To-do: Week starting Thursday 9th June: Fassbinder retrospective, Focus on Kelly Reichardt, Jazz on Film, Super 8, Oranges and Sunshine
Week starting Thursday 8th June
Special seasons:
The Melbourne Cinematheque presents Totally, Tenderly, Tragically: The Films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a retrospective of the iconoclastic German director. The 3-week season continues with The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978), the first of his BRD Trilogy dealing with the malaise of wartime defeat and post-war reconstruction, and Veronika Voss (1982) a film loosely based around the life of German actress Sybille Schmitz and the last installment of Fassbinder’s BRD trilogy. At ACMI each Wednesday, June 8-22.
Meek’s Cutoff is the latest film from Kelly Reichardt, the distinctive American independent director. The first period piece for Reichardt, this film follows a group of American settlers and their strained dependence on a Native American as they search for water in the Oregonian desert. Showing exclusively at ACMI until June 19. Check out Brad Nguyen’s review here.
To see Reichardt’s other films, check out ACMI’s Focus on Kelly Reichardt, a retrospective of the director’s earlier works such as Wendy and Lucy (2008) starring Michelle Williams; Old Joy (2006) starring Will Oldham a.k.a. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and featuring a soundtrack by Yo La Tengo; Reichardt’s debut River of Grass (1993); and the Super-8 featurette Ode (1999). At ACMI until June 19.
Jazz on Film is a program of films at ACMI curated for the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. Should probably highlight Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain (June 11) the bizarre cult film scored by free jazz artist Don Cherry. Full program here. At ACMI until June 13.
Old films:
Crumb is a documentary directed by Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World, Art School Confidential) about the provocative comic artist Robert Crumb who created Fritz the Cat and illustrated a number of American Splendor editions. At ACMI, June 10.
Apocalypse Now (1979) is Francis Ford Coppola’s epic Vietnam War film about a US special operations officer on a mission to assassinate the rogue and presumably insane Colonel Kurtz. At ACMI, June 11.
New releases opening this week:
Super 8 is a nostalgic science fiction film from J. J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg. The film is about teenage super 8 enthusiasts who witness a train crash and suspect that there is more to the event than meets the eye.
Oranges and Sunshine is a film about an ordinary person against the system from Jim Loach, son of Ken Loach. It stars Emily Watson as a social worker who uncovers a past scandal of “home children”, a scheme of forcibly relocating poor children from the UK to Australia and Canada. Which all sounds very worthy and hopefully plays out with less sap than the godawful trailer.
Daniel London and Will Oldham as two friends on a camping trip in "Old Joy" at ACMI
