James Whale, Frankenstein, 1931 (still); image: courtesy PHOTOFEST
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (May 1, 2019) — The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) announces the ninth season of Modern Cinema featuring Haunted! Gothic Tales by Women, a film series exploring the dynamic interactions between cinema’s past and present. This summer’s Modern Cinema presentation will feature films inspired by gothic tales written by women and spans 80 years of filmmaking. From July 17 to August 31, moviegoers can indulge their dark side in SFMOMA’s Phyllis Wattis Theater while taking advantage of the museum’s extended summer hours every Thursday and Saturday evening until 9 p.m. SFMOMA will collaborate with the San Francisco Public Library on special features and speakers connecting the films and local authors.
“The gothic tale has been associated with women writers since the dawn of the genre as a creative way to explore and provide perspective and agency around social themes,” said Gina Basso, SFMOMA manager of film programs. “Since so many of these films begin with literary sources, what a perfect opportunity to partner with the San Francisco Public Library.”
While showcasing cinema’s most recognized and celebrated gothic tales, Haunted! also highlights the extraordinary contributions made by women writers using the genre as a framework for storytelling across literature and screenwriting. Films in the series are adapted from the celebrated literary works of the Brontë sisters, Shirley Jackson, Harper Lee, Daphne du Maurier, Toni Morrison, Anne Rice, Mary Shelley and more.
“A pervasive thread running through the narratives presented in this series reveal the sinister mechanisms with which the mind and the body can be used as sites for power and oppression. The gothic genre is all about the return of repressed traumas, memories and desires and plays upon fears of the unknown — an old house, a hidden attic, a dark forest or a stranger — and suggests deeper anxieties around race, gender, class and sexuality. The stories also demonstrate an array of other influences such as thrillers, fairy tales, romance, suspense and horror,” added Basso.
Haunted! offers classic films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca, Robert Wise’s The Haunting and Robert Mulligan’s To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as newer selections to the film canon such as Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook, Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden. On a day devoted to cinematic interpretations of works by the Brontë sisters, visitors can compare and contrast the original William Wyler version of Wuthering Heights with Andrea Arnold’s contemporary version and conclude with Cary Fukunaga’s recent Jane Eyre. International selections are also highly represented in the Haunted! series with features including Nobuhiko Obayashi’s surreal Hausu, Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock, Jean Cocteau’s darkly hued fairytale vision of Beauty and the Beast, Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now and a rare screening of Tracey Moffatt’s suite of ghost stories, beDevil, the first film written and directed by an Australian Aboriginal woman.
Haunted! coincides with Suzanne Lacy: We are Here, the first full retrospective of the artist’s work presented in collaboration with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA). Lacy, a pioneer of socially engaged art, creates work that brings attention to the societal challenges faced by women. Documentation of her performance piece Construction of a Novel Frankenstein (1975) is on view as part of the exhibition and examines the tale of Frankenstein in relation to the personal life of author Mary Shelley. Audiences will also find themes associated with Dracula and vampires in Lacy’s Under My Skin: A True-Life Story (1975/1977) and Autobiography of a Young Vampire (1974–75). The pairing of Haunted! with We are Here offers visitors additional context to each medium.
A full list of screenings follows below. More information for this series including descriptions of individual films will be available on May 15, 2019 at sfmoma.org.
WEEK ONE
Thursday, July 18
7:00 p.m. Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931, 71 minutes, USA)
Saturday, July 20
3:30 p.m. The Company of Wolves (Neil Jordan, 1984, 94 minutes, UK)
6:30 p.m. Interview with a Vampire (Neil Jordan, 1994, 122 minutes, USA)
WEEK TWO
Thursday, July 25
7:00 p.m. The Haunting (Robert Wise, 1963, 114 minutes, UK)
Saturday, July 27
1:00 p.m. Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939, 103 minutes, USA)
3:30 p.m. Wuthering Heights (Andrea Arnold, 2011, 129 minutes, UK)
6:45 p.m. Jane Eyre (Cary Fukunaga, 2011, 120 minutes, USA and UK)
WEEK THREE
Thursday, August 1
7:00 p.m. Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 1987, 95 minutes, USA)
Saturday, August 3
7:00 p.m. Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975, 115 minutes, Australia)
WEEK FOUR
Thursday, August 8
7:00 p.m. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014, 101 minutes, USA)
Saturday, August 10
1:00 p.m. To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962, 129 minutes, USA)
4:30 p.m. Beloved (Jonathan Demme, 1998, 172 minutes, USA)
WEEK FIVE
Thursday, August 15
6:00 p.m. Reflections in a Golden Eye (John Huston, 1967, 108 minutes, USA)
8:30 p.m. A Reflection of Fear (William A. Fraker, 1973, 89 minutes, USA)
Saturday, August 17
1:00 p.m. La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) (Jean Cocteau, 1946, 93 minutes, France)
3:30 p.m. beDevil (Tracey Moffatt, 1993, 90 minutes, Australia)
7:00 p.m. Hausu (House) (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977, 88 minutes, Japan)
WEEK SIX
Thursday, August 22
7:00 p.m. The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016, 145 minutes, South Korea)
Saturday, August 24
3:45 p.m. Good Manners (As Boas Maneiras) (Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra, 2018, 135 minutes,
Brazil)
7:00 p.m. The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014, 94 minutes, Australia)
WEEK SEVEN
Thursday, August 22
7:00 p.m. Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973, 110 minutes, UK and Italy)
Saturday, August 24
1:00 p.m. Dragonwyck (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1946, 103 minutes, USA)
3:30 p.m. The Woman in Black (James Watkins, 2012, 95 minutes, UK, USA,
Sweden and Canada)
6:00 p.m. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940, 130 minutes, USA)
Summer Hours
May 19 through September 2: Open Sunday–Tuesday and Friday 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Thursday and Saturday 10 a.m.–9 p.m. Closed Wednesday.
Tickets and Information
SFMOMA Member tickets and general public tickets will be available online and onsite on May 28, 2019.
SFMOMA Member tickets will be available for a $5 discount through the first day of the series, then they will return to the member price of $10.
General public tickets for SFMOMA screenings are $12 and will be available online, or onsite at SFMOMA during regular business hours. Modern Cinema tickets do not include admission to SFMOMA galleries. Ticket-holders for Modern Cinema should enter through the museum’s Joyce and Larry Stupski Entrance on Minna Street (between Third and New Montgomery Streets). For information on previous Modern Cinema series click here.
Supporters
Modern Cinema’s Founding Supporters are Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein. Support is provided by Nion McEvoy and the Susan Wildberg Morgenstein Fund.
About the Phyllis Wattis Theater at SFMOMA
As part of the opening of the expanded SFMOMA in May 2016, the Phyllis Wattis Theater also received a major renovation and system update creating one of the most enjoyable places to see film in the Bay Area. A state-of-the-art NEC digital projector offers Modern Cinema the ability to present films on a 24 x 12-foot screen with the capacity to show aspect ratios of 1:37, 1:66, 1:85 and 2:39. The Wattis Theater can also screen films via Kinoton projectors in 16 and 35mm formats. Because sound is integral to the cinematic experience, a Meyer Sound Cinema Surround System enhances the nuance and precision intended by filmmakers. Comfortable seating with cup holders round out the Wattis Theater experience.