AUGUST 2017 MAUDIE THE IRISH FILM INSTITUTE

The Irish Film Institute is ’s EXHIBIT national cultural institution for film. It aims to exhibit the finest in independent, Irish and international cinema, preserve PRESERVE Ireland’s moving image heritage at the IFI Irish Film Archive, and encourage EDUCATE engagement with film through its various educational programmes.

MYSTERY MATINEE IFI OPEN DAY

This month’s secret screening, for which tickets cost just €5, To celebrate our 25th anniversary in Temple Bar, the IFI will take place at 14.00 on Sunday 13th. Sometimes it will be a Open Day returns on Saturday, September 16th for a full day preview, but not always; sometimes, it will be a title one might of FREE screenings, as well as a glimpse behind the scenes expect to see at the IFI, but not always. Join us for this month’s at the IFI, and more. Check out www.ifi.ie, our Facebook and screening, and expect the unexpected! Instagram accounts, and @IFI_Dub on Twitter for details of what we’re showing and doing and, more importantly, how to get your FREE tickets!

DARK CORNERS 1918 Westfront FAMILY FESTIVAL Sabaku

This August, in association with Goethe-Institut Irland, The IFI Family Festival returns this year, from Friday 25th to the IFI presents Dark Corners, a collection of films from the Sunday 27th, with fascinating cinematic adventures from Weimar Republic. A period of great cinematic innovation, Japan, Thailand, Australia and beyond! This year features our the season includes rarely screened masterpieces from such usual mix of Irish premieres, beautiful short films, and brilliantly luminaries as F.W. Murnau, Ernst Lubitsch, and Fritz Lang. engaging workshops. You’ll find something for all film fans Starting Saturday 5th, the season also features Carl Boese and aged 4–12 to help chase away those Back to School blues! Paul Wegener’s The Golem, accompanied by a live performance For more information and to book your tickets, from musician Hilary Woods. See pages 14–18 for more details. see www.ifi.ie/familyfest.

2 DIRECTOR’S NOTE

Welcome to the IFI August programme which is packed with the first of the year’s IFI Festivals and a major focus on films from the Weimar Republic. AUGUST

AT THE IFI A Ghost Strory Last month we published the IFI Strategy 2017-22, unveiling from Australia, Japan, Thailand and elsewhere, all told through our plans for the next five years across our core areas of animation and live action. The IFI Family Festival is a great exhibition, preservation and education. Our strategy opportunity to introduce young film enthusiasts to films from highlights the IFI’s five core values of leadership, passion, all around the world, most of which would not be otherwise respect, inclusivity and world-class, and is built around seen, and many are complemented by hands-on workshops. 4 main pillars, with people (both audiences and artists) at the Check out the full programme online or in the separate flyer. centre. In addition to the five-year plan, we also announced more a detailed outline of the next twelve months which In one of our most significant seasons of the year, includes a total refurbishment of our two largest cinema Dark Corners focuses on German films made during the period spaces in Temple Bar, building new climate-controlled vaults of the Weimar Republic, 1919–1933. Among other things, the to accommodate our expanding archival collections, and a Weimar Republic produced the design of the Bauhaus, the pilot programme of film clubs for young people to operate in theatre of Max Reinhardt and Bertolt Brecht, the provocative an after-school environment. Full details of all of our plans can art of Otto Dix and Georg Grosz, and – not least – the arthouse be found on our website at www.ifi.ie/strategy. cinema of Friedrich W. Murnau, Fritz Lang, Georg W. Pabst and others, whose films were produced in the best-equipped A key strategic objective of our exhibition pillar is a studios in Europe at the time. In the perception of many commitment to reflect a diversity of different voices, cultures, contemporaries, Weimar Berlin outstripped Paris and and genders throughout our film programming. As part of this as the cultural capital of Europe, famous for its high-brow and focus, the IFI is proud to introduce the F-rating to our monthly avant-garde arts, and notorious for its decadence. This season programme. The F-rating was originally developed by the Bath presents some of the lesser-known works of these great Film Festival in 2014 as a way to champion the substantial filmmakers, alongside many of the most significant pieces creative contributions by women to the film industry. of cinema from this remarkable period. The F-rating will apply to any films as part of our monthly, or festival, programming that are directed by women, or written All of this, alongside a selection of wonderful new releases, by women, or feature significant women on screen in their own all our regular monthly strands, and a unique selection of right. Aisling Walsh’s Maudie, Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit, and special events. two films from our season of Weimar cinema, Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed and Leontine Sagan’s Ross Keane Mädchen in Uniform, are among the August films to receive our Director first F-ratings.

