Cinema that highlights the darker and grimmer aspects of human nature and the human condition, from Hollywood noir to arthouse miserabilism, is the focus of upcoming series boasting killer lineups. “Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair,” a global series organized by American Cinematheque, is coming to the Roxie Theater in San Francisco on Friday with a seven-day slate of movies from directors with a flair for gloom, doom and pessimism. The schedule:
June 5, 6:15 p.m.: “The Ear” (1970) — Filmmaker Karel Kachyna examines authoritarian power and state surveillance in this decades-banned Czech New Wave classic.
June 6, 8:45 p.m.: “Made in Hong Kong” (1997) — Romance, nihilism and dejection converge in filmmaker Fruit Chan’s modern Hong Kong coming-of-age story.
June 7, 4 p.m.: “Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles” (1975) — Filmmaker Chantal Akerman topped Sight and Sound’s 2022 list of the greatest films ever made with this monumental drama about the drab and lonely life of a Brussels widow.
June 8, 6 p.m.: “Black Girl” (1966) — Ousmane Sembene, the most world-renowned African director of the 20th century, follows a young Senegalese woman who moves to France to work for a rich white couple in this debut feature.
June 9, 8:10 p.m.: “The Plague Dogs” (1982) — Filmmaker Martin Rosen follows two dogs who escape from a cruel research laboratory in an unconventional animated adventure.
June 10, 8:10 p.m.: “Bad Education” (2004) — Pedro Almodovar addresses the effects of Franco-era religious instruction and sexual abuse in this noir melodrama centering on two longtime friends.
June 11, 6 p.m.: “The Turin Horse” (2011) — Cinema rarely gets bleaker than this drama from Hungary’s Bela Tarr which depicts endurance through a story of a father, his daughter and an exhausted equine. Visit roxie.com for more information.
John Alton, the master cinematographer credited with creating the dark and shadowy look of film noir in the late 1940s, is spotlighted in a two-night, four-film series at the Roxie today and Tuesday. The featured noir thrillers were selected by noir specialist and former Roxie programmer Elliot Lavine. All feature cinematography by Alton.
• June 1, 6 p.m.: “Raw Deal” (1948), directed by Anthony Mann, stars Dennis O’Keefe, Claire Trevor and Marsha Hunt.
• June 1, 8 p.m.: “The Big Combo” (1955), directed by Joseph H. Lewis, stars Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte and Jean Wallace.
• June 2, 6 p.m.: “Hollow Triumph” (1948), directed by Steve Sekely, stars Paul Henreid, Joan Bennett and John Qualen.
• June 2, 8 p.m.: “The Amazing Mr. X” (1948), directed by Bernard Vorhaus, stars Turhan Bey, Lynn Bari, and Cathy O’Donnell. Visit roxie.com.
The influence of film noir on French cinema is explored in “French Noir: From the Shadows Into the Light,” opening this week and continuing through August at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. The series features crime films and thrillers made in France from the 1930s through the Nouvelle Vague years of the late 1950s and beyond. It begins June 4 at 7 p.m. with “Bob le flambeur” (1956), Jean-Pierre Melville’s gangster film starring Roger Duchesne as an aging safecracker and gambler who lives by night, drives a big American car, and is plotting one last job: the heist of the Deauville casino. On June 6 at 6:30 p.m., it’s “Elevator to the Gallows,” Louis Malle’s Hitchcockian thriller starring Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet as a romantic couple plotting a murder. Screening on June 7 at 5 p.m. is “Breathless” (1960), Jean-Luc Godard’s New Wave groundbreaker starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as a young criminal enamored with Hollywood movie gangsters and Jean Seberg as his American girlfriend. Visit bampfa.org.
Icelandic Glaciological Society member Arni Kjartansson sits overlooking a glacier in Iceland in “Time and Water,” a film by Sara Dosa screening in San Rafael and San Francisco this week. (Andri Snær Magnason via Bay City News)
The melting of Iceland’s glaciers caused by climate change receives urgent and poignant consideration in “Time and Water,” filmmaker Sara Dosa’s contemplative and entrancing new documentary. It opens Thursday at the Smith Rafael Film Center and Friday at the Roxie Theater. Dosa and the film’s subject Andri Snær Magnason will appear at the Roxie on Saturday after the 6 p.m. show. The film examines drastic changes in Iceland’s icy landscapes, combining the material with human stories relating to land, home and loss. Magnason, an Icelandic poet and writer, is Dosa’s primary subject; the movie is structured around a video time capsule Magnason has created for posterity. The project includes writing a eulogy for a glacier declared dead due to rising temperatures. Magnason sadly notes that other glaciers, too, which have defined the landscape for millennia, could melt away. While the film lacks the romantic heartbeat of “Fire of Love,” Dosa’s Oscar-nominated documentary about two volcano scientists, it similarly features monumental and dramatic manifestations of nature and introduces captivating people with a passion for exploring. Drawing from Magnason’s archives, the film contains breathtaking scenes of ice formations, along with photos and videos of Magnason’s family. Magnason focuses on his grandparents, who photographed and cherished glaciers. Traditional songs and elfin folklore add to the site-specific charm. Everything comes together as a visually striking and stirringly thoughtful depiction of nature’s splendor and vulnerability. The film is also a compelling reminder of the need to preserve history and memory in these times when wonders that once seemed enduring are vanishing.