The Cinematheque MAR+APR 2013 | Spaghetti Unchained! by The Cinematheque

MARCH + APRIL 2013

1131 HOWE STREET • VANCOUVER

theCinematheque.ca

303 East 8th Avenue Vancouver, British Columbia V5T 1S1 Canada

Tuesday to Saturday Noon to 5:00 pm PST

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EVENT

SCREENING

Corin Sworn: THE RAG PAPERS

Scrivener’s Monthly March 16th @ 8pm, Grand Luxe Hall Daphne Marlatt reading from her new book of poetry Liquidities. With images by Sean Alward, Raymond Boisjoly and Maegan Hill-Carroll.

Image courtesy of Corin Sworn – video still from THE RAG PAPERS, 2013

EXHIBITION

Abbas Akhavan Opening March 6th @ 7pm March 7th – April 13th A solo exhibition of new work.

EVENT

Western Front 40th Anniversary Auction Preview

April 4th → 6th

March 6th @ 7pm – 9pm westernfrontauction2013.tumblr.com

On view from 12pm – 5pm, Grand Luxe Hall

A Sound Experience. SUNDAY APRIL 21 AT 7PM: LILA DOWNS 2013 GRAMMY Award winner Lila Downs dramatically fuses traditional Mexican music with blues, jazz, and soul in her original compositions, which all highlight the “ferocious sweep of her voice” (Boston Globe).

SATURDAY APRIL 27 AT 8PM: SIMON SHAHEEN in THE CALL: SONGS OF LIBERATION Joined in concert by an outstanding ensemble of musicians and a dancer from the Arab world, Palestinian composer and musician Simon Shaheen is known for his melodic ingenuity and his dazzling technique on the violin and the oud.

ORDER TODAY!

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ADMIN ISTRATIVE O F F I C E 200 – 1131 Howe Street Vancouver, BC V6Z 2L7 tel 604.688.8202 • fax 604.688.8204 Email: info@theCinematheque.ca Web: theCinematheque.ca STAF F Executive and Artistic Director: Jim Sinclair Managing Director: Amber Orchard Communications Manager: steve chow Education Manager: Liz Schulze Operations & Marketing: Kate Wilkins Media Production Coordinator: Edward Westerhuis Venue Operations Manager: Heather Johnston Assistant Theatre Managers: Shaun Inouye, Kathryn Kirkpatrick, Jackie Hoffart, Amanda Thomson Head Projectionist: Al Reid Relief Projectionists: Peter Boyle, Stuart Carl, Ron Lacheur, Cassidy Penner, Amanda Thomson BOARD OF DIRECTO RS President: Mark Ostry Vice-President: Eleni Kassaris Secretary: Mark Tomek Treasurer: Wynford Owen Members: Jim Bindon, Luca Citton, Kim Guise, Moshe Mastai V O LUNTEERS Theatre Volunteers: Mark Beley, Eileen Brosnan, Jeremy Buhler, Andrew Clark, Dylan Clark, Adam Cook, Rob Danielson, Anh Dao, Ben Daswani, Steve Devereux, Bill Dovhey, Ryan Ermacora, Kevin Frew, Ari Grant, Shokei Green, Paul Griffiths, Joe Haigh, Jessica Johnson, Beng Khoo, Michael Kling, Ray Lai, Cam Langford, Shannon Lentz, Claudette Lovencin, Tomas Mesen, Vit Mlcoch, Florin Moldovan, Kelley Montgomery, Taylor Gray Moore, Cat Moore, Linton Murphy, Danuta Musial, Gavin Oliver, Julia Patey, Pouya Alagheband, Kailash Ragupathy, Duncan Ranslem, Chahram Riazi, Hisayo Saito, Paloma Salas, Anthony Santiago, Bobby Tabarraee, Derek Thomas, Stephen Tweedale, Diane Wood. Distribution: Harry Wong, Scott Babakaiff, Michael Demers, Martin Lohmann, Hazel Ackner, John William, Lynn Martin, Sheila Adams, Anna Xijing, Devin Wells, Allan Kollins, Horacio Bach, Jeff Halladay, Roman Goldman

CONTENTS

MARCH+APRIL 2013 THE CINEMATHEQUE PROGRAM GUIDE, V36.4

CINEMA SUNDAY Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory The NeverEnding Story

RUSSIAN SPACE OPERA To the Stars by Hard Ways First on the Moon

6 7

MIAMI CONNECTION APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL Mekong Hotel Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

DIM CINEMA Clamour and Toll The Mirage of History

SHEPARD & DARK LEVIATHAN + MAGNETIC RECONNECTION TWO YEARS AT SEA

STATES: 10 DRIFTING THE FILMS OF DENIS CÔTÉ

12 NOW PLAYING CALENDAR 14 DIVERCINÉ 2013 UNCHAINED! 16 SPAGHETTI SERGIO LEONE, SERGIO CORBUCCI, AND THE SPLENDOURS OF THE SPAGHETTI WESTERN GUNS! GHOSTS! 19 NUDES! THE SENSATIONAL CINEMA OF SHINTOHO OF MIND 22 FRAMES Teddy Bear Sleepwalk With Me

Office: Jo Bergstrand, Betty-Lou Phillips, Zac Cocciolo, Ratna Dhaliwal Education: Zac Cocciolo, Michael van den Bos And a special thanks to all our spares! CI NE MATH E QU E P R O G RAM G U I D E Art Direction + Graphic Design: steve chow Program Notes: Jim Sinclair Advertising + Additional Ad Design: Kate Wilkins Proofreading: Amber Orchard, Kate Wilkins Published six times a year with a bi-monthly circulation of 15,000. Printed by Van Press Printers. ADVE RTISIN G To advertise in this Program Guide or in our theatre before screenings, please call 604.688.8202.

The Cinematheqe is a not-for-profit 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 $30 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:

EXPERIENCE ESSENTIAL CINEMA

CHILDREN

&YOUTHS (under 18)

ADULTS

CINEMATHEQUE MEMBERSHIP NOT REQUIRED

Many of us share childhood movie memories of a moment when the safe world of a family film transformed and started to seem dangerous! An image or a soundscape created an impressionistic, hazy sense of a character or a scene viscerally reminded us that life has its perils. These moments and memories have inspired Cinema Sunday 2013: Family Frights. We’ve assembled a year of family films sure to resurrect those childhood movie moments that haunt you still — films that walk the line between the happy universe of the kids’ movie and the nerve-wracking memories of childhood nightmares past. In the manner of Old World fairy tales, these stories prepare children for the hazardous transition into adolescence and the grown-up world. They’re not for the faintest of heart, but these creative, masterful stories give new meaning to the idea of the family film and family fun. We invite you and your kids to enjoy the artistry and magic of the some of the edgiest children’s films of the past. Films will be introduced by Vancouver film history teacher, critic, and children’s movie enthusiast Michael van den Bos.

USA 1971. Director: Mel Stuart Cast: Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum, Roy Kinnear, Julie Dawn Cole

Let Cinema Sunday transport you to a world of pure imagination with Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, director Mel Stuart’s candycoloured musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s beloved fantasy. After Charlie (Peter Ostrum) discovers one of five coveted Golden Tickets, he and four other young winners embark on a thrilling tour of Willy Wonka’s wondrous chocolate factory. But what seems at first to be the marvellous realization of juvenile dreams — the freedom to taste and test the gooey-sweet creations of the world’s greatest confectioner — quickly becomes the stuff of nightmares. One by one, naughty, greed children get their just desserts — tumbling into chocolate rivers, blowing up into giant blueberries, taken away by Oompa-Loompas — until only Charlie remains. Willy Wonka is one of the most quotable, magical films of all time, yet like the other films in our Family Frights series, it also ushered elements of danger and fear into the familiar world of family entertainment, creating unforgettable movie moments. Gene Wilder’s legendary, manic, and utterly creepy performance in the title role haunts audiences still, and the terrifying, psychedelic tunnel boat ride continues to induce shivers. It is this flavourful mixture of fantasy, fun, and fear that has made Willie Wonka’s impression as enduring as one of Wonka’s everlasting gobstoppers. Colour, Blu-ray Disc. 100 mins. SUNDAY, MARCH 17 – 1:00 PM

West Germany/USA.1984. Director: Wolfgang Petersen Cast: Barret Oliver, Noah Hathaway, Gerald McRaney, Tami Stronach, Moses Gunn

Powerful, magical, and occasionally frightening, The NeverEnding Story is a beloved tale of hope and faith in the face of impossible odds. Based on the fantasy novel by Michael Ende, this 1984 children’s film was German director Wolfgang Petersen’s follow-up to the Oscar-nominated Das Boot, his decidedly adult WWII drama. After the death of his mother, young Bastian (Barret Oliver) struggles to cope with his loss and with his father’s painfully practical realism. When a chance encounter leads him to a mysterious bookstore, Bastian discovers a magical world inside a simple novel. Soon, fantasy and reality become intertwined as a dark, terrifying force called The Nothing threatens to destroy the magical land of Fantasia. Bastion’s brave alter-ego Atreyu is the only one who can save it, battling through the Deadly Swamps of Sadness, flying with Falkor the Luck Dragon, and overcoming the trials of the Southern Oracle. The Nothing — explained as what happens when people lose their hopes and their dreams — remains one of the most terrifying concepts in children’s cinema, but it is Gmork, the vicious, intelligent wolf summoned to kill Atreyu, who has continued to lurk in many viewers’ memories and dreams. Adored by children and adults alike, The NeverEnding Story joins other classic films in our Family Frights series in reminding us “that storytelling is a neverending act of the imagination” (Roger Ebert). Colour, Blu-ray Disc, 94 mins. SUNDAY, APRIL 21 – 1:00 PM

RUSSIAN SPACE OPERA

We shift cosmic gears from horse opera to space opera in this Spaghetti Westernheavy Cinematheque season to present two trippy contemporary examples of space-faring Russian science fiction/fantasy, both originally presented in our 2006 exhibition “From the Tsars to the Stars: A Journey Through Russian Fantastik Cinema.”

FIRST ON THE MOON

The truth revealed! How the Soviets beat the Americans to the moon — by three decades!

(Pervye na lune)

The StarTrekking Russian Cult (and Camp) Favourite!

Russia 2005. Director: Alexei Fedorchenko Cast: Boris Vlasov, Viktoriya Ilyinskaya, Viktor Kotov, Andrei Osipov, Anatoly Otradnov

TO THE STARS BY HARD WAYS (Cherez ternii k zvezdam) USSR 1981/2001. Director: Richard Viktorov Cast: Yelena Metyolkina, Vadim Ledogorov, Uldis Lieldidz, Yelena Fadeyeva, Vatslav Dvorzhetsky

A commercial success of stellar proportions upon its original USSR release, Richard Viktorov’s To the Stars by Hard Ways (the Russian title translates literally as “Through the Thicket to the Stars”) became a cult hit amongst Russian hipsters in the post-Soviet period. We’re screening the restored, re-edited “new version” made in 2001 under the supervision of the late director’s son. “The Starship Pushkin, boldly going where no man has gone before, finds an abandoned vessel in deep space filled with the decaying bodies of humanoids. There is, however, one surviving member of the crew, a gynoid named Niya (an eye-popping performance by Yelena Metyolkina), who seeks the help of earthlings to restore her now severely polluted home planet of Dessa to its natural splendour. Richard Viktorov’s collaboration with sci-fi writer Kir Bulychyov has undeniable camp appeal, with its abundance of mod leisure-wear outfits, cosmic mercenaries, and bionic women (not to mention a humanoid midget capitalist, the villain responsible for running Dessa into the ground) ... However, the deliriously emotional Stars (known to Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans as Humanoid Woman) is also visually ravishing and, in its own unique way, deeply affecting” (Film Society of Lincoln Center). Colour, 35mm, in Russian with English subtitles. 118 min.

