Summer Film Program

Release Date: June 21, 2017

National Gallery of Art 2017 Summer Film Program Includes Washington Premieres, Special Appearances, New Restorations, Retrospectives, Tributes to Canada and to French Production House Gaumont, Discussions and Book Signings with Authors, and Collaboration with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Film still from The Savage Eye (Ben Maddow, Joseph Strick, and Sidney Meyers, 1959, 35mm, 68 minutes), to be shown at the National Gallery of Art on Saturday, September 9, at 4:00 p.m., as part of the film series From Vault to Screen: Recent Restorations from the Academy Film Archive. Image courtesy of Photofest.

Washington, DC—The National Gallery of Art is pleased to announce that the 2017 summer film program will include more than 40 screenings: several Washington premieres; special appearances and events; new restorations of past masterworks; a salute to Canada; a special From Vault to Screen series; and a family documentary by Elissa Brown, daughter of J. Carter Brown, former director of the National Gallery of Art.

Film highlights for the summer include the premiere of Albert Serra's acclaimed new narrative Death of Louis XIV. The seven-part series Saluting Canada at 150 honors the sesquicentennial of the Canadian Confederation. A six-part series, Cinéma de la révolution: America Films Eighteenth-Century France, offers a brief look at how Hollywood has interpreted the lavish culture and complex history of 18th-century France. The screening coincides with the summer exhibition America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Paining, on view in the West Building through August 20 (http://www.nga.gov/press/exh/3683.html).

The series Gaumont at 120: Twelve Unseen Treasures is a tribute to the oldest continuously operating production company in the world. Still other highlights include the annual survey of the Black Maria Film Festival, named for Thomas Edison's movie studio. The festival is an annual juried competition centered in New Jersey City University open to all genres and filmmakers.

From Vault to Screen: Recent Restorations from the Academy Film Archive is presented in partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Films include the premiere of restorations and a rare selection of works from one of America's major film collections. Film preservationists Mark Toscano and Heather Linville will introduce a number of the screenings.

WASHINGTON PREMIERES

Windshield: A Vanished Vision
July 12 and July 13 at noon
July 15 at 2:00

Windshield was modernist architect Richard Neutra's first East Coast commission, designed for the real-estate scion and art collector John Nicholas Brown II and his wife, Anne, grandparents of filmmaker Elissa Brown and parents of J. Carter Brown, former director of the National Gallery of Art. The study in family lore and legend is told through home-movie footage, interviews, and audio recordings of Elissa Brown's family. (Elissa Brown, 2016, DCP, 46 minutes)

Death of Louis XIV
July 30 at 4:00

The Savage Eye
September 9 at 4:00

A poetic portrait of Los Angeles culture in the 1950s, The Savage Eye was assembled in part from footage contributed by different cinematographers (including Haskell Wexler and Helen Levitt) and woven together with a fictional narrative about a lonesome, down-and-out divorcée (Barbara Baxley) making a fresh start in California. (Ben Maddow, Joseph Strick, and Sidney Meyers, 1959, 35mm, 68 minutes)

Dawson City: Frozen Time
September 17 at 4:00

In the late 1970s hundreds of reels of nitrate film were discovered in the permafrost below a hockey rink in Dawson City, Yukon. This cultural treasure trove became the source material for artist Bill Morrison's remarkable compilation, a riveting journey to a forgotten era, now reawakened in a finely woven tapestry of film fragments, historical footnotes, and poetic storytelling. (Bill Morrison, 2016, 120 minutes)

The Front Page
Washington premiere of the restoration
Introduced by Heather Linville
September 24 at 4:00

The first and most faithful of several adaptions of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's classic American play stars Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien as the Chicago newsmen Walter Burns and Hildy Johnson. For many years available only in low-quality copies of a foreign release version that cut many distinctively American cultural references, the film is restored from a print discovered in Howard Hughes's private collection—with adjusted timing, restored dialogue, and evidence of Milestone's pioneering extended takes. (Lewis Milestone, 1931, 35mm, 98 minutes) Restored in 2016 by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation with funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation.

SPECIAL APPEARANCES and EVENTS

Book of the Year 3000
Introduced by Brett Kashmere
July 15 at 4:00

Film scholar Brett Kashmere introduces this rarely screened formalist work, discussing Pittsburgh-based Grauer's Theory of Pure Film and his influence as filmmaker, composer, theorist, poet, and playwright. (Victor Grauer, 1974, 16mm, 46 minutes) With thanks to Victor Grauer, Emily Davis, and Carnegie Museum of Art.

