Internationally acclaimed artist Sean Scully will lecture on the legacy of painter Vincent Van Gogh, placing key paintings from the DIA’s exhibition Van Gogh in America into dialogue with his own artistic practice. As Scully will discuss, Van Gogh’s paintings were made in a time of great change not unlike our own, as artists were reeling from the onset of the twentieth century.

As Van Gogh faced the end of ruralism and the steady rise of industry, he worked to preserve the very idea of landscape. Revealing Van Gogh’s continued resonance for artists working today, Scully will ask what Van Gogh’s paintings might help us see about our own time. 

Sponsored by the Friends of Modern and Contemporary Art 

France/1981—directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix | 117 min.

French postman Jules is on the run across Paris—including a hair-raising, unforgettable motorcycle-and-moped chase through the Métro—hotly pursued by a drug dealer’s hit team, ruthless music pirates, and outnumbered police. And why? Because Jules has a secretly pirated recording by opera diva Cynthia Hawkins, the woman of his dreams (played by real-life American soprano Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez) whose major eccentricity is her “live performances only” policy.

A surprise smash upon its 1982 American release—including sold-out performances at the DFT—Beineix’s dazzling directing debut was a worldwide phenomenon, and singlehandedly launched the cinéma du look, an explosion of visually stunning, punk-inspired, super-cool French movies in the early ’80s. Celebrate the 40th anniversary of Diva’s U.S. release with this special 35mm screening—just as originally presented. 

In French and English with English subtitles.

“It’s about the joy of making movies. Every shot seems designed to delight the audience.” -Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

The Detroit Institute of Arts’ (DIA) auxiliary Friends of Art & Flowers welcomes Paul D. Orpello, CPH Director of Gardens and Horticulture at Hagley Museum and Library, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for it's annual Betsy Campbell Lecture on November 5, 2022. 

Join DIA Assistant Curator, Modern European Art, Dorota Chudzicka for a conversation with journalist Hugh Eakin as he discusses his book Picasso’s War: How Modern Art Came to America. This new book details the never-before-told story of how a single exhibition, years in the making, finally brought the 20th century’s most notorious artist U.S. acclaim, irrevocably changed American culture, and in doing so saved dozens of the twentieth century’s most enduring artworks from the Nazis.

Docent-led guided-gallery tours will be available, free of charge, after the conclusion of the program.  

Susie Ibarra is a Filipinx composer, percussionist, and sound artist. Her interdisciplinary practice spans formats, including performance, mobile sound-mapping applications, multi-channel audio installations, recording, and documentary.

Her compositions have been described as “calling up the movements of the human body; elsewhere it’s a landscape vanishing in the last light, or the path a waterway might trace” (New York Times). Her sound is “like no other’s, incorporating the unique percussion and musical approach of her Filipino heritage with her flowing jazz drum set style” (Modern Drummer Magazine). 

Commissioned by DIA for Asian American Heritage month and performed for Filipino American Heritage Month.

Join us for an afternoon celebrating martial arts as seen in the films of legendary director King Hu. Through epic martial arts skills and the magic of editing, Hu brought great subtlety and expressivity to his films and ultimately, the genre.

1:30 p.m. | Interactive: Pushing Hands Demonstration  

Detroit Tai Chi Group, led by Master Ching-Yu Meng, demonstrates the basic steps of pushing hands, a form of Tai Chi practice that emphasizes the principle of “softness overcoming hardness.” Audience members will be invited onstage to try the movements themselves.

2:20 p.m. | Talk: Raining in the Mountain – Art Aesthetics and Opposition

Tony Williams, professor of film studies from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale provides critical analysis of King Hu’s Raining in the Mountain as an art film on its own and in context with Hu’s other works.

3 p.m. | Film Screening: Raining in the Mountain

Taiwan/Hong Kong/1979—directed by King Hu | 120 minutes

During the Ming Dynasty, a Buddhist abbot, charged with protecting the sacred scroll of Tripitaka, prepares to name his successor. An aristocrat and a general arrive at his secluded mountaintop monastery promising to help in his search but are in fact scheming to secure the scroll for themselves. As they set about recommending corrupt successors, rival bands of martial artists lie in wait to steal the precious artifact; they soon transform the monastery into an epic battleground for the scroll, with each player caught in a web of betrayal.

