like a film festival, only all year round!
Electroma
Scouring the film festivals and the hippest art-house cinemas from around the world, our team of intrepid cinema programmers brings you a fantastic selection of premiere films you will not see anywhere else.
From brand new features and documentaries premiering in Melbourne (or Australia) for the very first time, to high definition restorations of classic movies (for which there are often only one or two 35mm prints in the entire world), and new cinema plucked fresh from the thriving creative undergrowth of the Australian indie film industry, there is something for all tastes in the coming months.
Here's a sneak preview of some of the highlights coming up at ACMI Cinemas:
Klimt unclassified 18+
Raúl Ruiz, France/Austria/Germany/UK, 2005
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE (director's cut)
Screening April 26 - 29
Casting aside more linear approaches to the 'biopic', Raúl Ruiz's Klimt weaves a seductive collage with disparate narrative and historical threads drawn from the life and, by all accounts, rather rambunctious times of Austrian painter, Gustav Klimt (John Malkovich).
Ruiz, a cinematic surrealist from way back, aptly describes his film as "a phantasmagoria". Set in fin-de-siècle Vienna, the film indeed unfolds as a visually ravishing and occasionally fevered dream.
"Ruiz focuses on Klimt's eternal search for perfection, eroticism and love, his tireless hunt for a new form of expression, his rejection of the social and artistic zeitgeist.and the demise of an empire." International Film Festiva Rotterdam
Ghost on the Highway: A Portrait of Jeffrey Lee Pierce and the Gun Club Unclassified 18+
USA, 2006
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Screening May 12 & 19 as part of Focus on Punk (May 11 - 20)
You haven't heard of The Gun Club? But have you heard of CBGBs, The Ramones, The Black Flag, The Cramps, Sisters of Mercy, Kid Congo Powers, The Blasters, Blondie and Henry Rollins? Then you should see this movie!
While name-checked as a serious influence by many of today's most credible musicians, LA Punk band The Gun Club never quite made it to wide-scale recognition, remaining one of the most influential bands never seen.
One of a handful of bands to genuinely push the punk/post-punk template, The Gun Club was fronted by legendary vocalist Jeffrey Lee Pierce and included such luminaries as Kid Congo Powers, Patricia Morrison, Romi Mori and Terry Graham in their fluid line up.
Producing seriously muscular albums 1981's The Fire of Love (described by the New York Times as the first ever 'punk-blues' album) and classic tunes such as Sex Beat and She's Like Heroin To Me, Ghost on the Highway recounts both Pierce's story and the band's 17-year history.
Daft Punk's Electroma
France, 2006
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Screening June 7 - 10 as part of First Look
Daft Punk's sci-fi cum road movie is a surreal visual feast backed with a stellar soundtrack featuring the likes of Chopin, Brian Eno, Sebastien Tellier and Curtis Mayfield.
Set against the stark Californian desert landscape, two robots embark on a journey to become human that leads to an earth-shattering conclusion.
Brimming with arresting images that evoke the spirit of Lynch, Van Sant and Antonioni's Zabriskie Point, Electroma is an unforgettable "big screen" odyssey, wryly comic, suspenseful and completely engrossing.
Ma Mere
France, 2004
IMPORTED PRINT. AUSTRALIAN THEATRICAL PREMIERE
Screening on June 29 as part of Focus on Isabelle Huppert (June 29 - July 10, ACMI Cinemas)
Honore's provocative film is based on the novel by Georges Bataille,whose sensational reputation as an exponent of the 'literature of transgression' belies the deeper exploration of human motivations his works attempted to illuminate.
Huppert and rising French star Louis Garrel (The Dreamers, Les Amants Reguliers, Dans Paris) are cast as mother and son.
On holiday in the Canary Islands - and with the family patriarch neatly despatched in the film's opening scenes - the stage is set for Pierre to be initiated into some fairly unconventional mores.
"Huppert is absolutely compelling" The Independent
Jesus Camp
USA, 2006
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Screening July 5 - 8 as part of First Look
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's Oscar-nominated documentary about effervescent child preacher Becky Fischer and her flock, is a riveting debate starter for audiences on both sides of the religious divide.
Grooming youngsters for "God's Army" and warning them off "extreme liberals" is Fischer's mission but for the larger evangelical movement sweeping contemporary America, God's children are the key to a brighter future where the separation of church and state is eradicated.
Winner of numerous awards including Outstanding Achievement in Documentary, at Tribeca Film Festival, Jesus Camp provides a compelling insight on the times in which we live.
Keep watching our news pages for details about more films you won't see anywhere else very soon!
Published Friday, 13 April 2007
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