House of Bamboo
Introduced by Marsha Gordon, followed by a book signing
July 22 at 2:00

In occupied Japan, American military cop Eddie Kenner (Robert Stack) infiltrates a gang of criminals (all dishonorably discharged GIs) led by the urbane but unbalanced Sandy Dawson (Robert Ryan). House of Bamboo does away with high-minded distinctions between hoodlums and the law in a ruthless postwar landscape of ethnic contrasts. The lush Tokyo setting is beautifully exploited: at one point, the camera follows Kenner's love interest, Mariko (Shirley Yamaguchi), through Cinemascope streetscapes that open up on Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic Imperial Hotel, later demolished. (Samuel Fuller, 1955, 35mm, 102 minutes) Marsha Gordon is professor of film studies at North Carolina State University and author of Film Is Like a Battleground .

Projections of Memory: Romanticism, Modernism, and the Aesthetics of Film
Lecture by Richard I. Suchenski followed by a book signing
September 3 at 2:00

Projections of Memory is an exploration of innovative cinematic works that use extraordinary scope to construct monuments to the imagination, through which currents from the other arts can interpenetrate. By examining these endeavors, Projections of Memory remaps film history around some of its most ambitious achievements and helps to clarify the stakes of cinema as a 20th-century art form. This lecture will address some of the core concerns of the book through a discussion of films by Andrei Tarkovsky, Béla Tarr, and Jean-Luc Godard alongside paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, Jacopo Tintoretto, and Matthias Grünewald. (Approximately 60 minutes) Richard I. Suchenski is associate professor of film and electronic arts at Bard College.

Black Maria I
Introduced by Jane Steuerwald
July 29 at 1:00

The Last Projectionist (Eugene Lehnert and Chris Pecoraro, 2015, 11 minutes); Boomerang (Steven Vander Meer, 2016, 5 minutes); Já Passou (Everything's OK) (Sebastião Salgado and Pedro Patrocínio, 2016, 15 minutes); The Boxer (Craig Cutler, 2016, 15 minutes); There's Too Many of These Crows (Morgan Miller, 2015, 4 minutes); Radiance (Fernando Priego Ruiz, 2016, 50 minutes).

Black Maria II
Introduced by Jane Steuerwald
July 29 at 3:30

Altimir (Kay Hannahan, 2016, 18 minutes); Rabbit Blood (Yagmur Altan, 2016, 5 minutes); A (Joseph Houlberg, 2016, 14 minutes); The Itching (Dianne Bellino, 2016, 15 minutes); Exquisite Corps (Mitchell Rose, 2016, 6 minutes); Roxy (Fabien Colas, 2016, 9 minutes); Nine Months in the Bronx (Anna Bressanin, 2016, 27 minutes); How Do You Raise a Black Child? (Seyi Peter-Thomas, 2016, 4 minutes)

Ciné-Concert: Le miracle des loups
Andrew Simpson, pianist
August 19 at 2:00

Charles the Bold of Burgundy and King Louis XI duel over the fate of 15th-century France, but the Romeo-and-Juliet-like love of Robert Cottereau (Romuald Joubé) and Jeanne Fouquet (Yvonne Sergyl) takes the foreground. This unsung pre-Napoleon movie spectacle, filmed partially with handheld cameras, features a pitched battle, a wolf attack on the ice, and a final showdown at the still-extant double-walled castle of Carcassonne with thousands of extras and an ax-wielding Sergyl. (Raymond Bernard, 1924, 35mm, subtitles, 75 minutes)

Cock of the Air
Introduced by Heather Linville
September 23 at 2:00

Howard Hughes made the most of his fascination with flight when he produced this earthy aviation comedy set during World War I, starring Chester Morris as a womanizing pilot and Billie Dove as a spicy Parisian cabaret star who tries to put him in his place. Cock of the Air's restoration includes images originally removed by the censors, plus newly recorded dialogue that replaces deletions from the original soundtrack. (Tom Buckingham, 1932, 35mm, 80 minutes)

Aloha Wanderwell Baker: Film Adventuress
Illustrated discussion by Heather Linville
September 23 at 4:00