This year, the IFI Family Festival kick-starts our annual festival season and runs from August 25th to 27th, right at the end of the school holidays, offering one last weekend of family fun before the new term starts. We have another wonderful programme lined up for our younger film fans, with stories

3 NEW RELEASES, IFI SEASONS & DOCS & IFI CLASSICS EVENTS CALENDAR

ENGLAND IS MINE OPENS AUG 4TH DATE SCREENING TIME LAND OF MINE OPENS AUG 4TH 1ST IFI CAFÉ BAR PUB QUIZ (FREE EVENT) 21.30 MAUDIE OPENS AUG 4TH TUES 5TH DARK CORNERS: LE DOULOS OPENS AUG 11TH SAT BERLIN: SYMPHONY OF A GREAT CITY 15:15 A GHOST STORY OPENS AUG 11TH 6TH DARK CORNERS: STEP OPENS AUG 11TH SUN THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED 14.30 FINAL PORTRAIT OPENS AUG 18TH 7TH ACCESSIBLE SCREENING: MAUDIE* 13.00 MON QUEST OPENS AUG 18TH 8TH DARK CORNERS: THE GOLEM 18.30 SONG TO SONG OPENS AUG 18TH TUE DETROIT OPENS AUG 25TH 9TH THE BIGGER PICTURE: INSIDE OUT 18.30 WED 10TH NT LIVE ENCORE: ANGELS IN AMERICA PART II 19.00 THU 12TH DARK CORNERS: FRAU IM MOND 13.00 GET SOCIAL! SAT Excited about this month’s programme? So are we! 13TH MYSTERY MATINEE 14.00 Tell your friends which film you’re planning to watch, SUN DARK CORNERS: VARIETY 16.15 share your movie reviews and show us your best pics 14TH IFI FILM CLUB: A GHOST STORY 18.20 on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook! MON Join the IFI Community online: 15TH FROM THE VAULTS: TUE AISLING WALSH: IN CONVERSATION 18.30 linkedin.com/company/irishfilminstitute DARK CORNERS: WAXWORKS 18.30 16TH FROM THE VAULTS: SONG FOR A RAGGY BOY 18.30 @IrishFilmInstitute @IFI_Dub WED IFI FRENCH FILM CLUB: LE DOULOS 18.30 17TH ACCESSIBLE SCREENING: MAUDIE* 18.20 @IrishFilmInstitute THU 19TH DARK CORNERS: FAUST 14.15 SAT Open Captioned screening 20TH DARK CORNERS: THE MOUNTAIN LION 15.30 SUN 22ND DARK CORNERS: WESTFRONT 1918 18.30 Audio Described screening TUE 23RD FEAST YOUR EYES: FINAL PORTRAIT 19.00 WED For bookings and film information, please see our 24TH DARK CORNERS: MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM 18.30 website, www.ifi.ie, or contact the IFI Box Office THU on 01-6793477 (open 12.30 to 21.00 daily). AUTHOR: THE JT LEROY STORY + Q&A 20.00 25TH IFI FAMILY FESTIVAL‡ FRI For a breakdown of times and dates of IFI New WILD STRAWBERRIES: GOING IN STYLE 11.00 26TH IFI FAMILY FESTIVAL‡ Releases, IFI Docs & IFI Classics, check out our SAT weekly schedule on www.ifi.ie/weekly-schedule 27TH IFI FAMILY FESTIVAL‡ or the IFI ads in The Irish Times on Fridays. SUN You can also sign up to receive our weekly ezine DARK CORNERS: WEIMAR DISCUSSION 14.00 by joining at www.ifi.ie/signup. DARK CORNERS: PEOPLE ON SUNDAY 15.30 29TH IRISH FOCUS: FROM THE LAND OF MÚSCRAÍ 18.30 TUE ACCESSIBLE SCREENING: DETROIT* 17.00 The IFI is proud to introduce the F-rating 30TH WILD STRAWBERRIES: GOING IN STYLE 11.00 to its monthly programme. The F-rating WED DARK CORNERS: KUHLE WAMPE 18.30 is a classification for any film which is directed by a woman, is written by a * Denotes screenings which are open captioned. For more information woman, or features significant women on our Accessible Screenings, please visit www.ifi.ie/accessible on screen in their own right. † The exclusivity status of films is correct at time of going to print ‡ See separate flyer or visit www.ifi.ie/familyfest

