VIVA! & Gala Around Town Films
All films show in the Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall. Each program $8, CMA members $6, seniors 65 & over $5, students $4, or one Panorama voucher.
Aspects of Artistic Luxury
Witness films that intersect, in one way or another, with objects in the Artistic Luxury exhibition—or with the era during which the pieces were created.
Paris 1900
Sunday, November 2, 2008, 1:30
Directed by Nicole Védrès. This documentary limns the life of Paris and its inhabitants during "La Belle Époque" (1900-1914), beginning with the completion of the Eiffel Tower and the Paris Exposition of 1900. In English (France, 1947, b&w, 16mm, 79 min.)
The Adventures of Prince Achmed
Wednesday, November 5, 2008, 7:00
Directed by Lotte Reiniger. A Middle Eastern prince tries to foil the plans of an evil sorcerer in the world’s first feature-length animated film, composed of exquisite cut-out silhouettes and hand-colored backgrounds. Inspired by the Arabian Nights, the film shows the influence of Eastern shadow puppets and Art Nouveau. (Germany, 1926, color-tinted b&w, silent with recorded music and English subtitles, 35mm, 65 min.)
Klimt (Director’s Cut)
Friday, November 7, 2008, 6:30
Sunday, November 9, 2008, 1:30
Directed by Raul Ruiz, with John Malkovich and Saffron Burrows. The life of Austrian Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt—who was both condemned and celebrated for his decorative, sensual paintings—is visualized in this ravishing, phantasmagorical portrait. Cleveland premiere of director’s cut! In English.(Austria/France/Germany/Britain, 2006, color, 35mm, 130 min.)
Proteus
Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 7:00
Directed by David Lebrun. This dazzling, multi-award-winning documentary (with animated segments) explores the 19th century’s fascination with the undersea world (the “outer space” of that era). The film’s central figure is biologist and artist Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919), whose many elegant, detailed sketches of a tiny, one-cell marine organism known as the radiolarian may have inspired Art Nouveau. (USA, 2004, color, 35mm, 60 min.) Preceded at curtain time by Jon Story and Antony Zaki’s 28-min. Against Nature (Britain, 2005), a 28-min. adaptation of Huysmans’ “decadent” 1884 novel À Rebours.
To Catch a Thief
Friday, November 14, 2008, 8:00
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant. A suave ex-jewel thief is accused of returning to his old occupation in this elegant, picturesque caper set on the French Riviera. (USA, 1955, color, 35mm, 106 min.)
Ninotchka
Sunday, November 16, 2008, 1:30
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, with Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, and Bela Lugosi. A severe, no-nonsense Soviet agent sent to Paris to supervise the sale of some valuable jewels for her government falls for a debonair Western playboy who represents everything she hates. “Garbo laughs” in this celebrated comedy co-written by Billy Wilder. (USA, 1939, b&w, 35mm, 110 min.)
Salome
Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 7:00
Directed by Charles Bryant, with Alla Nazimova. Herod’s stepdaughter dances for the head of John the Baptist in this lavish silent version of Oscar Wilde’s scandalous stage play. Produced by the film’s star, the Stanislavsky-trained Russian actress Alla Nazimova, the film has florid sets and bizarre costumes inspired by Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations for the play’s original English edition. Restored version! (USA, 1923, color-tinted b&w, silent with recorded music, 35mm, 74 min.)
Angels and Insects
Friday, November 21, 2008, 6:45
Directed by Philip Haas, with Mark Rylance, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Patsy Kensit. This brooding period piece, set in 19th-century England, tells of a poor naturalist who is hired to catalogue an insect collection belonging to a wealthy aristocrat. But he observes other strange specimens while living at his employer’s lavish country estate—all human. From an A.S. Byatt novel. Rated R. (USA/Britain, 1995, color, 35mm, 116 min.)
Nicholas and Alexandra
Sunday, November 23, 2008, 1:00
Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, with Michael Jayston, Janet Suzman, and Tom Baker. The turbulent final years of Russia’s Romanov dynasty are impressively visualized in this lavish, thoughtful historical epic that reawakened interest in the Tsarist era. Beautiful 35mm studio print! (Britain, 1971, color, 35mm, 183 min.)
The Scarlet Empress
Friday, November 28, 2008, 7:00
Sunday, November 30, 2008, 1:30
Directed by Josef von Sternberg, with Marlene Dietrich, John Lodge, and Sam Jaffe. This orgiastic spectacle, one of the most baroque and bizarre films ever to come out of Hollywood, chronicles the 18th-century rise of Catherine the Great—from German princess to empress of Russia. (USA, 1934, b&w, 35mm, 104 min.)