Romantic traveler, adventurer, documentarian, and public lecturer Aloha Wanderwell Baker (1906–1996) explored the wide world in a Ford Model T during the 1920s and 1930s. She recorded her exploits on 35mm film (With Car and Camera Around the World was an early travel documentary) and became known as"The World's Most Traveled Girl." In later life Aloha oversaw her collection of films, photographs, and artifacts, many of which she deposited in museums and archives. Heather Linville worked on the conservation of Aloha Wanderwell Baker's footage, not seen in over half a century. (Approximately 75 minutes)

Key Frames and Inbetweens: Restored 35mm Experimental Animation
Introduced by Mark Toscano
September 30 at 2:00

A program of restored animation from the Academy Film Archive screened in original film format, includes Pianissimo (Carmen D'Avino, 1963); Frank Film (Frank Mouris, 1973); Pencil Booklings (Kathy Rose, 1978); Moon Breath Beat (Lisze Bechtold, 1980); Furies (Sara Petty, 1977); Odalisque (Maureen Selwood, 1980); Ace of Light (Sky David, 1984); and Asparagus (Suzan Pitt, 1979). (Total running time approximately 75 minutes)

Pacific Coast Highway: Restored California Psychedelia
Introduced by Mark Toscano
September 30 at 4:00

Restored works by celebrated American independent experimental filmmakers and artists including Will Hindle, Barbara Hammer, Pat O'Neill (whose complete collection resides at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), and Chick Strand, a member of the influential Bay Area experimental filmmaking community and a founder in 1961 of the legendary artists' cooperative Canyon Cinema, which still fosters scholarship, distribution, and awareness of artist-made cinema. (Total running time approximately 75 minutes).

SCHEDULE OF ALL FILMS July 1–September 30
I clowns preceded by Constellations
July 1 at 11:00

Constellations (Costellazioni) is a cinéma vérité backstage view of the workers and performers trying to keep a small traveling circus alive and well. (Luigi Cuomo, 2015, subtitles, 47 minutes)

Federico Fellini's lifelong engagement with itinerant performers is celebrated in I clowns, the maestro's ciné-essay on the mimes and jesters whose smiling expressions can, at times, embody menace as well as merriment. The lighthearted pseudo-documentary is full of vivid imagery of clown routines, revealing Fellini's great admiration for clowns and circus performers. (Federico Fellini, 1970, 35mm, 92 minutes) unconfirmed

Windshield: A Vanished Vision
Washington premiere
July 12 and July 13 at noon
July 15 at 2:00

Book of the Year 3000
Introduced by Brett Kashmere
July 15 at 4:00

In the Steps of Trisha Brown
July 19 and 22 at noon

Choreographer Trisha Brown (1936–2017) was a mainstay of postmodern dance. She was a founder of the Judson Dance Theater, collaborator with leading midcentury artists, and an ingenious inventor of form. In the Steps of Trisha Brown follows the intense preparations leading to the Paris premiere of her seminal 1979 Glacial Decoy with costumes and visuals by Robert Rauschenberg, performed by a new generation of dancers. (Marie-Hélène Rebois, 2016, 79 minutes)

House of Bamboo
Introduced by Marsha Gordon, followed by a book signing
July 22 at 2:00

The lush Tokyo setting is beautifully exploited, as the camera follows characters through Cinemascope streetscapes that open up on Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic Imperial Hotel, later demolished. (Samuel Fuller, 1955, 35mm, 102 minutes) Marsha Gordon is professor of film studies at North Carolina State University and author of Film Is Like a Battleground .

Death of Louis XIV
Washington premiere
July 30 at 4:00

Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra cast the aging Jean-Pierre Léaud as the Sun King, now a bedridden luminary. Based on accounts by courtiers who witnessed and recorded their monarch's demise, the film rarely leaves the king's bedchamber, though Louis XIV continues to conduct affairs of state. With extraordinary skill, Serra manipulates atmosphere, lighting, and costume, as "members of Louis' retinue—far more used to politicking than to confronting mortality—do their best to save face, unwilling to admit helplessness at the prospect of inevitable death."—Ben Kenigsberg (Albert Serra, 2016, subtitles, 115 minutes)

Projections of Memory: Romanticism, Modernism, and the Aesthetics of Film
Lecture by Richard I. Suchenski followed by a book signing
September 3 at 2:00

Projections of Memory remaps film history around some of its most ambitious achievements and helps to clarify the stakes of cinema as a 20th-century art form. The lecture will address some of the core concerns of the book through a discussion of films by Andrei Tarkovsky, Béla Tarr, and Jean-Luc Godard alongside paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, Jacopo Tintoretto, and Matthias Grünewald. (Approximately 60 minutes) Richard I. Suchenski is associate professor of film and electronic arts at Bard College.

