Night

30

King Hu

13

New Cinema

How Heavy This Hammer – 5:00 pm

New Cinema

How Heavy This Hammer – 5:00 pm

Film Noir

Film Noir

Thieves’ Highway – 6:45 pm

The Big Sleep – 6:45 pm

The Big Sleep – 8:40 pm

The Reckless Moment – 9:00 pm

Film Noir

20

Noir Sidebar

Shadow of a Doubt – 6:30 pm

Point Blank – 6:30 pm

Underworld U.S.A. – 8:40 pm

Seconds – 8:25 pm

Film Noir

The Reckless Moment – 6:45 pm Thieves’ Highway – 8:25 pm

Rated G

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Rated PG Rated 14A Rated 18A BACKGROUND IMAGE:

A TOUCH OF ZEN

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22

Sci-Fi Cinema Sunday Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind – 1:00 pm Film Noir Underworld U.S.A. – 6:30 pm Noir Sidebar Point Blank – 8:30 pm

Noir Sidebar

23

24

Seconds – 6:30 pm

25

Tony Conrad

26

27

2

3

Premiere Screening – 7:00 pm

Dream Technologies: Early Works of Tony Conrad – 7:30 pm

Film Noir

The Indie Filmmakers Lab 2016

Underworld U.S.A. – 8:35 pm

29

30

31

1

Vancouver Latin American Film Festival August 26–September 4 vlaff.org

SEPTEMBER Vancouver’s story begins here.

20 rare, beautiful, and unconventional collections - now on view!

1100 Chestnut St. @ Vanier Park

I

n 2005, to celebrate a century of Chinese cinema, the Hong Kong Film Awards unveiled a list of the “Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures,” as voted on by a panel of 101 experts. Only one filmmaker placed two films in the top ten: Beijing-born, Hong Kong- and Taiwan-based King Hu (1931-1997), an alumnus of the famed Shaw Brothers studio who became, in the 1960s and 1970s, the leading figure of the popular historical/swordplay genre known as wuxia (literally, martial hero or martial chivalry).

Masterfully mounted, spectacularly choreographed, intelligently written, and immensely influential, Hu’s acrobatic, action-loaded wuxia films put the art in martial-arts movies. His works are credited with introducing Chinese cinema to the West and represent peak achievements of their genre. They are also important antecedents of contemporary favourites such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Kill Bill; House of Flying Daggers; and The Assassin.

Hu’s two greatest films, Dragon Inn (1967) and A Touch of Zen (1971), screen here in beautiful new restorations.

“Remarkable . . . The visual style will set your eyes on fire.” – Tony Rayns, Time Out “Superlative . . . This opus endures due to its astonishing visuals, sprightly movement, progressive gender dynamics, and spiritual heft.” – Aaron Hillis, Village Voice “A masterpiece . . . Not only one of the finest martial-arts films ever made, but one of the greatest works in all of Chinese cinema.” – Jeremy Carr, MUBI Ten Best Chinese Motion Pictures of All Time (#9) – Hong Kong Film Awards

A Touch of Zen 俠女

(Xiá nǚ)

Taiwan 1971. Dir: King Hu. 180 min. DCP

One of the greatest martial-arts movies and one of the essentials of Chinese cinema, King Hu’s fantastical epic is a marvel of elaborately-choreographed action and ravishing widescreen visuals – all imbued with a spiritual dimension that offers more than a touch of Zen! In 14th-century China, a young noblewoman (Hsu Feng), pursued by murderous Imperial agents, joins forces with a shy scholar (Shih Jun) and a band of Buddhist monks led by a saintly abbot (Roy Chiao). The influential, oft-imitated bamboo-forest battle sequence – accomplished, of course, without the benefit of CGI – took nearly a month to shoot. Hu’s thrilling film was the first Chinese-language picture to win an award at Cannes (the Technical Grand Prize) and, until Hou’s The Assassin (2015), the only martial-arts movie ever selected for competition at the festival. Initially released in two truncated parts (against Hu’s wishes), it screens here in a beautiful new restoration of the uncut original version. In Mandarin with English subtitles.

THURSDAY, JULY 14 – 7:00 PM FRIDAY, JULY 15 – 7:00 PM SATURDAY, JULY 16 – 7:00 PM SUNDAY, JULY 17 – 7:00 PM MONDAY, JULY 18 – 7:00 PM

NEW CINEMA Vancouver Premiere!

