Moving Images

Select Thursdays, 7 p.m. | Fath Auditorium

Moving Images celebrates the art of cinema with a monthly film screening at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Offering films spanning artists and genres, from classic to contemporary, we invite visitors to enjoy the shared experience of watching movies on a big screen. In conjunction with the screenings, the program includes introductions and post-film conversations with CAM curators and guests including local scholars, filmmakers and critics.

Moving Images, At Home.

At its heart Moving Images is about bringing communities together in the museum. We look forward to returning to monthly events with you in the CAM’s Fath Auditorium and to sharing the experience of discovering new films and reexamining old favorites in person.

Until then check here for a monthly selection of recommendations from CAM curators and friends in the local film community. We hope you’ll join us in celebrating the moving image at home, whether you’re streaming via a subscription service, taking advantage of free library resources, or supporting your favorite local theater with a view-at-home ticket.

For our June line-up, we polled the CAM curatorial team for films teeming with art, fashion, and design. From biopics to art-filled escapades, here are their screen-worthy picks.

Miss Hokusai

Directed by Keiichi Hara, 2015

Rent or buy on all major VOD Services

Fiercely talented O-Ei assists her father in his studio, often without credit, in this coming-of-age tale about an underrecognized woman artist. Adapted from the manga and anime of the same name, Miss Hokusai presents a lyrical series of vignettes about O-Ei, who is the daughter of acclaimed Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. Fans of Japanese animation will find a lot to appreciate here, especially if they examine Hokusai’s works to see where the film drew inspiration. I personally was delighted by a cameo appearance by Hokusai’s famed The Great Daruma, a colossal painting of the revered Buddhist monk of the same name.

— Lynne Pearson, Curatorial Assistant for South Asian Art

Editor’s note – if you enjoy Miss Hokusai, head to Cincinnati’s Esquire Theatre virtual screening room for Keiichi Hara’s newest release, The Wonderland.

Rear Window

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1954

Rent or buy on all major VOD Services

Imagine for a moment you are stuck in your house, forced by circumstance to watch the outside world from your window…  How has this been going for you? For photographer L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries, confinement lays bare the irresistible drives that lurk at the heart of photography, setting off a perilous chain of events. If you’ve (hopefully) avoided such extremes over the past several weeks, you can still take advantage of evenings at home to reacquaint yourself with this classic, drum-tight and incredibly satisfying piece of filmmaking. Don’t forget: as the viewer of the film, you’re looking through a lens avidly, too.

— Nathaniel M. Stein, Associate Curator of Photography

McQueen

Directed by Ian Bonhôte, 2018

Rent on major VOD Services

Explore the world of Alexander McQueen in this riveting documentary about one of the most visionary fashion designers of our time. Watch McQueen’s evolution from his first collections to his last before his untimely death in 2010. Film footage of the designer himself, his studio and runway shows along with interviews with family, close friends, and associates tell the story of this celebrated fashion designer.   

— Cynthia Amnéus, Chief Curator and Curator of Fashion Arts and Textiles

Caravaggio

Directed by Derek Jarman, 1986

Stream free on Kanopy via your public library membership

As a student of art history, I admire the Italian Baroque artist Caravaggio, and this film presents a diverting treasure hunt of his paintings. Jarman captures Caravaggio’s mesmerizing aesthetic 400 years later by using minimalistic sets, dramatic lighting, theatrical costumes, and emotional characters. But don’t expect a biopic – this is Jarman’s interpretation of Caravaggio’s (admittedly tumultuous) life, including a delirious narrator speaking in a poetic stream of consciousness and many purposeful anachronisms (tuxedos! typewriters!). Known for its groundbreaking queer representation, this film raises questions of artifice and realism that were as relevant in 1600 as they are today.

— Liz Simmons, Curatorial Research Assistant

Les Demoiselles de Rochefort

Directed by Jacques Demy, 1967

Rent or buy on major VOD Services

Centering around twins Delphine and Solange, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort is a romantic comedy of errors where love is always one step out of reach. Maxence, a young sailor passing through town, has painted a vision of his ideal woman and hopes to find her one day. The portrait astonishingly resembles Delphine, who notices the painting in a local gallery and hopes to find her admirer. Separately, Solange hopes to become a famous composer and is eventually introduced to American composer Andy Miller, played by the enigmatic Gene Kelly. Will the twins find what they are looking for? This film is quintessentially 1960s, with love, art, music, and dancing. Oh, and a murder plot…  

— Adam MacPhàrlain, Curatorial Assistant and Collections Manager for Fashion Arts & Textiles

The Young Victoria

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, 2009

Rent or buy on all major VOD Services

Growing tired of your own four walls and décor? Escape and enjoy the sumptuous interiors and art collections of Blenheim Palace, Ham House, Lancaster House and Ditchley Park without moving from your couch or dressing for dinner. These magnificent homes provide the backdrop for the story of the strong-willed Victoria and her budding love affair with Prince Albert. Once married, this royal power couple became great supporters of the arts and sciences as collectors and patrons and as organizers of the Great Exhibition of 1851 (sometimes referred to as the Crystal Palace Exhibition). This world’s fair, and those that followed it, as well as the South Kensington Museum (later renamed the Victoria & Albert Museum) inspired the formation of the Cincinnati Art Museum and its collections. After watching, discover works from our 18^th- and 19^th-century European and British decorative arts via our online collection, or enjoy the Royal Collection Trust’s online exhibition, Victoria & Albert: Art & Love.

— Amy Dehan, Curator of Decorative Arts & Design

Funny Face

Directed by Stanley Donen, 1957

Rent or buy on all major VOD Services

Lose yourself in an oldie but goodie! Set in New York City and fabulous Paree, Funny Face charts the transformation of a dowdy bookseller into a glamourous fashion model as she falls in love. Enjoy costumes by Edith Head, Paris fashions by Hubert de Givenchy alongside the incomparable dancing of Fred Astaire, not to mention Audrey Hepburn, and music by Gershwin.  

— Cynthia Amnéus, Chief Curator and Curator of Fashion Arts and Textiles

Upcoming Programs:

We look forward to returning to the theater with you! Moving Images events are FREE and open to the public, reservations not required. Seating is limited and is first come, first served.

Cash bar available beginning at 6:00; beverages are permitted in the theater during screening. Please enter the museum through the DeWitt entrance – visitors will meet in the Fath Auditorium. 

LOSING GROUND

Date TBD

Directed by Kathleen Collins, 1982, 86 minutes

Presented in collaboration with Over-the-Rhine International Film Festival

Comic drama Losing Ground centers on the experiences of Sara (Seret Scott), a university professor whose artist husband Victor (Bill Gunn) rents a country house for a month to celebrate a recent museum sale. The couple’s summer idyll becomes complicated as Sara struggles to research the philosophical and religious meaning of ecstatic experience… and to discover it for herself. 

One of the first fictional features by an African American woman and a stunning and insightful work of cinema, Losing Ground received honors including first prize at the Figueroa International Film Festival, but the film was not released theatrically in the US.

Join us for this special screening, guest curated by tt stern-enzi, Festival Programmer for the OTR International Film Festival. stern-enzi will introduce the film and guide a post-film conversation.