Fridays

From the Pen of Tonino Guerra



10/4/2019 @ 7:00 PM & SUNDAY @ 1:30 PM

L'assassino (The Ladykiller of Rome)

(Elio Petri, 1961) · World premiere of new restoration! A suave, unscrupulous antiques dealer (Marcello Mastroianni, crystallizing his Don Juan persona) comes under suspicion for the murder of his older lover in the debut feature of Elio Petri, the preeminent leftist of post-Neorealist Italian cinema. While Petri's caustic view of bourgeois amorality is clear, the film also represents one of Tonino Guerra's first "existential mysteries", in which the hero's self-investigation is perhaps more damning than that of the police.

runtime: 105m format: DCP

 

10/18/2019 @ 7:00 PM & SUNDAY @ 1:30 PM

Red Desert

(Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964) · The fourth film in a four-decade collaboration, Red Desert finds Guerra and Antonioni at a creative pinnacle. To trace the path of a disturbed woman (Monica Vitti) cast adrift in a polluted landscape, Guerra forges a boldly unconventional narrative structure, allowing ample space for unforgettable color images of industrial decay. Though cited as the director's masterpiece, the film's theme of inner lives reflecting the turmoil of external reality runs throughout Guerra's career.

runtime: 117m format: 35mm

 

10/25/2019 @ 7:00 PM & SUNDAY @ 1:30 PM

Zabriskie Point

(Michelangelo Antonioni, 1970) · Antonioni's first American film is a disorienting parable of political and sexual liberation, reflecting a sense of unease in the counterculture. Mark Frechette plays a young radical who steals a small plane after fleeing a violent demonstration; Daria Halprin plays the young hippie who encounters him randomly in the California desert. Known for its Cinemascope photography and psychedelic soundtrack, Zabriskie Point also continues Guerra's exploration of cultural and emotional displacement.

runtime: 113m format: 35mm

 

11/1/2019 @ 7:00 PM & SUNDAY @ 1:30 PM

Illustrious Corpses

(Francesco Rosi, 1976) · Someone is killing judges in Italy, and the establishment wants Inspector Rogas (Lino Ventura) to pin the crimes on an insurgent student movement. Guerra and Rosi adapt Leonardo Sciascia's tale of conspiracy and corruption with a bracing, elliptical style; its stunning locations offer a visual counterpoint to the narrative's imposing architectures of power. This political crime masterpiece shows Guerra's uniquely Italian grasp of the procedural genre, used here to diagnose a society in crisis. Print courtesy of Cinecittà Luce

runtime: 127m format: Imported 35mm

 

11/8/2019 @ 7:00 PM & SUNDAY @ 1:00 PM

Christ Stopped at Eboli

(Francesco Rosi, 1979) · This adaptation of Carlo Levi's wartime memoir, finally released in the US in its original 224-minute form in 2019, is the most expansive, humanistic work of Rosi and Guerra's eleven collaborations. Gian Maria Volonté plays Levi, a dissident doctor sent by the fascist regime to internal exile in southern Italy, where he discovers resilience and resistance among the exploited peasants. The wide canvas generously showcases Guerra's poetic gift for capturing the soul of rural life.

runtime: 150m format: DCP

 

11/15/2019 @ 7:00 PM & SUNDAY @ 1:30 PM

The Night of the Shooting Stars

(Paolo Taviani & Vittorio Taviani, 1982) · A mosaic of tragedy, delight, cruelty, and compassion, The Night of the Shooting Stars takes place in a Tuscan village during the summer of 1944, when rumors of both Allied liberation and Nazi devastation swirled violently. A group of villagers, played in neo-realist style by a largely non-professional cast, set out under cover of night to greet the approaching American forces, but the events that ensue play out less like a docudrama than a vivid mixture of dream and testimony.

runtime: 107m format: DCP

 

11/22/2019 @ 7:00 PM & SUNDAY @ 1:30 PM

The Suspended Step of the Stork

(Theo Angelopoulos, 1991) · Tonino Guerra's two-decade partnership with Greek long-take auteur Theo Angelopoulos was his longest and most fruitful outside Italy. This moody drama, about a documentary filmmaker who believes he has discovered a missing politician in a refugee camp, finds Guerra returning to the themes of displacement, technological mediation, and ambiguity that marked his work with Antonioni in the 1960s. Though rarely screened, the film's inquiry into migration and political disillusionment remains timely.

runtime: 143m format: 35mm

 

12/6/2019 @ 7:00 PM & SUNDAY @ 1:30 PM

Landscape in the Mist

(Theo Angelopoulos, 1988) ·

runtime: 127m format: 35mm

 

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