How Heavy This Hammer Canada 2015. Dir: Kazik Radwanski. 75 min. DCP

A stuck-in-a-rut, middle-aged father of two is in danger of letting his life – and his unfailingly patient wife – slip away in this understated, pensive, claustrophobic character study from Toronto filmmaker Kazik Radwanski (Princess Margaret Blvd., Tower). Apathetic Erwin (Erwin Van Cotthem) can’t seem to muster enthusiasm for anything besides the computer game he plays incessantly. Everything else, including his family, is an annoyance. “Radwanski has established himself as one of the most exciting young filmmakers in anglophone Canada with his combination of formal inventiveness and deep sympathy for those on the margins. Now Radwanski raises the bar even higher . . . A touching yet infuriating [tale] of our society’s mysterious ability to freeze men in adolescence . . . How Heavy This Hammer is a funny, forlorn vision of North American masculinity at a crossroads” (Steve Gravestock, Toronto I.F.F.).

12

FRIDAY, AUGUST 12 – 5:00 PM SATURDAY, AUGUST 13 – 5:00 PM SUNDAY, AUGUST 14 – 5:00 PM

A TOUCH OF ZEN

“The definitive wuxia works . . . Anyone curious as to the roots of Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Zhang Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers should read on.” – Nick North, The Rough Guide to FilM “Uniquely satisfying . . . A startling triumph.” – Andrew Chan, Film Comment “One of the most innovative filmmakers in the history of Chinese cinema . . . Hu’s Dragon Inn raised the wuxia genre to a genuine art form.” – Brad Deane, Toronto International Film Festival “An all-time classic martial-arts masterpiece . . . King Hu was to martial arts what John Ford was to the Western.” – James Marsh, TwitchFilm Ten Best Chinese Motion Pictures of All Time (#7) – Hong Kong Film Awards

Dragon Inn

(aka Dragon Gate Inn)

龍門客棧

(Lóng mén kèzhàn)

Taiwan 1967. Dir: King Hu. 111 min. DCP

“The Chinese wuxia (martial arts) picture was never the same after King Hu’s legendary Dragon Inn. During the Ming Dynasty, the emperor’s minister of defence is framed by a powerful court eunuch and executed, and his family is pursued by secret police. In the ensuing chase, a mysterious band of strangers begins to gather at the remote Dragon Gate Inn, where paths (and swords) will cross. This thrilling landmark of film history returns to the screen in a new, beautifully restored digital transfer, created from the original negative” (Janus Films). “Masterful compositions by cinematographer Hua Hui-ying (A Touch of Zen) capture tightly choreographed set pieces, each one more splendorous than the last – with the stakes always rising. A clear inspiration for myriad subsequent movies, from Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill” (Film Society of Lincoln Center). In Mandarin with English subtitles.

FRIDAY, JULY 29 – 6:30 PM SATURDAY, JULY 30 – 8:25 PM SUNDAY, JULY 31 – 8:45 PM MONDAY, AUGUST 1 – 4:00 PM & 6:30 PM

“Memorable and affecting, always formally thoughtful . . . Firmly establishes Radwanski as one of Canada’s best working filmmakers.” – Adam Cook, Brooklyn Magazine

13

S

ome of cinema’s best, boldest, most imaginative, and most spectacular Shakespeare adaptations will be on screen as The Cinematheque, joining many in the world of arts and letters, commemorates this year’s 400th anniversary of the playwright’s death.

Estimates vary, but the number of feature films adapted from the works of William Shakespeare is certainly in the hundreds. The Internet Movie Database credits Shakespeare (who died a mere 280 years before cinema was invented) as a “writer” on more than 1100 productions – features, shorts, television programs, etc. Shakespeare, the greatest-ever writer in the English language, the foremost dramatist in history, is undoubtedly also the most-filmed author of all time.

Our tribute to the Bard, limited to a baker’s dozen of 13 remarkable features, is bookended by two Shakespeare adaptations with a fair claim to being cinema’s greatest, both screening in brand-new restorations: Orson Welles’s Chimes at Midnight and Akira Kurosawa’s Ran. As Shakespeare adaptations go, both those films veer, to varying degrees, away from strict fidelity and towards the unorthodox; unorthodoxy, however, is no sin here (nor to most aficionados of Shakespeare in cinema): our selections travel the many light-years from Olivier (represented by the superlative trio of Henry V, Hamlet, and Richard III) to Altair IV (the setting of Forbidden Planet), and include appearances by Keanu Reeves (My Own Private Idaho), Leonardo DiCaprio (Romeo + Juliet), and Natalie Wood (West Side Story).