4 AUGUST 2017

ENGLAND RELEASE NEW IS MINE

OPENS AUG 4TH ‘Life is too short’ says Anji (Katherine It’s 1976. Steven lives at home with his Pearce) to Steven Patrick Morrissey mum, earning a meagre wage at the FILM INFO: (Jack Lowden), ‘for clichés’, he retorts Inland Revenue while posting withering 94 mins, 2017, UK, Digital drolly, advice the makers of this film have band reviews to NME. Arch, prickly, yet Notes by David O’Mahony wisely chosen to heed. The Morrissey painfully shy, he dreams of a life beyond of England is Mine is not the gladioli- the gloomy pall of rainy Manchester, wielding, defiantly miserable voice taking what solace he can in the city’s of a generation whose image would underground art and music scene. Subtle come to adorn the bedroom walls of and witty, England is Mine serves as an misunderstood 1980s teenagers, but an origin story for a popular icon. earlier iteration where his defining traits exist in nascent form.

LAND RELEASE NEW OF MINE

OPENS AUG 4TH A shameful piece of hidden World War II coast in anticipation of an Allied history is exhumed in Martin Zandvliet’s invasion that ultimately occurred in (UNDER SANDET) empathetic and deeply involving third northern France. Promised freedom feature, recently Oscar-nominated on completion of their hazardous task, EXCLUSIVELY AT IFI† for Best Foreign Language Film. The the boys must endure starvation and setting is Denmark in the immediate the very real prospect of maiming or FILM INFO: 100 mins, 2015, Denmark- aftermath of the war; embittered Danish death. Initially immune to the barbarity Germany, Digital, Subtitled Army Sgt. Rasmussen (Roland Møller, of his charges’ situation, the war-weary Notes by David O’Mahony A Hijacking) is assigned a group of Rasmussen’s dormant sense of humanity German boy soldiers who have been is gradually stirred into action. forced into neutralising and removing some 45,000 landmines planted by the Nazis along Denmark’s western

5 AUGUST 2017 MAUDIE NEW RELEASE

OPENS AUG 4TH Though crippled with debilitating arthritis, Maud Lewis (1903–1970) that is Maudie (Sally Hawkins) is forced to forge intimate, complex and compelling. FILM INFO: her own path when her brother sells their Hawkins captures Maudie’s frailty and 115 mins, 2016, home. A twist of fate leads her to a job irrepressible optimism in a performance Ireland-Canada, Digital as cleaning lady for taciturn fisherman that is nothing short of Oscar-worthy. Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn (Ethan Hawke), living in a tiny shack in the wilds of Nova Scotia. There will be Open Captioned screenings of Maudie on Monday 7th at 13.00 and When Maudie picks up a paintbrush Thursday 17th at 18.20. All other screenings one day, she discovers a talent for joyful will be Audio Described. DIRECTOR IN FOCUS brightly-coloured art, and she soon This month we focus on becomes a local sensation. Walsh has the work of Aisling Walsh. crafted a portrait of Canadian folk artist See page 11 for more details. LE DOULOS IFI CLASSIC

OPENS AUG 11TH A French slang word used to refer to a reveals a set of characters ready and police informant, Le Doulos was adapted willing to say or do anything to extricate FILM INFO: by Melville from the 1957 novel of the themselves from whatever trouble they 108 mins, 1963, France, Digital, same name by Pierre Lesou. A film noir find themselves in. Subtitled, Black and White crime drama in which nothing is quite Notes by Alice Butler as it seems, the story focuses primarily Betraying the influence of American on Silien, a mysterious gangster who gangster movies of the 1930s, Melville we are led to believe might also be clearly relishes this grimy criminal FRENCH FILM CLUB working for the police, played by the underworld and offers up a film that Tickets to the 18.30 legendary Jean-Paul Belmondo. Often is unusually layered and surprisingly screening on Wednesday cited as a major influence on Tarantino drastic for its time. 16th are just €7.50 for IFI and Alliance Française. in the making of Reservoir Dogs (1992), an intricate plot of deceit and revenge

6 A GHOST RELEASE NEW STORY

OPENS AUG 11TH An evocative, highly original meditation initial amusement. Time becomes elastic on life after death and the enduring for the ghost who is incapable of leaving FILM INFO: connections we make to people and the house, or the patch of land on which 87 mins, 2017, USA, Digital places, A Ghost Story reunites director it stands, even as the years become Notes by David O’Mahony David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, decades. Presented in Academy ratio, 2013) with Rooney Mara and Casey with strikingly beautiful compositions, Affleck. When Affleck’s character is A Ghost Story is a quite literally haunting killed in a head-on collision, he returns piece of philosophical inquiry that invites in spectral form to their home to watch interpretation and debate. over the grieving Mara, appearing draped IFI FILM CLUB in the classic Halloween costume of a Join us for a discussion sheet with eyeholes cut out, his quietly after the 18.20 screening on Monday 14th. mournful presence undercutting any STEP IFI DOC IFI IFI DOC IFI

