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Cinematheque Ontario - Cinematheque Ontario’s Spring Season treats audiences to a line-up featuring impressive retrospectives, exclusive limited runs and special events. Beginning March 27, the season offers a retrospective on Josef von Sternberg, Richard Leacock in person presenting Norman Mailer’s underground classic Maidstone, and a compelling collection of films from Romania. Other highlights include a series commemorating Glenn Gould’s 75th birthday, Exclusive Limited Runs of Philippe Garrel’s J’Entends plus la guitare and Peng Tao’s Little Moth; and the Toronto premiere of The Valerie Project.
Director Spotlight
March 27 to May 8 offers audiences the opportunity to see the dazzling films of Josef von Sternberg, one of the great overshadowed filmmakers of American cinema. Josef von Sternberg’s Underworld is a 19-title retrospective that includes von Sternberg’s first feature The Salvation Hunters (1925), his seven masterpieces starring long-time collaborator Marlene Dietrich – The Blue Angel (1929), Morocco (1930), Blonde Venus (1932), The Devil Is a Woman (1935), Dishonored (1931), Shanghai Express (1932) and The Scarlet Empress (1934) – and a rare screening of his little-known short The Town (1943). His silent works The Salvation Hunters, Underworld (1927), The Last Command (1928) and The Docks of New York (1928) will be presented with live piano accompaniment by William O’Meara.
Special Programmes and Screenings
This year, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival will honour the acclaimed documentarian Richard Leacock with the Hot Docs Career Achievement Award. On April 24, we are honoured to welcome Leacock to Cinematheque Ontario where he will introduce a screening of Norman Mailer’s rarely shown and difficult-to-see cult classic Maidstone (1970).
For the past two years, the New Romanian Cinema has been the buzz of the international film scene. The Latest Wave: New Romanian Cinema is a survey of this exciting development. This programme features the Toronto premieres of The Paper Will Be Blue (Radu Muntean, 2006), the hilarious and moving satire 12:08 East of Bucharest (Corneliu Porumboiu, 2006), the terrific documentary The Great Communist Bank Robbery (Alexandru Solomon, 2004), the not-to-be-missed masterpiece The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu, 2005), and the extraordinary The Oak (Lucian Pintilie, 1992). This series runs from April 11 to May 2.
Few performers of classical music enjoyed the kind of far-reaching prominence Glenn Gould did in his lifetime and few musicians have had the posthumous following he has. From April 18 to 30, Cinematheque Ontario is pleased to present The Idea of Gould, as part of an initiative by The Glenn Gould Foundation commemorating the 75th anniversary of Gould’s birth. This series features Gould’s favourite film Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964), and Cities: Glenn Gould’s Toronto (John McGreevy, 1979) followed by Glenn Gould: On the Record and Glenn Gould: Off the Record (Roman Kroitor & Wolf Koenig, 1960) and How Mozart Became a Bad Composer (Kirk Browning, 1968) screening as part of The Free Screen. How Mozart Became a Bad Composer appears courtesy of Thirteen/WNET New York and The Glenn Gould Estate. On April 18, as part of Cinematheque Ontario’s Lecture Series, Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post music critic and long-time Gould associate Tim Page gives a talk followed by a screening of The Well-Tempered Listener (1970), a CBC/NET programme conceived and developed by Gould.
On April 9, Cinematheque Ontario invites Toronto moviegoers to enjoy a cinematic and musical treat. The Valerie Project will make its Toronto premiere in a special off-site presentation of Jaromil Jireš’s surrealist fantasy film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970). The film’s lusciously chimerical new soundtrack will be performed live by 10 musicians during the projection of the 35mm archival print. The print is being imported from the Czech Republic especially for this one-night only event at The Royal cinema. This event is a co-presentation with The Free Screen, Images Festival and Wavelength Music Arts Projects.
Exclusive Limited Runs
Cinematheque Ontario presents four Exclusive Limited Runs in its Spring Season: Peng Tao’s second feature Little Moth (2007) will have its Toronto premiere on March 28; a new 35mm print of Charlie Chaplin’s cult classic Monsieur Verdoux (1947) will screen on April 4 and 6; Matt Gallagher’s charming and funny The Rise and Fall of the Grumpy Burger (2008) will play on May 8 and 9; and Philippe Garrel’s J’Entends plus la guitare (1991), starring Benoît Régent and Johanna ter Steege, screens in a newly restored 35mm print on May 9 and 10. Andy Warhol’s The Velvet Underground and Nico: A Symphony of Sound (1966), a sell-out during the fall 2006 Andy Warhol retrospective, will screen on May 10 as a companion piece to J’Entends plus la guitare.
Ongoing series
The Free Screen presents free screenings of work by artists engaged in fields ranging from avant-garde film and animation to hybrid documentaries, essay films and video art. On April 2, Cinematheque Ontario pays tribute to one of the most beloved members of the Canadian film community, Jim Murphy, who passed away last spring at age 59. Jim was a founding member of the Toronto Filmmakers Co-op and a film distribution and marketing expert who played a central role in the acquisition, distribution and marketing of countless Canadian films. This tribute will be followed by a screening of David Weaver’s Century Hotel (2001) starring Colm Feore, Mia Kirshner and Lindy Booth.
The CFMDC marked their 40th anniversary last year by commissioning seven artists to make works inspired by films that hold notable significance to them as image-makers. On April 16, CFMDC’s ReGeneration pairs up these new films with their influential companion pieces. Many of the artists will be in attendance.
The popular Classic Sundays: Treasures from the Bologna Film Festival screens favourites from the Hollywood, British and European cinema. This season, five films will screen from March 30 to April 27, featuring a restored 35mm print of Humphrey Jennings’s Fires Were Started (1943)and Julien Duvivier’s Deadlier Than the Male (1956)… [Full Story]
