the thinking person's cinema
Breathless
Melbourne's mid-week film geek fest is back
While most Melbournians spend their summer days at the beach, at the cricket or splurging at post-Christmas sales, the city's gaggle of cinephiles waits with bated breath for the release of the Melbourne Cinémathèque's annual calendar.
Last year we spent our Wednesday nights paying tribute to the likes of François Truffaut, Carl Dreyer, Fritz Lang and Roman Polanski. Our political conscience was stirred in a trip back to the tumultuous year of 1968 and we practised our kung-fu moves like those seen in the wuxia-inspired gems of early Hong Kong martial arts cinema. We laughed in the aisles at some classic American screwball and celebrated the glory days of a classic American screwball, Howard Hawks.
So what's in store for us in 2009?
Next week's opening night double bill features Nicholas Ray's Bigger Than Life and Vincente Minnelli's adaptation of the James Jones novel Some Came Running. Then, we bathe in the French New Wave glow of Jean-Paul Belmondo in Melville's Léon Morin, Prêtre and Godard's Breathless, after which we travel to a technicolour India as imagined by Jean Renoir in The River and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in Black Narcissus.
Fast forward to March and the focus turns to a quintessential master of cinema, in a brief but brilliant season 'Between Shadow & Light: The World of Ingmar Bergman'. From his autobiographical Fanny & Alexander to his personal favourite Winter Light via the iconic The Seventh Seal, the season captures the essence of this incisive observer of the human condition. It's a welcome tribute to a great auteur and a fitting start to another year of significant screenings, from Melbourne's only movie club for serious buffs!
Melbourne Cinémathèque's screenings are every Wednesday night from 7pm. Click here for screening details, and download the full 2009 program at the Cinémathèque website - which you'll find here
Published Thursday, 5 February 2009
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