OPENS AUG 11TH Made soon after the death of Freddy state competition with contestants from Gray in police custody in April 2015 led Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. FILM INFO: to a wave of protests across Baltimore 83 minutes, 2017, USA, Digital city, Amanda Lipitz’s deeply affecting By focussing primarily on three very Notes by Alice Butler documentary follows students of the different students - the talented but city’s Leadership School for Young under-confident Blessin Giraldo, Women over the course of their scholarship candidate Cori Grainger and graduating year. While undergoing straight-talker Tayla Solomon (who is the stress of preparing applications forever embarrassed by her ever-present for college, the girls let off steam by and highly entertaining mother) - the giving their all in ‘The Lethal Ladies’, the film offers a complex and engaging school’s impressive step dance team portrayal of a deeply sympathetic, which has been lined up to take part in a supportive and inspiring community.

7 AUGUST 2017 FINAL PORTRAIT NEW RELEASE

OPENS AUG 18TH For his fifth film as director, a lively studio, which is tellingly strewn with portrait of the Swiss sculptor and painter half-finished sculptures of the attenuated FILM INFO: Alberto Giacometti, exuberantly played figures that have brought him renown. 90 mins, 2017, UK, Digital by Geoffrey Rush, Stanley Tucci avoids What the perfectionist Giacometti Notes by David O’Mahony the traditional broad reach of the biopic promises will take mere hours stretches and instead opts to focus on a significant into days and eventually weeks, leading a incident, and in doing so, he captures the despairing Lord to wonder if he will ever essence of the man. be freed from the studio.

FEAST YOUR EYES In 1964, the celebrated artist asks his Enjoy Final Portrait with a friend James Lord (Armie Hammer), an specially devised main course American author and art critic, to sit following the 19.00 screening for a portrait in his crumbling Parisian on Wednesday 23rd. QUEST IFI DOC

OPENS AUG 18TH ‘You don’t know how we live’ says broadcast suggests they are going to Christine’a Rainey (aka Ma Quest) to get a whole lot worse. FILM INFO: the TV as a campaigning Donald Trump 105 mins, 2017, USA, Digital addresses his ‘What do you have to Christine’a’s husband Christopher (aka Notes by David O’Mahony lose?’ message to African Americans. Quest) is a music producer with a DIY This moment comes towards the end home studio. His eldest son is being of Jonathan Olshefski’s engrossing treated for cancer, and circumstances documentary in which we observe the are about to deliver an unexpected blow Rainey family over a nine-year period to his youngest daughter, P.J. Granted from 2008. Through the peaks and extraordinary access, Olshefski’s film is troughs of the Obama administration, an intimate and insightful family portrait. things have never been easy for the North Philadelphia family, but this TV

8 SONG RELEASE NEW TO SONG

OPENS AUG 18TH On the surface, the story told here of None of this progresses as you might love, doubt and betrayal, is distinct yet expect however, as the film assumes an EXCLUSIVELY AT IFI† familiar. Faye (Rooney Mara), a young impressionistic quality, prioritising inner woman drifting at the edges of the Austin monologue over conversation and mood FILM INFO: music scene, goes out with BV (Ryan over narrative structure. With cameos 129 mins, 2017, USA, Digital Notes by Alice Butler Gosling), a gifted songwriter who is from Patti Smith, John Lydon and equally inclined to wander. When BV is Val Kilmer, the film blends real life signed by Cook (Michael Fassbender), a with other-worldly moments to create well-connected but ultimately dissolute something unique and alluring. music producer, the three become close, until the attraction between Cook and Faye breaks up her relationship with BV.

DETROIT RELEASE NEW

OPENS AUG 25TH As the Black Lives Matter movement for actual gunfire. Security guard Melvin continues to draw attention to Dismukes (John Boyega) is on the scene FILM INFO: institutional racism in the US police force, as the task force storms the Motel, and 143 mins, 2017, USA, Digital the new film from Oscar-winning director becomes caught up in the subsequent Notes by Kevin Coyne Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) is a investigation and numerous related trials timely account of events occurring during in Bigelow’s robust and gripping work. the racially motivated 1967 Detroit riot. There will be an Open Captioned screening It focuses on the Algiers Motel incident, of Detroit on Tuesday 29th at 17.00. All in which three black men were killed other screenings will be Audio Described. by members of the police force and National Guard after the sound of a starter pistol being fired was mistaken

