Premiere Showcase
The Cinematheque's effort to bring the boldest and most exciting new arthouse cinema to Madison continues with four of the year's most acclaimed releases. This spring brings the local premieres of The Turin Horse, the latest (and purportedly last) film by master Béla Tarr (Satantango); Gerhard Richter Painting, an intimate portrait of the iconic artist; plus, you’ll also want to check in for the haunted hotel movie The Innkeepers; and visit the 19th-century brothel of House of Pleasures. (MK)
- Fri., Jan. 20 | 7:00 PMCinematheque
Following our revelatory 2006 retrospective, enigmatic Hungarian master Tarr returns to the Cinematheque with his self-proclaimed final film. In 1889, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche witnessed the merciless beating of a horse by a handsom cab driver, an event that is credited with triggering the philosopher’s final descent into madness. Reunited with his regular collaborators, including writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai, composer Mihaly Vig, and actress Erika Bok, (Satantango veterans all), Tarr frames the aftermath of these events in his trademark extra-long takes and high-contrast black-and-white, conjuring a spellbinding ambience at once majestic and austere. (MK)
- Fri., Feb. 17 | 7:00 PMCinematheque
On the heels of his instant classic The House of the Devil, director West is back with another single-set haunting. Stuck covering a decrepit hotel’s final weekend with round-the-clock shifts, a pair of misfit concierges kill time by idly hunting the hotel’s legendary ghost. But the arrival of increasingly mysterious guests (including a psychic played by Top Gun pinup McGillis) suggests that the duo is in danger of becoming ghosts themselves. Anchored by fine lead performances, West plays this modern ghost story as much for laughs as scares. (MK)
Just announced: Actor Pat Healy will appear in person to introduce and and answer questions in a post-screening discussion.
- Sat., Mar. 24 | 7:00 PMCinematheque
An invaluable window into the artistic process of a world-class painter, Gerhard Richter Painting delivers on the enticing promise of its title. We are privileged to watch as the master painstakingly creates large abstract paintings from start-to-finish, frequently squeegeeing over the previous day’s work in pursuit of his elusive vision. Equally amazing are the insightful interviews that documentarian Belz is able to elicit from this legendarily thorny personality, who nevertheless turns on the camera and more than once questions the effect it is having on his work. (MK)
- Sat., May. 5 | 7:00 PMCinematheque
Set almost entirely within the perfumed walls of an upscale brothel in turn-of-the-century Paris, Bertrand Bonello’s smoky elegy for civilized prostitution defies categorization. Don’t be fooled by L’Apollonide’s sleazy American retitling: the opium haze and fin de siècle languor carries an undercurrent of Lynchian dread. Under the tutelage of a debt-addled madam, a troupe of elegant courtesans entertains dapper johns, as the specter of career-killing STDs and life-threatening violence looms in the background. As a cineaste inside joke, the clientele include slyly cast Francophone directors, including Xavier Beauvois (I Killed My Mother) and Jacques Nolot, whose own sex-for-hire lament Porn Theater screens in our Projecting the Cinema series at the Chazen on April 29. Named one of the top ten films of 2011 by Cahiers du Cinema. (MK)