Journeys from Berlin/1971

press release: USA | 1980 | 16mm | 125 min.

Director: Yvonne Rainer; Cast: Annette Michelson, Vito Acconci, Cynthia Beatt

To explore the ramifications of terrorism, renowned NYC-based avant-garde filmmaker Rainer employs an extended therapy session—in which an American woman speaks to a series of psychiatrists—to evoke the daily experiences of power and repression. Program notes from the Museum of Modern Art, who supplied the newly restored 16mm print for this screening, has described Journeys from Berlin as a “caustic, digressive, and at times funny meditation on psychoanalysis, violence, mass ornament, and mass hysteria, a film rich with non-sequiturs that ricochet from Rosalind Russell and Stonehenge to Leon Trotsky and Ulrike Meinhoff.” Preserved by The Museum of Modern Art with support from the Celeste Bartos Fund for Film Preservation.

Screenings mostly take place at 4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Avenue. Once-a-month Sunday afternoon screenings take place at the Chazen Museum of Art, 750 University Avenue. In accord with current UW Madison policies, masks are required for entry to our venues. All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public. Please visit our website for a complete listing of programs and descriptions from September 3 through December 18.