9 ARCHIVE AT IRISH LUNCHTIME FOCUS Silent Art

ART IN THE ARCHIVE Ó DHÚTHAIGH MHÚSCRAÍ / Join us for free daily lunchtime screenings of FROM THE LAND films from the IFI Irish Film Archive. Simply collect OF MÚSCRAÍ your tickets at the IFI Box Office. See www.ifi.ie for more information. AUG 29TH (18.30) PROGRAMME ONE HALLOWED FIRE This new transportive documentary from The Cultural Relations Committee of the Department Dónal Ó Céilleachair (Dreamtime Revisited, of Foreign Affairs produced this profile of Irish Camino by the Sea) takes us back, via exquisite painter and stained glass artist Evie Hone. Filmed at cinematography, to the Múscraí Gaeltacht. This her studio in Marley Park, Rathfarnham, she speaks is the land of Ó Ríordáin and Ó Riada, a land best about and demonstrates her art. known for its poetry and music but of late it is also FILM INFO: 12 mins, 1950, Black and White home to a flourishing community of artists: Tadhg McSweeney (painter), Helen Ní Chuill (ceramist), SILENT ART Gearóid Ó Duinnín (musician and painter), Helene Oscar-nominated documentarian Louis Marcus’s Willems-Bogels (inter-disciplinary artist), Meredith début is a simple and invaluable profile of Stone Mad Flandreau (potter), and Peadar Ó Riada (composer sculptor Séamus Murphy at work in his studio and and sometime painter). With a soundscape that on the streets of Cork. interweaves locally-inspired poetry and music, the FILM INFO: 15 mins, 1959, Black and White film shows how Múscraí has the power to nourish and enchant. PROGRAMME TWO INVITATION TO ART: THE ART OF IRELAND DIRECTOR: Dónal Ó Céilleachair One of a series produced by Boston TV to develop FILM INFO: 78 mins, 2016, Ireland, Digital, Subtitled a greater understanding of world art, and hosted by Irishman Dr Brian O'Doherty, then a young poet, Notes by Sunniva O'Flynn. painter and art critic, this episode explores the history and development of Irish art through the The screening will be followed by a Q&A with holdings of the Museum of Fine Art, Boston. director Dónal Ó Céilleachair. FILM INFO: 29 mins, 1960, Black and White Notes by Sunniva O'Flynn.

10 DIRECTOR IN FOCUS AISLING WALSH

IN CONVERSATION: FROM THE VAULTS: AISLING WALSH SONG FOR A RAGGY BOY AUG 15TH (18.30) AUG 16TH (18.30)

We are delighted to welcome BAFTA-winning Ireland, 1939. Franklin (Aidan Quinn), a newly- director Aisling Walsh for an in-depth exploration appointed lay teacher at a boys’ reformatory, is of her career to date in film and television. shocked by the school’s culture of brutality. The boys are subjected to a regime of torture and degradation In a presentation liberally illustrated with clips by cruel Brother John (Iain Glenn), while a paedophile, from her work she will discuss her education who rapes and abuses his pick of the boys, is willingly at IADT Dun Laoghaire and at the National Film accommodated by the staff. The horrors become School in Beaconsfield; her acclaimed work in increasingly sadistic, forcing Franklin to take action. British television drama including Sinners (2002), Director Aisling Walsh, who had recently directed Fingersmith (2005), and Wallander (2012); and her the Magdalene institution drama Sinners (2002), feature films Joyriders (1998), Daisy Chain (2007), here adapts Patrick Galvin’s memoir to create an Song for a Raggy Boy (2003), and her current unflinching and memorable depiction of the crimes masterpiece Maudie (2016). perpetrated upon innocent victims in Ireland’s industrial schools. She will be joined in conversation by her frequent collaborator, film producer Tristan Orpen Lynch. DIRECTOR: Aisling Walsh FILM INFO: 100 mins, 2003, Ireland-UK-Denmark-Spain, 35mm EVENT INFO: 90 mins Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn. Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn. Director Aisling Walsh will be present at the screening.

Aisling Walsh’s new film, Maudie, opens on Friday 4th. See page 6 for film notes.

11

WILD STRAWBERRIES GOING IN STYLE

AUG 25TH & This breezy crime comedy combines Tickets: €4.25 including regular tea/coffee AUG 30TH (11.00) the acting talents of Morgan Freeman, before the event. Wild Strawberries is our Michael Caine and Alan Arkin, reveling film club for over 55s. If you happen to in their roles as retirees who, in need look younger, please don’t take offence DIRECTOR: Zach Braff of extra cash and a bit of excitement, if we ask your age. decide to rob a bank. While the jolly FILM INFO: heist, follow-up celebrations, and 96 mins, 2017, USA, Digital Notes by Alicia McGivern outdoing the detective (Matt Dillon) may be a bit predictable, the obvious fun the three stars had together is refreshing. Christopher Lloyd pops up too in full eccentric form.