Alexei Fedorchenko’s moody, ironic mock documentary mixes archival footage real and staged to uncover the secret history (and Stalinistera tragedy) of how Russia’s heroic spacemen beat America’s to the moon — by three decades! The sensational visuals pay tribute to Dovzhenko, Eisenstein, and other Soviet cinema masters, but also give a fond nod to 1936’s Cosmic Voyage, a pioneering Russian sci-fi movie directed by Vasili Zhuravlev. “Think it was Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin? Well, think again, because as Fedorchenko’s unsettling debut feature reveals, a Soviet cosmopilot, Ivan Kharlamov, actually went there and back in 1938, piloting his experimental and highly secretive craft back to Chile, from where he undertook an arduous journey across the Pacific, through China and Mongolia, and finally into Mother Russia itself. First on the Moon is a touching expression of an unfettered utopian spirit — a sense of the limitless possibilities of human ingenuity and imagination — that characterized many people’s vision of the Soviet experiment before its grim realities settled in” (Kent Jones). “Inventive, slickly made ... While Western audiences may chuckle at the deftly executed mimicry of Soviet kitsch, viewers from Eastern Europe will feel the darker undertow” (Leslie Felperin, Variety). B&W and colour, Beta SP video, in Russian and Spanish with English subtitles. 76 min. THURSDAY, MARCH 7 – 8:45 PM MONDAY, MARCH 11 – 6:30 PM

THURSDAY, MARCH 7 – 6:30 PM MONDAY, MARCH 11 – 8:00 PM TUESDAY, MARCH 12 – 6:30 PM

0 th 4 The Cinematheque’s

USA 1987. Directors: Y.K. Kim, Richard Park Cast: Y.K. Kim, Vincent Hirsch, Joseph Diamand, Maurice Smith, Angelo Janotti

APRIL 9 - 6:00pm The Cinematheque theatre

All members are invited to attend. Please bring your valid Cinematheque membership card

Hold your next Birthday Party, Private Screening, Movie Premiere, or Special Event at

VANCOUVER PREMIERE

The Cinematheque Affordable Rates Full Theatre Staff Use of our A/V Equipment theatre@theCinematheque.ca heatre@theCinematheque. a

“Miami Connection is ﬁnally coming to town! Already it’s your new favourite movie.” ADRIAN MACK, GEORGIA STRAIGHT

“A vortex of insanity . . . Over-the-top and absolutely bonkers, but also the greatest movie featuring rock ’n’ roll ninjas you’ll ever see.” CHASE WHALE, FILM THREAT

“Love it or hate it, it’s doubtful you’ll ever forget it, and it may just force you to redeﬁne your deﬁnition of what constitutes ‘good’ cinema.” ROB HUMANICK, SLANT

“Awesome and proof God exists ... A psychotronic masterpiece!” Ain’t It Cool News ain’t alone in going bananas for Miami Connection, the rediscovered cult sensation that is rapidly becoming everyone’s favourite movie about dastardly drug-dealing motorcycle ninjas and good-guy martial-arts synth-rockers (Dragon Sound, our heroes!) facing off on the mean streets of Orlando. The film was made, haplessly, in the 1980s by a Florida-based Tae Kwon Do master and motivational speaker named Y. K. Kim, who produced, financed, co-directed, co-wrote, and starred. After a few local screenings, the film sank into obscurity, only to be rescued these decades later by a programmer at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas: he came across a 35mm print on eBay and bought it, blind, for fifty bucks. He soon realized he had treasure, of a sort. Now digitally restored and re-released, Miami Connection can finally take the world by storm. (We just hope the world is ready!) Zany subplots involve a forbidden romance, the quest for a lost father, and vicious inter-band rivalry. Synth-rock anthems are performed with guileless glee. Kicks to the throat abound. Inexplicable narrative developments and awkward dialogue stupefy and delight. And it all culminates — as it should — in a plea for world peace! Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Colour, Blu-ray Disc. 83 mins. FRIDAY, APRIL 5 – 6:30 PM SATURDAY, APRIL 6 – 8:40 PM SUNDAY, APRIL 7 – 8:15 PM MONDAY, APRIL 8 – 6:30 PM

THE LATEST FROM PALME D’OR-WINNER

Apichatpong Weerasethakul อภิชาติพงศ์ วีระเศรษฐกุล

Mekong Hotel

Thailand/Great Britain/France 2012. Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul Cast: Jenjira Pongpas, Maiyatan Techaparn, Sakda Kaewbuadee, Chai Bhatana, Chatchai Suban

ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ

Pet themes of reincarnation, romance, and narrative possibility are revisited — and human entrails are consumed by ghosts! — in contemporary Thai master Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s follow-up to his Palme d’Or-winning Uncle Boonmee. Mekong Hotel is set on the Mekong River at the juncture of Thailand and Laos — and, in the characteristically puckish, postmodern Apichatpong fashion, pitched at the juncture of fact, fiction, and the fantastic. “A cast of Apichatpong regulars plays out scenes from an old script [an unrealized project entitled Ecstasy Garden] about reincarnated lovers (the girl’s mother is a pob ghost, who feeds on human and animal entrails). But we also see Apichatpong himself with the guitarist Chai, who provides an ambient soundtrack, and with the actor Sakda, chatting about old boyfriends. And the other actors discuss their experiences and memories of the region. In short, we’re in the space between fiction and documentary — the very space in which Apichatpong creates his films” (Tony Rayns, Vancouver I.F.F.). “Mekong Hotel shuffles fact and fiction in a calming rhythm of ebb and flow ... and makes a strong case not just for cinema as art, but as a way of life” (Andréa Picard, Toronto I.F.F.). Colour, HDCAM, in Thai with English subtitles. 57 mins.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Lung Boonmee raluek chat)

Thailand/Great Britain/France/Germany/Spain 2010. Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul Cast: Thanapat Saisaymar, Jenjira Pongpas, Sakda Kaewbuadee, Natthakarn Aphaiwonk, Geerasak Kulhong

This mysterious marvel from Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Tropical Malady, Syndromes and a Century) won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2010 and confirmed that the acclaimed Thai filmmaker has one of the most unique — and otherworldly — visions in contemporary cinema. Suffering from acute kidney failure, Buddhist farmer Boonmee retires to his plantation in order to quietly spend his final days. During a nocturnal dinner on the veranda, he is joined by the ghost of his late wife and by his long-lost son, who returns in the form of an ape-like “monkey ghost” with red glowing eyes. As Boonmee revisits episodes from his past lives, we are witness to an extraordinary erotic encounter between a princess and a talking catfish. “Part phantasmagorical masterpiece, part rural fable of the afterlife ... Each of its six reels evokes a different style, varying from costume drama to documentary ... Apichatpong’s imagination pulls the viewer into a wondrous cinematic labyrinth” (Giovanna Fulvi, Toronto I.F.F.). “Deeply mysterious ... This unconquerably great film contains universes. There are things in this jungle you have never seen before” (Tony Rayns, Vancouver I.F.F.). Colour, 35mm, in Thai with English subtitles. 114 mins.

MONDAY, APRIL 29 – 6:30 PM WEDNESDAY, MAY 1 – 8:40 PM FRIDAY, MAY 3 – 6:30 PM

MONDAY, APRIL 29 – 7:45 PM WEDNESDAY, MAY 1 – 6:30 PM FRIDAY, MAY 3 – 7:45 PM

SPECIAL TWO-FOR-ONE PRICING! See both Mekong Hotel and Uncle Boonmee for the applicable single-bill ticket price $11 adults / $9 students and seniors

A MONTHLY EVENING OF MOVING-IMAGE ART AND CINEMATIC COLLABORATIONS DIM presents Canadian and international artists and their moving-image practices in dialogue with cinema. DIM is curated by Amy Lynn Kazymerchyk, a Vancouver filmmaker, writer, and curator. WWW.DIMCINEMA.CA

Clamour AND

TOLL

I admire these two artists and these rigorous films because they present a challenge: they are difficult to watch. But this difficulty only presents a challenge to how we think about looking. For if we really look, the freedom we experience far surpasses the discomfort.

CURATED BY ELI BORNOWSKY

ELI BORNOWSKY

There is an operation in certain works of art where the hierarchy of the composition is unclear, offering the viewer the agency to compose her interpretation of the work experientially. We could call this operation something like subjective-manoeuvring. Ultimately it is the experience of freedom. I first experienced this through listening to music; however, because the operation is formal and perceptual, it is not medium specific. It also operates in great films, from Tarkovsky to Tati. It also informs my practice as a painter. With this in mind, Clamour and Toll contrasts the austerity of James Benning’s Twenty Cigarettes with the cacophony of Michael Snow’s New York Eye and Ear Control. It may seem unusual to contrast free jazz bohemianism in New York with straight prairie portraits, but the contrast in content and context illustrates one strategy to facilitate subjective-manoeuvring that I prize: discord.

Twenty Cigarettes | James Benning/USA 2011. HD, 99 mins. New York Eye and Ear Control | Michael Snow/Canada 1964. 16mm, 34 mins. MONDAY, MARCH 18 – 7:30 PM

Clamour and Toll is an ongoing series of performance, sound art, and moving images curated by the painter Eli Bornowsky for the Or Gallery. Each event explores the relation between sensation and intellection of contrasting artistic mediums and experimental practices. www.orgallery.org Clamour and Toll is generously funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.

“Movie images are dim reflections of the beauty and ferocity in mankind.” JAMES BROUGHTON

The Mirage OF

HISTORY

CURATED BY YANN CHATEIGNÉ TYTELMAN

The Mirage of History presents a series of artists’ practices that share a documentary approach to explorations of the spatio-temporal unknown. The point of departure is a visionary film made by Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson in 1968, in which Smithson walks with Michael Heizer through the captivating scenery of Mono Lake in California, reading excerpts from geological textbooks as invocations of an “archaeology of the future.” In a similar way, Armando Andrade Tudela films the Marcahuasi plateau in Peru: his gaze lingers on this landscape, a place resounding with manifold stories and representations, as though it holds traces of a “cosmic antiquity.” In their attempt to locate the “islands of history” (Marshall Sahlins), these artists seek out spaces of reinvention and permanent revolution that contravene the conditions of possibility for history itself. Joachim Koester documents the remains of Aleister Crowley’s Thélèma Abbey, where filmmaker Kenneth Anger and the sexologist Alfred C. Kinsey once met. Michael Stevenson retells the story of Manfred Gnädinger, alias Man—a modern Robinson Crusoe whose life was destroyed by the ecological disaster of the Prestige oil tanker spill in 2002. And Mariana Castillo Deball recounts the story of a female scientist from CERN in Geneva, interspersed with images of gems from the collection of the French writer Roger Callois. YANN CHATEIGNÉ TYTELMAN

Marcahuasi | Armando Andrade Tudela/Peru-German 2009. 11 mins. Entropology | Mariana Castillo Deball/Mexico 2009. 8 mins. Atomic Park | Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster/France 2003. 8 mins. Orrery | Daniel Gustav Cramer/Germany 2012. 20 mins. Mono Lake | Nancy Holt, Robert Smithson/USA 1968-2004. 20 mins. Morning of the Magicians | Joachim Koester/Denmark 2005. 5 mins. Holy Precursor | Uriel Orlow/Switzerland-Great Britain 2011. 14 mins. On How Things Behave | Michael Stevenson/New Zealand-Germany 2010. 16 mins. MONDAY, APRIL 22 – 7:30 PM Yann Chateigné Tytelman (b. 1977) is a critic and curator. He currently serves as Dean of the Visual Arts Department at Geneva University of Art and Design in Switzerland. He was previously the Chief Curator at CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art in Bordeaux. His recent projects include Seismology (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2012), The Curtain of Dreams: Hypnagogic Visions (IAC Villeurbanne, 2011-12), and Explorations in French Psychedelia (CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux, 2008-09). Presented in collaboration with Geneva University of Art and Design.

