The Melbourne Cinémathèque & ACMI present
Lemonade Joe
When
Wed 20 Dec 2023
In this enduring cult comedy, Lipský and co-writer Jiří Brdečka draw on the latter’s serialised stories and plays to satirise the golden age of the western, as well as the competing ideologies of the West and the East. An all-star cast (Karel Fiala, Miloš Kopecký, Květa Fialová) grace this relentlessly inventive, colour-tinted CinemaScope parody of the virtuous, crooning cowboy musical B-westerns of Gene Autry and Tex Ritter.
35mm print courtesy of the National Film Archive in Prague.
Also screening on Wed 20 December
Program
Ostern Powers: An introduction to the Eastern European Western
Aferim! (2015) – Wed 6 Dec, 7pm
The Wind Blows Under Your Feet (1976) – Wed 6 Dec, 9.30pm
Western (2017) – Wed 13 Dec, 7pm
The Sons of Great Bear (1966) – Wed 13 Dec, 9.35pm
Nobody Wanted to Die (1965) – Wed 20 Dec, 7pm
Lemonade Joe (1964) – Wed 20 Dec, 9pm
About the program
It may come as a surprise, but that most quintessentially American genre, the western, was enormously popular behind the Iron Curtain. Of course, it was seldom possible for Eastern Bloc audiences to see Hollywood films. No matter; even though socialist states deemed the Hollywood western decadent in propagating foundational frontier myths, they took to the production of westerns with great relish...
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About Melbourne Cinémathèque
Australia's longest-running film society, Melbourne Cinémathèque screens significant works of international cinema in the medium they were created, the way they would have originally screened.
Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered, volunteer-run, not-for-profit and membership-driven.