2008 Holiday Film Festival: Lapse of LuxuryThese five classics of world cinema chronicle the demise of the 19th-century aristocracy, along with (in some cases) the rise of the lower and middle classes.
The Leopard
Friday, December 26, 2008, 1:30
Directed by Luchino Visconti, with Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, and Alain Delon. This sumptuous historical epic is set in 19th-century Sicily at the time of Garibaldi and the unification of Italy. It tells of a prince and family patriarch whose aristocratic lifestyle is about to be swept away by the tide of history. Music by Nino Rota. (Italy/France, 1962, color, subtitles, 35mm, 188 min.)
The Magnificent Ambersons
Saturday, December 27, 2008, 1:30
Directed by Orson Welles, with Tim Holt, Joseph Cotten, and Agnes Moorehead. Orson Welles’ mutilated follow-up to Citizen Kane is still moving and sublime, and always appears high on lists of the best movies ever made. Based on a Booth Tarkington novel, it chronicles the decline of a great Midwestern family and the advent of the automobile at the cusp of the 20th century. (USA, 1942, b&w, 35mm, 88 min.)
Grand Illusion
Sunday, December 28, 2008, 1:30
Directed by Jean Renoir, with Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, and Erich von Stroheim. This humanistic masterpiece, one of the great anti-war movies, explores class differences among French prisoners and their German captors at a P.O.W. camp during WWI. (France, 1937, b&w, subtitles, 35mm, 117 min.)
The Earrings of Madame de . . .
Tuesday, December 30, 2008, 1:30
Directed by Max Ophuls, with Danielle Darrieux, Charles Boyer, and Vittorio De Sica. This elegant, rapturous film set in fin de siècle Paris is a high-society drama of adultery centered around a pair of earrings that continually changes hands. (France/Italy, 1953, b&w, subtitles, 35mm, 105 min.)
Russian Ark
Wednesday, December 31, 2008, 1:30
Directed by Alexander Sokurov. 300 years of Russian history are condensed into one continuous, 90-min. tracking shot through St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum (formerly the czar’s Winter Palace) in this unprecedented art film. The camera follows a time-traveling 19th-century French diplomat as he wends his way through 33 rooms and corridors and around 2,000 costumed extras, eventually landing in the midst of the last great royal ball held during the reign of Nicholas II. (Russia/Germany, 2002, color, subtitles, 35mm, 96 min.)
Olivier Messiaen Movie
The Crystal Liturgy: Olivier Messiaen
Sunday, December 7, 1:30.
Directed by Olivier Mille, with Olivier Messiaen. This portrait of innovative, nature-loving French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) contains interviews, archival film clips, and excerpts from his music. Cleveland theatrical premiere. (France, 2002, color, subtitles, DVD, 57 min.)
Merce Cunningham Films
Two documentaries on innovative American dancer/choreographer Merce Cunningham (b. 1919).
Merce Cunningham: A Lifetime of Dance
Sunday, February 1, 1:30.
Directed by Charles Atlas, with Merce Cunningham and John Cage. This overview of the life and work of dancer/choreographer Merce Cunningham includes ample performance clips and commentary on his innovations. (USA, 2000, color, Beta SP, 90 min.)
Cage/Cunningham
Wednesday, February 4, 7:00.
Directed by Elliot Caplan, with John Cage and Merce Cunningham, and Rudolf Nureyev. This artful documentary celebrates the decades-long partnership and collaborations between composer John Cage and dancer/choreographer Merce Cunningham. (France/USA, 1991, color, Beta SP, 100 min.)
Goran Bregovic: Film Music
Four movies with music by Goran Bregovic, all by directors from the former Yugoslavia.
Charuga
Wednesday, June 17, 6:30.
Directed by Rajko Grlic. This lavish production recounts the true story of an ex-WWI soldier who became a Robin-Hood style bandit and tried to bring the Bolshevik revolution to 1920s Croatia. (Yugoslavia, 1991, color, subtitles, 35mm, 108 min.)
Time of the Gypsies
Friday, June 19, 6:30.
Directed by Emir Kusturica. An East European gypsy boy comes of age in this raucous, lyrical classic. (Britain/Italy/Yugoslavia, 1988, color, subtitles, 35mm, 136 min.)
Arizona Dream
Wednesday, June 24, 6:30.
Directed by Emir Kusturica, with Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis, and Faye Dunaway. (USA/France, 1993, color, 35mm, 142 min.) Whimsical, kooky tale of lovers and dreamers living in and around Tucson.
Underground
Friday, June 26, 6:00.
Directed by Emir Kusturica, with Miki Manojlovic. (France/Yugoslavia/Germany/Hungary, 1995, color, subtitles, 35mm, 167 min.) The modern history of Yugoslavia becomes a surreal farce in this dizzying spectacle that won the top prize at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.