NEW DOCUMENTARY, NEW CINEMA

“They could be images unearthed from another era, perhaps from another planet ... A singularly eccentric movie.” KEITH UHLICH, TIME OUT NEW YORK

VANCOUVER PREMIERE!

TWO YEARS AT SEA

USA 2012. Director: Treva Wurmfeld With: Sam Shepard, Johnny Dark

Great Britain 2011. Director: Ben Rivers With: Jake Williams

Sam Shepard is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Oscarnominated actor. Johnny Dark is a recluse and odd-jobber who works at a supermarket deli counter in a small town in New Mexico. The two are best friends, and have been for decades. Treva Wurmfeld’s poignant documentary, world-premiered at last fall’s TIFF, probes the complexities of friendship, family, masculinity, fame, failure, and creative life as it explores a compelling, complicated oddcouple relationship. Shepard and Dark met in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s and became fast friends. They later became bound by (unconventional) family ties: Dark married a woman named Scarlett, Shepard married Scarlett’s daughter, and they all lived together for years in a communal two-family household. When Shepard abandoned the home to be with actress Jessica Lange, Dark was left to raise Shepard’s son! Shepard and Dark finds the old friends coming together in 2010 to work on a project — a publisher wants to release a collection of their voluminous correspondence — and also finds Shepard in a reflective mood, having just split from Lange. Reunited, Shepard and Dark display all the ease, intimacy, and joviality of old compadres, but Wurmfeld’s warm, deceptively low-key film is also candid about old wounds, lingering resentments, and petty irritants, which threaten to send things sideways. Colour, Blu-ray Disc. 92 mins.

“Startlingly intimate ... There’s a lot of hurt lingering in this bromance, but the swings between tender and tragic make for a captivating and richly emotional story.”

FRIDAY, MARCH 8 – 6:30 PM SATURDAY, MARCH 9 – 4:30 PM & 6:30 PM SUNDAY, MARCH 10 – 4:30 PM & 6:30 PM

JOHN DEFORE, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

STEVE DOLLAR, GREENCINE.COM

“Oﬀers not just an intimate perspective on playwright Sam Shepard’s biography but some touching reﬂections on the comforts and perils of long-term friendship.”

“Pulls you in instantly with its beautiful opening image ... Interpreting Two Years at Sea is far less important (or necessary) than watching it, experiencing it as it happens.”

The first feature-length film by British experimentalist/hybridist/DIYer Ben Rivers (whose acclaimed shorts were showcased in The Cinematheque’s monthly DIM program in 2010) is a work of enigmatic beauty, exploring solitude, the passage of time, and the expressive possibilities of landscape. Rivers’s art has often found the otherworldly and extraordinary in lives lived on the margins and in the wilderness. The subject here is Jake, a hermit living off the grid in the Scottish Highlands. (Jake was also the MANOHLA DARGIS, subject of Rivers’s 2006 short This is My NEW YORK TIMES Land). Nearly wordless, this observational portrait of person and place documents the rhythms, rituals, and idiosyncrasies of Jake’s solitary life over the course of a year and the passing of four seasons. It was PETER BRADSHAW, THE GUARDIAN shot by Rivers using black-and-white 16mm anamorphic stock, developed and processed by hand, and blown up to 35mm — to gorgeous, grainy, strikingly photographic effect. The film also has fantastical tendencies that tip its “realism” into stranger, more mysterious realms — demonstrating why Rivers has questioned the use of “documentary” to describe his works. “Rivers’s movies combine elements of portraiture, landscape film, ethnography, and travelogue while largely ignoring the rules of each genre ... Two Years at Sea is somewhere between documentary and daydream” (Dennis Lim, New York Times). B&W, 35mm. 88 mins.

“What a strange and intriguing ﬁlm!”

FRIDAY, APRIL 26 – 8:30 PM SATURDAY, APRIL 27 – 6:30 PM SUNDAY, APRIL 28 – 8:30 PM THURSDAY, MAY 2 – 6:30 PM

“Sure to be one of the most gripping and ferocious cinematic experiences of the year, Leviathan is a documentary like no other.” ANDRÉA PICARD, TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL PRECEDED BY

A startling immersive, visceral, made-in-a-maelstrom mix of ethnographic, documentary, experimental, and hallucinatory filmmaking — think Deadliest Catch (or Herman Melville) by way of Stan Brakhage — Leviathan is a truly singular cinematic and sensory experience. “Co-creators Lucien Castaing - Taylor and Véréna Paravel — both artist-filmmakers hailing from Harvard’s innovative Sensory Ethnographic Lab — offer us an all-hands-on-deck view of commercial fishing in the North Atlantic that is visually and sonically explosive. Shot off the New Bedford coast in DENNIS LIM, NEW YORK TIMES the very waters where Melville’s Pequod gave chase to Moby Dick, Leviathan captures the collaborative clash of man, nature, and machine. Dozens of cameras, tossed and tethered from fisherman to filmmaker, propel the film forward with gripping immediacy, literally soaking the viewer in the sensory experience ... The chaotic cacophony of life at sea yields a perspective in constant flux, as we shift from the filmmakers’ and fishermen’s sodden points of view to that of their prey, captured with cameras plunged into the deep ... An exciting marriage of aesthetics and ethnography, thrillingly experimental ... Leviathan is an audio-visual tour de force of cosmic proportions” (Andréa Picard, Toronto I.F.F.). “The ne plus ultra of immersive documentaries ... They have discovered new forms of cinema” (Vancouver I.F.F.). Colour, Blu-ray Disc. 87 mins.

“An immersive cinematic experience ... Leviathan, which looks and sounds like no other documentary in memory, is likely to be one of the most talked-about art ﬁlms of the year.”

USA/France/Great Britain 2012. Directors: Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel

Magnetic Reconnection Canada 2012. Director: Kyle Armstrong

Alberta filmmaker Armstrong’s experimental documentary short contrasts the natural phenomenon of the Northern Lights with decaying man-made debris in the northern outpost of Churchill, Manitoba. Featuring an original score by Jim O’Rourke (Sonic Youth), narration by Will Oldham (Bonnie “Prince” Billy), and some of the most gorgeous images of the aurora borealis ever captured. Colour, 12 mins. FRIDAY, APRIL 26 – 6:30 PM SATURDAY, APRIL 27 – 8:15 PM SUNDAY, APRIL 28 – 6:30 PM THURSDAY, MAY 2 – 8:15 PM

“Canada’s most adventurous auteur.” ADAM NAYMAN, EYE WEEKLY (TORONTO)

“One of today’s most visionary and consistently surprising filmmakers — not to mention one of Canada’s greatest cinematic talents.” ANDRÉA PICARD, TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

“Denis Côté’s genre-bending, hybridized works combine lowbudget ingenuity with daring formal experimentation to forge one of the most distinctive cinematic signatures in contemporary Canadian cinema.” TOM MCSORLEY, CANADIAN FILM INSTITUTE (OTTAWA)

Bestiaire

Canada/France 2012. Director: Denis Côté

Drifting States: The Films of

Denis Côté The unique independent vision, cool formal elegance, and daring experimentalism of New Brunswick-born, Quebec-based director Denis Côté (b. 1973) have made him one of Canada’s most internationally admired and acclaimed filmmakers. Côté’s sublime, minimalist films, typically focusing on characters who are, literally or figuratively, on the fringes of society, have a beauty and grace that belie the often ultra-low-budget means with which they were made. They explore themes of loneliness, alienation, and isolation with humanity, intimacy, and emotional impact. They contain a powerful, palpable sense of landscape and the natural world, yet at the same time reveal a great fascination with digital image-making technologies, both in their own formal construction and in the lives of their characters. Drawn to people on the margins, Côté’s genre-bending, hybridized, formally slippery films situate themselves on the margins, often traversing — or breaking — the boundaries between “fiction” and “documentary,” and placing great poetic stock on the experience of uncertainty, for characters and spectators alike. Much like the works of his contemporaries Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Jia Zhang-ke — international masters with whom Côté is often mentioned — Côté’s films make for inventive, contemplative, constantly surprising, mysterious, and metaphysical cinema of the highest order. The Cinematheque is pleased to shine a spotlight on one of Canada’s finest contemporary cinematic talents.

A film about looking and the relationship between human and beast, Denis Côté’s unusual trip to the zoo is “essential viewing” (Manohla Dargis, New York Times). Bestiaire finds the audacious Canadian auteur working in a more straightforward documentary mode than he has before, but with no dimming of his increasingly renowned formal boldness and unique cinematic vision. The film offers a bestiary of magnificent creatures — water buffalo, rhinoceros, zebra, chimp, giraffe, ostrich, human — all captured in elegant, beautifully-composed long takes from Côté’s stationary camera. Our traditional spectatorship is often subverted as the animals stare back, to startling effect; the surreal strangeness of such places is evoked; and our deeply mysterious relationship with animals must be contemplated. Bestiaire is another stimulating and challenging work from one of Canada’s most daring and distinctive filmmakers. “A feast for the eyes and a provocative puzzle for the mind ... Beautiful and endlessly fascinating” (Vancouver I.F.F.). “Beguiling ... There may be no traditional narrative, yet there is breathtaking dramatic tension in every exquisitely framed shot ... Contemplative and enthralling, Bestiaire is pure cinema.” (Anthology Film Archives, New York). Colour, Blu-ray Disc. 72 mins. FRIDAY, MARCH 15 – 6:30 PM SATURDAY, MARCH 16 – 8:15 PM SUNDAY, MARCH 17 – 6:30 PM MONDAY, MARCH 25 – 8:30 PM

VANCOUVER PREMIERE!

Enemy Lines (Les lignes enemies)

Canada/South Korea 2010. Director: Denis Côté Cast: Olivier Aubin, Hugo Giroux, Christian Leblanc, Marc-André Grondin, Hubert Proulx

Denis Côté has described his 2010 featurette, commissioned by the Jeonju International Film Festival, as a study of masculinity and war. Six armed men wander a forest, day and night, ready for confrontation. “Masculinity is a terrible thing to waste. That was probably the first impulse surrounding the formation of this film. Then came the idea of war, which is more interesting than war itself. Foreshadowing danger is also much more intriguing than the materialization of menace itself. Those were the conceptual elements of what became an abstract story of group loneliness and intimacy” (Denis Côté). Colour, HDCAM, in French with English subtitles. 43 mins. PRECEDED BY

Maïté

Canada 2007. Director: Denis Côté Cast: Véronique Gagné

Denis Côté now has six (and a forthcoming seventh) features under his belt, but he cites this 2007 short — the tale, told without dialogue, of a teenage girl discovering the world when she ventures to the big city for a black metal concert – as his personal favourite of all his films. Colour, Beta SP video. 17 mins.

