Jeremy Thomas retrospective at the Quad, Sept. 18-28 | Featuring new 4K restorations of THE DREAMERS and THE LAST EMPEROR

 

Produced By Jeremy Thomas

September 18-28

The Quad celebrates the films of legendary, Academy Award-winning producer Jeremy Thomas with a career retrospective in advance of the theatrical release of Mark Cousins's The Storms of Jeremy Thomas

Highlights include new 4K restorations of The Dreamers, The Last Emperor, and Naked Lunch, plus 35mm prints of 13 Assassins ( YOU MUST SEE THIS IT"S ONE OF THE GREATEST FILMS EVER MADE) and Only Lovers Left Alive

 "Once upon a time, there was a prince, a movie prince..." Born into British film royalty (with his uncle and father behind some of the most popular British films of the 1950s — the Carry On and Detective series), producer Jeremy Thomas has paved his own path, blazed with brilliant, controversial, industry-heightening films. The most daring films of the past 45 years, working the likes of Bertolucci, Cronenberg, Ōshima, and more. As acclaimed documentary filmmaker Mark Cousins reflects in the upcoming The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, the legendary producer's oeuvre was "formed not only by politics and sex, but also death and glamor and passion."

See these films in all their glory on the big screen. Series highlights include new 4K restorations, 35mm prints, and to-be-announced special appearances. 

For more information and tickets go here

Iberian Nights: Bigas Luna’s Passion Trilogy March 27 - April 2 at the Quad

The Quad presents the whimsically erotic "Iberian Passion Trilogy" from Spanish director Bigas Luna: Jamón Jamón ('92), Golden Balls ('93), and The Tit and the Moon ('94)—all imported 35mm prints

Featuring early performances from Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, and Benicio Del Toro. With special guests Professor Santiago Fouz Hernández (Durham University UK), Bigas Luna's daughter, Betty Bigas, and more in person


In the 1970s, maverick Spanish filmmakers brought forth pictures that bucked the repressive establishment ethos of their country. While Pedro Almodóvar is the best-known, his contemporary Bigas Luna (1946-2013) cut a distinctive stylistic swath that turned heads. Luna initially concentrated on dark and twisted thrillers but later enjoyed making international audiences blush; his proclivity for erotic stories yielded increasingly free rein and naughty whimsy, as he enlisted up-for-anything actors to be co-conspirators in his visions—most memorably, future real-life couple Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem. The Quad remembers this seductive storyteller with his “Iberian Passion Trilogy,” through which Luna’s design background and painter’s eye add to the enveloping feel of these contemporary fairy tales marbled with social and sexual studies.

Co-presented by The Bigas Luna Tribute, a series of global homage events organized by Bigas Luna’s daughter, Betty Bigas, and Bigas Luna specialist Santiago Fouz Hernández (Professor in Hispanic Studies and Film Studies at Durham University, UK).

Jamón Jamón
Bigas Luna, 1992, Spain, 95m, 35mm
Bubbling over with torrid sex sequences, voluptuous food content, and winkingly outrageous melodrama, the first of Luna’s “Iberian Passion Trilogy” became his biggest success at home and abroad while hot-listing its younger leads for stardom. Jordi Mollà plays a poor little rich boy who falls for local Penélope Cruz (in her film debut), but as she is the daughter of madam Anna Galiena, his mother Stefania Sandrelli won’t abide the match — and hires Javier Bardem to horn in.

Official Selection: Venice Film Festival, Miami International Film Festival

Winner: Silver Lion, Venice Film Festival

In Spanish with English subtitles

“The funniest sexy movie [...] since Like Water For Chocolate.” — Roger Ebert

Golden Balls
Bigas Luna, 1993, Spain, 95m, 35mm
Javier Bardem gets his swagger on for the sly second film in Luna’s trilogy, oozing toxic masculinity as a cocksure aspiring industrialist who operates in acquisition mode both personally and professionally. The supporting cast includes pre-Pulp Fiction Maria de Medeiros, pre-The Usual Suspects Benicio Del Toro, Maribel Verdú (later of Y Tu Mamá También), character actor Ismael [“East”] Carlo, and (in her final film) María Martín of Luna’s Bilbao.

Official Selection: Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

In Spanish with English subtitles

The Tit and the Moon
Bigas Luna, 1994, Spain, 93m, 35mm
Luna caps his “Iberian Passion Trilogy;” although Javier Bardem has only a cameo, cinematographer José Luis Alcaine and composer Nicola Piovani top their previous contributions for the director in most fanciful and fantastical style. Nine-year-old boy Biel Duran feels overshadowed by his new baby brother, and fixates on hoping for the miracle of mother’s milk from another source—perhaps the stunning ballerina (played by Mathilda May of Lifeforce infamy) visiting his village?

Official Selection: Venice Film Festival, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

In Catalan, Spanish and French; with English subtitles

Peshmerga (2016) begins a theatrical run tomorrow at the Quad as part of Bernard-Henri Lévy x 4

What if a philosopher made a war documentary? Bernard-Henri Levy has done just that and the result is Peshmerga about the Iraqi Kurdish forces fighting ISIS in Iraq.

To be honest  Levy has made at least one other war doc, which I'm told is overly pretentious. Peshmerga does suffer from it's director's overly self indulgent navel gazing but at the same time the film does have an effect on it's audience.

The effect is due entirely to the you are there shooting of the film. Beginning with a POV shot of two men running in the desert which takes a sudden turn when one is blown up Peshmerga grabs it's audience by the throat and never lets you go.

I suspect at this point I should warn you that there are images in this film which will bother many. We see the war dead and some footage of the nastiness inflicted on people by ISIS. We see people die unpleasant deaths.

What makes the film stand out, and to some degree lessens the impact of the story is Levy's purple narration. Taking an intellectual stance that kind of puts him outside of the events in the film Levy spins the film in some intriguing ways that make you engage with the film with you brain and not just your gut. At the same time because some of the musings sound overly intellectual some of the connections to the heart are severed and we never completely engage on an emotional level. The upshot of which is that some of the raw visceral power that should cause us to act or react on what we are seeing. instead we look at the tale and nod to ourselves and say - oh isn't that terrible before moving on.

Of course that doesn't prevent the film from hanging around in your brain for several days forcing you to ponder it for a long time after.

For details on the run and the entire Bernard-Henri Lévy x 4 series go here

And for Nate Hood's alternate take on the film go here.

Origin Stories: Bertrand Bonello’s Footnotes to Zombi Child Starts Fri January 17 at the Quad

French filmmaker Bertrand Bonello selects films that inspired and informed his upcoming Zombi Child, opening January 24

Titles include 35mm prints of Carrie, I Walked with a Zombie, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Maya Deren's Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti on 16mm and more!

For over two decades, French filmmaker Bertrand Bonello has immersed audiences in worlds and time periods spanning a fin-de-siècle bordello (House of Tolerance) to ‘70s haute couture (Saint Laurent). With his eighth feature, he explores the mysterious practices that bridge generations and geography, the living and the… formerly living. As a warm-up to Zombi Child, opening at the Quad on January 24, Bonello has selected a series of titles that have inspired and informed his latest work. From ghastly demonic terrors in Georgetown to coolly occult activities in the Caribbean, swooning turn-of-the-century school girls to treasure-hunting ‘80s teenaged boys, we invite you to navigate currents both light and dark en route to Bonello’s bewitching latest creation.

Carrie
Brian de Palma, 1976, U.S., 98m, 35mm
From its traumatic opening sequence through its post-traumatic closing imagery, De Palma’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel is shocking, empathetic, and unsparing. Both deservedly Oscar-nominated, Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie incarnate an unforgettable blood knot as a telekinetic teen trying to preserve her humanity while being raised by a religious fanatic mother.

Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti
Maya Deren/Cherel Ito/Teiji Ito, 1985, U.S., 52m, 16mm
Revered avant-garde director Deren (Meshes of the Afternoon) had — with personal and professional partner Teiji Ito — amassed rare footage of Haitian voodoo (also spelled as vodou, or voudoun) over a four-year span and then published a 1953 book on the subject. Decades later, Ito and his wife Cherel shaped the archival trove into a same-titled hourlong documentary feature which goes beyond common (mis)perceptions to illuminate thriving cultural traditions.

The Exorcist: Extended Director's Cut
William Friedkin, 1973, U.S., 133m, DCP
Friedkin set a new high bar for hide-your-eyes imagery and explicit screen shocks with William Peter Blatty scripting from his own best-selling novel. Big box office and 10 Oscar nominations followed, with wins for Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay. Movie star Ellen Burstyn, mid-shoot in D.C., finds preteen daughter Linda Blair in the monstrous grip of demonic possession and pleads for hands-on intervention from conflicted priests Max von Sydow and Jason Miller.

