CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA and More Among Moving Image Curators' Choice Films, Screening 1/1-10

Just as critics and cinephiles are unveiling their "Best of 2015" lists, Museum of the Moving Image has announced the eight titles selected for its annual Curators' Choice series. The films will be shown January 1 through 10, 2016, in the Museum's majestic Sumner M. Redstone Theater.

Selected by Chief Curator David Schwartz and Associate Film Curator Eric Hynes, the films are Hou Hsiao-hsien's The Assassin, Olivier Assayas's Clouds of Sils Maria, Laurie Anderson's Heart of a Dog, Stevan Riley's Listen to Me Marlon, Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence, John Magary's The Mend, Johnnie To's Office (presented in 3-D), and Abderrahmane Sissako's Timbuktu.

Director John Magary will appear in person with The Mend on January 2, and Joshua Oppenheimer will appear with The Look of Silence, which just won a Gotham Award for Best Documentary, on January 10.

Chief Curator David Schwartz said: "Astonishing images abound in this annual survey of some of the year's best films, including several reinventions of familiar genres. Hou Hsiao-hsien's jaw-droppingly beautiful and long-awaited martial arts film The Assassin blends exquisite interior tableaux and lush landscapes. Clouds of Sils Maria, largely set in a remote location in the Swiss Alps. is an atmospheric and beautiful drama, set in the world of theater and film, with strong, layered performances by Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart. And Johnnie To's thoroughly delightful Office tackles the recent economic crisis in the guise of a candy-colored musical. Spellbinding visual beauty is also on view, perhaps surprisingly, in two politically astute films that deal with political repression and terror: Abderrahmane Sissako's all-too-timely Timbuktu about Jihadist terror in Mali, and Joshua Oppenheimer's staggeringly powerful documentary The Look of Silence. Other one-of-a-kind films round out the selection: a portrait of Marlon Brando made with an extensive collection of private audiotapes, John Magary's vivid and wildly emotional independent drama The Mend, and Laurie Anderson's deeply personal yet universal The Heart of a Dog."

Tickets for each film are $12 ($9 seniors and students / free for Museum members at the Film Lover level and above). Tickets include same-day admission to the Museum's galleries. Advance tickets are available online.

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SCHEDULE FOR 'CURATORS' CHOICE,' JAN. 1-10, 2016:

All screenings take place at Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue in Astoria, New York. Tickets are $12 adults ($9 seniors and students / $6 children 3-12) and free for Museum members at the Film Lover level and above. Advance tickets are available online at movingimage.us. Ticket purchase includes same-day admission to the Museum's galleries.

The Assassin (Nie yin niang)
FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien. 2015, 105 mins. DCP. With Shu Qi, Chang Chen, Satoshi Tsumabuki. Living in the countryside since she was abducted during her childhood, Yinniang has become an unrivaled martial arts master. She is sent to kill her cousin, a military leader and a noble during the declining years of the ninth century Tang Dynasty. Hou Hsiao-hsien's first film in seven years is a breathtakingly beautiful work, its stately rhythms punctuated by eruptions of dazzling fight scenes.

Timbuktu
SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 2:00 P.M.
Dir. Abderrahmane Sissako. 2014, 97 mins. DCP. With Ibrahim Ahmed, Abel Jafri, Toulou Kiki. The peaceful lives of Mali villagers living in the dunes near Timbuktu are disrupted by the oppressive strictures imposed by Jihadists who have banned music, cigarettes, laughter, and even soccer. All too timely, Sissako's beautifully observed and devastating film combines gentle humanism with sharp social satire.

The Mend
With John Magary in person
SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 4:30 P.M.
Dir. John Magary. 2014, 111 mins. DCP. With Josh Lucas, Stephen Plunkett, Mickey Sumner. Among the most distinctive American debuts in years, John Magary's The Mend follows a mismatched yin-yang pair of New York brothers, loose cannon Mat (Lucas) and put-upon Alan (Plunkett) as they stagger dimly towards some understanding of love, women, masculinity, and brotherhood. From Lucas's mesmerizingly unkempt charisma to a bracingly unpredictable score, this Gotham Award-nominated film careens along to a rhythm and tone entirely of its own devising.

Heart of a Dog
SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. Laurie Anderson. 2015, 75 mins. DCP. A meditation on life, loss, memory, and time, Laurie Anderson's deeply personal, free-flowing essay film was inspired, among other things, by the death of her beloved dog Lolabelle and of her husband Lou Reed. Commissioned as a short film, Heart of a Dog grew organically into a one-of-a-kind film and a perfect expression of Anderson's wry, poetic sensibility.

Clouds of Sils Maria
SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2:00 P.M.
Dir. Olivier Assayas. 2014, 123 mins. With Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloe Grace Moretz. Maria Enders (Binoche) is a renowned actress at the peak of her career. But when she's cast opposite a young Hollywood starlet with a penchant for SCANDAL (Moretz) in a new production of the play that first made her famous, Maria must come to terms with what it means to be a middle-aged actress in a youth-obsessed industry. Retreating high into the mountains with her personal assistant (Stewart), Maria confronts her personal demons and prepares for the most important role of her life. This latest film from acclaimed French director Oliver Assayas (Summer Hours) is propelled by tour-de-force performances from Binoche and especially Stewart, who was the first-ever American to win France's César acting award, and chosen as the Best Supporting Actress of 2015 by the New York Film Critics Circle for this career breakthrough.

Office (Hua li shang ban zu)
SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 4:30 P.M.
Dir. Johnnie To. 2015, 119 mins. Presented in Dolby Digital 3-D. With Chow Yun-fat, Sylvia Chang, Eason Chan. Director Johnnie To, best known for his action-packed genre films, has created a sheer cinematic delight in this lush, stylized, and energetic 3-D musical based on a comic play about the 2008 economic crisis written by lead actress Sylvia Chang. The colorful yet almost abstract office sets were created by William Chang, best known as Wong Kar-wai's production designer.

Listen to Me Marlon
SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. Stevan Riley. 2015, 103 mins. DCP. Culled from hundreds of hours of private, never-before-heard audio recordings, and paired with film clips and archival footage, this is the story of Marlon Brando as told by Marlon Brando. Director and editor Stevan Riley does much more than synthesize archival material into a worthy biography-he effectively exhumes the legendary actor to explore matters existential, psychological, and creative, even employing Brando's digitally rendered likeness to hauntingly address the audience from the cinematic beyond.

The Look of Silence
With Joshua Oppenheimer in person
SUNDAY, JANUARY 10, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. Joshua Oppenheimer. 2014, 103 mins. DCP. A masterful companion to the Academy Award-winning The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer's return to THE KILLING fields of the 1965 Indonesian genocide this time focuses on the legacy of survivors. Adi is an optometrist and youngest son of still-grieving elderly parents who bravely decides to confront the killers of his slain brother, breaking decades of silent subjugation to ask men still in power to accept responsibility for their actions-all while also testing their eyesight. Exquisitely crafted and immensely moving, The Look of Silence is the rare film that is simultaneously a political, historical, and artistic breakthrough. This screening is also part of Best of Nonfiction Film 2015.

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Museum of the Moving Image (movingimage.us) advances the understanding, enjoyment, and appreciation of the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media. In its stunning facilities-acclaimed for both its accessibility and bold design-the Museum presents exhibitions; screenings of significant works; discussion programs featuring actors, directors, craftspeople, and business leaders; and education programs which serve more than 50,000 students each year. The Museum also houses a significant collection of moving-image artifacts.

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