The Silent Clown: Max Linder and Charlie Chaplin

28 June – 13 July 2008
Max Linder, cinema’s first great comedian, will be celebrated in a special program of silent film with live musical accompaniment on the Gallery’s Wurlitzer organ. Appearing in over 500 films, Linder created a pioneering screen persona as the mischievous dandy who manages to somehow avoid catastrophe. Less widely known than his counterparts in the United States, Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, the charismatic Linder influenced a host of screen actors, with Chaplin even citing him as his mentor. The Australian Cinémathèque’s program of Linder classics will be complimented by a selection of Chaplin films highlighting the indelible influence of Linder on American silent comedy.

Picasso and his collection

13 June - 13 September 2008
The Australian Cinémathèque presents an extensive program of films exploring Pablo Picasso’s relationship to cinema, including important films and documentaries capturing the artist’s working methods and films exploring the themes and historical events that shaped his life and practice. The program also features documentaries and films relating to the artists whose work Picasso collected and prominent figures from his circle of friends. Highlights include Le Mystère Picasso (The Mystery of Picasso) 1955 by Henri-Georges Clouzot. For this extraordinary document of the artist's working method, Picasso created 20 original works ranging from sketches filmed in real time to oil paintings filmed using stop-motion animation. The film has been declared a national treasure by the French government. The program also features Jean Cocteau’s acclaimed ‘Orphic Trilogy’ and Salvador Dalì’s remarkable collaborations with director Luis Buñuel.