Curling

Canada 2010. Director: Denis Côté Cast: Emmanuel Bilodeau, Philomène Bilodeau, Roc Alorton, Sophie Desmarais, Muriel Dutil

Denis Côté’s audacious cinema took a more accessible turn with the darkly comic Curling, winner of Best Director and Best Actor (Emmanuel Bilodeau) honours at Locarno, and selected (like its predecessor, Carcasses) for Canada’s Top Ten. “The fascinating fifth feature by Côté, Curling is a portrait of Jean-François (Bilodeau), a single father who works nights at a deserted bowling alley and days in a rundown motel, and his daughter, Julyvonne (Philomène Bilodeau, Emmanuel’s real-life daughter), whom he isolates from the community in fear that contact with the outside world will scar her. Sensitive, expressive images are crafted to perfection by cinematographer Josée Deshaies ... The film [has] a surreal and poetic resonance” (Martin Bilodeau, Toronto I.F.F.). “How nice that Côté’s most accomplished film to date is also his most hopeful” (Adam Nayman, Eye Weekly). “Heart-wrenching, funny, and ultimately redemptive, it has the assurance and breadth of a masterpiece — although its formal daring makes is far more troubling and slippery that overused phrase makes it sound” (Steve Gravestock, TIFF). Colour, 35mm, in French with English subtitles. 92 mins. SATURDAY, MARCH 16 – 6:30 PM SUNDAY, MARCH 17 – 8:00 PM

Drifting States (Les états nordiques)

Canada 2005. Director: Denis Côté Cast: Christian LeBlanc, the residents of Radisson, Quebec

Denis Côté’s assured feature debut, made on a micro budget, won the Indie Vision Grand Prize at the Jeonju film festival in Korea, and announced the chief thematic concerns and bold formal innovations of a fiercely original new talent. Blending fiction and documentary elements, this powerful study of alienation and isolation opens in Montreal, where Christian, its protagonist, attends a bloody wrestling match. Afterwards, he journeys to a hospital where a loved-one lies comatose. Christian commits a crime of compassion, then flees the city for the remote industrial town of Radisson, 1500 kilometres away. There, he tries to escape the ethical consequences of his action and — slowly, tentatively — build a new life for himself. Côté’s rigorous, elliptical film employs beautiful compositions, minimal dialogue, and evocative sound to impressive effect. “A deeply emotional story of hope and the continual cycle of human existence” (Stacey Donen, Toronto I.F.F.). Colour, 35mm, in French with English subtitles. 91 mins. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27 – 6:30 PM THURSDAY, MARCH 28 – 8:10 PM

FRIDAY, MARCH 15 – 8:00 PM SATURDAY, MARCH 16 – 9:45 PM

Carcasses

Canada 2009. Director: Denis Côté Cast: Jean-Paul Colmor, Étienne Grutman, Célia Léveillée-Marois, Charles-Élie Jacob, Mark Scanlon

“The most audacious Canadian feature in many a moon, Denis Côté’s fourth effort attains a rare state of Herzogian weirdness. Opening as a quasi-documentary portrait of JeanPaul Colmor, the affable proprietor of an enormous junkyard in the backwoods of Quebec, Carcasses then shifts into a more flagrantly mythic mode as Colmor’s metal-strewn kingdom is invaded by teen marauders. That the latter group is played by actors with Down’s syndrome may cause some consternation but the proceedings’ air of quiet awe and spirit of playfulness make Carcasses something rare and wondrous” (Jason Anderson, Eye Weekly). “More a cinematic provocation than a traditional narrative, but it’s a distinctly original one, gorgeously shot ... With an ear-grabbing mixture of punk rock and Mahler on the soundtrack” (Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail). “One of the most daring works of the filmmaker’s increasing influential career ... Carcasses is Côté’s most urgent and effective statement for a new Canadian cinema” (Jesse Wente, Toronto I.F.F.). Selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes and Canada’s Top Ten. Colour, 35mm, in French with English subtitles. 72 mins. FRIDAY, MARCH 15 – 9:15 PM SUNDAY, MARCH 17 – 5:00 PM

All That She Wants (Elle veut le chaos)

Canada 2008. Director: Denis Côté Cast: Ève Duranceau, Nicolas Canuel, Normand Lévesque, Laurent Lucas, Réjean Lefrançois

Denis Côté was named Best Director at Locarno (a distinction he would repeat two years later with Curling) for this existential quasi-gangster film, the Quebec auteur’s third feature. “A rural Québécoise Gothic photographed in high-contrast black and white, All That She Wants finds Côté shifting focus from his typical loner protagonists to a small, vicious circle of downand-outers. The ‘she’ of the title is Coralie (Ève Duranceau), who lives with her stepfather Jacob (Normand Lévesque) in an arcadian backwater; the ‘chaos’ [of the original French title] comes courtesy of ex-con Pierrot (Laurent Lucas), whose release from prison sets a grim cycle of events in motion. Minimally plotted and formally exquisite, Côté’s strange variation on the gangster film alternates between static tableaux and snaking camera movements that suggest an affinity with European arthouse cinema” (Steve Gravestock, Toronto I.F.F.). “An assured, disquieting drama of identity, isolation, and rebirth” (Canadian Film Institute). B&W, 35mm, in French with English subtitles. 105 mins. MONDAY, MARCH 25 – 6:30 PM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27 – 8:15 PM

Our Private Lives (Nos vies privées)

Canada 2007. Director: Denis Côté Cast: Anastassia Liutova, Penko Gospodinov, Jean-Charles Fonti

Internet romance provides a premise for Denis Côté’s intimate, observational, and unsettling second feature, in which a man and woman who know each other only online get together to spend a week at a remote cabin in the woods. Milena and Philip (played by real-life couple Anastassia Liutova and Penko Gospodinov) finally meet in person on a gravel road in the forest; Philip has flow to Canada from his home in Bulgaria to be there. “They soon discover that the intimacy they previously experienced over the web in harder to maintain in person. As their relationship becomes ever more strained, a series of strange, ominous events — including the presence of a feral something in the woods — begins to complicate (or mirror?) their ever more fragile coupling. Shot, like its predecessor Drifting States, on digital video with a micro budget, Our Private Lives is a strikingly atmospheric mood piece, haunted by a palpable sense of metaphysical dread” (Steve Gravestock, Toronto I.F.F.). “Easily one of the most audacious films of the past year” (Matthew Hays, Montreal Mirror). Colour, Beta SP video, in Bulgarian and French with English subtitles. 82 mins. THURSDAY, MARCH 28 – 6:30 PM WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3 – 8:20 PM

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Clamour and Toll (p 8)

7:30pm

Curling (p 11)

The Virgin, the Copts and Me (p 14)

4:30pm

DIVERCINÉ 2013

Camion (p 15)

6:30pm

All That She Wants (p 11)

Bestiaire (p 10)

Django (p 18)

DIVERCINÉ 2013

8:15pm

8:30pm

Drifting States (p 11)

All That She Wants (p 11)

The Mercenary (p 18)

31 APRIL

6:30pm

8:35pm

DENIS CÔTÉ

Teddy Bear (p 22)

7:30pm

FRAMES OF MIND

A Fistful of Dynamite (aka Duck, You Sucker!) (p 17)

8:15pm

The Hills Run Red (p 18)

6:30pm

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

DENIS CÔTÉ

The Hills Run Red (p 18)

8:45pm

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

(p 5)

To the Stars by Hard Ways

6:30pm

RUSSIAN SPACE OPERA

(p 17)

Sabata (p 17)

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

6:30pm

8:00pm

DIM CINEMA

Bestiaire (p 10)

6:30pm

Carcasses (p 11)

5:00pm

DENIS CÔTÉ

Willie Wonka (p 4)

1:00pm

CINEMA SUNDAY

(p 5)

To the Stars by Hard Ways

(p 9)

4:30pm + 6:30pm

8:00pm

SHEPARD AND DARK

First on the Moon (p 5)

6:30pm

RUSSIAN SPACE OPERA

(p 17)

Sabata (p 17)

For a Few Dollars More

8:30pm

8:25pm

Navajo Joe (p 17)

8:35pm

6:30pm

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED! A Fistful of Dollars (p 17)

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

6:30pm

For a Few Dollars More

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Drifting States (p 11)

6:30pm

(p 6)

MIAMI CONNECTION

Camille Rewinds (p 14)

8:15pm

8:10pm

6:30pm

The Virgin, the Copts and Me (p 14)

4:30pm

DIVERCINÉ 2013

Django (p 18)

8:35pm

The Mercenary (p 18)

Death Rides a Horse (p 18)

6:30pm

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

Sister (p 15)

8:40pm

Camille Rewinds (p 14)

6:30pm

DIVERCINÉ 2013

The Mercenary (p 18)

8:15pm

Django (p 18)

6:30pm

Enemy Lines + Maïté (p 11)

6:30pm

9:45pm Carcasses (p 11)

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

Bestiaire (p 10)

9:15pm

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

8:15pm Enemy Lines + Maïté (p 11)

Curling (p 11)

8:00pm

6:30pm

DENIS CÔTÉ

Bestiaire (p 10)

A Fistful of Dynamite (aka Duck, You Sucker!) (p 17)

8:20pm

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

6:30pm

DENIS CÔTÉ

(p 17)

For a Few Dollars More

8:30pm

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

4:30pm + 6:30pm

(p 9)

6:30pm

SHEPARD AND DARK (p 9)

A Fistful of Dollars (p 17)

SHEPARD AND DARK

8:20pm Navajo Joe (p 17)

Navajo Joe (p 17)

6:30pm

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

8:30pm

La Pirogue (p 14)

SATURDAY

A Fistful of Dollars (p 17)

6:30pm

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MARCH

FRIDAY

Our Private Lives (p 11)

6:30pm

DENIS CÔTÉ

The Mercenary (p 18)

8:15pm

Django (p 18)

6:30pm

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A Fistful of Dynamite (aka Duck, You Sucker!) (p 17)

8:15pm

The Hills Run Red (p 18)

6:30pm

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First on the Moon (p 5)

8:45pm

(p 5)

To the Stars by Hard Ways

6:30pm

RUSSIAN SPACE OPERA

604.688.8202 • theatre@theCinematheque.ca

Sabata (p 17)

6:30pm

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8:25pm

(p 17)

For a Few Dollars More

6:00pm

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Camion (p 15)

La Pirogue (p 15)

(p 9)

8:30pm

(p 9)

6:30pm

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (p 7)

Mekong Hotel (p 7)

8:40pm

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (p 7)

6:30pm

MAY

Yellow Line (p 21)

8:00pm

Death Row Woman (p 21)

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THE VANCOUVER WRITERS FEST AND RANDOM HOUSE CANADA PRESENT

(p 9)

TWO YEARS AT SEA

Death Row Woman (p 21)

8:05pm

Yellow Line (p 21)

THE SENSATIONAL CINEMA OF SHINTOHO

(p 21)

8:00pm

Flesh Pier (p 20)

Sleepwalk with Me (p 22)

Mekong Hotel (p 7)

7:45pm

18 THE SENSATIONAL CINEMA OF SHINTOHO

6:30pm

(p 20)

Revenge of the Pearl Queen

8:15pm

The Horizon Glitters (p 20)

Ghost Cat of Otama Pond

11 THE SENSATIONAL CINEMA OF SHINTOHO

6:30pm

Django (p 18)

8:40pm

Death Rides a Horse (p 18)

6:30pm

7:30pm

FRAMES OF MIND

The Horizon Glitters (p 20)

8:00pm

Ghost Story of Yotsuya (p 20)

APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL

6:30pm

THE SENSATIONAL CINEMA OF SHINTOHO

APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL

THE CINEMATHEQUE’S 40TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 6:00pm

Our Private Lives (p 11)

8:20pm

DENIS CÔTÉ

SALLY ARMSTRONG

TWO YEARS AT SEA

6:30pm

LEVIATHAN + MAGNETIC RECONNECTION

The Mirage of History (p 8)

Flesh Pier (p 20)

DIM CINEMA

8:05pm

Vampire Bride (p 21)

6:30pm

THE SENSATIONAL CINEMA OF SHINTOHO

The NeverEnding Story (p 4)

1:00pm

7:30pm

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (p 18)

CINEMA SUNDAY

6:30pm

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

Death Rides a Horse (p 18)

3:00pm + 6:30pm

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

8:15pm

MIAMI CONNECTION

8:15pm

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

(p 6)

6:30pm

(p 6)

Django (p 18)

6:30pm

MIAMI CONNECTION

8:25pm

8:15pm

Sister (p 15)

Yema (p 15)

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

6:30pm

(p 9)

6:30pm

8:15pm

LEVIATHAN + MAGNETIC RECONNECTION

6:30pm

27 (p 9)

(p 9)

TWO YEARS AT SEA

Vampire Bride (p 21)

8:00pm

(p 21)

Ghost Cat of Otama Pond

THE SENSATIONAL CINEMA OF SHINTOHO

Ghost Story of Yotsuya (p 20)

8:15pm

Revenge of the Pearl Queen (p 20)

THE SENSATIONAL CINEMA OF SHINTOHO

6:30pm

8:40pm

(p 6)

MIAMI CONNECTION

J Journalist, human rights aactivist and author of BBitter Roots, Tender Shoots: Sh The Uncertain Fate of Afghanistan’s Women talks talk about her new book, Ascent of Women. Asc

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (p 7)

7:45pm

Mekong Hotel (p 7)

6:30pm

APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL

8:30pm

(p 9)

TWO YEARS AT SEA

6:30pm

LEVIATHAN + MAGNETIC RECONNECTION

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (p 18)

6:30pm

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (p 18)

6:30pm

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

Death Rides a Horse (p 18)

8:15pm

SPAGHETTI UNCHAINED!