THE BIGGER PICTURE INSIDE OUT

AUG 9TH (18.30) Pixar alumnus Pete Docter’s story Pixar had pushed the bar so often of eleven-year-old Riley's emotional already, but Inside Out showed that DIRECTOR: journey addressed adult audiences while the best family film can simply be Pete Docter respecting children's emotions too. the best film. It doesn't avoid sad moments; rather, FILM INFO: through the juxtaposition of Sadness This screening will be introduced 95 mins, 2015, USA, Digital Notes by Alicia McGivern and Joy, it got audiences everywhere by Trish Long, Vice President and realising that it was OK to feel both. General Manager, Walt Disney Combining hand-drawn animation for Motion Pictures Ireland. IFI FAMILY FESTIVAL See our separate flyer for the 'inside' scenes with top grade CGI details of the IFI Family for real world, the narrative moved Festival, running from smoothly inside and out, colour coding Friday 25th to Sunday 27th. Riley's state of mind.

12 AUTHOR: THE JT LEROY STORY & Q+A

AUG 24TH (20.00) Novelist JT LeRoy burst onto the literary to JT began to dig a little deeper, scene in the mid 1990s, a bracingly and what they found led to one DIRECTOR: honest new voice whose lurid tales of of the greatest literary scandals Jeff Feuerzeig street hustlers and child abuse were of recent times. drawn from his own experiences at FILM INFO: the hands of neglectful carers and The screening will be followed by a Q&A 110 mins, 2016, USA, Digital Notes by David O’Mahony institutions. But who exactly was with writer Laura Albert (aka JT LeRoy) JT LeRoy? Why was he so guarded in and Paula Malcolmson. interviews? And who were the coterie of handlers filtering all media interactions?

As his fame grew in proportion to his bizarre public persona, sources close

FEAST YOUR EYES FINAL PORTRAIT

AUG 18TH (19.00) Our monthly gastronomic feature What the perfectionist Giacometti followed by a meal in the IFI Café Bar. promises will take mere hours stretches DIRECTOR: into days and eventually weeks leading a Stanley Tucci August’s pairing of a new release and despairing Lord to wonder if he will ever a specially devised main course menu be free from the studio. FILM INFO: will be Stanley Tucci’s Final Portrait, 90 mins, 2017, UK, Digital Notes by David O’Mahony followed by a meal inspired by the See page 8 for film notes. film in the IFI Café Bar. Tucci’s film is a lively portrait of the Swiss sculptor and Tickets €20, free list suspended. painter Alberto Giacometti (Geoffrey Rush) who asks his friend James Lord (Armie Hammer) to sit for a portrait in his crumbling Parisian studio.

13 Berlin: Symphony of a Great City

DARK CORNERS CINEMA OF THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC AUGUST 5TH – 30TH

In the aftermath of , the Deutsches As the 1920s progressed however, the movement fell Reich underwent great social, political, and financial out of fashion in favour of New Objectivity, which saw upheaval. Following the adoption of a new constitution a return to realism as filmmakers began to turn the that applied between 1919 and 1933, Germany during camera on contemporary German society and its ills, this period became known as the Weimar Republic, focusing on those reduced to living in the margins. named after the city in which the national assembly was convened. This season seeks to acknowledge the enduring legacy of Weimar-era cinema, with major figures Despite the significant difficulties being faced by represented by films which, though perhaps lesser the Republic, this was also a time of great cultural known, are no less powerful. creativity. Cinema in particular flourished, as a generation of filmmakers appeared whose technical Stefan Drößler, Director of the Munich Film Museum, and narrative innovations mark this as a critical period will take part in a discussion on Weimar cinema on in the development and history of the medium. Sunday 27th at 14.00. Tickets €5. Expressionism, the first movement to gain Introduction and notes on individual films by Kevin popularity, sought to counter realism by stylising Coyne. This season is presented in association with and distorting elements such as set design and Goethe-Institut Irland. lighting, as well as using symbolism and fantastic material in order to better explore a character’s subjective perspective.