The Goonies
Richard Donner, 1985, U.S., 114m, 35mm
Adventure beckons, in this enduring family favorite, for Pacific Northwest kids once they get wind of pirate’s booty buried under their neck of the woods — sending them tumbling through junior-Indiana-Jones-style close calls and face-offs. The teen septet includes Josh Brolin (in his screen debut), Kerri Green (Lucas), and Martha Plimpton. Chris Columbus scripted from a story by executive producer Steven Spielberg; the theme song is belted out by Cyndi Lauper.

I Walked with a Zombie
Jacques Tourneur, 1943, U.S., 69m, 35mm
After Cat People, Tourneur and producer Val Lewton reteamed with film editor Mark Robson and composer Roy Webb for another shiver-inducing tale of the supernatural, forging the screen template for zombie depictions a quarter-century before it was refitted with the walking/living dead. The sunny Caribbean provides little respite for nurse Frances Dee as she proposes radical therapy for spellbound Christine Gordon while pining for the latter’s husband Tom Conway.

Picnic at Hanging Rock [Director's Cut]
Peter Weir, 1975, Australia, 108m, 35mm
The great Weir’s career breakthrough came with this lulling yet roiling fugue into the female psyche as it exists in the material world. Based on Joan Lindsay’s novel — itself purportedly inspired by an actual unsolved case — and breathtakingly shot on Australian locations by BAFTA Award-winning cinematographer Russell Boyd. In 1900, a boarding school for women run by Rachel Roberts sets a field trip from which three students and a teacher do not return…

The Serpent and the Rainbow
Wes Craven, 1988, U.S., 98m, 35mm
Anthropologist Wade Davis’ hotly debated book became the basis for one of Craven’s most divisive chillers. New England professor Bill Pullman visits Haiti to investigate reports of a powerful pharmaceutical tied to rogue magic and/or suspended animation, encountering presumed warlock Zakes Mokae and civil unrest. With Cathy Tyson (Mona Lisa), Paul Winfield (Sounder), Theresa Merritt (The Wiz), and beloved UK genre films staple Michael Gough.


Zombi Child

Opens Fri January 24
Bertrand Bonello, France, 103m, DCP
For his eighth feature, Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent, Nocturama) masterfully injects new life into the well trod-upon zombie genre with a tale that criss-crosses between generations and hemispheres, the dead and the undead. Drawing from the true story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was reportedly zombified in 1962 Haiti and put to work in the sugarcane fields, Bonello tracks between the past and present-day Paris, where Narcisse’s (fictional) granddaughter struggles to fit in with the other (predominantly white) girls at her prestigious boarding school. With bewitching cinematography by Yves Cape (Holy Motors) and a hypnotic electro score (written by Bonello), Zombi Child offers a phantasmagorical mix of traditional Haitian mythology and haunted contemporary youth. A Film Movement release

In French, Haitian, and English with English subtitles

Official Selection: Cannes Film Festival, New York Film Festival

“Bonello leaves us hypnotised and hungrily begging for more.”
—Little White Lies

Jeff Goldblum Retrospective at the Quad

Jeff Goldblum Retrospective + 2K restoration of Between the Lines

Starts February 8
The Quad salutes the irresistibly idiosyncratic Jeff Goldblum with a retrospective on the occasion of a new 2K restoration of Joan Micklin Silver's under-appreciated sophomore feature Between the Lines

Highlights include 35mm prints of The Fly, The Big Chill, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and more

Between the Lines

Opens Friday February 22—New York premiere of 2K restoration
Joan Micklin Silver, 1977, U.S., 101m, DCP
In a time when independent media and journalism are constantly under attack, the sophomore film by the trailblazing Joan Micklin Silver (Hester Street), while over 40 years old, could not be more timely today. Following the lives and loves of a group of staffers at a Boston alt-weekly as they face a possible corporate takeover and unemployment, this rueful multi-character comedy drama is a true lost treasure. Featuring a stellar cast in early roles: John Heard, Lindsay Crouse, Jill Eikenberry, Bruno Kirby, Gwen Welles, and Jeff Goldblum as the paper’s music critic. A Cohen Film Collection release

"Gently perceptive... an appealing, low-key, counter-culture newspaper comedy." —Vincent Canby, The New York Times

The Goldblum Variations

February 8-21
At 6’4” tall, Jeff Goldblum can’t help but draw the eye; his striking looks express level-gaze intensity or offbeat charm while his voice is by turns seductive and quizzical—with diction that’s tuned in to its own private frequency, compelling not only the audience but also his co-stars to lean in closer. While his career extends to theatre (he studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse) and TV, with his brainy wit, loping physicality, and oddball charisma, Goldblum belongs on the big screen. On the occasion of the restoration of Joan Micklin Silver’s Between the Lines, featuring an early scene-stealing deadpan turn from Goldblum, the Quad pays tribute to an icon of idiosyncratic individuality.

Additional titles to be announced:
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
W.D. Richter, 1984, U.S., 103m, 35mm

The Big Chill
Lawrence Kasdan, 1983, U.S., 105m, 35mm

The Fly
David Cronenberg, 1986, U.S./UK/Canada, 96m, 35mm

Independence Day
Roland Emmerich, 1996, U.S., 145m, DCP

Into the Night
John Landis, 1985, U.S., 115m, 35mm

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Philip Kaufman, 1978, U.S., 115m, 35mm

Jurassic Park
Steven Spielberg, 1993, U.S., 127m, DCP

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Wes Anderson, 2004, U.S., 119m, DCP

The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Steven Spielberg, 1997, U.S., 129m, DCP

Mister Frost
Philip Setbon, 1990, France/UK, 105m, 35mm

Next Stop, Greenwich Village
Paul Mazursky, 1976, U.S., 111m, DCP

Nine Months
Chris Columbus, 1995, U.S., 103m, 35mm

Tito and the Birds (2018) plays the Quad beginning Friday

Opening this weekend at the Quad Cinemas in New York TITO AND THE BIRDS is a film that is going to play best for the adults in the audience. That isn't a knock, more that the film which features a super rich fear mongering TV star is going to hit home with those who see the parallels with the current occupant of the White House.

In a fear filled dystopian world not far removed from our own Tito lives alone with his mom. His dad was thrown out when a machine to talk to the birds blew up injuring Tito. As Tito tries to replicate his father machine with the help of friends the world is plunged into chaos as a new plague threatens to infect everyone. Will Tito and his friends be able to stop it?

Looking like almost no other film TITO is a film that looks like an oil painting come to life. While not as detailed as say something like LOVING VINCENT, it uses its minimalist style for some truly breath taking sequences (the flight sequence toward the end or any of the shots of the flocks of birds). This a a film that is an absolute treat for the eyes.

While the film's world where everyone is afraid can be a little dark, the films message about how with other people we will be less afraid is an important one. It is even more important in today's world where Donald Trump is constant flogging the idea that one thing or another or one group or other is coming to kill us. Almost certainly to be lost on younger viewers is the fact that Trump's empty promises mirror those given by the super rich TV star in the film.

TITO AND THE BIRDS is a very good, one of a kind film. While it is probably going to be too intense for younger viewers , older mre thoughtful kids and adults are going to love it.

Recommended.

Erotic Journeys: Em(m)anuelle & Just Jaeckin January 25-February 6 at the Quad

On the occasion of the 2K restoration of Just Jaeckin's 1974 softcore classic Emmanuelle, the Quad spotlights Jaeckin's best works alongside five steamy Em(m)anuelle spinoffs

Emmanuelle

Opens Friday January 25—U.S. premiere of 2K restoration
Just Jaeckin, 1974, France, 95m, DCP
Thai-born Emmanuelle Arsan (who appeared in The Sand Pebbles) was identified as the writer of the scandalous 1959 novel Emmanuelle, but her husband Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane was later alleged to be the author. Carnally incarnating the character onscreen, Dutch actress Sylvia Kristel was catapulted to international fame; Emmanuelle’s marriage to diplomat Daniel Sarky is rocked by sexual explorations—some startling—with and via older man Alain Cuny. Jaeckin’s movie was a phenomenon in France, an X-rated hit in America, and banned in some countries; the “Emmanuelle” brand extended to wicker chairs after one racy scene in particular, and led to an avalanche of official and unauthorized sequels over the next several years. A Kino Lorber Repertory release

"Like a softcore version of The Story of O commissioned by Vogue Magazine."
—Chris Petit, Time Out

As a portal opened for crossover between mainstream cinema and adult entertainment in the 1970s, French director Just Jaeckin was, with one movie, able to restore a Continental influence on the cinematic depiction of female sexuality; his debut feature, Emmanuelle, established a one-word universal language for adventuresome erotica. Jaeckin had trained as a photographer and was also an artist, architect, and sculptor. The success of Emmanuelle—released in the U.S. by no less than major studio Columbia Pictures—pivoted Jaeckin into a decade-long run as a softcore auteur, after which he strolled away from the industry to pursue art and life. Meanwhile, the floodgates opened for various Emmanuelle sequels and extemporizations—some legitimate and some not, with a deliberately dropped consonant creating a copyright loophole for the rival Emanuelle series to trade on the name and reputation. Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the novel that gave the world Emmanuelle, the Quad brings together movies weaving in and out of the series canon(s) as well as films made by Jaeckin that showcase his own post-Emmanuelle aesthetic evolution. While Emmanuelle and Jaeckin’s paths didn’t cross again, they are forever coupled in movie history.
Beyond Emmanuelle: Just Jaeckin

February 1-6
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Just Jaeckin, 1981, UK/France/West Germany/U.S., 105m, 35mm

The Last Romantic Lover
Just Jaeckin, 1978, Spain/France, 104m, Betacam

Madame Claude (aka The French Woman)
Just Jaeckin, 1977, France, 105m, DCP

Private Collections*
Walerian Borowczyk/Just Jaeckin/Shūji Terayama, 1979, Fr/Japan, 103m, 35mm

The Story of O
Just Jaeckin, 1975, France/West Germany/Canada, 97m, DCP

*Presented in collaboration with Federal Express, who delivered this print a full three months after it was originally scheduled in our Omnibus series.