GOOD FRIDAY & EASTER SUNDAY MATINEES!

The Virgin, the Copts and Me (La Vierge, les Coptes et moi)

France/Qatar/Egypt 2012. Director: Namir Abdel Messeeh With: Siham Abdel Messeeh, Namir Abdel Messeeh

Many thousands of people in Egypt’s Coptic Christian community claim to have seen apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Franco-Egyptian filmmaker and religious sceptic Namir Abdel Messeeh set out to explore these miraculous phenomena in a documentary — only to find his funding evaporate, people reluctant to talk to him, and his own mother ordering him to abandon the project! “An alternately hilarious, moving, and illuminating first-person documentary ... Messeeh foregrounds himself, and his difficulties in finding an angle for his film, more out of what appears to be a genuine desire to tell the truth than from any self-centered desire to make a comedy-tinged issue documentary. And in the end, the film overcomes the postmodern games it’s been playing to give us a touching insight into the lives and dreams of villagers in a remote area of Egypt. That said, Messeeh is a wonderfully deadpan centerpiece for a documentary in which the ‘making of’ becomes the work itself” (Lee Marshall, Screen Daily). “A disarmingly honest, thoroughly winning personal portrait of family and heritage, grounded in religion but not dependent on belief” (Jay Weissberg, Variety). Colour, Blu-ray Disc, in Arabic and French with English subtitles. 85 mins. FRIDAY, MARCH 29 – 4:30 PM SUNDAY, MARCH 31 – 4:30 PM

La Pirogue

Senegal/France/Germany 2012. Director: Moussa Touré Cast: Souleymane Seye Ndiaye, Laïty Fall, Malamine Dramé “Yalenguen”, Balla Diarra, Salif “Jean” Diallo

Senegalese director Moussa Touré’s vivid drama, a powerful and affecting tale of desperate economic migrants from Africa setting out in dangerously overcrowded boats for Europe, was featured in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes last year. “Senegal, a West African nation on the Atlantic Ocean, was home to Africa’s greatest movie-maker, Ousmane Sembene. Today, Moussa Touré follows in the master’s footsteps with this drama of 30 men (and one woman, a stowaway) who set out on an illegal 7-day voyage to Spain — making the perilous trip in a pirogue — a boat resembling a vastly oversized dinghy. While sharing a common desire to build a better future, these men hail from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. The story grows from a finely delineated mosaic of personalities – reactions to the journey’s mounting danger – that span the emotional panoply of human experience. Touré’s compelling tale says as much about the universal nature of courage and perfidy as it does about the economic realities faced by so many of the world’s people” (Film Forum New York). “Critics’ Pick. A remarkably clear-eyed, quietly ambitious film” (A.O. Scott, New York Times). Colour, Blu-ray Disc, in French and Wolof with English subtitles. 87 mins. FRIDAY, MARCH 29 – 6:30 PM SUNDAY, MARCH 31 – 8:15 PM

Camille Rewinds (Camille redouble)

France 2012. Director: Noémie Lvovsky Cast: Noémie Lvovsky, Samir Guesmi, Judith Chemla, India Hair, Julia Faure

Noémie Lvovsky directs, co-writes, and stars in this ebullient time-travelling comedy-drama, a crowd pleaser at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2012 — and, at press time, the surprise leader in nominations for this year’s Cesar Awards (the French Oscars) with 13! Lvovsky plays titular Camille, a middle-aged, almost-alcoholic B-movie actress about to be divorced by her long-time husband. Waking up from a New Year’s Eve bender, Camille finds herself back in 1985: she’s 16 years old all over again, her dead parents are still alive, and her future ex-husband is the young man courting her! Several prominent French screen personalities — including Mathieu Amalric and Jean-Pierre Léaud — have cameos. “Effortlessly charming and emotionally engaging ... A wry Gallic twist on Back to the Future or Peggy Sue Got Married” (Stephan Dalton, Hollywood Reporter). “From ill-advised fashion choices to endless existential questioning, Camille, from her adult perspective, infuses every moment with a fresh breeziness and whimsicality — but also with intense nostalgia, since she knows the exact day her loved ones will die ... Camille Rewinds is a fascinating exercise in recapturing the past” (Festival du nouveau cinéma, Montreal). Colour, Digibeta video, in French with English subtitles. 115 mins. FRIDAY, MARCH 29 – 8:15 PM SATURDAY, MARCH 30 – 6:30 PM

Camion

Yema

Sister

(L’enfant d’en haut) Switzerland/France 2012. Director: Ursula Meier Cast: Léa Seydoux, Kacey Mottet Klein, Martin Compston, Gillian Anderson

Franco-Swiss director Ursula Meier’s Sister won a Silver Bear at Berlin and was Switzerland’s official Foreign Language Film submission to this year’s Oscars. “Meier’s affecting drama — about 12-year-old thief Simon (Kacey Mottet Klein) and his life with an irresponsible older sister Louise (Léa Seydoux) — makes beautiful use of a visual metaphor to emphasize class distinctions: Simon’s criminal life is conducted amongst the pristine snowy Alpine peaks of a tony ski resort, where he ingeniously steals ski gear at every opportunity, while his motley home life with Louise takes place in a nondescript apartment located in the dirty slush of the valley below. That simple metaphor is an elegant example of the thoughtfulness and intelligence that permeate Meier’s tale” (Vancouver I.F.F.). “Seydoux is perfectly cast ... But the star of Sister is undoubtedly Mottet Klein (as the “child from up high” of the French title), for whom Meier specifically conceived the project. His combination of steadfast determination and confusion about where the boundaries in the adult world lie carry the film through to its perfect final shot” (Boyd van Hoeij, Variety). Colour, Blu-ray Disc, in French with English subtitles. 97 mins.

Canada 2012. Director: Rafaël Ouellet Cast: Julien Poulin, Patrice Dubois, Stéphane Breton, Noémie GodinVigneau, Jacob Tierney

Algeria 2012. Director: Djamila Sahraoui Cast: Djamila Sahraoui, Ali Zaref, Samir Yahia, Nabil Oudihat

“A Greek tragedy in an Algeria at war with itself” is how Algerian-born, French-based writer-director Djamila Sahraoui describes her second feature. The film distils the North African country’s ongoing conflict with Islamist militants (recently much in the news again after January’s deadly attack on the Amenas gas plant) into an intense, small-scale family drama. Yema — the title means “mother” — unfolds in the isolated Algerian countryside, where a grieving mother prepares to bury her son, a soldier killed by extremists. Her sorrow is compounded by the fact that her other son, the leader of a fundamentalist group, may have been involved in the death. The film won FIPRESCI (International Film Critics) prizes for best director and best feature at the Dubai IFF. “Designed as a Greek tragedy, the telegraphic story is set in a stunning landscape ... Beautifully filmed by Raphael O’Byrne (Eugène Green’s The Portuguese Nun), Yema has all the trappings of the ancient classics ... The visuals further the sense of an epic tale recounted on a human scale” (Jay Weissberg, Variety ). Colour, Blu-ray Disc, in Arabic with English subtitles. 90 mins. SUNDAY, MARCH 31 – 6:30 PM

SATURDAY, MARCH 30 – 8:40 PM MONDAY, APRIL 1 – 6:30 PM

Montreal filmmaker Rafaël Ouellet, previously an editor and cinematographer for Denis Côté, was named best director at Karlovy Vary last year (and also won the festival’s ecumenical prize) for this poignant and precise blue-collar drama, the story of three men coping with the aftermath of a tragedy. Sixtyyear-old widower Germain (Julien Poulin), a lifelong trucker, is involved in a head-on collision that leaves a woman dead. Although he was not at fault, the accident leaves Germain devastated and unable to cope. His two adult sons — Samuel (Patrice Dubois), a janitor in Montreal, and Alain (Stéphane Breton), a ne’er-do-well in New Brunswick — return home to assist him, but both are saddled with deep-seated issues of their own. “Ouellet has become something of a specialist at finely crafted family dramas, masterfully revealing the emotional depths of his deceptively small-scale stories ... Camion places Ouellet firmly at the forefront of Quebec’s most highly accomplished young filmmakers” (Agata Smoluch Del Sorbo, Toronto I.F.F.). “Confident directing, spot-on performances, and a closely observed look at a specific Canadian culture lend Ouellet’s fourth feature singularity and emotional resonance” (Alissa Simon, Variety). Colour, Blu-ray Disc, in French with English subtitles. 94 mins. MONDAY, APRIL 1 – 8:25 PM WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3 – 6:30 PM

DiverCiné 2013

WORLD CINEMA FROM LA FRANCOPHONIE LES ÉCRANS DE LA FRANCOPHONIE DU MONDE Presented in Vancouver by The Cinematheque and the Consulate General of France, DiverCiné is a cooperation between the Embassy of France in Canada and Canadian Heritage / Patrimoine canadien. It is designed to celebrate and promote la Francophonie, the international community of countries and governments that use French as a common language; express the identities, imaginings, and cultures of the French-speaking world in all their diversity; and showcase the range and abundance of film production in the francophone nations of the world. DiverCiné programming gives prominence to films selected for major international festivals, and provides Canadian audiences with an opportunity to see exceptional films that, in many cases, they would otherwise not be able to see. Our 2013 program is made up of award-winning features from Africa, Europe, and Canada.

Acknowledgements: The Cinematheque is very grateful to the Consulat Général de France à Vancouver, the Embassy of France in Canada (Ottawa), and Canadian Heritage/Patrimoine canadien (Ottawa) for making this exhibition possible.

“THE GREATEST

GENRE EVER.” J. HOBERMAN, FILM COMMENT

A FISTFUL OF LEONE! A FISTFUL OF CORBUCCI! ARMFULS OF MORRICONE! Anchored by an exclusive run of the re-release of the Quentin Tarantino favourite Django, the reference point for Tarantino’s recent hit Django Unchained, The Cinematheque’s steaming-hot Spaghetti Western season features a Fistful of Leone, a Fistful of Corbucci, and a handful of other bad-ass Westerns all’italiana, including gems by Gianfranco Parolini, Giulio Petroni, and Carlo Lizzani. No less than eight of the ten films in our series were scored by Ennio Morricone, the composer whose music is virtually synonymous with the popular subgenre. Morricone and Leone rank amongst the great composer-director collaborations in cinema history, but

the prolific Morricone (sometimes credited as Leo Nichols or Dan Savio) also worked extensively with Corbucci and other leading filmmakers of the Spaghetti Western. Get ready for some eye-popping, operatic, and absolutely amoral fun — and expect dazzling widescreen vistas; sweaty extreme close-ups; marvellous multilingual, multinational casts; and postdubbed, post-synched sound — as Good, Bad, and Ugly Men with No Names — or with wacky Western handles such as Sabata, Django, and Navajo Joe — smoke cheroots, dodge sagebrush, and shoot folks, often in the back!

