Kathy Tran
Audio By Carbonatix
Misery loves company. At least, it does if the Texas Theatre‘s Bleak Cinema screenings are anything to judge by.
The screening series kicked off late last year with Lars von Trier’s Antichrist and has continued drawing crowds with challenging and rewarding films each month. Now, in partnership with nonprofit American Cinematheque, the Texas Theatre is doubling down and hosting “Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair” from June 8 – 14.
Now, maybe you won’t walk out of these screenings with a smile on your face or a song in your heart, but the bleakness on screen can prove cathartic for the right viewer. Bleak Week will feature totemic works of the microgenre, including the 1985 Soviet film Come and See and Pasolini’s infamous 1975 film Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. More playfully bleak features like Yorgos Lanthimos’ 2009 film Dogtooth will also appear in the lineup.
Gunnar Dean leads the Bleak Cinema screening series and says the idea came from discussions he had with Jason Reimer, co-founder/partner of Aviation Cinemas, which operates the Texas Theatre, and other staff members. Dean was originally interested in curating a series that showcased classic European films, especially from Eastern Europe. As the idea developed, the team realized that the Bleak Cinema series would give them the parameters they needed to create something interesting and in line with Dean’s vision.
“I just really like bleak movies, because I think…I like feeling bad,” says Dean with a laugh.
After the Bleak Cinema screenings began, the team learned of American Cinematheque’s idea to bring a program of “bleak” films to theaters across the country-a kismet for what Dean and the Texas Theatre had been working on up to that point.
American Cinematheque is an institution based in Los Angeles that creates programs similar to those curated for Bleak Week, but for a wide variety of genres and themes. They plan events with theaters and provide opportunities to learn about films from experts.
From the list of movies available for Bleak Week, Reimer, Dean and Barak Epstein (another co-founder/partner at Aviation Cinemas) selected the ones they wanted to bring to Dallas. While Dean will introduce films for the Texas Theatre, representatives from American Cinematheque will also be on hand for a couple of the screenings.
Dean says Come and See and Salò are “table setters,” but he is especially looking forward to screening Béla Tarr’s The Turin Horse and Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York.
The weeklong series will include the Texas premieres of new 4K restorations of Dogtooth and Christiane F. The former has special resonance for Reimer at the Texas Theatre.
“That was actually the first movie that I booked that was new when we first opened,” he says. “So I was like an early lunatic about Yorgos.”
Dogtooth will bring a different energy to the series than its peers. The movie is bleak but not quite as oppressive as you might expect, as it tells the story of a husband and wife who do not allow their children to leave their home.
“I’m one of those weirdos…I didn’t ever think of it as a bleak movie,” says Reimer. “Some of these movies are really depressing, but they also seem kind of fun in a weird way.”
Dean echoes those sentiments, adding that “bleak” does not mean “bad.” While he acknowledges that there is a “masochistic” element to attending screenings for a series called “Bleak Week,” Dean also wants people to know that the films being shown are works of art.
“We’re showing movies from, like, Charles Burnett and Michael Haneke and Béla Tarr,” he says.
Above all, he sees this program as an opportunity for audiences to watch “striking, provocative” films.
“What I love about bleak films is that…they just kind of embrace reality,” he says. “Like, there’s suffering in reality. There’s…suffering in life. So, if we can engage with it and better understand that, I think that’s really fruitful.”
Movies are not the only indulgences audiences at Bleak Week can enjoy. Dean says a special Bleak Week-themed bar menu is being worked out. Reimer also plans to resurrect an old Texas Theatre tradition.
“We might be giving people potatoes and vodka after Turin Horse,” says Reimer. “That’s a tradition that we’ve had since we showed it at the [Oak Cliff Film Festival]. We’d always show the most depressing movie on Sunday afternoon at the festival…and the idea was that you’d call it, like, a “penance” screening, so if you got through it, you’d get a cold potato and vodka.”
If you want to dip your toe into the world of Bleak Cinema before Bleak Week kicks off, Dean will be hosting the next installment in the series on May 21: Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!
Tickets for Bleak Week screenings are available now.