Erotic Journeys: The Many Faces of Em(m)anuelle

February 1-6
Black Emanuelle
Bitto Albertini, 1975, Italy/Spain, 91m, 35mm

Emmanuelle II
Francis Giacobetti, 1975, France, 83m, DCP

Emanuelle’s Daughter
Ilias Mylonakos, 1980, Greece/Cyprus, 91m, 35mm

Emanuelle in Prison (aka Women’s Prison Massacre)
Bruno Mattei, 1983, Italy/France, 89m, 35mm

Goodbye Emmanuelle (aka Emmanuelle 3)
François Leterrier, 1977, France, 100m, DCP

Engagements January 2019 at the Quad

The Quad rings in the new year with revivals of Isao Takahata's wartime masterpiece Grave of the Fireflies (NY theatrical premiere engagement) and Just Jaeckin's softcore sensation Emmanuelle (U.S. premiere of 2K restoration)

Plus the gorgeously animated Tito and the Birds, two essential Holocaust documentaries The Invisibles and Who Will Write Our History, and more!
Revivals

Grave of the Fireflies

Opens Fri January 4—New York premiere theatrical engagement

30th anniversary release
Isao Takahata, 1988, Japan, 88m, DCP
One of the greatest films produced by Japan’s legendary Studio Ghibli, Takahata’s heartbreaking tale follows a teenage boy left to care for his younger sister after they’re separated from their parents in the wake of a WWII bombing raid. “An emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of animation,” wrote Roger Ebert, and the Quad is honored to give this overwhelming and profound work of art the attention and theatrical showcase it has long deserved but seldom received. A GKIDS release

In Japanese with English subtitles

"If you thought Bambi or Up were as emotional as animation gets, you need to see this Japanese masterpiece." —The Guardian


Emmanuelle

Opens Fri January 24 — U.S. premiere of new 2K restoration

Exclusive NY engagement
Just Jaeckin, 1974, France, 95m, DCP
Thai-born Emmanuelle Arsan (who appeared in The Sand Pebbles) was identified as the writer of the scandalous 1959 novel Emmanuelle, but her husband Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane was later alleged to be the author. Carnally incarnating the character onscreen, Dutch actress Sylvia Kristel was catapulted to international fame; Emmanuelle’s marriage to diplomat Daniel Sarky is rocked by sexual explorations—some startling—with and via older man Alain Cuny. Jaeckin’s movie was a phenomenon in France, an X-rated hit in America, and banned in some countries; the “Emmanuelle” brand extended to wicker chairs after one racy scene in particular, and led to an avalanche of official and unauthorized sequels over the next several years. A Kino Lorber Repertory release

In French with English subtitles

“Like a softcore version of The Story of O commissioned by Vogue magazine.”
—Chris Petit, Time Out


A Just Jaeckin retrospective plus a sampling of films from the Emmanuelle canon screen starting February 1.
First Run

The Aspern Papers

Opens Fri January 11 — Exclusive NY engagement
Julien Landais, UK/Germany, 90m, DCP
Rife with deception, lust, and literary intrigue, this adaptation of Henry James’ 1888 novella stars a commanding Vanessa Redgrave as the ailing (but formidable) former lover of a deceased poet—and the supposed recipient of a cache of his personal letters. Posing as a prospective lodger, conniving American editor Jonathan Rhys Meyers courts Redgrave’s niece (played by her real-life daughter Joely Richardson) in the hopes of gaining access to the mysterious—and potentially scandalous—contents of the missives. But is the past best kept in the past? Executive-produced by James Ivory. A Cohen Media Group release


In anticipation of International Holocaust Remembrance Day Sunday, January 27, the Quad is honored to present weeklong engagements of two extraordinary new documentaries.

Who Will Write Our History

Opens Friday January 18 — Exclusive NY Engagement
Roberta Grossman, U.S., 96m, DCP
With a wealth of archival footage and detailed re-enactments, this film recounts the incredible story of Emanuel Ringelblum, who secretly led a team of writers and intellectuals to preserve a vibrant Jewish culture in the Warsaw Ghetto shortly after the Nazis took over. What resulted was a startlingly deep and diverse portrait of European Jewish life, as the Oyneg Shabes Archive made an invaluable contribution to the historical record. Based on the book by Samuel Kassow. An Abramorama release.

In English, Yiddish, and Polish with English subtitles

Official selection: New York Jewish Film Festival

“Arguably the most important Holocaust story never told.” —Tablet

With filmmakers in person opening weekend


The Invisibles

Opens Friday January 25
Claus Räfle, Germany, 110m, DCP
When Goebbels declared Berlin judenfrei (free of Jews) in 1943, little did the German government know that roughly 7,000 Jews were still living in the capital, hiding in plain sight. Of that group, some 1,700 lived to see the defeat of the Third Reich, and this remarkable new film tells the stories of four of these survivors. Combining documentary interviews with stunning dramatizations (photographed by Jörg Widmer, The Tree of Life’s camera operator), The Invisibles offers a riveting portrait of resourcefulness and courage in the face of horror. A Greenwich Entertainment release.

In German with English subtitles

Official selection: New York Jewish Film Festival

“Fascinating… plays like a thriller but is all the more remarkable for being true.” —Jerusalem Post


Tito and the Birds

Opens Friday January 25 — Exclusive NY engagement
Gustavo Steinberg, Gabriel Bitar & André Catoto, Brazil, 71m, DCP
Reflecting the scope of political unrest in Brazil and abroad, this brisk, gorgeous, endlessly inventive hybrid of oil painting and digital animation packs thrills and heart in equal measure. In a society plagued (literally) by mass hysteria, young Tito invents a machine to help humans communicate with birds, believing he can execute a plan to save the city and his ailing mother. But first he must face up to a rich, reactionary TV personality capitalizing on the chaos. A Shout! Studios release

Official selection: Toronto International Film Festival

Matinees: English-language version | Evenings: Portuguese with English subtitles

"Constantly absorbing and picture-book vivid... an unusually candid political allegory for young audiences." —Variety

Pictures of Polite Society: Henry James at the Movies January 11 – 24 at the Quad

The Quad surveys the filmic adaptations of Henry James' baroque literary universe, from the loose to the faithful. With films by Jacques Rivette, Peter Bogdanovich, Jane Campion, William Wyler, Agnieszka Holland, François Truffaut, and more!

Series runs in conjunction with the release of The Aspern Papers, starring Vanessa Redgrave and executive produced by James Ivory, opening Fri January 11

“I glory in the piling up of complications of every sort,” declared novelist Henry James. He was speaking to his niece about his prose style, but he could easily have been acknowledging his sure hand at plotting out crossroads, conundrums, and class conflicts for his characters. James wrote his observational fiction from experience: reared in New York State—both in Albany and in Manhattan—he became keenly attuned to the mores he absorbed from his family’s lofty perch on the social ladder. An adolescence spent in Europe would affirm his aesthetic interests in cross-cultural currents on both sides of the pond, and this American abroad would ultimately make his home in England. His novels have attracted filmmakers and actors ever since his passing a century ago; they offer cinematic enticements that might begin with ornate costuming and settings that draw the eye but which then veer towards the heart as people wrestle with matters of love and propriety. On the occasion of The Aspern Papers, the latest in a rich history of James adaptations executive produced by James Ivory and opening Fri January 11, the Quad presents a range of interpretations of James’ highly subjective marrying of internal struggles and external forces.
Aspern
Eduardo de Gregorio, 1982, Portugal/France, 96m, 35mm
The Bostonians
James Ivory, 1984, UK, 122m, DCP
Céline and Julie Go Boating
Jacques Rivette, 1974, France, 193m, 35mm
Daisy Miller
Peter Bogdanovich, 1974, U.S., 91m, 35mm
The Golden Bowl
James Ivory, 2000, U.S./France/UK, 130m, 35mm
The Green Room
François Truffaut, 1978, France, 95m, 35mm
The Heiress
William Wyler, 1949, U.S., 115m, DCP
The Innocents
Jack Clayton, 1961, UK, 100m, DCP
The Lost Moment
Martin Gabel, 1947, U.S., 89m, 35mm
The Nightcomers
Michael Winner, 1971, UK, 96m, 35mm
The Portrait of a Lady
Jane Campion, 1996, UK/U.S., 144m, DCP
Sérail (Surreal Estate)
Eduardo de Gregorio, 1976, France, 83m, 35mm
Washington Square
Agnieszka Holland, 1997, U.S., 115m, 35mm
The Wings of the Dove
Iain Softley, 1997, U.S./UK, 102m, 35mm

