Last winter at Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center, I saw Claude Lanzmann's 10-hour Holocaust documentary Shoah as it ought to be seen: in a theater with strangers, over the course of one long, sorrowful, uncomfortable day. You won't get exactly that experience next month, when UW's Cinematheque screens the landmark 1985 film on consecutive Sundays, but it's still a must-see.
Shoah is one of many tantalizing offerings coming from Cinematheque, whose fall series include films directed by Nicholas Ray, among them Rebel Without a Cause; Taiwanese classics; Italian comedies starring Totò; and films made, or chosen, by the not-heralded-enough Hollywood director Joe Dante, who hosts a Gremlins screening Nov. 4.
In other news, this fall Cinematheque expands beyond the cramped confines of 4070 Vilas Hall to host screenings in Union South's Marquee Theater and the auditorium at the new Chazen Museum of Art. For complete details, visit cinema.wisc.edu.
