FRI., 1/23, 7 p.m.
SAFE
USA | 1995 | 35mm | 119 min.
Director: Todd Haynes
Cast: Julianne Moore, Xander Berkeley, James Le Gros
Before they re-teamed on Far From Heaven, Haynes and actress Julianne Moore collaborated on another critically acclaimed study of a distressed suburban American housewife. When Carol White (Moore) finds that previously harmless household items have become highly toxic to her, she gradually discovers that she is completely allergic to her environment. Chilling and brilliantly acted, the story successfully manages to satirize nothing less than new age medicine and therapies, self-help groups, contemporary marriage, and our entire consumer culture. 35mm print courtesy Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research.
SAT., 1/24, 7 p.m.
AN OFFICER AND A SPY (J’ACCUSE)
France, Italy | 2019 | DCP | 111 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: Roman Polanski
Cast: Jean Dujardin, Louis Garrel, Mathieu Amalric
Adapted from Robert Harris’ book, Polanski’s critically acclaimed and award-winning movie takes a compelling look at the Dreyfus Affair, a landmark case of institutional corruption, antisemitism, and resistance to both. In the late 19th Century, French officer Georges Picquart (Dujardin) initially accepts the conviction and exile of Alfred Dreyfus (Garrel) as justified. After assuming command of a military intelligence unit, Picquart discovers evidence that Dreyfus was deliberately framed to conceal another officer’s treason, forcing him to confront the corruption and bigotry at the heart of the army he serves. Brilliantly edited and impeccably photographed, An Officer and a Spy is “effortlessly absorbing procedural cinema” (Justin Chang, The Los Angeles Times) that “has something very real and urgent to say about the world we live in today” (Glenn Kenny, Rogerebert.com).
FRI., 1/30, 7 p.m.
YI YI
Taiwan, Japan | 2000 | DCP | 173 min. | Mandarin with English subtitles
Director: Edward Yang
Cast: Wu Nien-jen, Issey Ogata, Elaine Jin
Taiwanese New Wave legend Edward Yang won the Best Director prize at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival for his final film, an expansive and emotionally layered study of a multi-generational family in Taipei at the turn of the twenty-first century. With their grandmother in a coma, the children of the Jian family navigate life, love, and loss, with young Yang-Yang discovering his vision of the world through the lens of a camera. Meanwhile, patriarch N.J. (Wu Nien-jen) struggles with the reemergence of a lost love from his past. Yi Yi stands as a triumphant conclusion to Yang’s storied career. A new 4K restoration will be screened. (JM)
SAT., 1/31, 7 p.m.
CAPRICORN ONE
USA | 1978 | DCP | 124 min.
Director: Peter Hyams
Cast: Elliott Gould, James Brolin, Hal Holbrook
A manned mission to Mars runs into technical difficulties at takeoff, launching a conspiracy that could endanger the lives of the three astronauts involved. Muckraking reporter Robert Caufield (a grubby, hangdog Gould) tries to uncover the truth before it’s too late. Stocked with a murderer’s row of 70s character actors (Holbrook has never been flintier), Hyams’ ridiculously entertaining B-movie is a suspense thriller that expertly threads the needle between Alan Pakula-esque 70s paranoia and Hitchcock’s grand-scale entertainments (Telly Savalas in a crop-dusting biplane, anyone?). (BR)
SAT., 2/7, 7 p.m.
ROLLERCOASTER
USA | 1977 | DCP | 119 min.
Director: James Goldstone
Cast: George Segal, Timothy Bottoms, Henry Fonda
A mad bomber (Bottoms) blackmails amusement park company executives by planting explosives on rollercoasters. Safety inspector Harry Calder (Segal) is brought in to investigate, triggering a highly combustible game of cat and mouse. Mixing Hitchcockian thrills with disaster movie tropes, Rollercoaster is kept on track with a clever, twisty script from Columbo creators, Richard Levinson & William Link, and by sharp, witty performances by the all-star cast, including Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda. Originally presented in Sensurround, we’ll be sure to crank it up loud, especially when cult band, Sparks, hits the outdoor stage at Magic Mountain. (BR)
FRI., 2/20, 7 p.m.
JACOB’S LADDER
USA | 1990 | DCP | 119 min.
Director: Adrian Lyne
Cast: Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello
Jacob Singer (Robbins) is a Vietnam veteran whose traumatic, half-remembered battlefield experience leaves him psychologically unmoored as he struggles to build a life after the war. Years later, strange accidents, hallucinations, and the deaths of those around him convince Jacob that he and his fellow soldiers may have been victims of a secret military experiment. As his grip on reality frays, Jacob searches desperately for the truth, unsure whether what he is uncovering is conspiracy, trauma, or something even more terrifying. Working from a script by Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost), director Lyne finds extraordinary visuals that put forth the “frightening notion that paradise and the inferno are all about us here on Earth, and that we participate in one or the other almost by choice…This movie [is] exhilarating in the sense that I was able to observe filmmakers working at the edge of their abilities and inspirations” (Roger Ebert). A new 4K restoration of Jacob’s Ladder will be screened.