The Aspern Papers

Opens Fri January 11
Julien Landais, UK/Germany, 90m, DCP
Rife with deception, lust, and literary intrigue, this adaptation of Henry James’ 1888 novella stars a commanding Vanessa Redgrave as the ailing (but formidable) former lover of deceased poet Jeffrey Aspern—and the supposed recipient of a cache of his personal letters. Posing as a prospective lodger, conniving American editor Jonathan Rhys Meyers courts Redgrave’s niece (played by her real-life daughter Joely Richardson) in the hopes of gaining access to the mysterious—and potentially scandalous—contents of the missives. But is the past best kept in the past? Executive produced by James Ivory. A Cohen Media Group Release

Engagements December 2018 at the Quad

This December the Quad presents a 4K restoration of Luchino Visconti's Death in Venice; Alexis Bloom's riveting new documentary about Roger Ailes, Divide and Conquer; Dennis Scholl & Kareem Tabsch's colorful look at a lost era of Miami, The Last Resort, and the 20th Annual Animation Show of Shows
Revivals

Death in Venice

Opens Fri December 14—U.S. premiere engagement of 4K restoration
Luchino Visconti, 1971, Italy, 130m, 4K DCP
Visconti’s masterly adaptation of Thomas Mann’s famed novella finds celebrated German composer Dirk Bogarde destroyed by his desire for an elusive, unattainable boy vacationing at his hotel on the Lido, the embodiment of his ideal of pure beauty. Totally consumed by longing, he fails to heed the warning signs of a cholera epidemic sweeping through the city. Visconti continues his exploration of physical and spiritual disintegration in this haunting excursion into romantic pessimism. A Warner Bros. release

In English, Italian, Polish, and French with English subtitles

Restoration by Cineteca di Bologna and Istituto Luce - Cinecittà

Rated by The Guardian as one of the best 25 arthouse films of all time


First Run

Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes

Opens Fri December 7 — Exclusive NY engagement
Alexis Bloom, U.S., 107m, DCP
How did we get here? This riveting new documentary charts the journey to our current tempestuous political moment through the career of a single massively influential figure: Roger Ailes. A one-time consultant to Presidents Nixon, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush, Ailes would have his biggest effect on American politics once he became chairman of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News. Director Alexis Bloom probes deep into the formidable right-wing propaganda machine Ailes created, and the culture of misogyny that would lead to his professional downfall. A Magnolia Pictures/A&E IndieFilms release

Official selection: Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival

“Excellent.” —The New York Times



The Last Resort

Opens Wed December 21 — Exclusive NY engagement
Dennis Scholl & Kareem Tabsch, U.S., 70m, DCP
Before Rollerblades and silicone dominated the boardwalk, South Beach was a self-contained haven for a tight-knit community of (predominantly) Jewish retirees. Young photographers Andy Sweet and Gary Monroe were there to capture it all—from the candy-colored swimwear to glamorous New Years’ Eve parties. With narration by the likes of Pulitzer Prize-winner Edna Buchanan and filmmaker Kelly Reichardt, these striking images span a decade to create a vibrant portrait of a lost cultural era.

Audience Award for Best Documentary Film: Miami Jewish Film Festival; Official Selection: DOC NYC

"Sunny and satisfying... a beautiful slice of history.”—South Florida Gay News

With Dennis Scholl & Kareem Tabsch in person at select opening-weekend screenings


Animation Show of Shows

Opens Fri December 28 — Exclusive NY Engagement
Various, 98m, DCP
Now in its 20th edition, The Animation Show of Shows returns to the Quad with 15 stellar shorts from around the globe exploring everything from cosmic love to the magic of everyday objects. Founded and curated by producer Ron Diamond, 38 of the films showcased over the years have gone on to receive Academy Award nominations, with 11 wins and counting—four titles in this year’s program have qualified for Oscar consideration*.

The Green Bird* Maximilien Bougeois, Quentin Dubois,Marine Goalard, Irina Nguyen & Pierre Perveyrie, France
One Small Step* Andrew Chesworth & Bobby Pontillas, U.S.
Grands Canons Alain Biet, France
Barry Anchi Shen, U.S.
Super Girl Nancy Kangas & Josh Kun, U.S.
Love Me, Fear Me Veronica Solomon, Germany
Business Meeting Guy Charnaux, Brazil
Flower Found! Jorn Leeuwerink, The Netherlands
Bullets Nancy Kangas & Josh Kun, U.S.
A Table Game Nicolás Petelski, Argentina
Carlotta's Face Valentin Riedl & Frédéric Schuld
Germany, Age of Sail* John Kahrs, U.S.
Polaris Hikari Toriumi, U.S.
My Moon Eusong Lee, U.S.
Weekends* Trevor Jimenez, U.S

More details on Rated X December 14 - January 8 at the Quad

Brace yourselves for an X-rated Xmas! The Quad reveals the initial lineup for our 50th anniversary survey of the MPAA's infamous "X" classification

Featuring over 25 cinematic excursions into forbidden sex (real, simulated, and animated) and uncensored violence. Highlights include: In the Realm of the Senses, A Clockwork Orange, Sebastiane, Snuff, The Evil Dead, Klute, Maîtresse, Salon Kitty, I Am Curious (Yellow), and more!

Fifty years ago the Generation Gap was widening, the Vietnam War was beaming onto television screens nightly, and filmmakers were pushing the envelope worldwide. What was the Motion Picture Association of America, the trade grouping of Hollywood’s major studios, to do so as to better inform anxious parents about which films were suitable for what ages? U.S. President Lyndon Johnson appointed longtime associate Jack Valenti to head the MPAA, and on November 1, 1968 the latter conceived a new industry Code of Self-Regulation and an alphabet-based “voluntary ratings system” to indicate the presence of sexual and/or violent content. The X rating drew a line in the sand: no one under 18 (or, per a 1970 redraft, 17) was to be admitted to a theater showing an X-rated movie. Some felt this didn't go far enough towards eliminating content considered "obscene," while others felt it would lead to draconian censorship.

Since the X rating wasn't trademarked, the burgeoning pornographic-film industry quickly appropriated it to apply to their own product as a disreputable seal of approval and a point-of-pride marketing tool (“triple-X-rated!!!”). After initial cachet and notoriety, Hollywood shied away from X-rated movies, as many mainstream theater owners were squeamish and newspapers wouldn’t accept ads; films initially tagged X were recut to obtain a more commercially safe R rating. The scarlet letter was superseded in 1990 with the less-desirable, more-avoided, and awkwardly monikered NC-17 rating. Since the original rating allowed many a film to let its freak flag fly and many a filmmaker creative freedom, the Quad invites patrons of all ages to fire up the holiday season with a look back at films that occasioned heated debates over what was deemed adult (albeit not always mature) entertainment.

Schedule through January 5 available HERE. Additional titles to be announced.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Russ Meyer, 1970, U.S., 109m, DCP

A Clockwork Orange
Stanley Kubrick, 1971, UK/U.S., 137m, 35mm

De Sade
Cy Endfield, 1969, West Germany/U.S., 113m, 35mm

Desperate Living
John Waters, 1977, U.S., 90m, 35mm

Devil in the Flesh
Marco Bellocchio, 1986, Italy/France, 114m, 35mm

The Evil Dead
Sam Raimi, 1981, U.S., 85m, 35mm

Female Trouble
John Waters, 1974, U.S., 89m, 35mm

Fritz the Cat
Ralph Bakshi, 1972, U.S., 78m, 35mm

La Grande Bouffe
Marco Ferreri, 1973, France/Italy, 130m, DCP

Last Tango in Paris
Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972, U.S./France/Italy, 129m, DCP*
U.S. premiere of 4K restoration*

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
John McNaughton, 1986, U.S., 83m, DCP

The Hills Have Eyes
Wes Craven, 1977, U.S., 89m, DCP

I Am Curious (Yellow)
Vilgot Sjöman, 1967, Sweden, 121m, DCP

I Drink Your Blood
David Durston, 1970, U.S., 83m, DCP
If…
Lindsay Anderson, 1968, UK, 111m, 35mm
In the Realm of the Senses
Nagisa Oshima, 1976, Japan/France, 109m, 35mm
Inga
Joseph W. Sarno, 1968, Sweden/U.S., 81m, 35mm