Dawson City: Frozen Time
Washington premiere
September 17 at 4:00

Saluting Canada at 150 (series)
July 1 – 8
Honoring Canada on the occasion of the sesquicentennial of the Canadian Confederation (Confédération canadienne), the National Gallery of Art has organized seven programs of cinematic landmarks from our northern neighbor's notable production history, including narrative fiction, documentary, and artists' experimental shorts. The series begins on Canada Day, July 1. Special thanks to the Embassy of Canada, the National Film Board of Canada, Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre, and TIFF Bell Lightbox.

My Winnipeg
July 1 at 2:00

My Winnipeg is Maddin's tongue-in-cheek homage to his hometown, a virtual fever dream (he prefers the term docu-fantasia) of fake and real home-movie footage, melodrama, documentary, and quirky clips that leave the viewer with a mind-altering impression of this outwardly modest city at the dead center of North America. (Guy Maddin, 2007, 35mm, 80 minutes)

The Sweet Hereafter
July 1 at 4:00

In the late '90s, Atom Egoyan completed The Sweet Hereafter, his adaptation of Russell Banks's 1991 novel about a small town struggling to cope with the aftermath of a school bus accident. While Banks's narrative was set in upstate New York and the actual incident on which it was based occurred in Texas, Egoyan set his film in British Columbia. Adding a fairy-tale-like metaphorical Pied Piper, he suggests the universality of the tragedy yet preserves the novel's aura of time fragmentation. "It's an investigation into the minds of the characters and their sense of time."—Atom Egoyan (Atom Egoyan, 1997, 35mm, 112 minutes)

Pour la suite du monde
July 2 at 1:00

Canada has long been in the vanguard of innovative documentary practice. Pour la suite du monde is an early example of hybrid documentary—cinéma vérité combined with storytelling to enrich a portrait of a traditional lifestyle that had been waning for decades. Shot on Île-aux-Coudres, Pour la suite du monde, the first Canadian feature to screen at Festival de Cannes, was selected this year for the official list of 150 essential works of Canadian cinema. (Pierre Perrault and Michel Brault, 1963, subtitles, 105 minutes)

The Other Side of 49: Experimental Cinema form Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre
July 2 at 4:30

Founded in Canada's centennial year, 1967, Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC) is Canada's first artist-run, not-for-profit film cooperative. Michael Snow, one of CFMDC's creators, crafted in that same year the legendary 16mm Wavelength. Showcasing seminal works alongside contemporary films from an emerging generation of artists, CFMDC marks its 50th anniversary this year with this program of shorts from the other side of the 49th parallel: Wavelength for Those Who Don't Have the Time (Michael Snow, 1967–2003, 16mm, 15 minutes); By The Time We Got To Expo (Eva Kolcze and Philip Hoffman, 2015, 16mm to HD, 9 minutes); Whitewash (Nadine Valcin, 2016, 6 minutes); View of the Falls from the Canadian Side (John Price, 2006, 35mm, silent, 7 minutes ); A Celebration of Darkness (Jaene Castrillon, 2015, 16mm, 6 minutes); Canadian Pacific/Canadian Pacific II (David Rimmer, 1974, 16mm, silent, 9 minutes); A & B in Ontario (Joyce Wieland and Hollis Frampton, 1984, 16mm, 16 minutes); Helium (Daniel McIntyre, 2017, 4 minutes). (Total running time 73 minutes)

Ladies and Gentlemen . . . Mr. Leonard Cohen preceded by Begone Dull Care, Neighbours,and City of Gold
July 4 at 1:00

