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Melbourne Cinémathèque

The Decadent Visions of Josef Von Sternberg

The Scarlet Empress Sternberg's greatest film is a pictorially brilliant homage to the imperious stardom and luminosity of Marlene Dietrich.

The Docks of New York Sternberg created this masterpiece out of the seedy underside of the great metropolis.

Shanghai Express Marlene Dietrich is the indelible Shanghai Lily, a woman of uncertain repute riding on a train with her ex-lover.

The Salvation Hunters The decorative excess that marks Sternberg's later work can be glimpsed in this striking low-budget debut.

The Epic That Never Was A Dirk Bogarde-narrated account and partial reconstruction of Sternberg's failed attempt to film Robert Graves' "I, Claudius".

The Blue Angel A puritanical school teacher falls for an alluring nightclub singer. This film launched Marlene Dietrich's international career.

The Last Command A down-and-out Hollywood extra is hired by an ex-revolutionary Russian filmmaker to play a major part in a new film production.

One Hundred Years of Nikkatsu

The Burmese Harp This depiction of the devastating effects of WWII was one of the first films directed from the point of view of the Japanese army.

The Heart This psychological study portrays a scholar riddled with an isolating guilt that causes him to treat his wife with indifference.

Kanto Wanderer An action-packed Romeo and Juliet, this visually stunning, superbly crafted film giddily invokes both Sam Fuller and Jean Cocteau.

The Flowers and the Angry Waves Bloody and elegant chaos marks this swashbuckling period piece, with guns, geisha femme-fatales, bribery and adultery aplenty.

Home Village Nikkatsu's first sound film depicts the tragic conflict that arises between Yoshio, a singer, and his devoted companion, Ayako.

Profound Desires of the Gods This film portrays an isolated family, desperate to improve their social status, whose idyllic island lifestyle is threatened.

Selected Works by Claire Denis

The Intruder A pure cinematic experience, Denis' rendition of Jean-Luc Nancy's work is an existential piece told with dreamlike fluidity.

Beau Travail Denis' defining work is one of the great portraits of male camaraderie, jealousy and North African colonialism.

35 Shots of Rum Denis' film is ostensibly simple in its quotidian observations of life, yet the director's unmistakable sensuality is omnipresent.

S'en fout la mort Jocelyn and Dah are illegal immigrants working for a shady restaurateur, training cocks to fight in a gambling hall near Paris.

White Material Denis' most recent feature is a sobering survey of tension, dissolution and violent revolution in postcolonial West Africa.

I Can't Sleep Based on an infamous murder case from the 80s, in which a gay couple killed over twenty elderly women before they were caught.

Manoel de Oliveira

Doomed Love Oliveira's adaptation of Camilo Branco's novel of thwarted passion and social repression is now regarded as his greatest work.

The Films of Lee Chang-dong

Secret Sunshine Lee's intense breakthrough film features Jeon Do-yeon as a mother who has to come to terms with the disappearance of her child.

Green Fish After years in the military, Makdong returns home to find his family in disorder. To get them back on track he becomes a gangster.