Klute
Alan J. Pakula, 1971, U.S., 114m, 35mm

Maîtresse
Barbet Schroeder, 1976, France, 112m, DCP

Myra Breckinridge
Michael Sarne, 1970, U.S., 94m, 35mm

Salon Kitty
Tinto Brass, 1976, Italy/France/West Germany, 129m, 35mm

Sebastiane
Paul Humfress/Derek Jarman, 1976, UK, 86m, DCP

Snuff
T. Amazzo/Michael Findlay/Horacio Fredriksson/Simon Nuchtern,
1975, Argentina/U.S./Canada, 81m, 35mm

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song
Melvin Van Peebles, 1971, U.S., 97m, DCP

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Tobe Hooper, 1974, U.S., 83m, DCP

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Tobe Hooper, 1986, U.S., 101m, 35mm

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
Pedro Almodóvar, 1989, Spain, 101m, 35mm

Women in Revolt
Paul Morrissey, 1971, U.S., 97m, 16mm

Actor for Hire: The Other Side of Orson Welles at the Quad December 7 - 13

The Quad salutes the towering acting talent of Orson Welles with a 12-film survey including Jane Eyre, A Man for All Seasons, The Third Man, Compulsion, and The Long Hot Summer

Beginning work on what would be his final narrative feature (the only recently completed and released The Other Side of the Wind), the iconic and ever iconoclastic director Orson Welles stated that if John Huston didn't play the lead role, then he himself would. Like Huston, Welles was as accomplished an actor as he was a filmmaker; his inherent creative resourcefulness informed his formidable versatility as a performer. He had started acting as a teenager, treading the boards in Ireland; he was still a teen when, back in the U.S., he made his mark on Broadway in Romeo and Juliet (as the fiery Tybalt) and on the radio. At age 23, he made the cover of Time Magazine, for his own Mercury Theatre troupe’s staging of Heartbreak House. His striking physical presence, thunderclap voice, and ability to jacknife between domineering and frail coalesced when he starred in his seismic 1941 debut feature as writer/director, Citizen Kane. While the impetus for Welles’ subsequent gallery of acting roles was increasingly to bankroll his own projects, it also afforded creative collaborations that yielded marvelous performances. This retrospective samples four decades of Welles’ film appearances for other directors, from rewarding star-turns to scene-stealing supporting roles.

The Black Rose
Henry Hathaway, 1950, U.S./UK, 120m, DCP

Butterfly
Matt Cimber, 1982, U.S., 108m, 35mm

Compulsion
Richard Fleischer, 1959, U.S., 99m, DCP

Jane Eyre
Robert Stevenson, 1943, U.S., 97m, 35mm

Journey Into Fear
Norman Foster, 1943, U.S., 69m, 35mm

The Long Hot Summer
Martin Ritt, 1958, U.S., 116m, DCP

Malpertuis
Harry Kümel, 1971, Belgium/France/West Germany, 119m, 35mm

A Man for All Seasons
Fred Zinnemann, 1966, UK, 120m, 4K DCP

A Safe Place
Henry Jaglom, 1971, U.S., 94m, 35mm

Ten Days’ Wonder
Claude Chabrol, 1971, France/Italy, 110m, 16mm

The Third Man
Carol Reed, 1949, UK, 104m, DCP (restored British version)

Tomorrow Is Forever
Irving Pichel, 1946, U.S., 105m, 35mm

Thanksgiving Second Helpings: 35mm 3-D + 4 Quad Favorites

Thanksgiving Specials
The Quad reprises four of this year's repertory favorites and revives our 35mm 3-D extravaganza for one weekend only!


Second Helpings

Wed Nov 21 – 22
To show thanks for our great audiences, the Quad is offering seconds of four recent repertory hits, none of them turkeys.
All That Jazz
Bob Fosse, 1979, U.S., 123m, 35mm

The Last Days of Disco
Whit Stillman, 1998, U.S., 113m, DCP

Purple Noon
René Clément, 1960, France/Italy, 118m, 35mm

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Mike Nichols, 1966, U.S., 130m, 35mm


Comin’ Back At Ya!
A 35mm 3-D weekend

November 23 – 25
The Quad reprises its now legendary 2017 3-D extravaganza with three days of demented three-dimensional mayhem. With today’s 3-D fully digitized into lockstep with DCP, we revisit some of the more arcane, quixotic, and disreputable uses of the process in the early ’80s over/under boom, that was heavy on horror sequels, sci-fi adventures, idiosyncratic cult movies, and grindhouse fare. Join us for an all-35mm survey.

Programmed by Harry Guerro in association with Exhumed Films
Amityville 3-D
Richard Fleischer, 1983, U.S., 105m, 35mm

Comin’ At Ya!
Ferdinando Baldi, 1981, Italy/Spain/U.S., 91m, 35mm

Flesh for Frankenstein
Paul Morrissey, 1973, Italy/U.S./France, 95m, 35mm

Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror
Enrique López Eguiluz, 1968, Spain/West Germany, 78m, 35mm

Friday the 13th Part III
Steve Miner, 1982, U.S., 96m, 35mm

Jaws 3-D
Joe Alves, 1983, U.S., 99m, 35mm

Parasite
Charles Band, 1982, U.S., 85m, 35mm

Run for Cover
Richard W. Haines, 1995, U.S., 83m, 35mm
With Haines in person Sat November 24!

Silent Madness
Simon Nuchtern, 1984, U.S., 93m, 35mm

Treasure of the Four Crowns
Ferdinando Baldi, 1983, Spain/Italy/U.S., 97m, 35mm

Rated X Starts December 14 at the Quad

On the 50th Anniversary of the MPAA's "X" classification, the Quad announces a survey of films branded with this badge of honor / mark of shame

The Generation Gap was widening, the Vietnam War was beaming onto television screens nightly, and filmmakers were pushing the envelope worldwide. What was the Motion Picture Association of America, the trade grouping of Hollywood’s major studios, to do so as to better inform anxious parents about which films were suitable for what ages? U.S. President Lyndon Johnson appointed longtime associate Jack Valenti to head the MPAA, and on November 1, 1968 the latter conceived a new industry Code of Self-Regulation and an alphabet-based “voluntary ratings system” to indicate the presence of sexual and/or violent content. The X rating drew a line in the sand: no one under 18 (or, per a 1970 redraft, 17) was to be admitted to a theater showing an X-rated movie. Some felt this didn't go far enough towards eliminating content considered "obscene," while others felt it would lead to draconian censorship.

Since the X rating wasn't trademarked, the bourgeoning pornographic-film industry quickly appropriated it to apply to their own product as a disreputable seal of approval and a point-of-pride marketing tool (“triple-X-rated!!!”). After initial cachet and notoriety, Hollywood shied away from X-rated movies, as many mainstream theater owners were squeamish and newspapers wouldn’t accept ads; films initially tagged X were recut so that the rating could be rescinded. The scarlet letter was superseded in 1990 with the less-desirable, more-avoided, and awkwardly monikered NC-17 rating. Since the original rating allowed many a film to let its freak flag fly and many a filmmaker creative freedom, the Quad invites patrons of all ages to fire up the holiday season with a look back at films that occasioned heated debates over what was deemed adult (albeit not always mature) entertainment.

Titles include: The Evil Dead, Sebastiane, I Am Curious... Yellow, Maitresse, In the Realm of the Senses, Sweet Sweetback's Badasss Song, Women in Revolt, Snuff, A Clockwork Orange, Fritz the Cat, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, and more!

*Full lineup to be announced

November engagements at the Quad

This November the Quad presents a 4K restoration of James Ivory's The Bostonians; Steve McLean's follow-up to Postcards From America (and his first film in nearly a quarter-century), Postcards From London; Claude Lanzmann's final work, Shoah: The Four Sisters, and more
Revivals

The Bostonians

Opens Fri November 30 — Exclusive NY engagement of 4K restoration
James Ivory, 1984, UK, 122m, DCP
1876, Boston: At a Women’s Movement meeting, fiercely independent Olive (Vanessa Redgrave) becomes mentor to gifted young orator Verena (Madeleine Potter)—who also attracts the amorous attentions of Olive’s Southern cousin Basil (Christopher Reeve). The contesting demands of courtship and platonic love in this romantic triangle are further complicated by New York society matron Mrs. Burrage (Nancy Marchand), who tries to secure Verena for her son. The Merchant-Ivory team explores the subtle power struggles between sex and class at the heart of Henry James’s classic novel with delicate precision and a marvelous sense of social milieu. A Cohen Film Collection release

With James Ivory in person at select opening-weekend shows

"A rare delight, a high comedy with tragic undertones, acted to passionate perfection.”—Vincent Canby, The New York Times

First Run

Searching for Ingmar Bergman

Opens Fri November 2 — Exclusive NY engagement
Margarethe von Trotta, Germany/France, 99m, DCP
One of the key figures to emerge from the New German Cinema movement of the 1970s, Margarethe von Trotta was first inspired to become a filmmaker after seeing Ingmar Bergman’s landmark The Seventh Seal. As a tribute to the Swedish legend on the occasion of his centennial, she’s made this sensitive, generous documentary exploration, interviewing collaborators like Liv Ullmann and admirers like Olivier Assayas. It’s a rich insider’s look at what makes Bergman’s films so resonant, and reveals much of von Trotta herself in the process. In English, German, French, and Swedish with English subtitles. An Oscilloscope Laboratories release

Official selection: Cannes Classics, New York Film Festival

Our Margarethe von Trotta retrospective, The Political Is Personal, begins November 2.