Four classic shorts from the National Film Board of Canada begin with Norman McLaren's legendary animation Begone Dull Care (1949, 8 minutes) and his famous pixilation Neighbours (1952, 8 minutes). Next is City of Gold (Colin Low and Wolf Koenig, 1957, 22 minutes), a groundbreaking compilation of archival and contemporary photography depicting author Pierre Berton's childhood in Dawson City and his father's involvement in the Klondike Gold Rush. Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen . . . Mr. Leonard Cohen—the first documentary portrait of the famous poet and songwriter, released two years before his first album—captures Cohen's imagination and candor during live performance and casual interaction (Don Owen and Donald Brittain, 1965, 44 minutes). (Total running time 82 minutes)

Stories We Tell
July 4 at 3:00

Actor and director Sarah Polley addresses the complicated mystery of her own mother's life story in this rousing mix of memoir, interview, reconnaissance, and copious Super-8 home-movie footage, both real and staged. Polley gently probes the very foundations of domestic life and values, as friends and relatives over time give different versions of the same tale. (Sarah Polley, 2012, 108 minutes)

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner
July 8 at 2:00

In a recent survey of Canadian critics and audiences, the indigenous epic Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner was selected best Canadian film of all time. Written and spoken entirely in Inuit, the narrative is a mix of drama, myth, and oral tradition that, in its sense of verisimilitude, resembles a documentary, yet is a fictional tale (employing amateur actors) about an ancient evil disrupting a remote settlement in the Arctic. (Zacharias Kunuk, 2001, subtitles, 172 minutes)

Cinéma de la révolution: America Films Eighteenth-Century France (series)
July 14 – August 12
The Gallery's summer exhibition America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Painting comprises 68 paintings representing some of the best and most unusual examples of French art of the era in American collections. To coincide with this exploration of taste and collecting practice, this series of six American films offers a brief look at how Hollywood has interpreted the lavish culture and complex history of 18th-century France.

Marie Antoinette
July 14 at 2:00

Sofia Coppola's cleverly revisionist portrayal of France's last queen (played by Kirsten Dunst) delights in jabbing at the court's relentless rounds of pageantry. Versailles, though, became for Coppola the main appeal. The American filmmaker was allowed complete access to the palace, which was a pleasure for all working on the film. (Sofia Coppola, 2006, 123 minutes)

Dangerous Liaisons
July 16 at 4:00

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's 1782 novel Les liaisons dangereuses inspired Christopher Hampton's 1985 play, which in turn became the basis for Stephen Frears's American movie adaptation. Dazzlingly staged and costumed, the film's dark games of intrigue and mischief during the ancien régime revolve around the Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil (Glenn Close) and the Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich) obsessively manipulating the lives of others. (Stephen Frears, 1988, 119 minutes)

Jefferson in Paris
July 23 at 4:00

Merchant Ivory Productions, synonymous with period dramas, often bases screenplays on literary works. With Jefferson in Paris, though, the team ventured into American history using screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's own research into the life of the third president (played by Nick Nolte), focusing on his time in France. Four subplots emerge, all based on rival relationships—his nascent friendship with painter Maria Cosway, his growing intimacy with Sally Hemings, his difficulties with daughter Patsy, and his response to events leading to the French Revolution. (James Ivory, 1995, 35mm, 139 minutes)

Scaramouche
July 28 at 2:00

Rafael Sabatini's 1921 romantic costume novel about a charming rogue with a lust for intrigue was the source for Scaramouche, portrayed by Stewart Granger, who moves smoothly from commedia dell'arte actor to sword-fighting revolutionary. The last gasp of the opulent, electrifying swashbuckler genre, the film's lavish tableaux—including a record-setting seven-minute sword fight—are typical of this once fashionable form. (George Sidney, 1952, 35mm, 115 minutes) Print from British Film Institute collection.

A Tale of Two Cities
August 11 at 2:00

Ronald Colman plays a credible Sydney Carton—the disgraced and downcast British barrister whose love for Lucie Manette is his only joy—but it's Basil Rathbone, as loathsome aristocrat Marquis St. Evrémonde that steals the show and delivers the crème de la crème. Based on Charles Dickens's 1859 historical novel, A Tale of Two Cities received two Oscar nominations (including Best Picture of 1935) and was elected to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. (Jack Conway, 1935, 35mm, 128 minutes) Print from Library of Congress collection.

Madame du Barry
August 12 at 12:30

Erstwhile courtesan and Louis XV consort Madame du Barry was the focal point for at least eight films (including Ernst Lubitsch's 1919 German silent starring Polish siren Pola Negri). Dolores del Rio's fulsomely fickle portrayal adds a comic twist in this 1930s American version. (William Dieterle, 1934, 16mm, 80 minutes) Print from UCLA collection.

