SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Fall 2013 special presentations include two in-person visits from accomplished cineastes and UW alums. In September, Oscar-nominated editor Mark Goldblatt will appear to present a rare showing of his second directorial outing, the first screen version of the Marvel vigilante legend The Punisher. In November, television writer and producer Jill Soloway will present her feature debut, Afternoon Delight, which won her the Best Director prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Plus, new 35mm prints of several must-see movies, including Eraserhead, L’Avventura, Tales of Manhattan and Michael Roemer’s civil rights era independent classic Nothing But a Man.
- Fri., Sep. 6 | 7:00 PM4070 Vilas Hall
Lynch’s first feature is a frighteningly hilarious and surreal examination of male paranoia. Our hair-challenged hero, Henry (Jack Nance), faces a number of horrifying obstacles in meeting someone of the opposite sex, including dinner with her parents and procreating. Produced over a year-and-a-half period while Lynch was a student at the American Film Institute, Eraserhead launched the director as a major new talent admired by cinephiles and filmmakers all over the world. It stands today as a milestone in personal, independent filmmaking. A newly struck 35mm print will be shown!
- Fri., Sep. 13 | 7:00 PM4070 Vilas Hall
Antonioni’s existential masterpiece displays the director's fascination with landscape, geometry, and architectural forms as a means of expressing the troubled state of Italy's post-war middle class. In the role that made her an international superstar, Vitti stars as a woman searching for a lost friend who finds another. This complicated but riveting moral allegory ultimately ushered in the golden age of the European art film. A newly struck 35mm print will be shown!
- Fri., Sep. 20 | 7:00 PM4070 Vilas Hall
In one of the big-screen’s first attempts to bring a Marvel comic book to life, Lundgren plays Frank Castle, a cop who is transformed into the vengeful title character when his family is wiped out by criminals. When The Punisher takes on the Japanese mob that’s taking over his city, his former partner (Gossett) moves in to stop the vigilante. Fun and fast-moving, director Mark Goldblatt’s second feature is told in the same hyper-violent, yet classical, style that marked the great action movies of the 1980s. It was a style that Goldblatt helped to create through his influential work as an editor on such key entries in the genre such as The Terminator, Commando and Rambo. Goldblatt, a UW Madison alum, will join us in person to discuss his film and career in Hollywood. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
- Sun., Oct. 6 | 7:00 PM4070 Vilas Hall
The Cinematheque presents a free pre-release screening of one of the most talked about films from this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Writer/director Randy Moore’s satirical comedy tells the story of one average American father and his eventual descent into madness during a family vacation at Walt Disney World in Florida! Filmed in black and white at actual theme park locations, Escape From Tomorrow is a bold and ingenious trip into the happiest place on earth!
- Tue., Oct. 29 | 7:00 PMSundance Cinemas 608
Herzog’s remake of F.W. Murnau’s horror classic is itself an outstanding contribution to the vampire genre. The film’s visually sumptuous quality extends to its cast, especially Kinski as the notorious and hideous count and the beautiful Isabelle Adjani as Lucy Harker, the vampire’s prey. This special screening at the Sundance Cinemas will serve as a benefit for the Cinematheque, which is seeking funds to install a new digital projector and server in their regular venue at 4070 Vilas Hall. A newly restored DCP will be screened. Tickets, $20, can be purchased online in advance here: https://itkt.choicecrm.net/templates/UWFF/
- Fri., Nov. 1 | 7:00 PM4070 Vilas Hall
An unlucky tailcoat, which brings a curse upon anyone who wears it, serves as the linking device for this absolutely delightful collection of short episodes featuring a jaw-dropping cast of 40s movie superstars. The amazing roster of performers also includes Charles Laughton, Ginger Rogers, Charles Boyer, Paul Robeson, and George Sanders. Bonus: A look at an episode excised from the original release version starring W.C. Fields!
- Thu., Nov. 14 | 7:00 PMMarquee
After a chance meeting, affluent wife and mother Rachel (Hahn) finds herself irresistibly drawn into the messy personal life of young stripper McKenna (Temple). When Rachel invites McKenna to move into her home, it unleashes a series of dramatic changes in Rachel’s life. With sharp observations on class and women’s roles in contemporary Los Angeles, the frequently funny, and wonderfully performed Afternoon Delight is the first feature film from Jill Soloway, a veteran television scribe and producer (Six Feet Under, The United States of Tara) and UW Madison alum. Soloway will join us in person to discuss her film, which won her the Best Director prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
- Sat., Nov. 16 | 3:00 PM4070 Vilas Hall
Since 1998, Filmmaker Magazine has put out an annual talent list. "25 New Faces of Independent Film" has acted for a barometer for American indie cinema, bringing early attention to such talents as Hilary Swank, Ryan Gosling, Lena Dunham and Miranda July, among many others. Three directors selected for the 2013 list will appear in person to present their latest short films, accompanied by Filmmaker's Managing Editor Nick Dawson (author of Being Hal Ashby: Life of a Hollywood Rebel). The shorts include the stark western Surveyor (dir. Scott Blake, USA, 2012, 25 mins), a futuristic vision of immigration policy entitled Refuge (Mohammad Gorjestani, USA, 2013, 23 min), and Needle (dir. Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, USA, 2013, 21 mins), winner of the Cinefondation Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Following the screening there will be a Q&A discussing both the movies being shown and the legacy of the "25 New Faces" list.
- Fri., Dec. 6 | 7:00 PM4070 Vilas Hall
This moving, landmark independent drama and love story focuses on the struggles of a young working-class black man from the south. Duff Anderson (Dixon) is determined to live up to his responsibilities as a husband, father, and worker, despite being persistently faced with the racial and class bigotry of others. When he falls in love with the middle-class minister’s daughter Josie (Lincoln), not all of Duff’s problems are solved. “Nothing But a Man is remarkable for not employing the easy liberal pieties of its period in an attempt to reassure white audiences that all stories have happy endings.” (Roger Ebert). An Artists Public Domain/Cinema Conservancy Release of a Cinedigm/New Video Film. Restored by Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation.
- Sun., Dec. 8 | 7:00 PM4070 Vilas Hall
- Thu., Dec. 12 | 7:00 PM4070 Vilas Hall
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Inside Llewyn Davis is the first feature in three years from the acclaimed, Oscar-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, True Grit). Inside Llewyn Davis, the new film from Academy Award-winners Joel and Ethan Coen. The film follows a week in the life of a young folk singer at a crossroads, struggling to make it in the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961. Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac)—guitar in tow, huddled against the unforgiving New York winter—is beset by seemingly insurmountable obstacles, some of them of his own making. Living at the mercy of both friends and strangers, scaring up what work he can find, Llewyn journeys from the baskethouses of the Village to an empty Chicago club—on a misbegotten odyssey to audition for a music mogul—and back again. No passes required. Seating is limited and provided on a first-come, first-seated basis. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. We anticipate a full-house. Please arrive early!
- Sat., Dec. 14 | 7:00 PM4070 Vilas Hall
Highlighting works produced in Communication Arts Media Production courses at UW Madison, this 90-minute program is curated by the instructors of film, video and animation courses and gives new filmmakers the opportunity to present their films on screen for the first time.