“A valentine from one director to another.” —Variety

Postcards From London

Opens Fri November 9 — Exclusive NY engagement
Steve McLean, UK, 87m, DCP
A spiritual sequel to Postcards From America, which opened at the Quad in 1995, McLean’s first film in 24 years is a playfully anachronistic, neon-tinged romp through a vividly imagined Soho—and a crash course in homoerotic art history. Blessed with “the face of an angel,” Jim (Harrison Dickinson, Beach Rats) is recruited by a band of intellectually-inclined hustlers, but his new career as an escort turned muse is complicated by Stendhal Syndrome, a rare psychosomatic disorder that renders him utterly helpless in the presence of great beauty. A Strand Releasing release

Official selection: Outfest; BFI Flair

"Colorful… [a] fantasia of high art and bared skin.”—Variety

Shoah: The Four Sisters

Opens Wed November 14
Claude Lanzmann, France, 148m & 138m*, DCP
Starting in 1999, Claude Lanzmann made several films that could be considered satellites of Shoah, comprised of interviews conducted in the 1970s that didn’t fit into the final, monumental work. In the last years of the late filmmaker’s life, he devoted a film to four women from four different areas of Eastern Europe with four different destinies, each finding herself improbably alive after war’s end: Ruth Elias from Ostravia, Czechoslovakia; Paula Biren from Lodz, Poland; Ada Lichtman from further south in Krakow; and Hanna Marton from Cluj, Romania. “What they have in common,” wrote Lanzmann, “apart from the specific horrors each of them was subjected to, is their intelligence, an incisive, sharp and carnal intelligence that rejects all pretense and false reasons—in a word—idealism.” In English, French, German, and Hebrew with English subtitles. A Cohen Media Group release

*Screening in two parts

Official Selection: Venice Film Festival, New York Film Festival

Claude Lanzmann’s Cinema of Remembrance, a complete retrospective of the late filmmaker’s work, begins at the Quad November 9.

"Has the emotional impact and cinematic prowess of great drama."
—The Hollywood Reporter

The World Before Your Feet

Opens Wed November 21 — Exclusive NY engagement
Jeremy Workman, U.S., 95m, DCP
New York City has 8,000 miles of streets and avenues and one of its residents, Matt Green, has spent the last six years trying to walk every last one, covering each sidewalk, pedestrian lane, and hiking trail across the five boroughs. For the last three years of his quixotic journey, Matt—now an expert on the odd corners and history of our city— invited documentarian Jeremy Workman along for the walk. Executive produced by Jesse Eisenberg, the result is a stirring, inspiring ode to New York, curiosity, and the simple pleasures of a stroll outside. A Greenwich Entertainment release

With Jeremy Workman & Jesse Eisenberg in person at select opening-weekend screenings

Official selection: SXSW Film Festival

"Showcases sides of the city you rarely see in movies and that make it such a strange and fascinating place.” —The New York Times

Sicilian Ghost Story

Opens Fri November 30 — Exclusive NY engagement
Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza, Italy, 120m, DCP
In their gorgeous follow-up to Salvo, co-directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza build a dark, mesmerizing fairy tale around the true events of a horrific 1993 Mafia kidnapping. When rich kid Giuseppe mysteriously vanishes from his Sicilian village, his classmate Luna (who happens to be in love with him) is the only one brave enough to rebel against the town’s implicit code of silence. Stylishly (wide)lensed by Luca Bigazzi—with shades of Guillermo del Toro—this gripping fable seamlessly blends the real with the surreal. In Italian with English subtitles. A Strand Releasing release

Opening Night: Critics’ Week, Cannes Film Festival

“Superb.” —Variety

Claude Lanzmann’s Cinema of Remembrance November 9-21 at the Quad

The Quad honors the indispensable oeuvre of the late Claude Lanzmann with a retrospective in advance of his final film Shoah: The Four Sisters

Titles include: Tsahal, Napalm, The Last of the Unjust, A Visitor from the Living, and a 35mm print of his monumental Shoah

Some filmmakers change cinema, others change consciousness. Claude Lanzmann made an impact on both. Lanzmann’s death this past July at age 92 leaves us his cinematic legacy as historian, keeper of the flame, educator, and—of paramount importance in these times—a truth-teller who exhorted others to do likewise. Born in France to immigrant Jewish parents, he and other members of his family fought in the Resistance during World War II; at age 18, he was smuggling arms. After the war, he became a journalist, professor, and writer who loomed large in France as a leftist intellectual. A number of his articles monitored the covert persistence of Nazism in Germany; the war may have been over, but he knew that vigilance must always be maintained. In his late 40s, he made his first documentary; the following decade would be consumed by work on his second, Shoah. The title is the Hebrew word for disaster or catastrophe, which Lanzmann felt better described “a crime that is without precedent in the history of humanity” than the phrase “the Holocaust.” The movie’s reception and impact went far beyond what any documentary filmmaker could have hoped for. All too aware that there was more to be done in the face of indifference and/or misinformation, Lanzmann persevered in his life’s work and continued for decades to add to the global discourse as well as the art of documentary.
Israel, Why
Claude Lanzmann, 1973, Italy/France, 185m, DigiBeta

The Karski Report
Claude Lanzmann, 2010, France, 49m, DigiBeta

The Last of the Unjust
Claude Lanzmann, 2013, France/Austria, 220m, DCP

Napalm
Claude Lanzmann, France, 100m, 2017, DCP

Shoah
Claude Lanzmann, 1985, France/UK, 566m, 35mm

Sobibór, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m.
Claude Lanzmann, 2001, France, 95m, DCP

Tsahal
Claude Lanzmann, 1994, France/Germany, 316m, DigiBeta

A Visitor from the Living*
Claude Lanzmann, 1999, France/Germany, 65m, DigiBeta


Shoah: The Four Sisters

Opens Wed November 14
Starting in 1999, Claude Lanzmann made several films that could be considered satellites of Shoah, comprised of interviews conducted in the 1970s that didn’t fit into the final, monumental work. In the last years of the late filmmaker’s life, he devoted a film to four women from four different areas of Eastern Europe with four different destinies, each finding herself improbably alive after war’s end: Ruth Elias from Ostravia, Czechoslovakia; Paula Biren from Lodz, Poland; Ada Lichtman from further south in Krakow; and Hanna Marton from Cluj, or Kolozsvár, in Transylvania. “What they have in common,” wrote Lanzmann, “apart from the specific horrors each of them was subjected to, is their intelligence, an incisive, sharp and carnal intelligence that rejects all pretense and false reasons—in a word—idealism.” In English, French, German, and Hebrew with English subtitles. A Cohen Media Group release

*Screening in two parts
Official Selection: Venice Film Festival, New York Film Festival

"Has the emotional impact and cinematic prowess of great drama.”
—The Hollywood Reporter

Shoah: Four Sisters – Ruth & Ada
Claude Lanzmann, France, 148m, DCP
In The Hippocratic Oath, Ruth Elias tells the story of becoming pregnant in the Theresienstadt ghetto during the war, making her a target for deportation. Sent to Auschwitz, her pregnancy comes to light—placing her in the care of the infamous Josef Mengele. The Merry Flea chronicles Ada Lichtman’s tragic journey from her Wieliczka hometown to Sobibor, where she became one of the few women selected for work in the camp—and who ultimately survived.

Shoah: Four Sisters – Hanna & Paula
Claude Lanzmann, France, 138m, DCP
As the wife of a professor who worked with Rudolf Kasztner—the head of the rescue committee that saved the largest number of Jews in the Holocaust—Hanna Marton’s devastating account in Noah’s Ark expresses guilt that her privileged status saved her life when so many others perished. In Bałuty, Paula Biren candidly recounts her days in the titular slum district of Lodz, where she became part of the German labor force overseen by Chaim Rumkowski, the Nazi-appointed president of the Jewish council of elders.

