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Home , Alain Delon, Alain Resnais, Andrzej Wajda, Eiji Funakoshi, Federico Fellini, Hideko Takamine

BAMcinématek presents Black & White ’Scope: International Cinema, May 29—Jun 16

A 28 follow-up to Black & White ’Scope: American Cinema

24 in 35mm

The Wall Street Journal is the title sponsor of BAM Rose Cinemas and BAMcinématek.

Brooklyn, NY/May 1, 2015—From Friday, May 29 through Tuesday, June 16, BAMcinématek presents Black & White ’Scope: International Cinema. Part two of a series that began with Black & White ’Scope: American Cinema in March, this ambitious program showcases 28 widescreen films by some of the greatest international directors and cinematographers of the mid- 20th-century—silvery, shimmering beauties that demand to be seen on the big screen.

Opening the series on Friday, May 29 is François Truffaut’s masterful debut (1959), one of the founding films of the . Truffaut makes tremendous use of the Dyaliscope frame, lensed by titan DP Henri Decaë, notably for the unforgettable final sequence as young hero Antoine Doinel runs to the shore, and continued to employ ’Scope in Shoot the Piano Player (1960—Jun 5) and (1962—Jun 5) shot by in a different anamorphic process, Franscope.

Japanese cinema titan named The 400 Blows among his favorite films and also favored the widescreen form, for a string of collaborations with muse Toshiro Mifune. Five of these screen in Black & White ’Scope, including a pairing of his classic (1961— Jun 13) and its quasi-sequel (1962—Jun 13); “Kurosawa’s best nonperiod picture” (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader) High and Low (1963—Jun 14), all in monochrome CinemaScope save for one burst of color in the middle; and his final film with Mifune and the last he shot in black-and-white, the Dostoyevskian (1965—Jun 14).

Black & White ’Scope gives encore screenings to Frantisek Vlacil’s Marketa Lazarova (1967— Jun 2), which BAMcinématek played for a week last spring (his rare Valley of the Bees also screens in the series), and two films by , the subject of a landmark BAMcinématek retrospective in 2011. Rare 35mm series highlights from around the world include ’s Siberian Lady (1962—Jun 8), an adaptation of the Nikolai Leskov novel reimagining the Shakespearean tragedy in ; Miklos Jancso’s Russian Civil War drama The Red and the White (1967—Jun 1); Zbynek Brynych’s The Fifth Horseman Is Fear (1964—Jun 9), which Roger Ebert called “a beautiful, distinguished work…a nearly perfect film;” and ’s Is Burning? (1966—Jun 10), featuring Oscar-nominated Panavision cinematography and a screenplay penned by and .

For press information, please contact Lisa Thomas at 718.724.8023 / [email protected] Hannah Thomas at 718.724.8002 / [email protected]

Black & White ’Scope: International Cinema Schedule

Fri, May 29 2, 4:30, 7, 9:30pm: The 400 Blows

Sat, May 30

2, 5:30, 9pm:

Sun, May 31 2, 6:30pm: Andrei Rublev

Mon, Jun 1 7, 9:15pm: The Red and the White

Tue, Jun 2 5, 8:30pm: Marketa Lazarova

Wed, Jun 3 4:30, 7, 9:30pm: Fires on the Plain

Thu, Jun 4 7, 9:30pm: When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

Fri, Jun 5 2, 7pm: Shoot the Piano Player 4:30, 9:15pm: Jules and Jim

Sat, Jun 6 2, 6, 10pm: 4, 8pm: Lola

Sun, Jun 7 4, 8:45pm: Billy Liar 6:15pm: Our Man in Havana

Mon, Jun 8 7:15, 9:30pm: Siberian Lady Macbeth

Tue, Jun 9 7pm: Valley of the Bees 9:30pm: The Fifth Horseman Is Fear

Wed, Jun 10 8pm: Is Paris Burning?

Thu, Jun 11 4:45, 9:30pm: 7pm: Onibaba

Fri, Jun 12 2, 7pm: The Innocents 4:30, 9:30pm: The Damned

Sat, Jun 13 2, 7pm: Yojimbo 4:30, 9:30pm: Sanjuro

Sun, Jun 14 2, 9pm: High and Low 5pm: Red Beard

Mon, Jun 15

5, 8:15pm:

Tue, Jun 16 7pm: Rebellion 9:40pm: Pale Flower

Film Descriptions All films in 35mm unless otherwise noted.