Screened in June: Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, 1966) ● Macbeth (Roman Polanski, 1971) ● Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 1957) ● Romeo + Juliet (Baz Luhrmann, 1966) ● Hamlet (Laurence Olivier, 1948) ● Forbidden Planet (Fred McLeod Wilcox, 1956) ● My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant, 1991) ● Henry V (Laurence Olivier, 1944)

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING USA 2012. Dir: Joss Whedon. 109 min. DCP

Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is the grand prototype of screwball comedy, those fastpaced, sharp-tongued, battle-of-the-sexes rom-coms of classic Hollywood. This modestly-made, modern-dress adaptation – called “the first great contemporary Shakespeare since Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet” (Catherine Shoard, The Guardian) – is the surprising third feature of American writer-director Joss Whedon, creator of the TV genre hits Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, who had only just graduated to blockbuster/franchise filmmaking with The Avengers. Whedon assembled a group of his favourite actors and shot the film (in shimmering black-and-white) over 12 days at his home in Santa Monica, California. Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof are the bickering Beatrice and Benedick; Firefly’s Nathan Fillion impresses as Dogberry. “Perhaps the liveliest and most purely delightful movie I have seen so far this year” (A. O. Scott, New York Times).

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29 – 6:30 PM FRIDAY, JULY 1 – 8:50 PM SATURDAY, JULY 2 – 4:30 PM

WEST SIDE STORY

USA 1961. Dir: Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins. 152 min. DCP

Ten Oscars, including Best Picture, were lavished on the much-loved screen version of the Broadway blockbuster written by Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim. West Side Story turns Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet into a rousing musical tale of rival youth gangs and starcrossed lovers on the mean streets of 1950s Manhattan. Jerome Robbins, director and choreographer of the stage hit, was hired to direct the movie; when his perfectionism threatened to slow production, veteran Robert Wise stepped in to handle non-musical parts. (Robbins was ultimately fired altogether.) Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, and Russ Tamblyn star. The musical numbers directed by Robbins are still the highlights, and earned him an honorary Academy Award “for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film.” Robbins also shared the Best Director Oscar with Wise, the first time the honour had been given to co-directors.

THURSDAY, JUNE 30 – 7:00 PM SATURDAY, JULY 2 – 7:00 PM SUNDAY, JULY 3 – 7:00 PM

14

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW

USA/Italy 1967. Dir: Franco Zeffirelli. 122 min. DCP

Fresh from eviscerating each other in 1966’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, the World’s Most Famous Couple (at that time), do battle again in this lush, lusty version of Shakespeare’s war-of-the-sexes comedy from Italian director Franco Zeffirelli (who also made 1968’s massively popular Romeo and Juliet). Liz is “shrew” Katharina, difficult eldest daughter of a wealthy merchant in Renaissance-era Padua. Dick is Petruchio, a fortune-hunting young nobleman willing to take up the challenge of wooing her. Nino Rota composed the score. The costumes and sets earned Oscar nominations. Expect plenty of rowdy, rambunctious fun. As for the sexual politics . . . “And so let the taming begin in a non-PC – or is it? — adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s most problematic works” (Film Forum New York).

FRIDAY, JULY 1 – 6:30 PM SUNDAY, JULY 3 – 4:30 PM MONDAY, JULY 4 – 7:00 PM

New Restoration!

RAN

Japan 1985. Dir: Akira Kurosawa. 160 min. DCP

The magisterial Ran – the great masterpiece of Kurosawa’s late period – is both an enthralling piece of epic movie-making and an inspired reworking of King Lear.

Ran transposes Shakespeare’s play to 16th-century Japan, and transforms its three daughters into sons. Kurosawa regular Tatsuya Nakadai is aging warlord Hidetora, the film’s Lear. When he abdicates in favour of his eldest son, it precipitates a fratricidal struggle of cataclysmic proportions. Ran is a visually overwhelming work of extraordinary colour, exquisite costumes and sets, and dazzling, horrifying battle sequences (some filmed in haunting silence) unfolding over vast landscapes. The title translates from the Japanese as “war” or “conflict,” but Kurosawa emphasizes an older, Chinese meaning of the word: “chaos.” “Spectacular . . . Among the most thrilling movie experiences a viewer can have” (Terrence Rafferty, New York Times).