Newly restored, this visually spectacular, grand-scale caper heist overflows with witty, jaw-dropping collisions of minds, fists and karma; Raining in the Mountain may be the peak of legendary director King Hu's (Touch of Zen, Dragon Inn) infusion of Buddhist spiritual principles into the legacy of pan-Asian action filmmaking. In Mandarin with English subtitles.
 

This program is made possible through partnerships with the DIA’s auxiliary Friends of Asian Arts and Cultures and Michigan Chinese Women Association, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Chicago, and is supported through a generous grant from the Freeman Foundation.

Returning to the DFT for the first time since its record-breaking sold-out shows in December of 2021, the all-new 2022 edition of CatVideoFest is a compilation of the latest and best cat videos culled from countless hours of unique submissions, animations, music videos, and internet powerhouses.

A joyous communal experience that surprises and charms (and who isn’t ready for that?) this annual favorite is once again available on the big screen. As always, the festival’s distributor contributes a portion of revenues for cats in need through partnerships with a variety of cat charities and shelters. (70 minutes) 

“Watching cat videos is good for you.” -The Wall Street Journal 
 

France/2021—directed by Mathieu Amalric | 97 minutes

As Clarisse, a woman on the run from her family for reasons that aren’t immediately clear, Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) brings another riveting characterization to the big screen. Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) is renowned internationally as one of France’s great contemporary actors. With Hold Me Tight (Serre moi fort) – his sixth and most ambitious feature as director – he’ll, at last, be known in America for his equally impressive work behind the camera.

This daringly structured portrait of a woman in crisis alternates between Clarisse’s adventures on the road and the struggles of her abandoned husband (Arieh Worthalter) as he tries to adapt to his new reality and the demands of caring for their children.

Amalric’s risky storytelling style refuses to tip its hand too early, keeping viewers unsure of whether they’re seeing a straightforward narrative or multiple states of mind until the final moments of this unpredictable, rewarding new work. Official Selection, Cannes Film Festival; Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, Lincoln Center. In French and German with English subtitles. 

“Dazzling! Proving that he can deliver a riveting screenplay, Amalric achieves something quite remarkable.” -Lee Marshall, Screen Daily 

Japan/1926—directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa | approximately 75 min.

This uniquely imaginative horror cult classic from the legendary Teinosuke Kinugasa (Gate of Hell) tells the story of a man who takes a job at an asylum in hopes of freeing his wife, who is believed to be imprisoned there. Thought to be lost for over four decades until a print was discovered in 1970, Kinugasa’s singular, avant-garde stunner contains thematic echoes of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari – but with a surreal, terrifying flavor all its own.

The silent A Page of Madness will be brought to vivid life with music by Little Bang Theory and benshi narration by Yamauchi Nanako performed in Japanese.

"A balletic musing on our subconscious nightmares, examining dream states in a way that is both beautiful and highly disturbing." – Nottingham Culture, BBC
 

USA/1994—directed by Ayoka Chenzira | 85 minutes

“A gorgeous clarion call for our young Black girls, heralding the creativity and confidence that is the pride of our culture.”  - Ava DuVernay 

In 1994, when independent filmmaker Ayoka Chenzira completed Alma’s Rainbow, distributors failed to “get” her glorious coming-of-age comedy-drama about the day-to-day aspirations and triumphs of three Black women living in Brooklyn.

Teenager Rainbow Gold (Victoria Gabrielle Platt) is entering womanhood and navigating experiences around standards of beauty, self-image, and the rights Black women have over their bodies. Rainbow, who attends parochial school, studies dance, and is just becoming aware of boys, lives with her strait-laced mother Alma Gold (Kim Weston-Moran), who runs a hair salon in their home. When Alma’s free-spirited sister Ruby (Mizan Kirby) arrives from Paris after a 10-year absence, the sisters clash over the “proper” direction for Rainbow’s life. 

Alma's Rainbow presents a multi-layered Black women’s world where the characters are eager to embrace life and love joyfully, while still wrestling with what it means to exercise their agency. The year’s most revelatory rediscovery has been beautifully restored by The Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation, and is presented by Julie Dash.

 "Nearly three decades after its initial release, Alma’s Rainbow is a revelation!”    -Stephen Saito, The Moveable Feast