This week the Brattle Theatre shows an infamous film by one of cinema’s original provocateurs — Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel. His “Viridiana” (1962), in a restoration made for today’s 4K digital projectors, screens Friday through Tuesday. It won the Palme d’Or at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival and was immediately denounced by the Vatican and banned in Franco’s Spain, where authorities attempted to burn the negatives (it wasn’t shown there until after Franco’s death in 1977). It’s not hard to see why: the wildly irreverent story involves an idealistic young nun (Buñuel regular Silvia Pinal) who, after inheriting her lascivious uncle’s estate, attempts to turn it into a haven for vagabonds and outcasts, only to lose control as they turn the grounds into a home for debauchery. Buñuel sought controversy from his 1929 incendiary short “Un Chien Andalou” (co-directed by Salvador Dalí) to such molotovs as “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” (1972) and “That Obscure Object of Desire” (1977). “Viridiana” is a masterpiece of outrage, a middle finger toward the ruling class, about which Buñuel reportedly quipped “I didn’t deliberately set out to be blasphemous, but then Pope John XXIII is a better judge of such things than I am.”
The Harvard Film Archive reopens its doors this weekend with a new “From the Collection” series, featuring vintage 35mm prints from three Italian masters: Michelangelo Antonioni, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Ermanno Olmi. The series begins Saturday with two films by Olmi, who is perhaps the least known of the three directors (at least stateside), but by no means the least talented. In “Il Posto” (1961), a young man takes his first job in an office building in Milan and finds himself among middle-aged white-collar workers who don’t have any better sense of what they’re doing with their lives than he does with his own. “The Fiancés” (1963), tells of a machinist who learns to appreciate his girlfriend only once he’s separated from her by a job in a remote factory. In both films, Olmi epitomizes the late Italian neorealist style, centered on the working class and typically filmed on location. He casts a satirical eye toward the drudgery of work without losing affection for his characters. “From the Collection” continues through February.
Few names in contemporary Chinese cinema loom larger than Zhang Yimou, who made his mark during the international film boom of the 1990s. On Monday the Brattle, in association with STArt Film Studio, shows new digital restoration of “Ju Dou” (1990), the film that put Zhang on the global radar. Gong Li plays Ju Dou, the mail-order bride of the cruel textile magnate Jinshan in rural 1920s China. She has an affair with her husband’s impoverished nephew, and the two sire a child (while keeping his true parentage a secret). The young couple’s prayers are seemingly answered when Jinshan is paralyzed, allowing them to live openly in their own home — at least until their son is old enough to understand the concept of revenge. As with Zhang’s “Raise the Red Lantern” (1991) and “To Live” (1994), “Ju Dou” is understated and sumptuous. Vats of dye and drying fabrics in the textile mill color every scene. “Ju Dou” was the first Chinese film nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, and a must for any lover of international film.
Belmont World Film returns to the Brattle on Tuesday with its annual festival of family features and shorts. Animated with stop-motion and paper cutouts, “The Songbirds’ Secret” (2025) tells of a young girl who makes an archaeological discovery while visiting her grandparents’ farm in the French countryside. The young protagonist of the German live-action feature “Greetings from Mars” (2024) imaginatively transforms his own stay in the country into an expedition to the Red Planet. The day’s programming is rounded out by short films. One is “Pet Projects” (for viewers aged 3-8). The other is “A Different Lens” (for ages 8-12). The Festival runs from Saturday Jan. 17 through Monday Jan. 25, with additional screenings at West Newton Cinema and Arlington’s Regent Theatre; for the complete schedule, visit Belmont World Film’s website.
Tuesday marks what would have been the 80th birthday of legendary filmmaker David Lynch. Cambridge’s cinemas will be paying tribute. On Monday night, the Brattle has Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” (1986), in which Kyle MacLachlan uncovers the sinister secrets of his hometown manifested in an unhinged Dennis Hopper. The homage continues at the Brattle on Tuesday with a double feature of Lynch’s debut, “Eraserhead” (1977), and his nightmare, “Inland Empire” (2006). Also on Tuesday, the Kendall Square Cinema screens arguably Lynch’s finest, the LA neo-noir “Mulholland Dr.” (2001). All four selections are, to quote “Twin Peaks,” “both wonderful and strange.”
On Wednesday, the Kendall turns its Filmmaker Focus on the genre-hopping maverick Sam Raimi (perhaps timed to his new horror comedy “Send Help” which opens later this month). Raimi’s cult classic “Army of Darkness” (1992) is the third entry in his landmark “Evil Dead” trilogy, but don’t worry if you haven’t seen the first two. It is worth watching by itself. “Darkness” opens with Bruce Campbell’s hapless demon-slayer Ash Williams transported to the Middle Ages, armed with only his 1973 Oldsmobile and his prosthetic chainsaw hand. To get home Ash must recover the Necronomicon Ex Mortis, the legendary “book of the dead.” When he fails to correctly pronounce its incantations (“Klaatu, barada … necktie?”), he unleashes yet another legion of marauding ghouls. “Army of Darkness” melds the sword-and-sorcery epics of stop-motion wizard Ray Harryhausen with the slapstick comedy of the Three Stooges. It is packed with one-liners which will immediately enter your daily lexicon. All together now: Hail to the king, baby.
Oscar Goff is a writer and film critic based in Somerville. He is film editor and senior critic for the Boston Hassle and his work has appeared in the monthly Boston Compass newspaper and publications such as WBUR’s The ARTery and iHeartNoise. He is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, and the Online Film Critics Society.
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.