THURSDAY, JULY 7 – 7:00 PM FRIDAY, JULY 8 – 7:00 PM SATURDAY, JULY 9 – 7:00 PM

RICHARD III

Great Britain 1955. Dir: Laurence Olivier. 158 min. DCP

An otherwise royal cast – Ralph Richardson, Claire Bloom, John Gielgud, Cedric Hardwicke, et al. – is but handmaiden to the commanding Laurence Olivier in the last of the fêted trio of Shakespeare films directed by Olivier (his Henry V and Hamlet screened in this series in June).

Olivier is murderously, magnetically good (and maybe more than a little campy) as Richard, diabolic Duke of Gloucester, scheming to steal the English crown from his brother Edward IV. The film, made in Technicolor and VistaVision, stalled at the box office but was later sold to American television for a princely sum and viewed by tens of millions. “Richard III is comfortably the most entertaining of the three great Olivier Shakespeare films, and may have done more to popularise Shakespeare than any other single work” (Michael Brooke, British Film Institute).

SUNDAY, JULY 10 – 7:00 PM MONDAY, JULY 11 – 7:00 PM WEDNESDAY, JULY 13 – 7:00 PM

15

Cineworks, Western Front, and The Cinematheque present

Tony Conrad (1940-2016), who died in April, was an American filmmaker, musician, composer, writer, and teacher – a pioneer of both structural film and drone music (including collaboration in the group Theatre of Eternal Music, also known as The Dream Syndicate, with Marian Zazeela, John Cale, Angus Maclise and La Monte Young).

A dynamic visionary, Conrad abandoned and dismantled traditional Western musical composition, influencing bands such as Sonic Youth, and condensed the principles of film to bare essentials of embodied subjective experience, famously in The Flicker (1966), a work considered a cornerstone of structural filmmaking. In honour of the artist and his contributions to experimental cinema and to music, Cineworks, Western Front, and The Cinematheque present five of Conrad’s early short films on 16mm (all preserved and managed by Canyon Cinema in San Francisco) and an experimental music interlude, drawn from one of Conrad’s important early musical collaborations.

Warning: This event includes flickering light and is potentially hazardous for photogenic epileptics or photogenic migraine sufferers!

Articulation of Boolean Algebra for Film Opticals (Finale) (1975) 10 min.

Film Feedback (1974) 15 min.

Straight and Narrow (1970) 10 min.

Eye of Count Flickerstein (1967) 7 min.

Sonic Interlude - Curtains are drawn across the screen for this experience: a deep-listening journey through expansive topographies of electronic sound, by Tony Conrad and early collaborators. 28 min.

The Flicker (1966) 30 min.

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 24 – 7:30 PM Film descriptions available at theCinematheque.ca Membership in The Cinematheque, Cineworks, or Western Front will be accepted for this event.

16

,000, 2016, by Isabelle Pauwels.

Courtesy of Eileen Krywinski & EMPAC

Programmed by Michèle Smith, co-editor of the art journal Drawing Room Confessions.

Moving-image art in dialogue with cinema www.dimcinema.ca

,000, and A Public Lecture & Exhumation Setting the triumphalist narratives of City Hall and the film industry against the “low” or dirty economy of day-to-day survival, embodied by an actress-dominatrix and her clients, Isabelle Pauwels’s ,000, explores how the relentless sprawl of commerce dissolves human agency. ,000, was originally designed as a multimedia live performance; this new 2D adaptation retains the visceral impact of the performance, with its rapid-fire graphics, fleeting attractions, and multiple points of view. Elizabeth Price’s A Public Lecture & Exhumation, the outcome of a six-year project in which the artist enacted every clause of an art collector’s forgotten bequest to a London borough, uses the didactic vernacular of PowerPoint “to establish a context of Institutional Authority and Government” and the notion of exhumation to invoke “the undead of supernatural fictions and zombie films; and the Lecture itself gives way to a Romance.”

Adult content: 18 + A Public Lecture & Exhumation | Elizabeth Price/Great Britain 2006. 25 min. SD Video. ,000, | Isabelle Pauwels/Canada 2016. 60 min. DCP

Isabelle Pauwels is a New Westminster, B.C.-based artist who uses a blend of performance and documentary realism in multimedia installations and video to explore the relationship between narrative conventions and everyday life. She won the 2009 Brink Award and was shortlisted for the 2013 Sobey Award.

