The Coolidge Announces PROJECTIONS: SCIENCE FICTION FROM THE ART HOUSE Screenings of Sci-Fi Classics

The Coolidge Corner Theatre ('the Coolidge') today announced the lineup for its January 2023 repertory series Projections: Science Fiction from the Art House. Art house sci-fi doesn't depend on rational explanations, modern CGI, common storytelling structures, or a giant budget to create otherworldly, thought-provoking films.

Their focus can be on everything from interstellar travel to virtual reality, from utopian worlds to dystopian futures. We're excited to present some of our favorite examples of these innovative films from directors Andrei Tarkovsky, Wong Kar-wai, David Cronenberg, Lizzie Borden, Lars Von Trier, Darren Aronofsky, Alfonso Cuarón, and more!

The series kicks off on Tuesday, January 3 with a 35mm screening of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. More than 50 years after its debut, this sci-fi masterpiece remains one of the most influential films of all time, tackling some of the most essential topics of humanity and nature. Subsequent screenings include the landmark Afrofuturist film Space is the Place (Tues, Jan 10); Alfonso Cuarón's stunning adaptation of the dystopian classic Children of Men; and a double feature of Blade Runner and its 2017 sequel, Blade Runner 2049 (Sun, Jan 15). Darren Aronoksy's The Fountain (Wed, Jan 18) will receive the Science on Screen treatment and Coolidge Education seminars will be offered for Tarkovsky's Solaris (Wed, Jan 11) and von Trier's Melancholia (Tues, Jan 24).

A full schedule is listed below.

"This was an astronomically fun series to put together!", commented Director of Special Programming Mark Anastasio. "I hope it gives our audiences a chance to experience these stunning visions of the future, from some of the art house's greatest auteurs, on the big screen".

The Coolidge's screens are accessible by elevators. All are also equipped with a variety of options for patrons that are hard of hearing, deaf, blind, and/or visually impaired. For questions about accessibility or to request any special accommodations, please email info@coolidge.org.

All screenings take place at 7pm unless otherwise indicated; for tickets and showtimes, please visit coolidge.org. The Coolidge Corner Theatre is located at 290 Harvard Street, Brookline, MA. Unless otherwise noted, tickets are $16.25 general admission and $13.25 for Coolidge members.

The nonprofit Coolidge Corner Theatre is a premier American independent cinema renowned for its curated feature film programming and innovative signature educational, cultural, and entertainment programs. A beloved movie house, the Coolidge welcomes over 225,000 patrons per year and has been pleasing audiences with the best in cinematic entertainment since 1933.

In addition to showcasing the best in contemporary independent cinema, the Coolidge has developed a wide range of programing to reach all sectors of the community, including: Big Screen Classics, After Midnite, Senior Matinees, Talk Cinema, Science on Screen, Cinema Jukebox, PANORAMA, The Sounds of Silents, Kids' Shows, Rewind!, Box Office Babies, and adult education film classes. The Coolidge hosts several prominent film festivals and has welcomed film luminaries such as Meryl Streep, Werner Herzog, Jane Fonda, Liv Ullmann, Ethan Hawke, Viggo Mortensen, and more. For more information, visit coolidge.org.

PROJECTIONS: SCIENCE FICTION FROM THE ART HOUSE

All screenings take place at 7pm unless otherwise indicated

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Tuesday, January 3

The Ultimate Trip. Adapting Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction short story "The Sentinel", director Stanely Kubrick expanded the scope of the work from a brief inquiry into the existence of life in the universe to a meditation about the development and advancement of intelligence. "Watching a Kubrick film like 2001 is like gazing up at a mountaintop. You look up and wonder, how could anyone have climbed that high?" - Martin Scorsese.

Runtime: 2h 44m

Format: 35mm

eXistenZ (1999)

Wednesday, January 4

Video game designer Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) has created a virtual reality game called eXistenZ. After a crazed fan attempts to kill her, Allegra goes on the run with Ted (Jude Law), a young businessman who falls into the role of bodyguard. In an attempt to save her game, Allegra implants into Ted's body the video game pod that carries a damaged copy of eXistenZ. "While weaving fresh variations on familiar Cronenberg themes, the film also proffers intriguing metaphors about the role of the artist in a consumer-driven world, and the ambivalent effects of fetishised, thrill-based entertainment." - Time Out London

Runtime: 1h 37m

Format: DCP

Space is the Place (1974)