Black Maria: Selections from the Festival
July 29

For the past 36 years, the Black Maria Film Festival has been advancing inventiveness and vitality in the short form. Named for pioneer Thomas Edison's West Orange, New Jersey, movie studio (its resemblance to black-box police paddy wagons sparked the nickname "Black Maria"), the festival is an annual juried competition centered at New Jersey City University, open to all genres and filmmakers. The films in these two programs at the Gallery were chosen from among the award winners at the most recent competition. Special thanks to the Black Maria's executive director, Jane Steuerwald, who will introduce both screenings.

Black Maria I
Introduced by Jane Steuerwald
July 29 at 1:00

Black Maria II
Introduced by Jane Steuerwald
July 29 at 3:30

Gaumont at 120: Twelve Unseen Treasures (series)
August 5 – September 2
The eminent and still-operating French production company Gaumont has been producing major and minor masterpieces for 120 years. This summer, the National Gallery of Art pays homage to Gaumont on the occasion of this momentous anniversary with screenings of 12 matchless treasures—from the great and the little-known, to gangster genre gems and auteurist literary legends.

L'assassin habite au 21
August 5 at 2:00

On the trail of calling-card serial killer Monsieur Durand, sly inspector Wenceslas Wens (Pierre Fresnay) is led to the seedy Pension Mimosas at 21 by an accidental burglary. His brassy mistress, chanteuse Mila Malou (Suzy Delair), demands to come along, amid a surfeit of suspects. The debut of Clouzot, the "French Hitchcock," is a comedy mystery in the British style, complete with subtle digs at the Occupiers. (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1942, subtitles, 84 minutes)

Razzia sur la chnouf
August 5 at 4:00

In Razzia sur la chnouf (literally "raid on the blow," and the French drug trade has never looked more slimy), Jean Gabin's snarling Henri from Nantes fronts a nightclub where thugs and smugglers outclass the patrons and where a surprise twist, after all is said and done, leaves the situation even more muddled. (Henri Decoin, 1955, subtitles, 105 minutes)

Les tontons flingueurs (Monsieur Gangster)
August 6 at 4:00

Trapped into fulfilling an old mob-boss pal's dying wish, ex-gangster Fernand Naudin (Lino Ventura) ends up taking over his "businesses" and the care and feeding of his would-be playgirl daughter. "In France, it is the job of the dialogiste to add wit and elegance to the speech of the characters, and no dialogiste is more venerated than Michel Audiard who brought his verbal dexterity to dozens of films including this beloved gangster comedy."—Museum of Modern Art (Georges Lautner, 1963, subtitles, 105 minutes)

Les amants de Montparnasse
August 12 at 3:00

Max Ophüls's adaptation of Les Montparnos (the 1920s novel based on the life of Modigliani) was never completed—Ophüls died before the project got off the ground. When director Jacques Becker took over, reworking the script, he sparked a dispute with its writer, Henri Jeanson. In spite of the many problems plaguing the production, Gérard Philipe delivers an impressive turn as the famously self-destructive artist who finds comfort with Jeanne Hébuterne (Anouk Aimée), who tries to save him from his torments. (Jacques Becker and Max Ophüls, 1958, subtitles, 108 minutes)

Les possédés
August 13 at 4:00

Eminent Polish director Andrzej Wajda (1926–2016) made a number of films in French with Gaumont, including this version of Dostoyevsky's The Possessed (or The Devils) based on his own triumphant Polish stage production. In czarist Russia, liberal dissident Stepan (Omar Sharif) looks on aghast as his radical son Peter decides to murder idealistic revolutionary Sjativ (Jerzy Radziwilowicz), while the ominous figure of Stavrogin (Lambert Wilson) lurks in the background. One of Wajda's lesser-known works, Les possédés's scenario is by Jean-Claude Carrière. (Andrzej Wajda, 1988, 35mm, subtitles, 116 minutes)

