UW Cinematheque will host the Madison premieres of several new films this winter at 4070 Vilas Hall. Cosmopolis, David Cronenberg's futuristic drama starring Twilight's Robert Pattinson, will hit the screen Saturday, Jan. 19, and The Loneliest Planet, a minimalist account of a backpacking trip starring Gael Garcia Bernal, will be shown Friday, Feb. 22. Additional local premieres include Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters (Friday, Jan. 18), Juan of the Dead (Friday, Jan. 25) and Tchoupitoulas (Friday, April 5). These are just a few of the films on Cinematheque's spring 2013 calendar, which will be unveiled today.
Other highlights from the lineup include three rare films by John Ford, two examples of Shirley Clarke's provocative '60s cinema veritè and a retrospective of anime features from Japan's Studio Ghibli. The anime retrospective will showcase 14 films at the Chazen Museum of Art, from the Oscar-winning fantasy Spirited Away, in which a 10-year-old girl explores an alternate reality crawling with monsters and spirits (Sunday, Jan. 27), to the romantic drama Only Yesterday, which debuted in 1991 but was just released in North America (Sunday, Feb. 17).
UW Cinematheque will also continue two projects it began this fall: a look at the career of writer-director Preston Sturges and a journey into the wild world of 1960s Spaghetti Westerns, including Sergio Corbucci's politically charged game changer The Mercenary (Saturday, March 9, 4070 Vilas Hall) and Sergio Leone's Kurosawa-inspired masterpiece A Fistful of Dollars (Saturday, April 20, 4070 Vilas Hall).
The spring schedule has several other treats as well, including the Depression Era fantasy Stand Up and Cheer (Thursday, Feb. 28, Chazen Museum of Art), Miami Connection, a mind-boggling 1987 flick about a gang of motorcycle ninjas (Monday, Feb. 25, Union South's Marquee Theater) and a mini-fest sponsored by the UW's department of Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies, which will feature Cannes prizewinner Las Acacias (Saturday, Jan. 26, 4070 Vilas Hall) and Tabu, a tale of unrequited love, rock 'n' roll, blood diamonds and an alligator by Portuguese director Miguel Gomes (Friday, Jan. 25, 4070 Vilas Hall).
More details about each film is provided in UW Cinematheque's spring 2013 schedule.