The 400 Blows (1959) 99min Directed by François Truffaut. With Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Remy, Claire Maurier. One of the exhilarating first blasts of the French New Wave, Truffaut’s landmark debut stars his alter-ego, Jean-Pierre Léaud, as a juvenile delinquent who escapes his troubled home life to run wild through the streets of Paris. Throughout, Truffaut delights in the expressive freedom of the CinemaScope frame, not least in the joyous carnival ride sequence and the heart-stopping final scene. DCP. Fri, May 29 at 2, 4:30, 7, 9:30pm

Andrei Rublev (1966) 205min Directed by . With Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolay Grinko. Tarkovsky uses the life of the titular medieval icon painter (Solonitsyn)—who toiled in the face of barbarism to create visionary paeans to God—to craft a transcendent parable about the role of the artist in society. The awe-inspiring widescreen compositions have the same totemic majesty as Rublev’s own work, all rendered in hallucinatory black and white—until the glorious final moments. Sun, May 31 at 2, 6:30pm

The Bad Sleep Well (1960) 150min Directed by Akira Kurosawa. With Toshiro Mifune, , Kyoko Kagawa. Kurosawa’s noir-tinged thriller transposes to post-war Tokyo as a young executive (Mifune) sets out to avenge his father’s death and expose corporate corruption. Throughout, the director’s “use of the ’Scope screen is masterly, suggesting right from the opening sequence a boardroom table across which manipulations gradually unfold” (Time Out ). Mon, Jun 15 at 5, 8:15pm

Billy Liar (1963) 93min Directed by . With , , Wilfred Pickles. This richly imaginative British New Wave classic chronicles the exploits of an incurable dreamer (the captivating Courtenay) who escapes the drab reality of his blue-collar existence through vivid flights of fancy—much to the dismay of the three women he strings along. Moving seamlessly between realism and fantasy, Billy Liar is an alternately hilarious and poignant portrait of post-war British society. Sun, Jun 7 at 4, 8:45pm

The Damned (1963) 87min Directed by . With Macdonald Carey, Shirley Anne Field, Viveca Lindfors. Biker exploitation meets atomic-age sci-fi in this delirious cult classic from director Joseph Losey. In a sleepy town on the English coast, a gang of outlaw teens terrorizes an American tourist (Carey) who makes a shocking discovery: a secret bunker where a government scientist is performing radioactive experiments on children. Legendary British horror studio Hammer Films produced this fascinatingly offbeat parable of Cold War-era paranoia. Fri, Jun 12 at 4:30, 9:30pm

La Dolce Vita (1960) 174min Dir. . With , . Starring Marcello Mastroianni in his most iconic performance, Fellini’s epic follows a playboy paparazzo’s weeklong adventure amid the moral decay of mid-century Roman . While its condemnation by the spurred international buzz, what remains most striking today is the film’s extravagant visual style, a break from Fellini’s early-career neorealism. Rife with eye-popping set pieces—including a

of seduction in Trevi between Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg—this masterpiece demands to be seen on the big screen. DCP. Sat, May 30 at 2, 5:30, 9pm

The Fifth Horseman Is Fear (1964) 100min Directed by Zbynek Brynych. With Miroslav Machacek, Olga Scheinpflugova, Zdenka Prochazkova. This masterwork of the Czech New Wave unleashes a Kafkaesque waking nightmare as a Jewish doctor in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia combs a menacing Prague for black-market morphine to give to the injured freedom fighter he has illicitly treated. As the sense of dread mounts, this shattering psychological drama becomes a haunting parable about the dehumanizing effects of life in a police state. Tue, Jun 9 at 9:30pm

Fires on the Plain (1959) 104min Directed by . With , Osamu Takizawa, Mickey Curtis. One of the most intense anti-war films ever made, this shattering WWII drama follows a Japanese soldier, sick with tuberculosis, as he wanders the wasteland of a battle-scarred Philippine island. Along the way he encounters a grisly landscape where starving men have resorted to the ultimate taboo in order to survive. “No other film on the horrors of war has gone anywhere near as far” (Dave Kehr, The Chicago Reader). Wed, Jun 3 at 4:30, 7, 9:30pm

High and Low (1963) 143min Directed by Akira Kurosawa. With Toshiro Mifune, Kyoko Kagawa, . Kurosawa’s riveting adaptation of a novel by Ed McBain is “one of the best detective thrillers ever filmed” (A. O. Scott, ). The wealthy head of a shoe company (Mifune) faces a wrenching ethical dilemma when kidnappers accidentally nab his chauffeur’s son instead of his own. As the clock ticks, he must decide: pay the ransom to save another man’s boy, or save his company from financial ruin. Sun, Jun 14 at 2, 9pm

