Wex Joins Bleak Week Global Film Festival

The Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University is excited to join the American Cinematheque for Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair, an eight-film series running June 4–10.

Bleak Week, a series originating at the American Cinematheque, is entering its fifth year. With nearly 100 theaters from around the world participating, this is Bleak Week’s biggest year yet. Each theater will host a different lineup of films, but all will spotlight some of the greatest films from around the globe exploring the darkest sides of humanity.

The Wex presentation showcases films from across genre and era. The harrowing, yet powerful lineup of films is defined by stark imagery, unimaginable tragedies, existential fear, nihilism, and shocking acts of brutality. There is even a trip to the planet of the apes.

“For many people, these are troubled and complicated times,” notes Head of Film David Filipi, “and films such as these can help process and understand these challenges. In the hands of some the greatest filmmakers of all time—Agnès Varda and Béla Tarr to name but two—the material emerges as haunting, thoughtful, compelling, and in many cases quite beautiful. The Wex is thrilled to be part of this zeitgeist-capturing program.”

Tickets are available now, in person at the Wexner Center for the Arts, by calling (614) 292-3535, or online. Tickets for each screening are $12 for the general public, $8 for Wexner Center members, $9 for adults 55 and over, and $6 for students. Prices include all fees. Fees are waived for members and in-person purchases. Wex members receive free parking with their ticket purchase. All other ticket buyers receive discounted $5 parking in the Arps, Ohio Union North, and Ohio Union South Garages.

The Schedule

Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011)
Thu, Jun 4 | 7 PM

From Danish director Lars von Trier of Dogville fame comes this beautiful movie about the end of the world. Starring Kirsten Dunst, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgård, and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Screens in 35mm.

Menace II Society (Albert and Allen Hughes, 1993)
Fri, Jun 5 | 6 PM

The Hughes brothers’ uncompromising vision of life on the streets of Los Angeles’s Watts neighborhood sent shockwaves through the American indie film scene of the early 1990s. Screens in 35mm.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (Ted Post, 1970)
Sat, Jun 6 | 4 PM

If you thought talking apes were weird, wait until you see the end of the sequel to the original Planet of the Apes!

Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki, 2004)
Sat, Jun 6 | 7 PM

Gregg Araki's devastating and unflinching shoegaze-y queer vision is newly restored in 4K. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet (Oscar-nominated writer and director of The Brutalist).

The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr, 2011)
Sun, Jun 7 | 2 PM

This final film from perhaps the patron saint of Bleak Week is a time-altering journey to a premodern world. Screens in 35mm.

Make Way for Tomorrow (Leo McCarey, 1937)
Mon, Jun 8 | 7 PM

One of the most emotionally overwhelming films from the Hollywood studio system, Orson Welles once said this Depression-era drama “would make a stone cry.” Screens in 35mm.

Vagabond (Agnès Varda, 1985)
Tue, Jun 9 | 7 PM

One of iconic filmmaker Varda’s essential films is also one of the best films of the 80s. Screens in 35mm.

Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985)
Wed, Jun 10 | 7 PM

There’s only one way to end Bleak Week and it’s with the most impossible-to-forget anti-war film ever made!