Guerín season at Cinémathèque

The Japanese noir season at Melbourne Cinémathèque ended on a high tonight and, given the very cold and wet conditions, I was surprised by a very strong turn-out. I was a couple of minutes late and struggled to find a decent seat.

Starting next week, we have the highly anticipated Guerín season. Following is the official Melbourne Cinémathèque blurb:

Searching for Paradise Lost: The Films of José Luis Guerín
Screening at ACMI, June 17 –June 24

The Melbourne Cinémathèque is excited to present a season of films by highly acclaimed Spanish filmmaker Jose Luis Guerín.

Commencing June 17, this season of specially imported 35mm prints presents all the key works of Guerín’s fascinating career. Guerín has created a body of work that is intensely personal and highly film literate. Like the work of Chris Marker and Pedro Costa, his films are classifiably non-fiction, and yet they transcend the conventional definitions of the documentary form, exploring the spatial, temporal, geographic and mercurially quotidian qualities of the cinema. His latest film, In the City of Sylvia (2007) appeared in numerous 2007 “best of” lists and Guerín’s work has been the subject of recent retrospectives at the Harvard Film Archive and the BFI.

The season opens with Guerín’s latest and most celebrated opus, In the City of Sylvia (2007). Guerín’s portrait of Strasbourg is a lingering, romantic work that characteristically explores the themes of longing, unfulfilled desire and voyeuristic pleasure. Some Photos in the City of Sylvia (2007) is a companion piece to his feature film that “revisits” many of the situations, emotions and places of its fictionalized counterpart. The season also includes three films that explore time, past, film history and environments forever gone: Tren de Sombras (1997), Work in Progress (2001) and his homage to the world of John Ford, Innisfree (1990). Screening as follows:

Wednesday June 17

• 7.00pm In the City of Sylvia (2007)
• 8.35pm Some Photos in the City of Sylvia (2007)
• 9.50pm Tren De Sombras (1997)

Wedneday June 24

• 7.00pm Work in Progress (2001)
• 9.15pm Innisfree (1990)

FURTHER INFORMATION about Melbourne Cinémathèque and 2009 program details please visit http://www.melbournecinematheque.org/