Curated by Sam Fielder

Cinémathèque screenings are open to members and their guests. Membership is simple and available at the door. Admission 18+, unless the film has been rated in Australia.

Mini Membership (4 screenings/ + bring 1 guest along to one screening) A$20
Quarterly Membership (12 screenings/ + bring one guest along to three different screenings) A$40
Annual Membership (52 screenings/ + bring one guest along to 12 different screenings) A$99

To subscribe to receive Cinémathèque and Chauvel Cinema special event emails, send an email to: cinematheque@chauvelcinema.net.au

6.30pm Monday 20 May 2013

LES BLANK TRIBUTE DOUBLE FEATURE
Les Blank’s BURDEN OF DREAMS
(U.S.A/1982/COLOUR/94mins/ 16mm/NFVLS / 18+)
An account of the making of the German director Werner Herzog's film 'Fitzcarraldo' in the Amazon jungle. 'Burden of Dreams' becomes a portrait of an obsessive filmmaker's determination, against mounting odds and self-doubt to realise his personal vision of an attempt by a penniless, opera mad genius (played by Klaus Kinski) to build a grand opera house in the jungle. Not a conventional 'behind the scenes' promotional documentary, but a film which raises the question about the pursuit of art and what it can entail.

Followed By:
Les Blank’s WERNER HERZOG EATS HIS SHOE
(U.S.A/1980/COLOUR/20mins/ 16mm/NFVLS / 18+)
A record of Werner Herzog honouring a vow he made to Berkeley student Errol Morris that he would eat his shoe if Morris ever made a film. Herzog's Even Dwarfs Started Small, Morris's acclaimed film about a pet cemetery Gates to Heaven, and the boot-eating scene from Chaplin's The Gold Rush are included.

6.30pm Monday 27 May 2013
LES BLANK TRIBUTE DOUBLE FEATURE
Les Blank’s GARLIC IS AS GOOD AS TEN MOTHERS
(U.S.A/1980/COLOUR/51mins/ 16mm/NFVLS/18+)
A gastronomical portrait of garlic by Les Blank. This lyrically examines such aspects of garlic as its history, cultivation, curative powers and recipes, to the accompaniment of Cajun Mexican music.

Followed By:
Les Blank’s GAP – TOOTHED WOMEN
(U.S.A/1987/COLOUR/30mins/ 16mm/NFVLS / 18+)
The unlikely subject of women with a gap between their front teeth (40 of the 100 interviewed by the filmmaker appear in the film) engagingly provides the means of probing wider issues of self-image and survival.

6.30pm Monday 3 June 2013
Monte Hellman’s COCKFIGHTER
(U.S.A/1974/COLOUR/84mins/ 16mm/NFVLS / 18+)
Set in Georgia, this drama of an obsessive man (Warren Oates) who has vowed not to speak until he has won the Cockfighter of the Year Award, was conceived as a low budget ($400,000) genre piece for the action circuit. It is transformed through a parable on the theme of the single-minded drive to find a kind of freedom through competition. From the director of Two Lane Blackto

6.30pm Monday 10 June 2013
Jacques Rivette’s PARIS NOUS APPARTIENT
(FRANCE/1960/B&W/128mins/ 16mm/NFVLS / 18+)
According to writer Charles Peguy, Paris belongs to those who spend the summer there. In the heat of August, in the empty city, a troupe of young actors work on a new production of Shakespeare's 'Pericles' (a play which itself focuses on youthful ideals and commitments) without money and against professional advice. Production difficulties cause enthusiasm to crumble, intrigues to proliferate and little by little the group falls apart. They believe themselves to be victims of an unexplained secret conspiracy. This is a film of mood and lyrical romanticism rather than of narrative lucidity. With Breathless, 400 Blows and Le Beau Serge, Paris Nous Appartient (made on virtually no budget) is a key film in the first flowering of la nouvelle vague

6.30pm Monday 17 June 2013
DOUBLE FEATURE
Joris Iven’s THE SPANISH EARTH
(U.S.A/1937/52mins/B&W/16mm/NFVL/18+)
Written and narrated by Ernest Hemingway, the aim was to make a film which would give moral and financial support to the Republican forces in Spain. Director Joris Ivens' initial idea of a docu-drama following a Republican soldier gave way to the idea of a 'film of peace about the war'. The battle of Madrid and the work in the fields on a new irrigation project are presented as interdependent aspects of the same event. Spanish Earth is politically committed reportage with something of the quality of an epic poem; it tells us of ordinary people fighting against a war machine.

Followed By:
John Huston’s LET THERE BE LIGHT
(U.S.A/1946/58mins/B&W/16mm/NFVL/18+)
Sponsored by the Army with the aim of facilitating the employment of emotional casualities of combat by showing that they were not insane. Hidden cameras were used to film individual and group therapy at a New York Hospital. For reasons never made clear the Army then banned the film which has only recently become available.

Chauvel Cinematheque gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the National Film and Video Lending Service, the National Film & Sound Archive. Print Sources: NFVLS – National Film & Video Lending