Margarethe von Trotta: The Political Is Personal November 2-8 at the Quad

The Quad announces the full lineup for our upcoming Margarethe von Trotta retrospective including rare imported prints of Rosa Luxemburg, The Second Awakening of Christa Klages, and Sisters, or The Balance of Happiness

Plus films from Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff featuring some of von Trotta's most prominent performances as an actress

After coming of age in post-WWII Berlin and studying art, Margarethe von Trotta followed her burgeoning cinematic interests to France, where she immersed herself in the films of the French New Wave and flourished among fellow cineastes. She returned to West Germany to raise a family and be part of the New German Cinema, initially as an actress. But her own creative instincts would take hold, as would the impulse to be the change that she wanted to see—namely, become a female filmmaker in a movement that was short on them (her only peer was the late Helma Sanders-Brahms). Von Trotta began collaborating with then-husband Volker Schlöndorff on screenplays and then as an assistant director and finally as a co-director before making her own films and forsaking acting altogether. Often engaging with overtly political material, her work foregrounds women’s stories and explores the nature of female identity and the multi-faceted relationships between women, never shying away from tough emotional terrain—and in the process providing dramatic banquets for some of Germany’s best actresses. Now von Trotta has returned to her cinephile roots with her illuminating documentary Searching for Ingmar Bergman (opening exclusively at the Quad, November 2), and accordingly we return to her early work—both in front of and behind the camera—from the heyday of the New German Cinema.

Margarethe von Trotta is available for select interviews. Please email emma@quadcinema.com with requests.
The American Soldier
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970, West Germany, 80m, 35mm
Beware of a Holy Whore
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1971, West Germany/Italy, 103m, 35mm
Coup de Grâce (Der Fangschuss)
Volker Schlöndorff, 1976, France/West Germany, 97m, 35mm
Gods of the Plague
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970, West Germany, 91m, 35mm
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
Volker Schlöndorff & Margarethe von Trotta, 1975, West Germany, 106m, 35mm
Marianne & Juliane (aka The German Sisters)
Margarethe von Trotta, 1981, West Germany, 106m, DCP
Rosa Luxemburg
Margarethe von Trotta, 1986, Czechoslovakia/West Germany, 122m, 35mm
The Second Awakening of Christa Klages
Margarethe von Trotta, 1978, West Germany, 88m, 35mm
Sheer Madness (aka Friends and Husbands)
Margarethe von Trotta, 1983, West Germany/France, 105m, 35mm
Sisters, or The Balance of Happiness
Margarethe von Trotta, 1979, West Germany, 95m, 35mm

Searching for Ingmar Bergman

Opens Fri November 2—Exclusive New York engagement
Margarethe von Trotta, Germany/France, 99m, DCP
One of the key figures to emerge from the New German Cinema movement of the 1970s, Margarethe von Trotta was first inspired to become a filmmaker after seeing Ingmar Bergman’s landmark The Seventh Seal. As a tribute to the Swedish legend on the occasion of his centennial, she’s made this sensitive, generous documentary exploration, interviewing collaborators like Liv Ullmann and admirers like Olivier Assayas. It’s a rich insider’s look at what makes Bergman’s films so resonant, and reveals much of von Trotta herself in the process. An Oscilloscope Laboratories release

Official selection: Cannes Classics

“A valentine from one director to another.” —Variety

Margarethe von Trotta: The Political Is Personal Starts Fri November 2 at the Quad

The Quad celebrates the work of German filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta in conjunction with her new documentary Searching for Ingmar Bergman

After coming of age in post-WWII Berlin and studying art, Margarethe von Trotta followed her burgeoning cinematic interests to France, where she immersed herself in the films of the French New Wave of the early 1960s and flourished among fellow cineastes. She returned to West Germany to raise a family and be part of what she hoped was a German New Wave, initially as an actress. But her own creative instincts would take hold, as would the impulse to be the change that she wanted to see—namely, be a female filmmaker in a country short on them. Von Trotta began collaborating with husband Volker Schlöndorff on screenplays and then as an assistant director and finally as a co-director before making her own films and later forsaking acting altogether. Her films increased serious representation of women’s stories while engaging with overtly political material, and in depicting the nature of female identity and multi-faceted relationships between women, von Trotta never shied away from tough emotional terrain. This retrospective spans a decade to encompass her first half-dozen movies as director, which extended the renaissance of the German film industry into the 1980s—and in providing dramatic banquets for some of the country’s best actresses.

Titles include: The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, Marianne & Juliane, and Rosa Luxemburg. Full lineup and schedule to be announced.

Jean Rollin Retrospective + Cinema's Sapphic Vampires at the Quad October 18 - November 1

This October the Quad salutes the lurid eroticism of Jean Rollin with a retrospective including Fascination, Requiem for a Vampire, and Lips of Blood

Plus a survey of sapphic vampire films indebted to Rollin's aesthetic with titles including The Hunger, Lust for a Vampire, Daughters of Darkness and more!

Très Outré: The Sinister Visions of Jean Rollin

October 18 – 23
French film history has more than its share of mavericks, but it has a special place for those few who worked in the realm of le cinéma fantastique. While Jean Cocteau and Georges Franju defined and dominated this realm, their poetics never fully succumbed to the horror genre’s call of the wild—and it fell to Jean Rollin, their rightful but underrecognized heir, to take the next step with his dark, oneiric oeuvre. Women were at the center of Rollin’s cinematic universe, anchoring deliriously gothic scenarios of lust and bloodlust couched in a lush and disturbing visual style. At a time when French censorship was easing, the director had free rein to work through his sex-and-death obsessions with unprecedented explicitness, imbuing his images with a gorgeous eroticism that can lull—at least until teeth are bared, whether metaphorically or literally. His dreamlike, seductive visuals and haunting tableaux have surely influenced subsequent filmmakers who favor horror that’s as serious as it is sensual. Just in time for Halloween, the Quad showcases a dozen of Rollin’s unique excursions into the surreal and uncanny; we will also be screening, in an accompanying series this month, movies that share and acknowledge his aesthetic.

The Demoniacs
Jean Rollin, 1974, France/Belgium, 77m, DCP

Fascination
Jean Rollin, 1979, France, 80m, DCP

The Grapes of Death
Jean Rollin, 1978, France, 85m, DCP

The Iron Rose
Jean Rollin, 1973, France, 86m, DCP

Lips of Blood
Jean Rollin, 1975, France, 88m, DCP

The Living Dead Girl
Jean Rollin, 1982, France, 86m, DCP

The Night of the Hunted
Jean Rollin, 1980, France, 87m, DCP

The Nude Vampire
Jean Rollin, 1970, France, 90m, DCP

The Rape of the Vampire
Jean Rollin, 1968, France, 95m, DCP

Requiem for a Vampire
Jean Rollin, 1971, France, 95m, DCP

The Shiver of the Vampires
Jean Rollin, 1971, France, 95m, DCP

A Woman’s Bite: Cinema’s Sapphic Vampires

October 26 – November 1
The Quad’s Jean Rollin Halloween parade is complemented with a bonus bevy of badass female vampires. Although the titillating concept of lady bloodsuckers had long captured the imagination of authors, it took the movies a couple of decades to catch on to what should have been an early-and-often component of the horror genre; in the U.S., female vampires were generally relegated to subsidiary appearances (if at all) in support of male overlords. It fell to European helmers to finally recognize the storytelling potential—and scour the historical and literary archives—for women driving their own narratives as princesses of darkness. And since male vampires had preyed on their share of male victims onscreen it stood to reason that same-sex distaff encounters would be exponentially more compelling. Quickly making up for lost time, throughout the 1970s and beyond genre moviemakers exploited both prurient and suspenseful dramatic interest in just how these lesbian couplings would play out. The resultant films showcased actresses on both sides of the vamp/prey divide, fascinating audiences of all genders and sexual orientations—and in the process became landmark depictions of sapphic desire and sexuality onscreen.

Blood and Roses
Roger Vadim, 1960, France/Italy, 87m, 35mm

The Blood-Spattered Bride
Vicente Aranda, 1972, Spain, 100m, 35mm

Daughters of Darkness
Harry Kümel, 1971, Belgium/France/West Germany, 87m, 35mm

Dracula’s Daughter
Lambert Hillyer, 1936, U.S., 71m, DCP

The Hunger
Tony Scott, 1983, UK/U.S., 97m, DCP

Lust for a Vampire
Jimmy Sangster, 1971, UK, 95m, 35mm (original UK version)

Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary
Juan López Moctezuma, 1975, Mexico, 101m, 35mm

Nadja
Michael Almereyda, 1994, U.S., 93m, 35mm

Vampire Ecstasy
Joseph W. Sarno, 1973, Sweden/Switzerland/West Germany, 103m, DCP

The Vampire Lovers
Roy Ward Baker, 1970, UK/U.S., 91m, 35mm

Vampyres
Joseph Larraz, 1974, UK/Spain, 87m, 35mm

Vampyros Lesbos
Franco Manera (Jess Franco), 1971, West Germany/Spain, 89m, 4K DCP

Some Are Better than Others: The Curious Case of the Anthology Film September 14 – 27 at the Quad

The Quad offers up a cinematic smorgasbord of over 180 short films—contained within 28 omnibus features—spanning everything from swordplay to sci-fi, swindling to streetwalking, love, and war

With segments from Agnès Varda, Abbas Kiarostami, Joe Dante, Claire Denis, Chang Cheh, Chantal Akerman, Robert Altman, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Vera Chytilová, Federico Fellini, David Lynch, Chris Marker, Spike Lee, Steven Spielberg, seven from Jean-Luc Godard and more

Plus a First Encounter screening of Love in the City with Amy Heckerling!