The Innocents (1961) 100min Directed by . With , Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins. This ultra-creepy British adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw stars Deborah Kerr as governess to a pair of seemingly cherubic orphans. But something sinister is afoot: Are the children being haunted by ghosts? Or is it all in her head? Capturing the frightening ambiguity of James’ novella, this atmospheric chiller may be “the finest, smartest, most visually savvy horror film ever made by a big studio” (The Village Voice). Fri, Jun 12 at 2, 7pm

Is Paris Burning? (1966) 173min Directed by René Clément. With Jean-Paul Belmondo, , . The widescreen frame can barely contain all the stars studding this titanic transcontinental WWII epic about the liberation of Paris. , Orson Welles, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, , , Jean-Louis Trintignant, , and more recreate the historic uprising in vivid detail. The stunning monochrome cinematography was Oscar nominated, while the script is by none other than Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola. DCP. Wed, Jun 10 at 8pm

Jules and Jim (1962) 105min Directed by François Truffaut. With , Oskar Werner, Henri Serre. ’s charming score is just one of the many delights in Truffaut’s third feature, which charts a 25-year love triangle comprising two friends (Werner and Serre) and a free-spirited woman (Jeanne Moreau, in a truly unforgettable performance). Bursting with nifty stylistic tricks—freeze frames, wipes, and dolly shots abound—this exuberant French New Wave masterpiece is giddy with the possibilities of cinema. Fri, Jun 5 at 4:30, 9:15pm

Last Year at Marienbad (1961) 93min Directed by . With , Giorgio Albertazzi, Sacha Pitoeff. As the camera glides endlessly through the corridors of a luxuriously baroque hotel, impossibly chic figures freeze like statues, conversations and events loop repeatedly, and a man (Albertazzi) tries to convince a woman (Seyrig) that they have had an affair she can’t recall. What happened last year at Marienbad? Alain Resnais’ sumptuously hypnotic investigation of time and memory ushered in a new era of cinematic . Sat, Jun 6 at 2, 6, 10pm

Lola (1961) 88min Directed by . With Anouk Aimée, Marc Michel, Jacques Harden. Jacques Demy’s dazzling debut is both a valentine to classic cinema (from Max Ophüls to Hollywood musicals) and a thrilling burst of New Wave inventiveness. Sublimely shot by the legendary Raoul Coutard, Lola charts a charming romantic roundelay as a cabaret singer (the effervescent Aimée) fends off advances from two suitors while secretly awaiting the return of her long-lost love. DCP. Sat, Jun 6 at 4, 8pm

Marketa Lazarova (1967) 165min Directed by Frantisek Vlacil. With Josef Kemr, Magda Vasaryova, Nada Hejna, Jaroslav Moucka. The crowning achievement of the Czech New Wave is this epic celluloid hallucination of savagery and mysticism in the Middle Ages. Centered around a violent feud between two 13th-century pagan clans, Marketa Lazarova is a riddle that’s not to be cracked (at least not on first viewing). Featuring a hypnotic dreamscape—hooded figures wandering through stark, barren landscapes and black wolves prowling virgin snow—and set to a thunderous, primordial soundtrack of clanging bells and liturgical chanting, the film’s lustrous, monochrome ’Scope cinematography gleams in this beautiful 35mm print. Tue, Jun 2 at 5, 8:30pm

The Naked Island (1960) 96min Directed by Kaneto Shindo. With , , Shinji Tanaka. This virtually wordless, documentary-fiction hybrid follows a family eking out a hardscrabble existence on a barren island. With its stunningly poetic images of the sea and nature, kaleidoscopic modernist score, and heart-stopping climax, Kaneto Shindo’s art-house sensation packs an unforgettable visual and emotional punch. Thu, Jun 11 at 4:45, 9:30pm

Onibaba (1964) 103min Directed by Kaneto Shindo. With Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Sato. A mother and daughter-in-law scrape out a feral subsistence in the grassy marshlands of 16th-century by robbing and murdering lost samurai. But things take a macabre turn when they come into possession of a demonic mask. Kaneto Shindo transforms an ancient folktale into a bone-chilling erotic ghost story, lent a glacial beauty by the shimmering monochrome cinematography. Thu, Jun 11 at 7pm

