COMING IN MARCH
Animated Late Nights
MAR 1
It’s the return of late nights at Metrograph, the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night tradition dedicated to the after-hours denizens of this insomniac town who want to wind down with a movie and a bite. Now that the Commissary is open later again, we’ve got the movies to go with their expanded hours-this time around, a hand-picked selection of time-slot appropriate animated films, from Japan, Romania, and other destinations further afield. A series for connoisseurs of cocktails and nocturnal film freaks to hobnob, clink glasses, and see some of the best and most bizarre in cinema, with the Commissary serving drinks and a special moonlit menu into the wee hours.
In Theater
Bebe’s Kids
DIRECTED BY BRUCE W. SMITH
In Theater
HEAVY METAL
DIRECTED BY GERALD POTTERTON
At Home & In Theater
BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD DO AMERICA
DIRECTED BY MIKE JUDGE
In Theater
FANTASTIC PLANET
DIRECTED BY RENÉ LALOUX
In Theater
PERFECT BLUE
DIRECTED BY SATOSHI KON
In Theater
SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT
DIRECTED BY TREY PARKER
At Home & In Theater
DELTA SPACE MISSION
DIRECTED BY CALIN CAZAN & MIRCEA TOIA
Fern Silva Selects
Mar 4
“In these three vastly different films-where time and space linger between natural phenomena, science fiction, and social unrest-parallel motifs emerge, bringing context to the research for Rock Bottom Riser. As Carpenter’s The Fog rolls in, symbolizing the mythological formation of the United States and carrying the lies of society, sins of the past are revealed, forcing settlers to face the atrocities of their ancestors. Contact, adapted from the 1985 novel by Carl Sagan, revisits the politics of science and religion that Sagan took up via SETI research, while The Secret Life of Plants, opening with lava eruptions and ocean waves shot in Hawaii, ponders the emotional life of living organisms, and how they are affected by human intervention.”-Fern Silva
In Theater
ROCK BOTTOM RISER
DIRECTED BY FERN SILVA
In Theater
THE FOG
DIRECTED BY JOHN CARPENTER
In Theater
CONTACT
DIRECTED BY ROBERT ZEMECKIS
In Theater
THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS
DIRECTED BY WALON GREEN
John Early Selects
Mar 4
In Theater
MAPS TO THE STARS
DIRECTED BY DAVID CRONENBERG
LEFT BANK CINEMA
MAR 4
The pugnacious critics-turned-directors coming from Cahiers du Cinéma did much to shape the narrative of the Nouvelle Vague-naturally enough, given their background in culture journalism-but there was another cluster of filmmakers, no less important to mid-century French cinema, whose work has less often been looked at for signs of artistic affinity, argument, and general rapport. This is the gang often designated as the “Left Bank”, its leading lights Agnès Varda, Chris Marker, Jacques Demy, and Alain Resnais, now receiving their largest US group retrospective in many moons at Metrograph. Some defining characteristics jump out: where the Cahiers filmmakers were aesthetes coming from disparate political backgrounds, the Left Bank filmmakers tended to be left-identified and politically engaged in their work; and where the Cahiers filmmakers gravitated towards 19th-century literature, the Left Bank filmmakers responded to the “New Novel” of their time, and collaborated with associated authors-hence the inclusion in the series of films by Alain Robbe-Grillet and Marguerite Duras. The opportunity here is not to compare the Cahiers set to those of the Left Bank, but to see the currents of inspiration that carried between members of the group, and to reveal another side of the New Wave.