We’ve all felt it and we’ve all said it, whether to ourselves or to fellow moviegoers: “The best part was when…” While this is inevitable in processing any filmgoing experience, there is one genre that invites it as a running tally before the picture is even over: the omnibus, or multi-part, feature. The concept of the cinematic corollary to a short-story collection became viable with the advent of sound and before the invention of television, as filmmakers cleaved to the lofty ideal of contributing to a thematic whole—or to the anything-goes element of the equivalent of a pot-luck dinner. Producers liked the genre because it allowed for more stars to be packed onto the poster; actors enjoyed performing palate-cleansers between bigger projects. The format took off as more of an art and documentary form overseas, especially in France where it was known as a portmanteau and filmmakers took on assignments as a point of pride—both professional and national. For our far-reaching retrospective, we’ve selected only those anthology movies consisting of contributions by multiple directors; join us for three, three, three movies in one…or four, four, four…or more, more, more. All aboard the omnibus, for what might just be the ultimate short film festival, featuring over 180 titles.

À propos de Nice, la suite
Catherine Breillat/Costa-Gavras/Claire Denis/Raymond Depardon/Abbas Kiarostami & Parviz Kimiavi/Pavel Lungin/Raúl Ruiz, 1995, France, 99m, 35mm

Amazon Women on the Moon
Joe Dante/Carl Gottlieb/Peter Horton/John Landis/Robert K. Weiss, 1987, U.S., 85m, 35mm

Aria
Robert Altman/Bruce Beresford/Bill Bryden/Jean-Luc Godard/Derek Jarman/Franc Roddam/Nicolas Roeg/Ken Russell/Charles Sturridge/Julien Temple, 1987, UK, 90m, DCP

Boccaccio ’70
Vittorio De Sica/Federico Fellini/Mario Monicelli/Luchino Visconti, 1962, Italy/France, 204m, DCP

Dead of Night
Alberto Cavalcanti/Charles Crichton/Basil Dearden/Robert Hamer, 1945, UK, 103m, DCP

Far from Vietnam
Jean-Luc Godard/Joris Ivens/William Klein/Claude Lelouch/Chris Marker/Alain Resnais/Agnès Varda, 1967, France, 116m, DCP

Forever and a Day
René Clair/Edmund Goulding/Cedric Hardwicke/Frank Lloyd/Victor Saville/Robert Stevenson/Herbert Wilcox, 1943, U.S., 104m, DCP

Four Moods
King Hu/Hsing Lee/Han Hsiang Li/Ching-Jui Pai, 1970, Taiwan, 140m, DCP

Germany in Autumn
Alf Brustellin/Hans Peter Cloos/R. W. Fassbinder/Alexander Kluge/
Maximiliane Mainka/Edgar Reitz/Katja Rupé/Volker Schlöndorff/Peter Schubert/Bernhard Sinkel, 1978, West Germany, 123m, 35mm

If I Had a Million
James Cruze/H. Bruce Humberstone/Ernst Lubitsch/Norman Z. McLeod/Lothar Mendes/Steven Roberts/William A. Seiter/Norman Taurog, 1932, U.S., 83m, 35mm

Love and Anger
Marco Bellocchio & Elda Tattoli/Bernardo Bertolucci/Jean-Luc Godard/Carlo Lizzani/Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1969, Italy/France, 102m, 35mm

Love in the City
Michelangelo Antonioni/Federico Fellini/Alberto Lattuada/Carlo Lizzani/Francesco Maselli & Cesare Zavattini/Dino Risi, 1953, Italy, 115m, 35mm

Lumière and Company
Merzak Allouache/Théo Angelopoulos/Vicente Aranda/Gabriel Axel/John Boorman/Youssef Chahine/Alain Corneau/Costa-Gavras/Raymond Depardon/Francis Girod/Peter Greenaway/Lasse Hallström/Michael Haneke/Hugh Hudson/Gaston Kaboré/Abbas Kiarostami/Cédric Klapisch/Andrei Konchalovsky/Patrice Leconte/Spike Lee/Claude Lelouch/Bigas Luna/David Lynch/Ismail Merchant & James Ivory/Claude Miller/Sarah Moon/Idrissa Ouedraogo/Arthur Penn/Lucian Pintille/Jacques Rivette/Helma Sanders/Jerry Schatzberg/Nadine Trintignant/Fernando Trueba/Liv Ullman/Jaco Van Dormael/Régis Wargnier/Wim Wenders/Zhang Yimou/Kiju Yoshida, 1995, France/Denmark/Spain/Sweden, 88m, 35mm

New York Stories
Woody Allen/Francis Coppola/Martin Scorsese, 1989, U.S., 124m, 35mm

O. Henry’s Full House
Henry Hathaway/Howard Hawks/Henry King/Henry Koster/Jean Negulesco,
1952, U.S., 117m, 16mm

The Oldest Profession
Claude Autant-Lara/Mauro Bolognini/Philippe de Broca/Jean-Luc Godard/Franco Indovina/Michael Pfleghar, 1967, France/Italy/West Germany, 119m, 35mm

Pearls of the Deep
Vera Chytilová/Jaromil Jires/Jirí Menzel/Jan Nemec/Evald Schorm, 1965, Czechoslovakia, 105m, 35mm

Private Collections
Walerian Borowczyk/Just Jaeckin/Shūji Terayama, 1979, France/Japan, 103m, 35mm

Ro.Go.Pa.G.
Jean-Luc Godard/Ugo Gregoretti/Pier Paolo Pasolini/Roberto Rossellini,
1963, Italy/France, 122m, DCP

The Sandwich Man
Hou Hsiao-hsien/Jen Wan/Zhuang Xiang Zeng, 1983, Taiwan, 105m, DCP

Seven Women, Seven Sins
Chantal Akerman/Maxi Cohen/Valie Export/Laurence Gavron/Bette Gordon/Ulrike Ottinger/Helke Sander,1986, France/Austria/Belgium/U.S./West Germany, 109m, 16mm

Six in Paris (Paris vu par… )
Claude Chabrol/Jean Douchet/Jean-Luc Godard/Jean-Daniel Pollet/Éric Rohmer/Jean Rouch, 1965, France, 95m, 35mm

Spirits of the Dead
Federico Fellini/Louis Malle/Roger Vadim, 1968, France/Italy, 121m, 35mm

Trilogy of Swordsmanship
Chang Cheh/Yueh Feng/Cheng Kang, 1972, Hong Kong, 108m, DCP
Twilight Zone—The Movie
Joe Dante/John Landis/George Miller/Steven Spielberg, 1983, U.S., 101m, 35mm

La Vie est à nous
Jacques Becker/Jacques B. Brunius/Henri Cartier-Bresson/Jean-Paul Le Chanois/
Maurice Lime/Jean Renoir/Pierre Unik/André Zwoboda, 1936, France, 66m, 35mm

The Witches
Mauro Bolognini/Vittorio De Sica/Pier Paolo Pasolini/Franco Rossi/Luchino Visconti, 1967, Italy/France, 105m, 35mm

The World’s Most Beautiful Swindlers
Claude Chabrol/Jean-Luc Godard/Ugo Gregoretti/Hiromichi Horikawa,
1964, France/Italy/Japan/The Netherlands, 108m, DCP

Amy Heckerling's First Viewing of
Love in the City

Sat Sept 15, 4.50pm
Michelangelo Antonioni/Federico Fellini/Alberto Lattuada/Carlo Lizzani/Francesco Maselli & Cesare Zavattini/Dino Risi/,1953,Italy,15m,35mm
Six frequently melancholic stories of love drawn from news items lead off with Lizzani’s “Love for Pay,” a documentary-style look at streetwalkers; Antonioni interviews despondents’ in “Attempted Suicide;” Risi’s “Paradise for Three Hours” unites two loners; in Fellini’s segment, “Marriage Agency,” a muckraking reporter infiltrates said business; “Story of Caterina” headlines Caterina Rigoglioso (in her only film) in a downbeat neo-realist tale; and watching the girls go by is the subject of “Italians Turn Their Heads.” In Italian with English subtitles. Print courtesy of the Cineteca Nazionale, Rome.

With Amy Heckerling in person

Screening as part of our ongoing First Encounters series, where we invite filmmakers, artists, writers, and beyond to select a film they’ve always wanted to see, watch it with us for the first time, and share their immediate reactions afterwards.