Over 100 classics presented on the big screen!

This year, the Cinémathèque québécoise has chosen to tackle science fiction for its summer cycle! From July 2 to August 25, the public will be treated to classic films from the genre on the big screen: from Stanley Kubrick to Ridley Scott, Kathryn Bigelow, Denis Villeneuve, Andreï Tarkovski, and Alain Resnais! Terry Gilliam's excellent 12 MONKEYS will open the festivities, almost 30 years after its theatrical release, preceded by Chris Marker's short film LA JETÉE.

The program is designed to remind cinephiles of the extent to which cinema has, from its very beginnings, shaped the imagination of the future. Science fiction takes us into a space-time that movies make tangible. Creating worlds, inventing technologies, using special effects and complex set designs, makes cinema more spectacular, immersive and phantasmagorical. But science fiction in cinema can also be a distorting mirror of our ever-changing reality. The invention of parallel worlds also brings new behaviors and new relationships with others (or with extraterrestrials). Interstellar travel also creates a new environmental consciousness.

Among the must-see films are Georges Méliès' VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE, considered the very first work of science fiction; German director Fritz Lang's expressionist film METROPOLIS (with piano accompaniment by Roman Zavada); William Cameron Menzies' THINGS TO COME; Franklin J. Schaffner's PLANET OF THE APES and Andreï Tarkovski's SOLYARIS. Other European classics include Roger Vadim's BARBARELLA, François Truffaut's FAHRENHEIT 451, Jean-Luc Godard's ALPHAVILLE, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's LA CITÉ DES ENFANTS PERDUS, Claire Denis' HIGH LIFE, Alain Resnais' JE T'AIME, JE T'AIME and Jean Girault's LA SOUPE AUX CHOUX.

A special place is given to American feature films, from Stanley Kubrick's groundbreaking 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY to Lana and Lilly Wachowski's cult THE MATRIX; Kathryn Bigelow's STRANGE DAYS, Ridley Scott's ALIEN, Tim Burton's MARS ATTACKS! and the 80s classics ROBOCOP by Paul Verhoeven and BACK TO THE FUTURE by Robert Zemeckis.

More contemporary films include Christopher Nolan's INTERSTELLAR, James Cameron's AVATAR, Alfonso Cuarón's CHILDREN OF MEN, Andrew Stanton's WALL-E, Jordan Peele's NOPE, Kristen Carthew's POLARIS, and Alex Garland's EX MACHINA. Quebec director Denis Villeneuve is not left out, with the presentation of ARRIVAL and BLADE RUNNER 2049.

The cycle also features several Quebec films. This will be a rare opportunity to either watch for the first time or watch again DANS LE VENTRE DU DRAGON by Yves Simoneau, VIKING by Stéphane Lafleur, MARS ET AVRIL by Martin Villeneuve, TURBO KID by RKSS, DANS UNE GALAXIE PRÈS DE CHEZ VOUS by Claude Desrosiers and PHI 1.618 by Theodore Ushev.

To round off the SCIENCE-FICTION series, from August 26 to September 8, the Cinémathèque will be presenting SPIELBERG AND LUCAS, THE BEGINNINGS, a program dedicated to the early works of these monsters of American cinema. On the menu: THX 1138, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, STAR WARS, E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, AMERICAN GRAFFITI, DUEL, JAWS, 1941 and many more. It's a summer program not to be missed at your Cinémathèque!

SCIENCE-FICTION
From July 2 to August 25, at the Cinémathèque québécoise

Complete program, schedule and tickets available at cinematheque.qc.ca

Watch the program trailer: https://bit.ly/4cqTvPj