The Empire Strikes Back

Studio 5

Irvin Kershner - USA – 1980 – fiction - colour – 124’ – OV – NL OND – STT FR

Usually acknowledged as the best in George Lucas’s Star War series, Irvin (A Fine Madness, The Eyes of Laura Mars) Kershner’s film opts for the spectacular elements in a screenplay that exploits the ambivalence in the battle between good and evil, highlighted by the relationship between Luke Skywalker and Dark Vader.
The film is as action-packed as the first in the series, the special effects are better, and the characters’ psychology is further developed and the atmosphere more sombre.

With : Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher

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'Odds Against Tomorrow' - Blue notes and crime movies

Studio 5

Robert Wise - USA – 1959 – fictie / fiction – zwart-wit / n&b – 95’ – OV / VO – NL OND / STT FR (New print)

« A pavane for the death of two losers » is how Jacques Lourcelles described this dusky Robert Wise thriller about the preparations for a bank heist that go horribly wrong. Produced by Harry Belafonte, who plays the lead alongside Robert Ryan, and written under a false name by the blacklisted Abraham Polonsky, Odds Against Tomorrow is a breathless thriller as well as an antiracist tract splendidly served by the scintillating score written by the Modern Jazz Quartet’s pianist John Lewis.

With: Harry Bellafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters

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'The reckless moment'

Studio 5

Rail 7: Studio 5 Movies

Max Ophuls - USA – 1949 – fiction – black&white – 81’ – OV – STT FR / NL

Max Ophuls delves into the American “noir” genre for a sombre and intense movie. Joan Bennett (Fritz Lang’s femme fatale in The Woman In The Window and Scarlet Street) is a mother whose attraction for a shady character brings nothing but disaster: he dies accidentally; she hides the corpse and falls into the hands of a strange blackmailer. Ophuls at his best in a tale of suspense and power play, with many unexpected twists.

With: James Mason, Joan Bennett

Coprod. Flagey / Cinematek

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'Kuroi Ame'

Studio 5

Rail 7: Studio 5 Movies

Shohei Imamura - J – 1989 – fiction – black&white - 122’ – OV - STT FR / NL

Rare film to tackle the subject of the atomic bombing of Japan at the end of World War Two. In his adaptation of Masuji Ibuse’s novel, Shohei Imamura (Ballad of Narayama’s) chose to keep a thematic and aesthetic distance. The film is austere, following the last few years in the lies of a family of Hiroshima survivors. Beautiful black-and-white camerawork in an unusual and affecting work.

'Pluie noire'

With: Kazuo Katimura, Estuko Ichihara

Flagey / Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique

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