NAVAJO

JOE

(Un dollaro a testa) Italy/Spain 1966. Director: Sergio Corbucci Cast: Burt Reynolds, Fernando Rey, Aldo Sambrell, Nicoletta Machiavelli

Sergio Leone typically gets all the glory, but the Spaghetti Western’s other great Sergio is Sergio Corbucci, director of the Quentin Tarantino favourite Django (also spotlighted in this series). Corbucci’s Navajo Joe, a bold, super-bloody tale of revenge, was released the same year as Django, and stars Burt Reynolds, then a young TV actor, in the title role. (The film helped establish Reynolds as a leading man in movies, just as Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns secured the film career of Burt’s friend Clint Eastwood.) Reynolds plays a Navajo man on the warpath against the ruthless scalp-hunters who murdered his wife and massacred their village. In the course of his solitary pursuit, he discovers the bad guys are plotting a train robbery. Parts of the memorable score by Ennio Morricone (here credited as Leo Nichols) were later used in Alexander Payne’s Election and Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 2. Sid and Nancy director Alex Cox, who made his own Spaghetti Western with 1986’s Straight to Hell (starring The Clash’s Joe Strummer), calls Navajo Joe “vividly memorable ... the best of all possible Burt Reynolds vehicles.” Tarantino cites it as one of his favourite Spaghettis. Colour. 93 mins. FRIDAY, MARCH 1 – 8:30 PM SATURDAY, MARCH 2 – 6:30 PM TUESDAY, MARCH 5 – 6:30 PM (Per un pugno di dollari) Italy/Spain/West Germany 1964. Director: Sergio Leone Cast: Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volonté, Marianne Koch, Pepe Calvo, Wolfgang Lukschy

The worldwide craze for Westerns all’italiana started here. A Fistful of Dollars, a flamboyant (and unofficial) remake of Akira Kurosawa’s swords-and-samurai spectacular Yojimbo, was Sergio Leone’s first Spaghetti Western, and the film that created the iconic Clint Eastwood persona. Eastwood, as the mysterious Man with No Name, is the laconic, poncho-clad, cigarsmoking lone gunman who rides into a Mexican border town embroiled in a nasty feud between two rival clans. Seeing an opportunity to profit, he hires himself out as a mercenary — first to one side, then the other. All the elements of Leone’s eccentric, highly influential style — the extreme close-ups, brutal violence, sunbleached widescreen compositions, eerie Ennio Morricone score — are very much in evidence. The movie reinvented the American Western and its mythology, even if it may have plundered Yojimbo to do so. (Kurosawa’s producers sued for plagiarism, and won; Leone countered that the premise also derives from Carlo Goldoni’s 18th-century play The Servant of Two Masters.) Leone and Eastwood reunited for two very successful sequels, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, both also screening in our Spaghetti Unchained series. Future director Eastwood would dedicate Unforgiven, his 1992 Oscar winner, to Leone. Colour, 35mm, 99 mins. FRIDAY, MARCH 1 – 6:30 PM SATURDAY, MARCH 2 – 8:20 PM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6 – 6:30 PM

(Ehi amico... c’è Sabata, hai chiuso!) Italy 1969. Director: Gianfranco Parolini Cast: Lee Van Cleef, William Berger, Ignazio Spalla, Aldo Canti

“The man with gunsight eyes comes to kill!” Spaghetti Western mainstay Lee Van Cleef is a tight-lipped, glaring-eyed master gunman in Gianfranco Parolini’s entertaining, offbeat shoot-’em-up. The plot has hero Sabata learning that an elaborate bank heist was masterminded by a town’s respectable citizens. The discovery pits him against sadistic rancher Stengel (Franco Ressel) and former foe Banjo (William Berger). The latter’s “banjo gun” was lifted by Robert Rodriguez in El Mariachi. Sabata’s exotic weapons, acrobatics, wild stunts, and gags and gimmicks take the Spaghetti Western in the direction of James Bond or The Wild, Wild West — or even the kung fu movie. Most popular Spaghettis — A Fistful of Dollars, Django, My Name is Trinity et al — spawned sequels and imitators, and Sabata was no different; Parolini would direct two sequels (one with Van Cleef, one with Yul Brynner). His 1968 Sartana film also generated a series. “The best of the circus Westerns, a subgenre which Parolini either invented or enthusiastically made his own. It succeeds thanks to the high skill of all concerned” (Alex Cox). “Mind melting!” (Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York). Colour, 35mm. 111 mins. SUNDAY, MARCH 3 – 8:25 PM MONDAY, MARCH 4 – 6:30 PM TUESDAY, MARCH 5 – 8:25 PM

A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE (aka Duck, You Sucker!)

(Giù la testa)

FOR A FEW dollars MORE (Per qualche dollaro in più) Italy/Spain/West Germany/Monaco 1965. Director: Sergio Leone Cast: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonté, Klaus Kinski, Aldo Sambrell

“A gloriously greasy, sweaty, hairy, bloody, and violent Western” (Roger Ebert), For a Few Dollars More is the second — and most parodic — film in the celebrated “Man With No Name” trilogy of director Sergio Leone and star Clint Eastwood. Here, Eastwood’s mysterious, mythic loner reluctantly joins forces with rival bounty hunter Lee Van Cleef in an effort to capture drug-addled psycho-bandit Gian Maria Volonté. The latter’s gang of baddies includes Klaus Kinski as a hunchback. The film represented a stylish step forward for Leone, upping the ante on A Fistful of Dollars with better writing and more polished production values, but still displaying all the trademark elements — magnificent widescreen compositions, flamboyant camerawork, marvellous Ennio Morricone music, over-thetop violence, scruffy villains, existential emptiness — that would reach their epic culmination in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. “This may be the best in the series, thanks to its balance of grungy humour and visual virtuosity — and to its perfect payoff sequence” (Michael Sragow, The New Yorker). Colour, 35mm. 130 mins. SUNDAY, MARCH 3 – 6:00 PM MONDAY, MARCH 4 – 8:35 PM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6 – 8:30 PM FRIDAY, MARCH 8 – 8:30 PM

Italy 1971. Director: Sergio Leone Cast: James Coburn, Rod Steiger, Maria Monti, Romolo Valli, Rik Battaglia

The least known of Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western spectaculars was originally released in English as Duck, You Sucker!, then retitled A Fistful of Dynamite shortly afterwards. One of Leone’s most overly political films, Dynamite is a sprawling saga set against the Mexican Revolution. Rod Steiger stars as Juan, a simple peasant and bandit with no interest in politics; he just wants to rob banks. James Coburn is Sean, a jaded, self-exiled Irish rebel and explosives expert. Circumstances bring these two large characters together; revolutionary politics force them to take sides. This being Leone, of course, one expects more than a fistful or two of cinematic dynamite with one’s politics, and the film definitely delivers: Dynamite is a flamboyant, tragicomic feast of tour-de-force action sequences, furious flashbacks, memorable Morricone music, and incendiary violence. “The most wry of the political Spaghettis, and wholly wonderful” (Paul Taylor, Time Out). “Widely ignored on its release, Dynamite looks better and better with each year: Leone’s blend of explosive action and boozy poetry is just strange enough to work” (American Cinematheque). “Rapturous and more than slightly insane ... Features one of the most glorious and unforgettable scores by Morricone” (Elvis Mitchell, New York Times). Colour, 35mm. 157 mins. SATURDAY, MARCH 9 – 8:20 PM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13 – 8:15 PM THURSDAY, MARCH 14 – 8:15 PM

the hills run red (Un fiume di dollari)

Italy 1966. Director: Carlo Lizzani Cast: Thomas Hunter, Nando Gazzolo, Henry Silva, Dan Duryea, Nicoletta Machiavelli

“One of the most stylish and deranged of all Italian Westerns” (Alex Cox), The Hills Run Red was a rare foray into Spaghetti territory by Marxist critic, neorealist screenwriter, and veteran director Carlo Lizzani, credited here as Lee W. Beaver. In more familiar territory was the composer of the film’s score, credited as Leo Nichols, but actually Ennio Morricone! Thomas Hunter, a little-known American actor who worked in Euro exploitation cinema, has the lead; in the sensationalistic words of the movie’s posters, he’s “The man who had five years to think about killing ... his best friend!” “Ex-Confederate soldiers Thomas Hunter and Nando Gazzolo turn to crime, but when a heist sends Hunter to jail and Gazzolo ends up with the loot, the newly incarcerated Hunter vows revenge. When he gets out of jail, he discovers that his old partner has killed his family and teamed up with psycho Henry Silva. Luckily, mysterious gunman Dan Duryea proves to be a useful ally in Hunter’s quest for revenge” (American Cinematheque). The film’s Italian-language title, which translates as “A River of Dollars,” was an obvious attempt to cash in on Spaghetti alla Sergio Leone. Colour, 35mm. 89 mins. TUESDAY, MARCH 12 – 8:45 PM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13 – 6:30 PM THURSDAY, MARCH 14 – 6:30 PM

DJANGO RESURRECTED, REMASTERED, AND RE-RELEASED!

NEW 35mm PRINT!

THE MERCENARY (Il mercenario)

Italy/Spain 1968. Director: Sergio Corbucci Cast: Franco Nero, Tony Musante, Jack Palance, Giovanna Ralli, Eduardo Fajardo

Django director Sergio Corbucci is at the top of his game in 1968’s The Mercenary. Like Django, it also ranks highly on Quentin Tarantino’s list of favourite Spaghetti Westerns. Django star Franco Nero plays Polish gun-for-hire Kowalski, engaged to guard a shipment of silver during the Mexican Revolution. He instead forms an alliance with Roman (Tony Musante), a Mexican peasant leading an uprising by exploited silver miners. Jack Palance is bad-guy Curly, a fey, dandified psychopath out to foil our heroes. The film is a sterling example of the Zapata Western, a subset of the Spaghetti set in Mexico with political (typically revolutionary or Marxist) overtones; Leone’s A Fistful of Dynamite, also screening in this series, is another. Noted Italian screenwriter Franco Solinas, whose many credits include Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers and Brando-starring Burn!, co-wrote the story here. “Anticipates The Wild Bunch in its near-hysterical local colour (a troupe of clown toreadors, a religious procession with concealed machine guns) compounded by a frenzied revolutionary joie de vivre and a suitably excessive Morricone score” (J. Hoberman, Film Comment). That score, by the way, was partly recycled in Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 2. Colour, 35mm, in Italian with English subtitles. 110 mins. THURSDAY, MARCH 21 – 8:15 PM FRIDAY, MARCH 22 – 6:30 PM SATURDAY, MARCH 23 – 8:15 PM SUNDAY, MARCH 24 – 6:30 PM

DEATH RIDES A HORSE (Da uomo a uomo)

Italy 1967. Director: Giulio Petroni Cast: Lee Van Cleef, John Phillip Law, Mario Brega, Luigi Pistilli, Anthony Dawson

DJANGO Italy/Spain 1966. Director: Sergio Corbucci Cast: Franco Nero, José Bódalo, Eduardo Fajardo, Loredana Nusciak, Angel Alvarez

