SFMOMA | Exhibitions + Events | Calendar | Museum Highs Museum Lows

January 05 - January 28, 2010
Museum Highs Museum Lows Phyllis Wattis Theater Following on the heels of last year's Vegas Highs, Vegas Lows film series, we turn our focus on the museum as a cinematic site for reverie, memory, introspection, and deception. The space of the museum lends itself perfectly to cinema — labyrinthian sprawls, dramatic entrances, long hallways, and countless gallery nooks where a camera can capture the intersection of history and contemporary life against which plots unfold. As a set for campy thrillers or epic histories, the museum functions not only as a luxurious, colorful backdrop, but also becomes a character itself. Here are some high points, including lows that became highs over time.

Past

Rocky John G. Avildsen, 1976, 119 min., 35mm

This 1970s classic follows its title character, Rocky Balboa, a struggling small-time boxer, as he makes a go at the big time. When given a chance at a professional fight with…

Buy tickets Russian Ark Alexander Sokurov, 2002, 96 min., 35mm In Russian with English subtitles.

Considered Sokurov's finest film, Russian Ark tells a three-hundred-year Russian history within the confines of the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Renowned for…

Buy tickets How to Steal a Million William Wyler, 1966, 123 min., 35mm

In this museum heist film with a twist, Nicole must steal Cellini's Venus from a prestigious Paris museum to avoid its being revealed as a forgery made by her grandfather. She is…

Buy tickets Dressed to Kill Brian De Palma, 1980, 105 min., 35mm

De Palma's film weaves a macabre tapestry of horror, mystery, and suspense centered around the brutal murder of a sexually frustrated New York City housewife (Angie Dickinson)…

Film Series

Past