Ciné-Concert: Le miracle des loups
Andrew Simpson, pianist
August 19 at 2:00

De Mayerling à Sarajevo
August 20 at 4:00

In the wake of the infamous murder-suicide at Mayerling, John Lodge's Archduke Franz Ferdinand becomes heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian empire—but then, he marries a Czech countess without royal blood! Premiering just before the fall of France to Germany, From Mayerling to Sarajevo was Max Ophüls's final work before the director left for Hollywood, a surprisingly faithful account of a tragic passion whose finale launched the First World War. At the time of release, these momentous events were only 25 years in the past. (Max Ophüls, 1940, 35mm, subtitles, 95 minutes)

Sans lendemain
August 26 at 2:00

Radiant Edwige Feuillère, reduced to performing burlesque in Montmartre clubs to afford her son's tuition, tries to fool her ex-suitor into believing she's enjoying the good life—but, as the title cautions, there's no tomorrow. The rarely seen Sans lendemain is an unsung jewel of Max Ophüls's oeuvre, handsomely photographed by Eugen Schüfftan and richly designed by Eugène Lourié. (Max Ophüls, 1939, subtitles, 82 minutes)

La tendrie ennemie
August 26 at 4:00

As Annette Dupont prepares to marry off her daughter to a man she doesn't love, the mournful ghost of her first husband shows up. Then a second and third phantom appear—the spirits of three men who had shared Annette, the tender enemy. "In the guise of a romantic roundelay, Ophüls tells a story of life and death that exposes the way of the world by conjuring the world beyond. . . . A lesson in the intense power of simple tricks to realize a fantastic, supernatural, yet sharply logical and piercingly dramatic story."—Richard Brody (Max Ophüls, 1936, 35mm, subtitles, 70 minutes)

Yoshiwara
August 27 at 4:00

In 19th-century Japan, upper-class Kohana (Michiko Tanaka), sold as a geisha to ward off her family's disgrace, finds a protector (à la Madame Butterfly) in naval officer Serge Polenoff (Pierre-Ricard Willm). Meanwhile, the family retainer, played by Sessue Hayakawa, lurking watchfully in the background, reveals his own agenda. Filmed in the Albert-Kahn Museum and Garden in Boulogne-Billancourt, Yoshiwara was a prewar box office triumph. (Max Ophüls, 1937, 35mm, subtitles, 102 minutes)

Pièges (Personal Column)
September 2 at 1:30

With a cast that included Pierre Renoir and Erich von Stroheim, this commanding pulp-fiction piece directed by Robert Siodmak (who belonged to a German-exile community in 1930s Paris) foreshadows his later Hollywood films noirs. After several young women answer a personal column and vanish without a trace, the flics recruit taxi-dancer Adrienne Charpentier (Marie Déa) to go undercover and respond to the ad. But the charming, singing, dancing, delighting Robert Fleury (Maurice Chevalier) is one of the first men she meets—could he be a suspect? (Robert Siodmak, 1939, 35mm, subtitles, 111 minutes)

Mollenard
September 2 at 4:00

Salty gun-running sea captain Mollenard (Harry Baur) dives into dizzying intrigues, bar battles, and confrontations with nemesis Bonnerot (Pierre Renoir), yet cherishes the camaraderie of his crew and loves the allure of the East. Returning home to Dunkirk, he fails to stem the boorish sneers of the bourgeoisie or assuage his wrathful wife, played by Gabrielle Dorziat. "Leftist sympathizers of France's Popular Front found common cause in Siodmak's antiheroic portrait of a cynical opportunist on the eve of war."—Museum of Modern Art (Robert Siodmak, 1938, 35mm, subtitles, 105 minutes)

From Vault to Screen: Recent Restorations from the Academy Film Archive (series)
September 9–30
Since its creation in 1991, the Academy Film Archive has been an institutional sponsor of the preservation, restoration, documentation, and exhibition of motion pictures, housing one of the most diverse collections in the world. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acquired its first film in 1929, and today the Archive's collection comprises 85,000 titles—from Oscar-nominated films to documentaries, amateur works, experimental shorts, early Hollywood features, screen tests, interviews, and even filmmakers' personal collections. This series includes a range of recent restorations from the Archive, and is presented in partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Film preservationists Mark Toscano and Heather Linville are present to introduce a number of these screenings.

