Philadelphia Monthly Arts Round-Up: January 2023

BY ARTA BARZANJI

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With the arrival of a new calendar year comes a fresh year of film programming and new adventures in cinema. Amidst heated discussions about whether AI-generated art is truly art or not, we can renew our faith in art as a mode of human communication, a way of thinking, and a distinct strain of expressing human emotions as we look back at the history of film and look ahead to its future in the dimly lit temples of the seventh art we call movie theaters.

Highlights of this month’s screenings in Philadelphia include the Film Society’s new series based on the recently released 2022 Sight and Sound Best Films of All Time Poll, with films like Yi Yi and A Man Escaped, and Lightbox Film Center’s screening of a new restoration of The Draughtsman’s Contract.

Tuesday, January 17, 2023, at 7 PM

A Clockwork Orange

Still from A Clockwork Orange. Courtesy of Slant Magazine

Stanley Kubrick’s cult classic was my first introduction to cinema as art when I was 15 years old and saw snippets of the iconic opening of the film on TV, with the camera tracking back from Malcolm McDowell’s heavily made-up face as he sips on a glass of milk. It was love at first sight, and it would be no exaggeration to say watching the film changed the course of my life. Beyond the surface violence of the story (for which the film was banned in the UK for years), it was the powerful voice of Kubrick’s mise-en-scène that captured my imagination and does so to this day. 

Cost: $7

Ritz Five  — 214 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19106

RSVP

Thursday, January 19, 2023, at 7 PM

Life After the Gunshots

Image from Life After the Gunshots. Courtesy of Scribe Video Center 

Life After the Gunshots is a documentary that follows Joseph Richardson, a university researcher who teamed up with violence intervention worker Che Bullock and initiated a unique project in Washington D.C. to engage with young Black men who have survived gun violence. 

Cost: Free

Scribe Video Center  — 3908 Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19104

RSVP

Sunday, January 22, 2023 at 5:30 PM

A Man Escaped 

Still from A Man Escaped. Courtesy of Letterboxd.

Few filmmakers have had as much influence on arthouse cinema as Robert Bresson, whose films embody a seemingly contradictory blend of asceticism and corporeality. This rare blend of a spiritual sensibility with a thoroughly materialist approach resulted in one of the most singular bodies of work by any filmmaker of the past 100 years. A Man Escaped, which follows a French Resistance fighter’s attempts at escaping from a Nazi prison, is one of Bresson’s most accessible films and a great point of entry into the master’s fascinating oeuvre.

Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Student, $12 Senior, $10 Children (12 and under)

Philadelphia Film Center  — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102

RSVP

Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 7 PM

The Earrings of Madame de…

Still from The Earrings of Madame de…. Courtesy of Philadelphia Film Society.

German filmmaker Max Ophüls directed a string of late-period masterpieces between 1950 to 1955 in France, the crown jewel of which might just be The Earrings of Madame de…. The journey of a pair of diamond earrings in the aristocratic circles of Paris is the propeller for this story of love and tragedy, which features a career-best performance from the sublime Danielle Darrieux, as well as stellar performances from Charles Boyer and the Italian Neorealist director, Vittorio De Sica.

Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Students, $12 Seniors, $10 Children (12 and under)

Philadelphia Film Center  — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102

RSVP

Thursday, January 26, 2023 at 7 PM

On the Waterfront 

Still from On the Waterfront. Courtesy of IndieWire.

Marlon Brando’s most iconic performance (until The Godfather came along) was as the dock worker/amateur fighter Terry Malloy in this classic of American cinema by director Elia Kazan. Both Kazan and Brando came out of the world of theater and the famous Actors Studio (the former as a founder, the latter as an acting student), and their collaborations on the silver screen retained a firm focus on performance as the central element of their films while evolving screen acting toward a more nuanced style of performance that would further evolve in the 60’s and 70’s. 

Cost: $13.50 General Admission, $8 BMFI Members, $11 Seniors/Students, $9 children

Bryn Mawr Film Institute  — 824 W. Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA

RSVP

Friday, January 27, 2023 at 7 PM

The Draughtsman’s Contract

Still from The Draughtsman’s Contract. Courtesy of Film Forum.

As part of its ongoing “Louis Bluver’s Arthouse Revisited” series, Lightbox Film Center is presenting a new 4K restoration of the singular (and controversial) British filmmaker, Peter Greenaway. The director’s penchant for maximalist style is already apparent in his 17th-century-set debut feature, which gives the stylized account of a young draughtsman hired by an aristocratic woman to sketch her husband’s mansion. Curious details that gradually emerge through these sketches, however, are a surprise to the character and audience alike.

Cost: $10 General Admission, $8 Students/Seniors, Free for Members/UArts Students/UArts Faculty & Staff

Lightbox Film Center  — 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147

RSVP

Saturday, January 28, 2023 at 7 PM

The Girl in the Bikini

Still from The Girl in the Bikini. Courtesy of Lightbox.

The Lightbox Film Center teams up with Secret Cinema to bring an English-dubbed 35mm print of Bridgit Bardo’s second ever film appearance. The initial premise is that of a coastal treasure hunt by two men, which turns out to be somewhat of a MacGuffin, as the true treasure might in fact be the beautiful daughter of the local lighthouse keeper, played by none other than Bardot. 

Cost: $10 General Admission, $8 Students/Seniors, Free for Members/UArts Students/UArts Faculty & Staff

Lightbox Film Center  — 401 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147

RSVP

MORE EVENTS:

Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 7 PM

Derek Baily’s “On The Edge” 

Cost: $10 General Admission, $8 Student/Artist/In need

University Lutheran Church — 3637 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19104

Friday, January 20, 2023 at 6 PM

124th Annual Adult Student Exhibition Virtual Awards Ceremony

Cost: Free

Online

Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at 7 PM

Barry Lyndon

Cost: $7

Ritz 5 — 214 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19106

Saturday, January 28, 2023 at 7 PM

The Leopard

Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Student, $12 Senior, $10 Children (12 and under)

Philadelphia Film Center  — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102

Sunday, January 29, 2023 at 3 PM

Yi Yi

Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Student, $12 Senior, $10 Children (12 and under)

Philadelphia Film Center  — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102

Sunday January 29, 2023 at 6:30 PM
Ugetsu

Cost: $14 General Admission, $13 Student, $12 Senior, $10 Children (12 and under)

Philadelphia Film Center  — 1412 Chestnut St Philadelphia, PA 19102

Monday, January 30, 2023 at 12 PM

Film History Discussion Series: The River

Cost (for the whole series): $200 for members, $265 for non-members; no “a la carte” enrollment.

Bryn Mawr Film Institute  — 824 W. Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA

*Featured Image: Image of an audience at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute. Courtesy of Cole Sansom and the Haverford College Office of Communications.

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Arta Barzanji is an Iranian cinephile, writer, filmmaker, and a current MFA candidate in Film and Media Arts at Temple University. His work, encompassing experimental, narrative, and documentary modes, deals directly with the cinema itself, exploring the relationship between the viewer and the screen while engaging with the works of filmmakers as diverse as Stan Brakhage, Orson Welles, Kamran Shirdel, and Malcolm Le Grice. Arta was a 2022 participant of the Young Critics Workshop, and his critical writings and translations have appeared both in Farsi and English.

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