BAMcinématek presents Black & White ’Scope: International Cinema, May 29—Jun 16 A 28 film follow-up to Black & White ’Scope: American Cinema 24 films 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 The 400 Blows (1959), one of the founding films of the French New Wave. 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 Jules and Jim (1962—Jun 5) shot by Raoul Coutard in a different anamorphic process, Franscope. Japanese cinema titan Akira Kurosawa 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 jidaigeki classic Yojimbo (1961— Jun 13) and its quasi-sequel Sanjuro (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 Red Beard (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 Kaneto Shindo, the subject of a landmark BAMcinématek retrospective in 2011. Rare 35mm series highlights from around the world include Andrzej Wajda’s Siberian Lady Macbeth (1962—Jun 8), an adaptation of the Nikolai Leskov novel reimagining the Shakespearean tragedy in Russia; 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 René Clément’s Is Paris Burning? (1966—Jun 10), featuring Oscar-nominated Panavision cinematography and a screenplay penned by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola. 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: La Dolce Vita 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: Last Year at Marienbad 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: The Naked Island 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: The Bad Sleep Well Tue, Jun 16 7pm: Samurai 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 Andrei Tarkovsky. 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, Masayuki Mori, Kyoko Kagawa. Kurosawa’s noir-tinged thriller transposes Hamlet 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 London). Mon, Jun 15 at 5, 8:15pm Billy Liar (1963) 93min Directed by John Schlesinger. With Tom Courtenay, Julie Christie, 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 Joseph Losey. 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. Federico Fellini. With Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg. 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 bourgeoisie. While its condemnation by the Catholic Church 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 dance of seduction in Trevi Fountain 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 Kon Ichikawa. With Eiji Funakoshi, 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, Tatsuya Nakadai. Kurosawa’s riveting adaptation of a novel by Ed McBain is “one of the best detective thrillers ever filmed” (A. O. Scott, The New York Times). 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 Jack Clayton. With Deborah Kerr, 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).