14 DARK CORNERS: CINEMA OF THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC

inhabitants across the course of a single BERLIN: SYMPHONY day. Along with People On Sunday, which also features in this season, it presents OF A GREAT CITY a form of montage documentary that provides a fascinating insight into the city at this time, juxtaposing its imagery so as to provide subtle commentary on existing social divisions and concerns. AUG 5TH (15.15)

(BERLIN: DIE SINFONIE DER Director Walther Ruttmann was an early GROßSTADT) practitioner of experimental film, part of the ‘Absolute film’ school. Although FILM INFO: 65 mins, 1927, Germany, Digital, this might still be classed as an avant- Black and White, Silent garde film, influenced by the early work of Dziga Vertov, it is structured so as to portray the life of Berlin and its

Weimar-era cinema was commendable THE ADVENTURES for offering women central roles in the industry unavailable in other countries. OF PRINCE ACHMED Indicative of the invention taking place at the time, The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the oldest surviving animated feature. It uses silhouette animation to recount a tale from Arabian Nights of the wonders AUG 6TH (14.30) and dangers faced by Prince Achmed as he travels to strange lands on a flying horse. (DIE ABENTEUER DES Whether placing actresses such as Marlene PRINZEN ACHMED) Dietrich, Ossi Oswalda, or Lilian Harvey at This screening will feature live musical the centre of particular stories, or offering FILM INFO: accompaniment. 66 mins, 1926, Germany, opportunities behind the camera to 35mm, Black and White, Silent directors such as Marie Harder, Leontine Sagan (Mädchen In Uniform, also showing in this season), or, here, Lotte Reiniger,

the earliest and most influential horror THE GOLEM: films. In medieval Prague, Rabbi Loew HOW HE CAME fears disaster for the Jewish community INTO THE WORLD at the hands of the Christian Emperor. To defend his people, he creates from clay the Golem, whose awakening leads to a series of disasters in this visual feast. AUG 8TH (18.30) The screening will be accompanied (DER GOLEM: WIE ER IN The only one of three films directed by by a live performance from musician DIE WELT KAM) and starring Paul Wegener concerning Hilary Woods. www.hilarywoods.com the Golem, a figure from Jewish FILM INFO: 94 mins, 1920, Germany, folklore, to have survived, this is, along 35mm, Black and White, Silent with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920), one of the key works of Expressionism, as well as being one of

15 DARK CORNERS: CINEMA OF THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC

fiction, in both Metropolis (1927), FRAU IM and this, his final silent epic, in which a group of nefarious businessmen MOND co-opt a mission to the moon in order to plunder its gold deposits.

Notable for its invention of the launch countdown and inclusion of AUG 12TH (13.00) melodramatic elements, the film is filled with ingenuity and attention to detail. (WOMAN IN THE MOON) A giant of not just German cinema, but world cinema, Fritz Lang arguably FILM INFO: 169 mins, 1929, Germany, remains best known for masterpieces Blu-Ray, Black and White, Silent such as the Dr. Mabuse series (1922– 1960) and M (1931). Throughout this period of his career, he turned his hand to a number of genres, including science

in Nazi propaganda films. In this seamy VARIETY melodrama, he plays Boss Huller, a former trapeze artist who abandons his family for a younger colleague. When the couple becomes a professional trio, a love triangle is formed, and tragedy ensues.

AUG 13TH (16.15) The film features some of the most inventive camera work of the period, (VARIETÉ) Actor Emil Jannings was one of the most its ‘unchained’ approach making for esteemed actors of this time, working FILM INFO: breathtaking performance scenes. 94 mins, 1925, Germany, with directors such as F.W. Murnau and Blu-Ray, Black and White, Silent Josef von Sternberg, before moving to America to become the first winner of the Oscar for Best Actor, and ending his career in disgrace after appearing

murderous somnambulist in The Cabinet WAXWORKS of Dr. Caligari, and the similarly fantastic Unheimliche Geschichten (Richard Oswald, 1919) and The Hands of Orlac (Robert Wiene, 1924).

He once again shows a flair for genre in this enthralling anthology film in which a AUG 15TH (18.30) young poet is hired to write back stories for models including Ivan the Terrible (DAS Actor Conrad Veidt will forever hold a and Jack the Ripper, each depicted in WACHSFIGURENKABINETT) place in popular culture following his different styles and moods. performance in The Man Who Laughs FILM INFO: 83 mins, 1924, Germany, 16mm, (1928), which inspired the appearance While the film is currently undergoing Black and White, Silent of Batman’s nemesis, the Joker. restoration, we are pleased to screen this However, he had a significant career version on 16mm. during the Weimar era, appearing as the

16 suggested to subsequent filmmakers FAUST a new way of using the pictorial space. Faust, the director’s final German film, draws on sources including Marlowe and Goethe in service of the story of a man who makes a deal with the devil. At that time the most expensive film made in Germany, it remains a AUG 19TH (14.15) visual triumph.

