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Melbourne Cinémathèque

Elio Petri: A Filmmaker Above Suspicion

Property is No Longer a Theft (La proprietà non è più un furto) This darkly comic tale of a bank teller with a literal allergy to money is a figurative allergy to how it corrupts human souls.

I giorni contati When an ageing widower witnesses the death of a stranger on the street, he is compelled to take his life in a new direction.

Todo modo A group of Christian democrats attends a religious retreat, turning confessional practices into tools of power.

We Still Kill the Old Way (A ciascuno il suo) Petri's closely observed tale of small-town Sicilian life is one of the earliest films to tackle the subject of the Mafia.

Preludes to the Czechoslovak New Wave

Jirí Trnka: The Emperor's Nightingale (Císaruv slavík) An adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale 'The Nightingale' by legendary Czech puppet animator Jirí Trnka.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Sen noci svatojánské) Jirí Trnka's adaptation of Shakespeare's play is a beautiful, balletic delight.

The Sun in a Net (Slnko v sieti) Director Stefan Uher's second feature was the first Czechoslovak film to break from the mandates of Socialist Realism.

Roger Corman: Fast, Cheap and Under Control

The Masque of the Red Death This eye-popping, stylish adaptation of the seminal short story is arguably the greatest of Roger Corman's eight Poe adaptations.

The Tomb of Ligeia Vincent Price stars as a remarried man haunted by the ghost of his first wife.

Rock All Night Two killers on the run take refuge in a bar and terrorise the captive clientele.

The Intruder A charismatic man, resplendent in white, strides in to a sleepy town just as desegregation spreads through the American South.

X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes Scientistic hubris leads to severe punishment in Roger Corman's impressive horror/sci-fi hybrid.

Creature from the Haunted Sea Part horror, part comedy and part parody, Roger Corman's cult classic is entirely enjoyable.

A Bucket of Blood Dick Miller stars as Walter Paisley in this affectionate satire of the beatnik scene in late 1950s Southern California.

The Wild Angels Roger Corman's iconic and wildly exploitative entry in the 1960s biker gang genre is one of his most influential works.

The Trip This infamous foray into the world of LSD is an early experiment in the use of baroque, psychedelic style.

The (Non) Fiction Works of Werner Herzog

Lessons of Darkness This epic, Wagnerian lament, one of Herzog's finest, reimagines the Gulf War's aftermath as if it occurred on another planet.

The Wild Blue Yonder This final part of the director's 'science fiction trilogy' is imbued with both ecstasy and melancholy.

The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (Die große Ekstase des Bildschnitzers Steiner) Werner Herzog trains his camera on a Swiss woodcarver who seeks the thrill of competitive ski jumping.

Wings of Hope A harrowing documentary about the sole survivor of a passenger flight that crashed during a thunderstorm in Peru in 1971.

Bells from the Deep: Faith and Superstition in Russia Herzog explores the myth of the lost city of Kitezh in this speculative investigation of Russian mysticism and faith.

The Dark Glow of the Mountains (Gasherbrum - Der leuchtende Berg) This documentary finds Werner Herzog following great freestyle mountaineer Reinhold Messner on a perilous Himalayan traverse.

Little Dieter Needs to Fly An extraordinary testament to a remarkable man who survived not only Hitler but also imprisonment and torture by the Viet Cong.

Echoes of a Sombre Empire (Echos aus einem düsteren Reich) This unapologetic account of cultural and political trauma highlights Herzog's fascination with the fall-out of postcolonialism.

Ballad of the Little Soldier (Ballade vom kleinen Soldaten) An unsettling and confronting account of civilian devastation and the use of child soldiers in guerilla warfare.

The Films of Chantal Akerman

The Captive (La captive) This adaptation of Volume 5 of Proust's 'Remembrance of Things Past' details the relationship between a rich man and his mistress.

I, You, He, She (Je, tu, il, elle) Chantal Akerman stars as a young woman embarking on a literal and metaphorical road trip in this confronting, confessional work.

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles The undisputed jewel in the crown of Chantal Akerman's "cinema of the everyday" remains an arthouse and feminist classic.

Golden Eighties A delightfully ironic, sensual, and kitsch Euro-musical about the shopping mall desires of beautiful boys and girls.

From the East (D'est) The best of a string of docu-essays by Chantal Akerman dealing with the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.