There are several Sergio Corbucci films among Quentin Tarantino’s favourite Spaghetti Westerns, but this stylish cult shocker from ’66 is the one that gets the shout-outs in Django Unchained, Tarantino’s recent Spaghetti-and-slavery blockbuster. Now digitally remastered, Corbucci’s Django — a highpoint of non-Leone Spaghetti — is enjoying new life in its North American re-release. Franco Nero — who has a cameo in Django Unchained — is the titular mystery man, a coffin-dragging drifter who trudges into a godforsaken border town and gets caught up in the deadly feud between Mexican banditos and a gang of KKK-style racists. The spoils are a fortune in gold; there’s one nasty bit of business that clearly inspired the most notorious scene in Reservoir Dogs. Django was banned in places for its graphic violence, but also spawned a bazillion Django-titled sequels, all but one unofficial. “Corbucci’s style is a mix of social realism, highly decorative visuals, and finely mounted action sequences ... Funny, visceral, bloody, no-nonsense entertainment with a touch of class” (Wally Hammond, Time Out). “More violent and pessimistic than anything before it ... Relentless, surrealistically cruel and crazy, it is a film I’ve seen several times; it never disappoints” (Alex Cox). Colour, Bluray Disc, in Italian with English subtitles. 90 mins. THURSDAY, MARCH 21 – 6:30 PM FRIDAY, MARCH 22 – 8:35 PM SATURDAY, MARCH 23 – 6:30 PM SUNDAY, MARCH 24 – 8:35 PM THURSDAY, APRIL 4 – 8:40 PM SUNDAY, APRIL 7 – 6:30 PM

A Quentin Tarantino favourite — Kill Bill Vol. 1 is sprinkled with references and hommages to it — Giulio Petroni’s Death Rides a Horse is a fast-paced, action-filled Spaghetti Western with a powerful Ennio Morricone score and a fine script by Luciano Vincenzoni, who co-wrote several of Leone’s Spaghettis as well as Corbucci’s The Mercenary. John Phillip Law plays Bill, a vengeful young man out to hunt down the gang that slaughtered his family — in front of his eyes — 15 years before. Lee Van Cleef is Ryan, the outlaw who is after the same gang for reasons of his own. “Replete with baroque torture and acid flashbacks, Death Rides a Horse unfolds in a starkly primitive world — if not a desert on the planet Mars. The Morricone score is among the maestro’s most striking, full of choral chanting and pounding kettle drums” (J. Hoberman, Village Voice). “A one-of-a-kind blend of Western, horror, and film noir with a clever flashback structure, and one of the most hallucinatory and haunting of all Italian oaters” (American Cinematheque). Colour, 35mm. 114 mins.

THURSDAY, APRIL 4 – 6:30 PM FRIDAY, APRIL 5 – 8:15 PM SATURDAY, APRIL 6 – 6:30 PM MONDAY, APRIL 8 – 8:15 PM

IMPORTED 35mm PRINT!

the

good , the bad and the ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) Italy/Spain 1966. Director: Sergio Leone Cast: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè, Mario Brega

No film is more synonymous with the Spaghetti Western than Sergio Leone’s 1966 magnum opus, the third film in the informal “Man With No Name” trilogy (aka the “Dollars” trilogy) that made a star of Clint Eastwood. During the American Civil War, three ruthless drifters — a Mexican bandito (Eli Wallach), a cold-hearted bounty hunter (Lee Van Cleef), and a laconic con man (Eastwood) — battle several armies and each other in a search for a fortune in buried Confederate gold. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly serves up a cynical, subversive spectacle of apocalyptic proportions, mixing black humour, hyperbolic violence, a now-legendary Ennio Morricone score, and cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli’s jaw-dropping, eye-expanding visual arsenal of panoramic vistas, extreme close-ups, and vertiginous pans and zooms. Dusters don’t get any more delirious, or more hyperkinetic, than this. “Leone’s masterpiece and the greatest of all Spaghetti Westerns” (J. Hoberman, Village Voice). “Thrilling ... As luridly intoxicating as anything in Puccini” (Elvis Mitchell, New York Times). “Often imitated but never duplicated ... One of the greatest displays of unadulterated testosterone in screen history” (Andrew Johnston, Time Out New York). Colour, 35mm, 179 mins. FRIDAY, APRIL 12 – 6:30 PM SUNDAY, APRIL 14 – 3:00 PM & 6:30 PM MONDAY, APRIL 15 – 6:30 PM FRIDAY, APRIL 19 – 6:30 PM

新

東

宝

株

式

会

社

! S E D U N GHOSTS! ! S N U G THE SENSATIONAL CINEMA OF

SHINTOHO Born in 1947 and bankrupt by 1961, the short-lived film studio Shintoho was a pioneering company in the development of Japanese popular cinema and its wilder and more fantastical dimensions. Shintoho was the smallest of the six major studios (Daiei, Nikkatsu, Shochiku, Toei, and Toho were the others) active in Japan in the 1950s, a period often called the Second Golden Age of Japanese cinema. The company was spun off from Toho during a period of labour turmoil at that powerful production house; Shintoho means “New Toho.” During its initial years, Shintoho was associated with films by some of Japanese cinema’s greatest masters, including Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Ichikawa, and Naruse. In the mid-1950s, however, under the new leadership of Mitsugu Okura, a former carnival showman, the struggling company embarked on a radically different direction. Shifting Shintoho’s focus to low-budget genre and exploitation films, and amping up the anythinggoes sex, violence, and horror, Okura spearheaded the saucy, sensationalistic, disreputable cinema — hard-boiled noirs, erotic thrillers, supernatural stories, lurid melodramas — that become Shintoho’s speciality, and which was often very much in the Japanese mode known as ero-guro, or erotic grotesque. This retrospective of eight Shintoho cult classics from the late 1950s and early 1960s was curated by film critic Mark Shilling for the Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy, an annual festival devoted to popular Asian cinema. The series provides a lively sampling of Shintoho’s delightfully deranged output, and includes films by noted Shintoho cult auteurs Nobouo Nakagawa, famed for his supremely stylish horror films, and Teruo Ishii, Japan’s prolific “King of Cult,” who directed a series of “sleaze noirs” during his tenure at Shintoho. The retrospective also includes Toshio Shimura’s legendary Revenge of the Pearl Queen, an ama (“pearl diver”) movie starring sexpot Maeda Michiko (“Japan’s answer to Sofia Loren”) and featuring the first nude scene in Japanese cinema. To the best of

our knowledge, none of these eight films has screened theatrically in Vancouver before. “Shintoho films were known for their racy, lurid titles and posters — all approved by [studio head] Mitsugu Okura — that promised forbidden delights to their mostly young, male fans. Okura wasn’t particular about the films’ contents as long as they delivered on the promise of the title. This allowed talented directors such as Teruo Ishii and Nobuo Nakagawa to put their signature on their films and make them stand out over the competition. It’s hard to say that Shintoho had a distinct style, but its best films had a vitality that the staider products of other studios lacked and still makes them watchable today ... Shintoho’s strongest impact was in the horror and erotic genres. Every Japanese horror director today owes a debt to Nobuo Nakagawa, who pioneered the mix of modern and traditional kaidan (ghost story) elements that characterizes Japanese horror. Shintoho films about ama, women pearl divers who worked in figure-revealing attire, may be mild by present standards, but they were considered bold provocations in their day. In their commercial success and pushing of borders, these films laid the groundwork for the huge pinku (erotic) film industry that was to arise in the 1960s and play such a major role in popular culture in the decades to follow.” MARK SHILLING

Acknowledgments: “Nudes! Guns! Ghosts! The Sensational Cinema of Shintoho” was curated by Mark Shilling and organized by the Udine Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy. “No Borders, No Limits: 1960s Nikkatsu Action Cinema,” an exhibition originally programmed by Mark Shilling for the Udine FEFF, was presented at The Cinematheque in 2008. Program notes adapted from film descriptions by Mark Shilling.

Ghost Story of Yotsuya (Tôkaidô Yotsuya kaidan) Japan 1959. Director: Nobuo Nakagawa Cast: Shigeru Amachi, Noriko Kitazawa, Katsuko Wakasugi, Shuntarô Emi, Ryûzaburô Nakamura

Revenge of the Pearl Queen (Onna shinju-ô no fukushû) Japan 1956. Director: Toshio Shimura Cast: Michiko Maeda, Ken Utsui, Shigeru Amachi, Saburô Sawai, Susumu Fujita

Director Nobuo Nakagawa’s stylish horror masterpiece adapts Tsuruya Nanboku’s 1825 kabuki play, one of Japan’s most famous ghost stories. There have been many screen versions, dating back to the silent era, but Nakagawa’s is typically thought to be the best and one of the most faithful. Nakagawa focuses on the psychology of the characters as he relates the classic tale of ruthless, cruel, but humanly weak samurai Iemon (Shigeru Amachi) and his abused, ill-fated wife Iwa (Katsuko Wakasugi). The director’s characteristic atmospherics are present, particularly his use of colour to express the poisoning of the body (sickly greens) and mind (ghastly reds). The film is most memorable for the raw force of its emotions, from the shock and desolation of the betrayed wife to the fright and desperation of the doomed husband. The story has many a theatrical twist — it is based on a kabuki play, after all — but boiled down, it becomes a Japanese Macbeth about a monstrous ambition whose fruits are murder most foul — and, for the hero, with his bad conscience and blood-stained hands, ruin and death. The stand-out performance is that of Wakasugi as Iwa. Colour, Blu-ray Disc, in Japanese with English subtitles. 76 mins.

When Shintoho’s voluptuous new discovery Michiko Maeda undressed for Revenge of the Pearl Queen — the first nude scene in Japanese cinema! — it hit the screens with a seismic force, and a new star was born. The film’s central plot is based on a true story of sex and survival: 19 Japanese men discovered on Anatahan, a tiny island in the Marianas Group, in 1951. Refusing to accept Japan’s defeat in the war, they had scraped out a meagre existence — and schemed and fought, with frequently deadly results, over the one woman in their midst. The tale was basis for 1953’s Anatahan, Josef von Sternberg’s final film. Toshio Shimura’s movie weaves a tale of robbery, murder, and wrongful accusation into the mix. Young office worker and future pearl diver Natsuki (Maeda), on a U.S.-bound ship, falls overboard while resisting the unwanted attentions of her dastardly boss Asanuma (Fujita Susumu). Washing up on a tropical beach, she is revived by five male castaways — several of whom are as hungry-eyed and lustful as Asanuma. The film launched not only Maeda’s career but also a new subgenre of films about female pearl divers! B&W, Blu-ray Disc, in Japanese with English subtitles. 90 mins.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10 – 6:30 PM SATURDAY, APRIL 13 – 8:15 PM

THURSDAY, APRIL 11 – 8:15 PM SATURDAY, APRIL 13 – 6:30 PM

"⒬સ‫ک‬⢧㏐ The Horizon Glitters

Flesh Pier

Japan 1961. Director: Michiyoshi Doi Cast: Shigeru Amachi, Masayo Banri, Tôru Chiba, Jerry Fujio, Yûzô Harumi

Japan 1958. Director: Teruo Ishii Cast: Yoko Mihara, Ken Utsui, Akemi Tsukushi, Teruo Hata, Kenjiro Uemura

Based on a story by Fujiwara Shinji, Michiyoshi Doi’s black comedy about a prison break gone horribly wrong is unlike anything else Shintoho was making at the time. Released just before the studio’s collapse, The Horizon Glitters is a brilliant one-off made with a freedom and energy that verges on the anarchic, and with echoes of the Hollywood movies (Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, The Defiant Ones) that influenced Doi’s generation of directors. The film begins with brief sketches of how five convicts — Capone, Professor, Bartender, Irokichi, and Sea Monster — ended up in the same cell. Upending their rough harmony is the arrival of Dynamite, or ’Mite for short, a swaggering, disrespectful protopunk (played by Jerry Fujio). ’Mite quickly earns the violent ire of his cellmates, but when he announces he knows the whereabouts of a large cache of diamonds, escape is in order. Doi spices the adventure with incidents and antics that are a mix of the slapstick and surreal, including a nightmarish trek across a slag heap of a mountain. What lies at the journey’s end? The glitter draws our heroes on — but the horizon keeps receding. B&W, Blu-ray Disc, in Japanese with English subtitles. 89 mins.