Les Blank Sampler: Restorations from the Academy Film Archive
September 9 at 2:00

A sampling of appealing rarities, including the director's first film, illustrates the groundbreaking American independent documentarian Les Blank's many different modes: Running Around Like a Chicken With Its Head Cut Off (1960); The Sun's Gonna Shine (1969); Chicken Real (1970, made for Holly Farms); and Spend It All (1971). (Total running time approximately 77 minutes)

The Savage Eye preceded by Five Ways to Kill Yourself and The Secret Cinema
September 9 at 4:00

Gus van Sant's short comedy featuring Van Sant himself and Michael Parker, Five Ways to Kill Yourself (1986, 16mm, 3 minutes), is followed by an early short by Roger Corman collaborator Paul Bartel—the madcap, no-budget The Secret Cinema, about a Manhattan secretary who obsessively imagines she's being spied on and filmed to amuse friends who regularly meet for the vérité screenings. (Paul Bartel, 1966, 16mm, 30 minutes)

The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez
September 10 at 4:00

A Mexican American tenant farmer accused in 1901 of murdering a Texas sheriff, Gregorio Cortez was victim to a tragic blunder—a question posed by the sheriff was lost in translation and construed as a threat. Cortez fled on foot for 11 days before a posse captured him. Actor Edward James Olmos once said, "I could have made him very mythical and legendary. . . . But I chose to [make] him a very simple man and . . . played the only fact we really knew—that there had been a misunderstanding." The ballad of Cortez is still sung as a popular folk tune. (Robert M. Young, 1982, 105 minutes) Restored in 2016 by the Academy Film Archive, supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Balcony
September 16 at 2:30

Joseph Strick and Ben Maddow's arresting adaptation of Jean Genet's The Balcony, resourcefully made on a shoestring budget, finds Shelley Winters, Peter Falk, Leonard Nimoy, and Lee Grant leading a first-rate cast. As uprisings rage outside in the streets, the encounters inside a Brechtian-style brothel reveal that human relationships have been reduced to cold and detached performances. (Joseph Strick, 1963, 35mm, 84 minutes)

Cock of the Air
Introduced by Heather Linville
September 23 at 2:00

Howard Hughes made the most of his fascination with flight when he produced this earthy aviation comedy set during World War I and starring Chester Morris as a womanizing pilot and Billie Dove as a spicy Parisian cabaret star who tries to put him in his place. Cock of the Air's restoration includes images removed by the censors, plus newly recorded dialogue that replaces deletions from the original soundtrack. (Tom Buckingham, 1932, 35mm, 80 minutes)

Aloha Wanderwell Baker: Film Adventuress
Illustrated discussion by Heather Linville
September 23 at 4:00

Romantic traveler, adventurer, documentarian, and public lecturer Aloha Wanderwell Baker (1906–1996) explored the wide world in a Ford Model T during the 1920s and 1930s. She recorded her exploits on 35mm film (With Car and Camera Around the World was an early travel documentary) and became known as "The World's Most Traveled Girl." In later life Aloha oversaw her collection of films, photographs, and artifacts, many of which she deposited in museums and archives. Heather Linville worked on the conservation of Aloha Wanderwell Baker's footage, not seen in over half a century. (Approximately 75 minutes)

The Front Page
Washington premiere of the restoration
Introduced by Heather Linville
September 24 at 4:00

The first and most faithful of several adaptations of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's classic American play stars Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien as the Chicago newsmen Walter Burns and Hildy Johnson. For many years available only in low-quality copies of a foreign release version that cut many distinctively American cultural references, the film is restored from a print discovered in Howard Hughes's private collection—with adjusted timing, restored dialogue, and evidence of Milestone's pioneering extended takes. (Lewis Milestone, 1931, 35mm, 98 minutes) Restored in 2016 by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation with funding provided by the George Lucas Family Foundation.

Key Frames and Inbetweens: Restored 35mm Experimental Animation
Introduced by Mark Toscano
September 30 at 2:00

A program of restored animation from the Academy Film Archive, screened in original film format, includes Pianissimo (Carmen D'Avino, 1963); Frank Film (Frank Mouris, 1973); Pencil Booklings (Kathy Rose, 1978); Moon Breath Beat (Lisze Bechtold, 1980); Furies (Sara Petty, 1977); Odalisque (Maureen Selwood, 1980); Ace of Light (Sky David, 1984); and Asparagus (Suzan Pitt, 1979). (Total running time approximately 75 minutes)

Pacific Coast Highway: Restored California Psychedelia
Introduced by Mark Toscano
September 30 at 4:00

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Sarah Edwards Holley
(202) 842-6359
[email protected]