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Frankenstein
Frankenstein and Guillermo del Toro might have been made for each other. The movie does not disappoint, a ripping yarn of grand adventure, spectacle, hubris, passion and XXL body parts, a tale of the fantastic that rings the imagination. Screening in 35mm.
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Drawing on 30 years of television archives, Göran Hugo Olsson relates the early history of the state of Israel, as reported by Swedish filmmakers, politicians and journalists. "An astonishing, invaluable document." William Mullally, The National
Predators
"Punk'd for pedophiles." That's what Jimmy Kimmel called Chris Hansen's true crime/reality TV show, To Catch a Predator (2004-07). Two decades on, David Osit examines why the show made such an impact, for good or ill, and sits down with Hansen himself.
Frankenstein at VIFF Centre
Oct 17 – Nov 5
This Halloween, the VIFF Centre is proud to be the home of the Vancouver release of Guillermo del Toro’s (Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water) newest film, Frankenstein, screening on 35mm. See the classic gothic tale on the big screen as never before…
Dive into Frankenstein’s Past
To celebrate this new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic tale, we’re also screening previous adaptations of the iconic story. Catch them all!
Film Studies: The Making of a Monster: James Whale's Frankenstein & Universal Horror
Classic film scholar Michael van den Bos dissects and examines director James Whale's highly influential first sound version of Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff and Colin Clive. After his illustrated lecture we'll watch the movie together.
Bride of Frankenstein
Funnier, more outrageous, and just as goth as the 1931 hit, this is a black comedy about mad scientists playing god, the monstrous craving for a mate, about the ultimate male-order bride, and her indelible response to being married off to a mouldier man.
James Whale's Frankenstein (1931)
"It's alive!" Nearly a century later this iconic take on Mary Shelley's novel still kicks: the production design is impressive, Whale's lean, angular direction has plenty of snap, and Boris Karloff imbues the monster with no little pathos.
Samhain: Roots of Halloween
Oct 24 – 30
This series pays tribute not only to the season, but to an exciting surge in remarkable Irish horror films we’ve witnessed in the last few years.
Fréwaka
A Dublin nurse is sent to a remote Irish village to care for a reclusive woman. Haunted by a dark past, her night terrors invade her reality. Aislinn Clarke delivers a chilling, feminist folk horror that favours atmosphere over jump scares.
The Outcasts
One of earliest examples of "folk horror", The Outcasts (1982) draws on Irish mythology and folktales to eerie effect. Simple Maura is rumoured to have spent the night with the mythical fiddler Scarf Michael, with dire consequences for all... Screening followed by a panel discussion on Irish horror.
Pantheon: The Greatest Films of All Time
Pantheon is a monthly series showcasing a selection of the “greatest movies of all time,” inspired by the mother of all film lists, the critics’ poll that has run once a decade in the UK’s Sight & Sound magazine since 1952.
Individual tickets $23
Woman in the Dunes
Oct 19
Teshigahara’s collaboration with novelist Kōbō Abe’s is vividly strange, erotic and unsettling allegory about an amateur entymologist who is himself ensnared in a trap he only dimly understands.
Festival Encores
Whether you missed a movie at VIFF, or want to give a title a second look, here’s your chance. Catch these audience favourites as they return to the big screen.
Köln 75
The true story behind the greatest solo concert in jazz history, this is Keith Jarrett's legendary 1975 Köln Concert — as organized by 18-year-old rebel music promoter Vera Brandes. Fun, inventive and feminist, it's the Bend It Like Beckham of jazz films.
Train Dreams
A lovely, ruminative movie set in the Pacific Northwest in the first half of the last century. Robert (Joel Edgerton) is a lumberjack, a taciturn man who comes to appreciate the life slipping between his fingers.
Caravaggio
In the latest from Exhibition on Screen, co-directors David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky shed light not only on Caravaggio's paintings, but his life, often kept half-hidden in the same chiaroscuro tones he shaded his masterpieces with.
Left-Handed Girl
Co-written and edited by Sean Baker (Anora), Shi-Ching Tsou's heartwarming solo feature debut follows a single mom in Taipei who is too consumed with her noodle stand to keep tabs on her five-year-old daughter's burgeoning shoplifting habit.
Jay Kelly
In Noah Baumbach's wise and witty comedy, George Clooney plays Jay Kelly, a world-famous movie star touring Europe with his friend and manager, Ron (Adam Sandler). Faced with nagging dissatisfaction, Jay starts to ask himself some tough questions.
The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
Talking Pictures
Last Tuesday of the Month
Created for film lovers 55+, the Talking Pictures series offers films, refreshments and an open invitation to chat about our shared experience of the movie.
After Life
Oct 28
This month’s Talking Pictures title is a profoundly beautiful meditation on memory and happiness from Japan, the second feature film by the acclaimed writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda.
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