SAT., 2/21, 7 p.m.
HARAKIRI
Japan | 1962 | 35mm | 133 min. | Japanese with English subtitles
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Rentaro Mikuni, Akira Ishihama
A destitute samurai seeks aid from a still prosperous clan, but finds only humiliation when he’s forced to commit seppuku with a bamboo sword. Soon, the samurai’s father-in-law visits the clan with revenge on his mind. Kobayashi’s staid camerawork and Toru Takemitsu’s score emphasize the tension in this enormously suspenseful and beautiful masterwork.
SAT., 3/21, 7 p.m.
DAYS AND NIGHTS IN THE FOREST
India | 1970 | DCP | 116 min. | Bengali with English subtitles
Director: Satyajit Ray
Cast: Sharmila Tagore, Kaberi Bose, Simi Garewal
In need of a break from the rat race, four bachelor friends take a vacation together at a forest guesthouse. Their idyll is soon complicated as they become acquainted with some of the area’s alluring women. This lesser-known masterpiece from Satyajit Ray has long served as a major source of inspiration for Wes Anderson, who participated in this new 4K restoration. “To explain why Days and Nights in the Forest is a masterpiece is a bit like explaining why flowers are beautiful: the film’s glories are so natural and self-evident that describing them feels redundant. What makes Days and Nights such a magical experience is that its universal truths about sex, power, and romantic longing seem to materialize out of thin air” (Chicago Reader). Presented with the support of UW-Madison’s Center for South Asia. (MK)
FRI., 3/27, 7 p.m.
THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN
USA | 1973 | DCP | 104 min.
Director: Mike Nichols
Cast: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Paul Sorvino
Well-funded marine biologist Jake Terrell (Scott, in a terrific performance) discovers his highly intelligent dolphins can communicate in rudimentary English, only to find their abilities attracting the attention of shadowy government operatives and conspiratorial agents. This wildly unpredictable thriller is classic entertainment from the Post-JFK/Watergate-era. A newly restored DCP, a showcase for the lovely widescreen cinematography of William Fraker, will be shown.
SAT., 3/28, 4 p.m. (English) & 7 p.m. (Italian)
CONVERSATION PIECE (GRUPPO DI FAMIGLIA IN UN INTERNO)
Italy | 1974 | DCP | 121 min. | English and Italian with English subtitles
Director: Luchino Visconti
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Helmut Berger, Silvana Mangano
A reclusive retired professor (Lancaster) in Rome finds his quiet life upended when Countess Bianca (Mangano) and her eccentric family rent a floor of his mansion, bringing chaos—and a provocative young lover, Konrad (Berger). Despite Konrad’s brashness, the professor succumbs to his charms, sparking a strange, desire-driven bond. Visconti’s penultimate film, partially inspired by the director’s own relationship with young actor Berger, will be shown twice in a newly restored 4K DCP. The English-language version, featuring Lancaster’s own voice, will screen at 4 p.m. The Italian-language version screens at 7 p.m.
SAT., 4/18, 7 p.m.
THE BLADE
Hong Kong | 1995 | 35mm | 105 min. | Cantonese with English subtitles
Director: Tsui Hark
Cast: Vincent Zhao, Xiong Xin-xin, Moses Chan
Out to avenge the death of his father, Sword-maker Ding On (Zhao) loses his arm and is nearly killed. After convalescing, he develops a speeding, whirling swordfighting technique that he plans to use on those who crippled and maimed him. Director Tsui Hark’s kinetically-charged spin on the Shaw Bros./Jimmy Wang Yu “one-armed swordsman” vehicles of the late 1960s is now considered one of the best HK action movies of its own era. 35mm print courtesy Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research.
SAT., 4/25, 7 p.m.
GREEN SNAKE
Hong Kong | 1993 | 35mm | 99 min. | Mandarin with English subtitles
Director: Tsui Hark
Cast: Joey Wong, Maggie Cheung, Wenzhuo Zhao
A visually dazzling allegory of what it means to be human, Green Snake reimagines the classic Chinese folktale of two snake spirits (Wong and Cheung) who take human form and challenge the rigid principles of a Buddhist monk. Director Tsui Hark blends irony, sensuality, comedy, and mythic spectacle in a movie that has been called “Brilliant” (Film Comment) and “Radically fantastical!” (San Francisco Chronicle). 35mm print courtesy Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research.
FRI., 5/1, 7 p.m.
THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN
USA | 1989 | DCP | 126 min.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Cast: John Neville, Sarah Polley, Eric Idle
Filming at Italy’s Cinecittà studios and utilizing several members of Federico Fellini’s usual crew, Gilliam created his most visually sumptuous movie: a classic German children’s story retold with Monty Python-esque humor. Neville and Polley are a perfectly charming pair of leads as the Baron and his young companion. The supporting cast includes Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman, and Robin Williams as the King of the Moon. A restored 4K DCP will be screened.