Our Man in Havana (1959) 111min Directed by . With , Maureen O'Hara, Burl Ives. It’s hijinks in Havana as a vacuum cleaner salesman (Guinness, in typically brilliant form) unwittingly becomes a spy for the British government, recruited to keep tabs on the pre-revolutionary Cuban regime. Shot on location in Cuba, and Carol Reed’s third collaboration following The Third Man adapts Greene’s own novel into a sparklingly witty satire of Cold War espionage. Sun, Jun 7 at 6:15pm

Pale Flower (1964) 96min Directed by . With Ryo Ikebe, Mariko Kaga, Takashi Fujiki. Just released from prison, a Yakuza hitman (Ikebe) gets involved with a seductive young woman (Kaga) whose taste for gambling and drugs leads them down a path of mutual destruction. Suffused with New

Wave cool, this supremely stylish noir plunges viewers into a disorienting dream state, heightened by expressionistic shadows, surrealist nightmare sequences, and a dizzying avant-garde score by Toru Takemitsu. Tue, Jun 16 at 9:40pm

The Red and the White (1967) 90min Directed by Miklos Jancso. With Jozsef Madaras, Tibor Molnar, Andras Kozak. Titan of Hungarian cinema Miklos Jancso’s visual tour de force follows the fates of Hungarian revolutionaries who join the Communists (the red) in the fight against government forces (the white) during the Russian Revolution. The director’s wondrously unchained camera is a perpetual motion machine, ceaselessly prowling the CinemaScope frame in which characters are trapped in a senseless ritual of violence and death. Mon, Jun 1 at 7, 9:15pm

Red Beard (1965) 185min Directed by Akira Kurosawa. With Toshiro Mifune, Yuzo Kayama, . Kurosawa and Mifune’s final collaboration yielded one of the director’s most heartfelt, moving films. In 19th-century Japan, a brash young doctor (Kayama) working in a poor public clinic butts heads with a wizened older medic (Mifune). What unfolds is a humanistic reflection on duty, compassion, and the passage of time. Sun, Jun 14 at 5pm

Samurai Rebellion (1967) 128min Directed by . With Toshiro Mifune, , Go Kato. An aging swordsman (Mifune) stands up to a powerful lord in order to defend his family’s honor in this defiantly anti-authoritarian samurai saga. Director Masaki Kobayashi (Harakiri) masterfully keeps the tension mounting until the final act when it explodes in orgiastic violence. “As extreme a samurai film as I've seen in both senses (the ethics and the violence), and one of the best” (Roger Ebert). Tue, Jun 16 at 7pm

Sanjuro (1962) 96min Directed by Akira Kurosawa. With Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, . The mighty Toshiro Mifune delivers one of his most unforgettable characterizations as the rough-and- tumble ronin Sanjuro, who leads a band of samurai wannabes in a fight against government corruption. Kurosawa plays this sequel to Yojimbo for laughs, irreverently spoofing the conventions of his own samurai movies, while showcasing his mastery of the widescreen frame in the bravura action sequences. Sat, Jun 13 at 4:30, 9:30pm

Shoot the Piano Player (1960) 92min Directed by François Truffaut. With , , Nicole Berger. This exhilarating ode to American crime dramas stars the great chanteur Charles Aznavour as a former classical pianist, now reduced to playing in a shabby Paris bar, who gets mixed up with gangsters. Truffaut delights in channeling the moody stylistics of , helped considerably by Georges Delerue’s haunting cabaret piano score. Fri, Jun 5 at 2, 7pm

Siberian Lady Macbeth (1962) 93min Directed by Andrzej Wajda. With Olivera Markovic, Ljuba Tadic, Bojan Stupica. Lust, adultery, and murder in remotest Russia: Polish cinematic giant and lifetime achievement Oscar winner Andrzej Wajda (Ashes and Diamonds) offers a striking adaptation of Nikolai Leskov’s novel Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District in this Yugoslavian production. In a rural village, the extramarital affair of a conniving merchant’s wife (Markovic) results in tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. Wajda enhances the psychological intensity via masterfully composed widescreen compositions. Mon, Jun 8 at 7:15, 9:30pm

Valley of the Bees (1967) 97min Directed by Frantisek Vlacil. With Petr Cepek, Jan Kacer, Vera Galatikova. Frantisek Vlacil’s follow-up to his Czech New Wave landmark Marketa Lazarova is another hallucinatory, medieval saga, in which a boy (Cepek) struggles to break free of the fanatical religious order in which he was raised. Throughout, Vlacil mixes the sacred and the profane, the earthly and mystical to create a hypnotic, visually overwhelming experience with an almost primordial power. Tue, Jun 9 at 7pm

