Please join Friends of the Detroit Film Theatre for
a strolling dinner to celebrate the Detroit Film Theatre's 40th Anniversary
January 11, 2014
Tickets are $150 ($67 tax deductible) and include:
- Free valet parking
- Open bar cocktail reception
- Strolling dinner
- Live music
- Gift Bags with books, t-shirts, buttons, DFT film passes
- Prize drawings every 10 minutes for DFT film passes, The Story of Film DVD set, DFT memberships, a chair in the DFT with your name on it (or dedicated to the person of your choice), even dinner with Elliot Wilhelm at the London Chop House!
- Admission to the critically acclaimed 1931 film Spanish Dracula.
- Reserved seating in the balcony with champagne
Also take a look at the special programming the DFT will present for their 40th anniversary weekend, January 10-11-12:
Celebrate forty years of the DFT with a jam-packed weekend of ten classic films specially priced at 1974 levels--$2. All the films playing January 10, 11, and 12 have been shown during the DFT's first four decades.
The Detroit Film Theatre series premiered in the Detroit Institute of Arts Auditorium in January of 1974, and has remained a vital part of this area’s film culture for four decades.
On the occasion of our 40th anniversary in 2014, we invite you to join us for a weekend of ten memorable films that we’ve shown over the years, beginning on January 10th with a special screening of our very first presentation, Claude Jutra’s haunting and exquisite 1971 Canadian classic, Mon Oncle Antoine.
To make the weekend even more of a celebration, all ten films will be shown at 1974 admission prices - $2.00 for all seats!
Friday, January 10 at 7:00 PM
MON ONCLE ANTOINE (Canada/1971—directed by Claude Jutra)
The very first film ever shown at DFT – in January of 1974 – Claude Jutra’s evocative portrait of a boy’s coming of age in wintry 1940s rural Quebec has been consistently cited by critics and scholars as the greatest Canadian film of all time. In French with English subtitles (104 min.)
Friday, January 10 at 9:30 PM
TALK TO HER (Spain/2002—directed by Pedro Almodóvar)
The 2002 Best Screenplay Oscar® went to Almadóvar’s masterpiece about a bond that develops between two men as they care for two female coma patients. A transcendent, romantic, breathtaking work. In Spanish with English subtitles. (122 min.)
Saturday, January 11 at 1:00 PM
MY LEFT FOOT (England/1989—directed by Jim Sheridan)
Daniel Day-Lewis’s stunning performance as Christy Brown, who became a gifted writer despite his debilitating cerebral palsy, is at the core of director Jim Sheridan’s inspiring film, co-starring Brenda Fricker and nominated for five Academy Awards®. (103 min.)
Saturday, January 11 at 4:00 PM
BURDEN OF DREAMS (USA/1982—directed by Les Blank)
For five years, Werner Herzog struggle to complete his dream project, Fitzcarraldo, the story of a obsessed man’s struggle to build an opera house in the Amazon jungle. Documentarian Les Blank’s chronicle of Herzog’s journey is both riveting and spectacular. (95 min.)
Saturday, January 11 at 7:00 PM
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Hong Kong/2000—directed by Wong Kar-wai)
Wong Kar-wai’s elegantly fractured portrait of love and longing in 1960s Hong Kong is one of the most visually breathtaking works of modern cinema. Christopher Doyle’s shimmering images coupled with Michael Galasso’s haunting music create a unique big-screen experience. In Cantonese and Shanghainese with English subtitles. (98 min.)
Saturday, January 11 at 9:30 PM
THE SPANISH DRACULA (USA/1931—directed by George Melford)
Filmed at night on the same sets as Lugosi’s Dracula, Melford’s Spanish-language version – featuring a completely different cast – is even stranger, more disturbing and stylized than its famous sibling. Fully restored, the survival of the Spanish Dracula is a cause for celebration. In Spanish with English subtitles. (104 min.)
Sunday, January 12 at 1:00 PM
RUSSIAN ARK (Russia/2002—directed by Alexander Sokurov)
Using cutting-edge digital technology and 867 actors, Russian director Alexander Sokurov redefined the possibilities of cinema with this vision of centuries of Russian history, filmed within the magnificent walls of the Hermitage Museum in Petersburg in one unbroken, 99-minute shot. In Russian with English subtitles.
Sunday, January 12 at 4:00 PM
TRISTANA (France/1970—directed by Luis Buñuel)
This masterpiece from the great surrealist director Luis Buñuel is the darkly comic, perversely erotic tale of a young orphaned woman (Catherine Deneuve) placed in the guardianship of respected aristocrat Don Lope (Fernando Rey) with troubling results. This is the recently restored, original cut, in Soanish with English subtitles. (95 min.)
Sunday, January 12 at 7:00 PM
EL NORTE (Guatemala/US/1983—directed by Gregory Nava)
A Guatemalan sister and brother dream of leaving poverty behind and starting a new life in the North (El Norte), but their journey to America is not what they imagined. A visually rich, dramatically overwhelming work that Roger Ebert called “The Grapes of Wrath for our time.” In K’iche, English and Spanish with English subtitles. (140 min.)
Sunday, January 12 at 9:45 PM
WAKE IN FRIGHT (Australia/1971—directed by Ted Kotcheff)
A modern cult classic of Australian cinema, Wake in Fright (originally shown at the DFT in a cut version called Outback) tells of a young schoolteacher plunged into a nightmarish five-day orgy of gambling, beer and kangaroo hunting. Paranoid and disturbing (and including actual hunting scenes), it was described by The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael: “There’s talent and intelligence in this original film. You come out with a sense of epic horror.” (109 min.)