At Home & In Theater
A GRIN WITHOUT A CAT
DIRECTED BY CHRIS MARKER
At Home & In Theater
Cléo from 5 to 7
DIRECTED BY AGNÈS VARDA
At Home
EDEN AND AFTER
DIRECTED BY ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET
STREAMING SOON
In Theater
Hiroshima Mon Amour
DIRECTED BY ALAIN RESNAIS
In Theater
Jacquot de Nantes
DIRECTED BY AGNÈS VARDA
In Theater
Last Year at Marienbad
DIRECTED BY ALAIN RESNAIS
In Theater
Le Bonheur
DIRECTED BY AGNÈS VARDA
In Theater
Le Navire Night
DIRECTED BY MARGUERITE DURAS
At Home & In Theater
LEVEL FIVE
DIRECTED BY CHRIS MARKER
In Theater
LOLA
DIRECTED BY JACQUES DEMY
At Home & In Theater
Mélo
DIRECTED BY ALAIN RESNAIS
In Theater
Muriel, or the Time of Return
DIRECTED BY ALAIN RESNAIS
In Theater
Stavisky
DIRECTED BY ALAIN RESNAIS
In Theater
The Gleaners and I
DIRECTED BY AGNÈS VARDA
In Theater
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
DIRECTED BY JACQUES DEMY
In Theater
The Young Girls of Rochefort
DIRECTED BY JACQUES DEMY
In Theater
Une Chambre en Ville
DIRECTED BY JACQUES DEMY
In Theater
VAGABOND
DIRECTED BY AGNÈS VARDA
In Theater
EYES WITHOUT A FACE
DIRECTED BY GEORGE FRANJU
Playtime
MAR 5
Born from the fertile mind of puppetmaster Jim Henson, the Muppets have been entertaining audiences of all ages in one form or another since the mid-1950s, with a brand of absurdist comedy whose influences range from vaudeville to the ’60s counterculture. Shot to television stardom through their appearances on late night talk shows and Sesame Street, Kermit & Co. got their very own prime time slot starting in 1976, and after that there was only one medium left for this ensemble to conquer: the big screen, where they shone brighter than ever. Come see the Muppets as they were meant to be seen, with Miss Piggy projected 40 feet tall, and every “WOCKA WOCKA” ringing out from a state-of-the-art sound system.
In Theater
THE MUPPET MOVIE
DIRECTED BY JAMES FRAWLEY
In Theater
THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN
DIRECTED BY FRANK OZ
In Theater
THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER
DIRECTED BY JIM HENSON
METROGRAPH A TO Z
MAR 6
When Metrograph opened its doors in 2016, we did so with Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z, a way to introduce moviegoers to our particular take on cinema history. Now that our catalog is back, we are relaunching A-Z. Every four months, a new programmer will create their own idiosyncratic alphabet: one film per letter, neither canon nor anti-canon, but rather a selection of our favorite films that serve as life-changing revelations or enduring personal passions, and ultimately films of which Metrograph exists to spread the gospel. First up, Programmer-at-Large Nellie Killian takes us from A-M, starting with a double dose of pure cinema with Paul Sharits’s Apparent Motion and Jean Vigo’s L’Atalante and ending with Robert Mulligan’s pastoral swan song (and Reese Witherspoon’s debut!) The Man in the Moon.
In Theater
L’Atalante
DIRECTED BY JEAN VIGO
In Theater
Bitter Moon
DIRECTED BY ROMAN POLANSKI
In Theater
Charulata
DIRECTED BY SATYAJIT RAY
In Theater
Dodsworth
DIRECTED BY WILLIAM WYLER
In Theater
ÉL
DIRECTED BY LUIS BUÑUEL
In Theater
FROM THE EAST
DIRECTED BY CHANTAL AKERMAN
COMING SOON
In Theater
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
DIRECTED BY HOWARD HAWKS
In Theater
HUMAN DESIRE
DIRECTED BY FRITZ LANG
RUNS
At Home & In Theater
I’VE HEARD THE MERMAIDS SINGING
DIRECTED BY PATRICIA ROZEMA
In Theater
VIVE L’AMOUR
DIRECTED BY TSAI MING-LIANG
In Theater
YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER
DIRECTED BY KATE DOLAN
At Home
CATCALLS
DIRECTED BY KATE DOLAN
At Home
Wildwood, NJ
DIRECTED BY CAROL WEAKS CASSIDY & RUTH LEITMAN
At Home & In Theater
SATURDAY AFTERNOON CARTOONS
DIRECTED BY VARIOUS DIRS
COMING SOON
STAFF PICKS: KIM’S VIDEO
MAR 25
The Kim’s Video empire started out in an enterprising immigrant hustler’s East Village laundromat on Avenue A, a joint that ran a dodgy sideline renting VHS tapes out of cardboard boxes and laundry baskets. It became a legendary New York City institution-a discount film school, with outlets as far as exotic Jersey City and a multi-story flagship located in a former bathhouse on St. Mark’s Place, famous for cranky behind-the-counter attitudes, dismal wages, and a mind-boggling selection.
This month, former Kim’s employee and current Metrograph Editor-at-Large Nick Pinkerton selects two classics from his days behind the counter.
At Home & In Theater
A CAT IN THE BRAIN
DIRECTED BY LUCIO FULCI
In Theater
EATEN ALIVE
DIRECTED BY TOBE HOOPER