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960) 111min Directed by . With , Masayuki Mori, Reiko Dan. One of Japanese melodrama maestro Mikio Naruse’s crowning achievements, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs stars Hideko Takamine as a Tokyo bar hostess determined to retain her dignity in the face of crushing personal and socioeconomic setbacks. That it’s all rendered with such exquisite understatement makes this quietly devastating study of the subjugation of women all the more heartbreaking. Thu, Jun 4 at 7, 9:30pm

Yojimbo (1961) 110min Directed by Akira Kurosawa. With Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa. One of Kurosawa’s most perfectly crafted samurai sagas, this action-packed adventure stars Toshiro Mifune as a shiftless ronin who lends his services to two warring gangs and craftily pits them against each other. With a tour-de-force performance from Mifune, breathtaking visuals, and a dark comic undercurrent, Yojimbo is a master class in genre filmmaking. Remade by as . Sat, Jun 13 at 2, 7pm

About BAMcinématek The four-screen BAM Rose Cinemas (BRC) opened in 1998 to offer Brooklyn audiences alternative and independent films that might not play in the borough otherwise, making BAM the only performing arts center in the country with two mainstage theaters and a multiplex cinema. In July 1999, beginning with a series celebrating the work of , BAMcinématek was born as Brooklyn’s only daily, year-round repertory film program. BAMcinématek presents new and rarely seen , classics, work by local artists, and festivals of films from around the world, often with special appearances by directors, actors, and other guests. BAMcinématek has not only presented major retrospectives by major filmmakers such as , , Shohei Imamura, Vincente Minnelli (winning a National Film Critics’ Circle Award prize for the retrospective), Kaneto Shindo, , and , but it has also introduced New York audiences to contemporary artists such as Pedro Costa and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. In addition, BAMcinématek programmed the first US retrospectives of directors , Nicolas Winding Refn, Hong Sang-soo, and Andrzej Zulawski. From 2006 to 2008, BAMcinématek partnered with the Sundance Institute and in June 2009 launched BAMcinemaFest, a 16-day festival of new independent films and repertory favorites with 15 NY feature film premieres; the seventh annual BAMcinemaFest runs from June 17—28, 2015.

Credits

The Wall Street Journal is the title sponsor of BAM Rose Cinemas and BAMcinématek.

Steinberg Screen at the BAM Harvey Theater is made possible by The Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust.

Pepsi is the official beverage of BAM.

Brooklyn Brewery is the preferred beer of BAMcinématek.

BAM Rose Cinemas are named in recognition of a major gift in honor of Jonathan F.P. and Diana Calthorpe Rose. BAM Rose Cinemas would also like to acknowledge the generous support of The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Estate of Richard B. Fisher, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Brooklyn Delegation of the Council, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, Bloomberg, and Time Warner Inc. Additional support for BAMcinématek is provided by The Grodzins Fund, The Liman Foundation, and Summit Rock Advisors.

BAMcinématek is programmed by Nellie Killian and David Reilly. Additional programming by Gabriele Caroti, Jesse Trussell, and Ryan Werner.

Special thanks to Brian Belovarac & Laura Coxson/; Judy Nicaud/; Gary Palmucci & Jonathan Hertzberg/Kino Lorber; Brent Kliewer/The Screen; George Watson/; Eric Di Bernardo/; David Jennings & Michael Horne/Sony Pictures Repertory; Jessica Rosner; Todd Wiener & Steven Hill/UCLA Film & Television Archive; Daniel Vadocký/Czech National Film Archive; Joe Reid/ Fox.

General Information

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafé are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, is the newest addition to the BAM campus and houses the Judith and Alan Fishman Space and Rita K. Hillman Studio. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn’s only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, offers a bar menu and dinner entrées prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances. BAMcafé also features an eclectic mix of spoken word and live music for BAMcafé Live on Friday and Saturday nights with a bar menu available starting at 6pm.

Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue – Barclays Center (2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins St for Harvey Theater) D, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue Train: Long Island Railroad to Atlantic Terminal – Barclays Center Bus: B25, B26, B41, B45, B52, B63, B67 all stop within three blocks of BAM Car: Commercial parking lots are located adjacent to BAM

For ticket information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.