“Another world” of illicit pleasures lies beneath the glittering neon surface of Tokyo in Flesh Pier, a 1958 thriller from Shintoho “sleaze noir” director Teruo Ishii (whose Yellow Line also screens in this series). Ken Utsui stars as Yoshioka, an undercover cop investigating a callgirl ring operating out of a Ginza nightclub. He is surprised to discover that the boss’s moll, Rumi (Yoko Mihara), is his long-lost love. He also recognizes a fashion model at the club, Haruko (Akemi Tsukushi), as a reporter he knew when he was fighting crime in Kobe. The club’s sharp-eyed pianist, Teruo (Teruo Hata), senses something fishy about Yoshioka and Haruko, and relays his suspicions to Rumi, who still harbours feelings for Yoshioka. Shot semi-documentary style in the backstreets of Akasaka, Ginza, and Shinjuku, Ishii’s twisty story of evasions and betrayals in Japan’s sex industry unfolds with an unblinking recognition of its sordidness, together with a winking acknowledgment of its pleasures. This double-jointed approach became the director’s trademark. B&W, Blu-ray Disc, in Japanese with English subtitles. 73 mins.

(Chiheisen ga giragira)

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10 – 8:00 PM THURSDAY, APRIL 11 – 6:30 PM

(Jotai Sanbashi)

THURSDAY, APRIL 18 – 6:30 PM SUNDAY, APRIL 21 – 8:05 PM

Ghost Cat of Otama Pond

Death Row Woman

Japan 1960. Director: Yoshihiro Ishikawa Cast: Shozaburo Date, Hiroshi Sugi, Noriko Kitazawa, Namiji Matsuura, Fumiko Miyata

Japan 1960. Director: Nobuo Nakagawa Cast: Miyuki Takakura, Hiroshi Hayashi, Fumiko Miyata, Yasuko Mita, Keinosuke Wada

Yoshihiro Ishikawa apprenticed under Shintoho horror master Nobuo Nakagawa before making his directorial debut with 1960’s spooky, stylish Ghost Cat of Otama Pond. The story — a young couple (Shozaburo Date and Noriko Kitazawa) caught in a web of demonic possession and ghostly revenge, with a black cat serving as a conduit between the worlds of the living and dead — is familiar from the era’s horror films, Nakagawa’s included, though the sumptuous production, as well as the use of colour, is rare for a film by a Shintoho first-timer. Nakagawa’s influence can be seen in everything from the use of otherworldly shades of red and green, also found in Ghost Story Of Yotsuya, to the shadowy period atmospherics of the “ghost mansion,” supplied by art director Haruyasu Kurosawa, a frequent Nakagawa collaborator. The film’s theatricality, from the sets to the performance styles, also echoes Nakagawa in his more kabuki-esque moods. Ishikawa learned his lurid lessons well — and delivers shocks and chills that would have done his teacher proud. Colour, Blu-ray Disc, in Japanese with English subtitles. 75 mins.

Shintoho horror master Nobuo Nakagawa (Ghost Story of Yotsuya) directed this brisk tale of a young woman arrested for the murder of her wealthy businessman father, convicted on false evidence, and sentenced to death. Kyoko (Miyuki Takakura), the heroine of Death Row Woman, is determined to prove her innocence. With the aid of an older convict, she makes a daring escape and reunites with her fiancé. But with the police closing in, can they unmask the real killer in time? There is a feminist subtext here (the postwar period had started to liberate Japanese women from their feudal shackles): Kyoko not only objects to her father’s choice of husband, but also decides to have her lover’s baby minus a marriage certificate. Although perhaps closer in sensibility to the era’s “woman’s pictures,” whose typical themes were female suffering and sacrifice, than to the womenin-prison exploitation pics of the 1970s, Death Row Woman is something of a template for several of the latter’s frequent tropes, with its woman-on-woman brawls and its (mild by later standards) depictions of same-sex desire. B&W, Blu-ray Disc, in Japanese with English subtitles. 76 mins.

(Kaibyô Otama-ga-ike)

THURSDAY, APRIL 18 – 8:00 PM SATURDAY, APRIL 20 – 6:30 PM

(Onna shikeishû no datsugoku)

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24 – 6:30 PM THURSDAY, APRIL 25 – 8:05 PM

Vampire Bride

Yellow Line

(Hanayome kyûketsuma)

(Ôsen chitai)

Japan 1960. Director: Kyotaro Namiki Cast: Junko Ikeuchi, Hiroko Amakusa, Reiko Seto, Yasuko Mita, Keiji Takamiya

Japan 1960. Director: Ishii Teruo Cast: Shigeru Amachi, Teruo Yoshida, Yoko Mihara, Teruko Amano, Mako Sanjo

Actress Junko Ikeuchi, who rose to stardom at Shintoho for her pure, fresh-scrubbed image, was cast in Kyotaro Namiki’s horror pic Vampire Bride as a sort of punishment by studio boss Mitsugu Okura. She had married against his wishes, and had to suffer the consequences when the marriage failed and she returned to Shintoho. Ikeuchi plays Fujiko, a student at a buyo (Japanese dance) school. When her friendship with several classmates sours, events take a terrible turn, leaving Fujiko with a horrific facial scar — and her dreams of stardom shattered. She seeks relief from a sorceress in the mountains, who transforms her in a fanged, hairy monster. Meanwhile, a new girl, Sayoko, who is the spitting-image of Fujiko, mysteriously appears. The transformations from woman to monster are hardly hightech, accomplished as they are through repeated fade-outs and fade-ins; more interesting is Ikeuchi’s psychological transition from gentle-spirited woman to implacable monster. Ikeuchi disliked the role, but it stretched her beyond the formulaic nice-girl characters that had first made her a star and remains among her most memorable. B&W, Blu-ray in Japanese with English subtitles. 80 mins.

Teruo Ishii, Japan’s “King of Cult,” directed a series of nasty films noir during his time at Shintoho. Yellow Line is set amidst the narrow, twisty alleys, peopled by criminals and other marginals, of the Casbah, the dark sector of Kobe. A hitman (Shigeru Amachi) is betrayed by his employer. At Tokyo Station he grabs Emi (Yoko Mihara), a dancer on her way to a new job, to serve as a hostage/cover, and hops a train to Kobe. Soon afterward, Emi’s reporter boyfriend Mayama (Teruo Yoshida) finds Emi’s shoe and suspects that she may have walked into a trap set by a Kobe-based prostitution ring. Meanwhile, in Kobe, Emi scrawls a cry for help in a ¥100 note and slips it to a shoe store employee — but no one notices it until a young office worker, Yumiko (Mako Sanjo), happens to get it in her change. In this film, more than any other in his Shintoho period, Ishii was able to create his own special atmosphere, somewhere on the borderland between dream and reality, where the forbidden and unlawful thrill and threaten in equal measure. B&W, Blu-ray Disc, in Japanese with English subtitles. 79 mins.

SATURDAY, APRIL 20 – 8:00 PM SUNDAY, APRIL 21 – 6:30 PM

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24 – 8:00 PM THURSDAY, APRIL 25 – 6:30 PM

A MONTHLY MENTAL HEALTH FILM SERIES presented by THE CINEMATHEQUE and the INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH, UBC DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY

The Cinematheque is pleased to join with the Institute of Mental Health, UBC Department of Psychiatry in presenting “Frames of Mind,” a monthly event utilizing film and video to promote professional and community education on issues pertaining to mental health and illness. Screenings, accompanied by presentations and audience discussions, are held on the third Wednesday of each month. Series directed by DR. HARRY KARLINSKY, Director of Public Education, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia. Programmed by CAROLINE COUTTS, film curator, filmmaker, and programmer of “Frames of Mind” since its inception in September 2002.

TEDDY BEAR At 6’7” and 308 pounds of pure muscle, Dennis (Kim Kold) is a mountain of a man. His imposing physique, however, obscures a sensitive nature and a yearning for love. At 38, Dennis still lives with his domineering mother Ingrid (Elsebeth Steentoft) in a dismal Copenhagen suburb. His awkward attempts at dating are foiled both by his innate shyness and his mom’s overbearing nature. After Dennis’s uncle Bent (Allan Mogenson) marries a Thai woman he met on vacation, Dennis takes his own trip to Pattaya, Thailand, telling Ingrid he’s off to a bodybuilding competition in Germany. The Thai sex-tourism industry horrifies Dennis, but he hits it off with Toi (Lamaiporn Hougaard), a woman who owns a local gym. But when Dennis attempts to bring Toi to Denmark, he encounters fierce opposition from Ingrid. Teddy Bear was shot documentary-style with a hand-held camera, using a mix of amateur and professional actors; the unadorned observational style richly yields both comedy and pathos. “Watching Dennis’s quiet revolution gather steam transfixes us in this subtle, moving story about integrity, the inherent strength in gentleness, and what it means to be dutiful to oneself” (Sundance F.F.). Colour, Blu-ray Disc, in Danish, English and Thai with English subtitles. 93 mins.

Denmark 2012. Director: Mads Matthiesen Cast: Kim Kold, Elsebeth Steentoft, Lamaiporn Hougaard, Allan Mogensen, David Winters

VANCOUVER PREMIERE

S L E E P WA L K WITH ME USA 2012. Director: Mike Birbiglia Cast: Mike Birbiglia, Lauren Ambrose, Carol Kane, James Rebhorn, Cristin Milioti

Post-screening discussion with Janet Oakes, M.A., BC-ATP, FIPA, a psychoanalyst in private practice in Vancouver. She is on the executive of the Western Branch of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society and teaches in seminars presented by the Branch. Janet is an artist and has an ongoing interest in applied psychoanalysis relating to social conditions, literature, arts, and culture. Moderated by Dr. Harry Karlinsky, Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia. Co-sponsored by the Western Branch of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20 – 7:30 PM

Winner of an Audience Award at Sundance, Sleepwalk with Me is a smart, neurotic slice-of-life comedy about a struggling stand-up comedian’s issues with his stalled career, imploding long-term relationship, and serious sleep dysfunction. REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder is a condition that causes a person to “act out” his dreams. In the film, Mike Birbiglia plays autobiographical Matt Pandamiglio, an underachiever tending bar in a comedy club and waiting for his big break. Adorable girlfriend Abby (Lauren Ambrose) remains his biggest supporter, but, eight years into their relationship, she wants to get married. Matt isn’t sure, but then he isn’t sure about anything. As his anxieties increase, so too do his sleepwalking episodes — including a flying leap out a (closed) second-story window that leaves him with 33 stitches! This actually happened to Birbiglia in a Washington hotel while on tour; events like these inspired his one-man off-Broadway show, a segment on NPR’s “This American Life,” a book, a comedy album — and now this film, co-written and produced by Ira Glass. “A very funny, very sad, and ultimately moving look at how comedy is often born from immense emotional (and occasionally physical) pain ... Easily one of the best films ever made on the subject of stand-up comedy” (Jacob S. Hall, movies.com). Colour, Blu-ray Disc. 90 mins.

Post-screening discussion with Dr. Jonathan Fleming, a psychiatrist with a special interest in sleep disorders, particularly the management of chronic insomnia. He is the Co-Director of the Sleep Disorders Program, UBC Hospital, and the Director of Postgraduate Education, UBC Department of Psychiatry. Moderated by Dr. Harry Karlinsky, Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17 – 7:30 PM

FRAMESOFMIND.CA

Local glacial water that supports local arts

Acting. Writing. Directing. FILM ARTS PROGRAM AT LANGARA

An intensive program where aspiring actors, writers, and directors learn and collaborate on and off the set. Get trained in eight months. Apply now. Start January 2014. Learn more. 604.323.5024 gfisher@langara.bc.ca www.langara.bc.ca/filmarts

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Cronenberg’s mindblowing Burroughs adaptation. Now on Blu-ray!

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THE BLOB

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ECLIPSE SERIES 38: MASAKI KOBAYASHI

REPO MAN

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A MAN ESCAPED

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RICHARD III

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