Tuesday, January 10

Avant-jazz mystic Sun Ra brought his pioneering Afrofuturist vision to the screen with this film version of his concept album. It's a wild, kaleidoscopic whirl of science fiction, sharp social commentary, goofy pseudo-blaxploitation stylistics, and thrilling concert performance, in which the pharaonic Ra and his Arkestra lead an intergalactic movement to resettle the Black race on their utopian space colony. - Criterion Channel

Runtime: 1h 10m

Format: DCP

Solaris (1972)

Wednesday, January 11

Pre-screening Coolidge Education seminar at 6:15pm, taught by Emerson College Professor, filmmaker, and author John Gianvito (editor, Andrei Tarkovsky: Interviews)

Ground control has been receiving mysterious transmissions from the three remaining residents of the Solaris space station. When cosmonaut and psychologist Kris Kelvin is dispatched to investigate, he experiences the same strange phenomena that afflict the Solaris crew, sending him on a voyage into the darkest recesses of his consciousness. With Solaris, the legendary Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky created a brilliantly original science-fiction epic that challenges our conceptions about love, truth, and humanity itself. - Criterion Collection

Runtime: 2h 46m

Format: DCP

Double Feature: Blade Runner (Final Cut) (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Sunday, January 15 at 2pm

Ridley Scott's visually stunning Blade Runner set a new benchmark for science fiction upon its release in 1982. In 2017, director Denis Villenueve did the unthinkable with Blade Runner 2049, crafting an atmospheric and riveting sequel that is not only worthy of the original, but may actually surpass it. See them back-to-back in this special double feature and decide for yourself!

Runtime: 4h 50m (with 15 minute intermission)

Format: DCP

2046 (2004)

Tuesday, January 17

Wong Kar Wai's loose sequel to In the Mood for Love combines that film's languorous air of romantic longing with a dizzying time-hopping structure and avant-sci-fi twist. Tony Leung Chiu Wai reprises his role as writer Chow Mo-Wan, whose numerous failed relationships with women who drift in and out of his life (and the one who goes in and out of room 2046, down the hall from his apartment) inspire the delirious futuristic love story he pens. 2046's dazzling fantasy sequences give Wong and two of his key collaborators-cinematographer Christopher Doyle and editor/costume designer/production designer William Chang Suk Ping-license to let their imaginations run wild, propelling the sumptuous visuals and operatic emotions skyward toward the sublime. - Criterion Collection

Runtime: 2h 8m

Format: DCP

Science on Screen: The Fountain (2006)

Wednesday, January 18

Yesterday, today, tomorrow. Past, present, future. Through time and space, one man embarks on a bold 1000-year odyssey to defeat humankind's most indomitable foe: Death. Hugh Jackman plays that man, devoted to one woman (Rachel Weisz) and determined to protect her from forces that threaten her existence. His quest leads him to a Tree of Life...and to an adventure into eternity. Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, BLACK SWAN) directs, continuing his string of imaginative filmmaking with a tale alive with ideas and filled with astonishing vistas. Science on Screen speaker TBA.

Runtime: 1h 36m

Format: 35mm

Melancholia (2011)

Tuesday, January 24

Pre-screening Coolidge Education seminar at 6:15pm, taught by UMass Boston Art and Cinema Studies Professor Sarah Keller

Danish provocateur Lars von Trier's sci fi opus stars Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg as two sisters who find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth. Justine (Dunst) and Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) celebrate their marriage at a sumptuous party in the home of Justine's sister Claire (Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law John (Kiefer Sutherland). Despite Claire's best efforts, the wedding is a fiasco with family tensions mounting and relationships fraying. Meanwhile, a planet called Melancholia is heading directly towards Earth threatening the very existence of humankind...

Runtime: 2h 16m

Format: 35mm

Born in Flames (1996)

Wednesday, January 25

The movie that rocked the foundations of the early Indie film world, this provocative, thrilling classic is a fantasy of female rebellion set in America ten years after a social democratic cultural revolution. When Adelaide Norris, the black radical founder of the Woman's Army, is mysteriously killed, a diverse coalition of women - across all lines of race, class, and sexual preference - emerges to blow the System apart. Directed by Lizzie Borden.

Runtime: 1h 20m

Format: DCP

Children of Men (2006)

Tuesday, January 31

Academy Award-winning director Alfonso Cuáron (Gravity, Roma) plunged audiences into a frightening, dystopian future in his powerful adaptation of the P.D. James novel. Hailed by The New York Times as a "superbly directed political thriller...about a nervously plausible future," Children of Men immerses us in a world engulfed in violence, where women can no longer bear children. Starring Julianne Moore and Clive Owen, and featuring a jaw-dropping tracking shot flawlessly executed by the great cinematographer Emanuel Lubezki.

Runtime: 1h 49m

Format: 35mm

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