British artist Elizabeth Price is interested in digital video as a medium for navigation, advertising, and knowledge organization, as well as for its cinematic special effects. Based in London, she won the Turner Prize in 2012.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 6 – 7:30 PM

Gabriel Abrantes and Benjamin Crotty A double-bill program of solo and collaborative films by American-born filmmakers Gabriel Abrantes and Benjamin Crotty, who have worked together since 2008, expresses their interest in satirical and philosophical love stories reflecting the effects of colonialism, military occupation, and globalization, set in a breadth of political, social, and material contexts. Liberdade, shot in Angola, chronicles the relationship between an Angolan boy and a Chinese girl. ‘Oρνιθες (Ornithes - Birds) documents a foreign theatre director’s attempt to stage Aristophanes in Haiti. Visionary Iraq has the filmmakers playing all the roles within a Portuguese family whose children are about to ship out to Iraq. Receiving its Canadian premiere, Fort Buchanan, Crotty’s debut feature, is a queer soap-opera chronicling the tragicomic plight of an army-husband stranded at a remote post while his husband is on mission in Djibouti.

Programmed by Amy Kazymerchyk and Arvo Leo Screening formats: DCP (from 16mm originals) Single-bill pricing for the evening. See both programs for $11 Adults / $9 Students & Seniors ($3 Annual Membership Required)

Program I Liberdade | G. Abrantes, B. Crotty/Portugal-Angola 2011. 16 min.

‘Oρνιθες (Ornithes - Birds) | G. Abrantes/Portugal 2012. 17 min.

Visionary Iraq. G. Abrantes | B. Crotty/Portugal 2008. 17 min.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3 - 7:30 PM

Program II Fort Buchanan | B. Crotty/France-Tunisia 2014. 65 min.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3 - 9:00 PM

Fort Buchanan, 2014, by Benjamin Crotty.

Courtesy of Les Films du Bal

17

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind The Cinematheque’s Education Department presents

An Afternoon Film Program for Children and Their Families $6 Children & Youths (under 18) $9 Adults (Cinematheque membership not required)

Attention all ages! Beam aboard the Starship Cinematheque for a 12-month mission as we explore the outer reaches of cosmic cinema with our 2016 series, “Sci-Fi Cinema Sunday.” Each month, we present a science-fiction film that inspires wonderment beyond the infinite with tales of faraway galaxies, alien encounters, ripples in spacetime, and technological tomorrows.

Films will be introduced by Vancouver film history teacher, critic, and intergalactic space pirate Michael van den Bos. In-theatre giveaways courtesy of Cinema Sunday community sponsors Videomatica Sales, Golden Age Collectables, and Kidsbooks.

The Iron Giant: Signature Edition USA 1999/2015. Dir: Brad Bird. 88 min. DCP

Newly remastered with two additional scenes, the instant-classic debut feature from whiz director Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol) returns in this special “Signature Edition” to ignite imaginations and swell hearts again! In small-town, Cold War-era America, nine-year-old Hogarth has an extraordinary encounter with a crash-landed, 50-feet-tall robot from outer space (voiced by tough softy Vin Diesel). But Hogarth must keep mum on his unlikely, otherworldly friend – who boasts an appetite for cars, railroads, and TV antennae! – or risk losing him to the fear and paranoia of the grown-up world. “Remarkably unassuming, genuinely playful, and superbly executed, The Iron Giant towers over the cartoon landscape” (J. Hoberman, Village Voice).

SUNDAY, JULY 17 – 1:00 PM

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Kaze no tani no Naushika) 風の谷のナウシカ

Japan 1984. Dir: Hayao Miyazaki. 116 min. DCP

Adored Japanese auteur Hayao Miyazaki’s remarkable second feature was his breakthrough: it was the first film over which he had complete artistic control, and its success led to the founding of Studio Ghibli, home to some of the most magical and beloved animated movies ever made. It may also be his masterpiece! Set in a devastated future world decimated by atmospheric poisons and swarming with gigantic insects, Nausicaä is the story of a young princess, both brave and innocent, whose love for all living things leads her into terrible danger, sacrifice, and eventual triumph. There are few films, animated or otherwise, of such sweeping scope and grandeur. “The seminal Miyazaki film” (Michael Mirasol, RogerEbert.com).