(FAUST – EINE DEUTSCHE Like Lang, F.W. Murnau is a towering The screening will be introduced by VOLKSSAGE) figure of this period, thanks to films Dr. Piotr Sadowski, lecturer in film, such as Nosferatu (1922), The Last Laugh FILM INFO: literature, and drama at Business 107 mins, 1926, Germany, (1924), and, after moving to America, School, and author of an upcoming book Blu-Ray, Black and White, Silent Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927). on Weimar cinema. Murnau’s approach to framing and his use of liberating camera movements

epics such as Madame DuBarry (1919) THE MOUNTAIN and Anna Boleyn (1920), and lighter fare such as this, reportedly his own favourite LION of his German films. It stars frequent collaborator Pola Negri as a bandit leader who falls in love with the new lieutenant of a local fort. Thus the stage is set for anarchic, exuberant comedy, largely at AUG 20TH (15.30) the expense of the German military. (DIE BERGKATZE) Ernst Lubitsch is primarily remembered for the comedies he made in America, FILM INFO: 86 mins, 1921, Germany, such as Ninotchka (1939), which was Digital, Black and White, Silent co-written by fellow émigré Billy Wilder, and The Shop Around the Corner (1940). While still working in Germany, he alternated between large-scale historical

early films, including his most famous, WESTFRONT Pandora’s Box and (both 1929, and both starring the iconic 1918 Louise Brooks). Westfront 1918, his first , departs from these themes, depicting instead life in the trenches during World War I. Its staunchly pacifist and anti-war message saw it AUG 22ND (18.30) suppressed three years later, when the Nazis came to power. (WESTFRONT 1918: VIER Arguably the director most closely VON DER INFANTERIE) identified with the New Objectivity, The screening will be introduced by G.W. Pabst first came to prominence FILM INFO: Dr. Piotr Sadowski, lecturer in film, 75 mins, 1930, Germany, with The (1925), which literature, and drama at Dublin Business Blu-Ray, Black and White, Silent featured an early performance from School, and author of an upcoming book Greta Garbo. It focused on the plight of on Weimar cinema. women in society, as did many of his

17 DARK CORNERS: CINEMA OF THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC

set in a repressive and authoritarian MÄDCHEN boarding school, where 14-year-old Manuela (Hertha Thiele, who appeared IN UNIFORM in many controversial plays and films of the period), a new arrival, falls in love with her teacher, Fräulein von Bernburg. When their closeness is discovered by the headmistress and it is forbidden AUG 24TH (18.30) for the two to speak further, Manuela is devastated, and reacts accordingly. FILM INFO: Openness about sex and sexuality was 87 mins, 1931, Germany, 16mm, a hallmark of Weimar cinema, as in, Black and White, Subtitled for example, Pandora’s Box. Leontine Sagan’s cult classic was one of the first to feature lesbian themes prominently, and was also ground-breaking for having an all-female cast. The film is

to power, including its directors, Robert PEOPLE ON Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer, its writers, SUNDAY Billy Wilder and Kurt Siodmak, and Fred Zinnemann, who worked on the camera crew.

Following ordinary Berliners, including a taxi driver and a shop girl, as they go AUG 27TH (15.30) about their weekend recreation, the film would prove influential on both Italian (MENSCHEN AM A novel blend of feature and Neo-Realism and the French New Wave. SONNTAG) documentary, People On Sunday was the result of a collaborative effort on the FILM INFO: This screening will be introduced by 73 mins, 1930, Germany, part of a number of talented individuals Stefan Drößler, Director of the Munich Digital, Black and White, Silent who would go on to significant careers Film Museum, following his discussion of in America as part of the exodus of Weimar cinema at 14.00. talent precipitated by the Nazis coming

Nazis. ‘Kuhle Wampe’ is a community KUHLE WAMPE, for the dispossessed in a time when OR WHO unemployment rates were constantly OWNS increasing. Annie’s (Hertha Thiele) family is forced to move there after THE WORLD? her despairing brother’s suicide. Rather than accepting her fate, Annie is moved to become involved in workers’ AUG 30TH (18.30) rights, advocating for class solidarity and revolution. (KUHLE WAMPE, ODER: Based on a screenplay co-written by WEM GEHÖRT DIE WELT?) Bertolt Brecht, Kuhle Wampe, made at the tail end of the era and representing FILM INFO: 68 mins, 1932, Germany, 35mm, the swan song of New Objectivity, is Black and White, Subtitled notable for its explicitly communist politics, which led to its censorship on release and outright ban under the

18 AUG 25–27 2017

3 Days of Films and Workshops for Children

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