(SANSHÔ DAYÛ, Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan 1954, 120 min., Japanese with subtitles, 35mm)
In 11th-century Japan, the family of an exiled provincial governor is kidnapped. His wife is sold into prostitution and his son and daughter are sold to the cruel Sansho. The son escapes, determined to find his mother and free the other slaves forced to work Sansho’s manor. He will have great rewards and great despair. Mizoguchi’s sweeping epic is based on a classic Japanese legend, a story that celebrates bravery, resilience, and selflessness.
(Michael Ritchie, US 1980, 114 min., 35mm)
Michael Caine stars as Blair Maynard, a journalist who begins an investigation into a series of missing boats. Traveling with his son, Maynard stumbles across a band of modern-day, yacht-raiding pirates led by John David Nau (David Warner). Trying to protect himself and his son, Maynard allows himself to be inducted into the tribe of pirates. Novelist Peter Benchley wrote the screenplay for this contemporary thriller, an adaptation of his bestselling follow-up to Jaws.
(Timothy & Stephen Quay, UK, total running time 84 min., 35mm, 16mm and Beta-SP projection)
The Quay brothers, identical twins Timothy and Stephen, were raised in Philadelphia and later immigrated to London. There, they have holed up the past couple of decades where they rigorously toil on their painstaking, singular, exquisitely composed stop-motion animation. Their work appears to be influenced not by the animation that has preceded it but by the oddities of natural history: 18th-century curiosity cabinets, medi-cal anomalies, and outdated instruments of science. And their stories are influenced not by contemporary life but by ancient folk tales of the ma-cabre. Even though the brothers shroud their personal lives in mystery, we can still peer into their beautifully twisted psyche through their astonishing films. These two programs feature a near complete collection of their short films, shown almost entirely in new 35mm and 16mm prints!
THE CABINET OF JAN SVANKMAJER (1984), EPIC OF GILGAMESH (1985), THE PHANTOM MUSEUM (2003), STILLE NACHT I–IV (1988–1994), ANAMORPHOSIS (1991), and REHEARSALS FOR EXTINCT ANATOMIES (1988).
(Timothy & Stephen Quay, UK, total running time 81 min., 35mm and 16mm)
The Quay brothers, identical twins Timothy and Stephen, were raised in Philadelphia and later immigrated to London. There, they have holed up the past couple of decades where they rigorously toil on their painstaking, singular, exquisitely composed stop-motion animation. Their work appears to be influenced not by the animation that has preceded it but by the oddities of natural history: 18th-century curiosity cabinets, medi-cal anomalies, and outdated instruments of science. And their stories are influenced not by contemporary life but by ancient folk tales of the ma-cabre. Even though the brothers shroud their personal lives in mystery, we can still peer into their beautifully twisted psyche through their astonishing films. These two programs feature a near complete collection of their short films, shown almost entirely in new 35mm and 16mm prints!
STREET OF CROCODILES (1986), NOCTURNA ARTIFICIALIA (1979), THE COMB (1990), and IN ABSENTIA (2000).
(UGETSU MONOGATARI, Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan 1953, 94 min., 35mm)
Mizoguchi’s quintessential masterpiece blends history and legend, the real and the supernatural, and the savage and the lyrical. In the 18th century, two married men travel to the city where they succumb to temptation; one becomes the lover of a beautiful woman he doesn’t realize is a ghost, and the other becomes a samurai. Meanwhile, the wives of both men suffer cruel fates when abandoned. Spellbindingly told, Ugetsu is also one of the most hauntingly beautiful movies ever made.