In consideration of our all-ages audience, the English-dubbed version will be screened SUNDAY, AUGUST 21 – 1:00 PM

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THE IRON GIANT

The Indie Filmmakers Lab 2016 – Premiere Screening The Indie Filmmakers Lab is a digital media production program for youths ages 14-19 offered by The Cinematheque Education Department in partnership with the Simon Fraser University School for the Contemporary Arts. This summer’s program, generously supported by TELUS Optik Local, The City of Vancouver, Employment and Social Development Canada, The City of North Vancouver, The District of North Vancouver, and IATSE Local 891, saw young artists from across the Lower Mainland working in teams to create their own short films.

Inspiring and exciting, these projects will debut at our Premiere Screening!

Please note: This is an RSVP event. If you are not an Indie Filmmakers Lab participant or an invited guest and are interested in attending, email us at indielab@theCinematheque.ca THURSDAY, AUGUST 25 – 7:00 PM

indielab.ca

2016

Sat & Sun: 11:30 am – 7 pm Oppenheimer Park and venues www.powellstreetfestival.com #powellstfest

Lynda Nakashima

July 30–31

Celebrating Japanese Canadian arts & culture 40th Annual

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Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue – SEP 25 Mariza – NOV 2 I Diego El Cigala – NOV 20 Dianne Reeves – FEB 22 I Noche Flamenca’s Antigona – MAR 12 I Anda Union – MAR 26 Max Raabe and Palast Orchester – APR 9 Bobby McFerrin – APR 29

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200 – 1131 Howe Street Vancouver, BC V6Z 2L7 Phone: 604.688.8202 Fax: 604.688.8204 Email: info@theCinematheque.ca Web: theCinematheque.ca

Theatre Volunteers: Simon Armstrong, David Avelino, Sarah Bakke, Mark Beley, Taylor Bishop, Eileen Brosnan, Jeremy Buhler, Nadia Chiu, Andrew Clark, Rob Danielson, Steve Devereux, Bill Dovhey, Olivia Fauland, Moana Fertig, Kevin Frew, Lesli Froeschner, Andrew Gable, Shokei Green, Paul Griffiths, Savannah Kemp, Tash King, Michael Kling, Ray Lai, Christina Larabie, David Latimer, Sharon Lee, Britt MacDuff, Abbey Markowitz, Liam McClure, Vit Mlcoch, Kelley Montgomery, Adrian Nickpour, Chahram Riazi, Will Ross, Sweta Shrestha, Paige Smith, Raimondo Spano, Stephen Tweedale, Nathaniel Vossen

Program Notes: Jim Sinclair, additional program notes by Shaun Inouye Advertising: Shaun Inouye Proofreading: Lizzie Brotherston Design: Marc Junker

STAFF Executive + Artistic Director: Jim Sinclair Managing Director: Kate Ladyshewsky Operations + Programming Associate: Shaun Inouye Communications + Marketing: Lizzie Brotherston Education Manager: Liz Schulze Education Coordinator: Hayley Gauvin Venue Operations Manager: Linton Murphy Assistant Theatre Managers: Gabi Dao, Jessica Johnson, Aryo Khakpour, Viktor Koren Head Projectionist: Al Reid Relief Projectionists: Tim Fernandes, Ron Lacheur, Cassidy Penner, Helen Reed, Ryan Ermacora BOARD OF DIRECTORS President: Jim Bindon Treasurer: Elizabeth Collyer Secretary: Lynda Jane Members: David Legault, Moshe Mastai, Wynford Owen, Tim Reeve, Eric Wyness

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Distribution: Hazel Ackner, Horacio Bach, Kyle Bowman, Michael Demers, Gail Franko, Jeff Halladay, Alan Kollins, Martin Lohmann, Lynn Martin, Vincent Oat, Matthew Shields, Lora Tanaka, Gordon Tanner, Vanessa Turner, Harry Wong Office: Jo B., Betty-Lou Phillips Education: Michael van den Bos, Laurel Brown, Charlotte Labelle, Will Ross, Paige Smith Archive: Charlotte Cavalié And a special thanks to all our spares!

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Published six times a year with a bi-monthly circulation of 10–15,000. Printed by Van Press Printers.

ADVERTISING To advertise in this Program Guide or in our theatre before screenings, please email advertising@theCinematheque.ca or call 604.688.8202.

SUPPORT The Cinematheque is a charitable not-forprofit arts society. We rely on financial support from public and private sources. Donations are gratefully accepted — a tax receipt will be issued for all donations of $50 or more. To make a donation or for more information, please call our administration office at 604.688.8202.

The Cinematheque gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the following agencies:

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