MARCH 6
Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films That Ruled the 70s
A documentary about Italy's "poliziotteschi" cinematic movement of the 1970s, characterized by violence, ramshackle production, and a riding of the line between movie crime and actual crime.
Grand Illusion
MARCH 6–13
The Golden Age of Italian Cinema
The final two weeks of SAM's celebration of Italian cinema leave neorealism behind for two shots of dreamy Fellini. March 6 brings 1965's Juliet of the Spirits (an exploration of the psychic landscape of a woman mustering the courage to leave her philandering husband), and March 13 brings 1973's Amarcord, the Oscar-winning, semiautobiographical tale of a young boy growing up in Fascist Italy.
Seattle Art Museum
MARCH 7
Child's Pose
In Calin Peter Netzer's drama, a successful Bucharest architect (played by Luminita Gheorghiu) fights to keep her deadbeat son out of jail after a deadly car crash.
Varsity
Stranger by the Lake
Winner of the best director award at Cannes 2013, Alain Guiraudie's Stranger by the Lake is a slow, lovely, sexy movie with a brilliantly black heart. The story: At a lakeside cruising spot, Franck, a cute twentysomething gay man, makes two new connections. Before long, a body is found, an investigator starts snooping around, and Stranger by the Lake turns into something deep and terrifying, dealing both literally and conceptually with notions of sex, risk, danger, and the moral apathy of the horny.
SIFF Cinema Uptown
MARCH 7–13
Cousin Jules
Dominique Benicheti's masterpiece of 1973 captures the daily routine and rituals of a blacksmith living with his wife in the French countryside, and has been unreleased in the US until now.
Grand Illusion
Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me
Chiemi Karasawa's documentary about the singularly outspoken and pants-free star of Broadway and beyond.
Sundance Cinemas
MARCH 13
Festival of (In)appropriation
The annual showcase of audiovisual works repurposing film and video footage in "inappropriate" and inventive ways.
Northwest Film Forum
Man with a Movie Camera
Dziga Vertov's classic silent documentary of 1929 returns with a live soundtrack by DJ James Whetzel.
SIFF Cinema Uptown
MARCH 14
Particle Fever
A documentary following six scientists as they launch the Large Hadron Collider, the biggest and most expensive experiment in history.
Varsity
St. Vincent
Originally titled St. Vincent De Van Nuys, this comedy follows a young boy who strikes up a friendship with the crusty old war vet next door (played by Bill Murray!).
Wide release
MARCH 14–20
Vic+Flo Saw a Bear
Denis Côté's mysterious drama concerns two lesbian ex-cons forging a new life in the backwoods of Quebec.
Northwest Film Forum
MARCH 15–16
Los Angeles Plays Itself
Thom Andersen's celebrated video essay about LA's cinematic self, drawing on films from Chinatown to Killer of Sheep.
Northwest Film Forum
MARCH 16
Short Films of Lotte Reiniger
A selection of classic shorts from the German animator, with a live score written and performed by musical duo Miles & Karina.
SIFF Cinema Uptown
MARCH 18
Harry Smith's Heaven and Earth Magic
The stop-motion masterpiece made by artist, folk music archivist, and experimental animator Harry Smith, presented by film historian Dennis Nyback and featuring live accompaniment from cellist/Stranger Genius Award winner Lori Goldston.
SIFF Cinema Uptown
MARCH 18–MAY 1
Red Renewal: Seattle's Socialist Spring
A collective contemplation on the promise and perils of socialism in Seattle, including film screenings and public discussions. As the official PR puts it, "From canonical propaganda to satirical critique, Red Renewal recasts cinema's historical encounters with socialist themes in connection to ongoing conversations about Seattle's economy and politics." The whole thing starts with a screening and discussion with Kshama Sawant and The Stranger's Charles Mudede at Town Hall on March 18.
Northwest Film Forum
MARCH 20
Film Court: Forrest Gump
The worst movie ever to win a best picture Oscar (sorry, Crash!), screened in a courtlike setting and—swoon!—featuring guest prosecutor/huge-brain-having Twitter master Ken Jennings.
Central Cinema
MARCH 20–21
Two Evenings with Thelma Schoonmaker
Best known as the film editor who makes Scorsese Scorsese, Schoonmaker here presents two films by her late husband, the legendary British director Michael Powell. March 20 brings A Matter of Life and Death, March 21 brings Gone to Earth, and both will be followed with audience Q&A with Schoonmaker herself.
Seattle Art Museum
MARCH 21
Nymphomaniac: Part One
Volume I of Lars von Trier's pornographic drama, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg as a self-diagnosed nymphomaniac found badly beaten in an alley. Also starring Stellan Skarsgård, Shia LaBeouf, Uma Thurman, and Christian Slater. No one under 18 will be admitted. (Nymphomaniac: Part Two opens April 4.)
Harvard Exit
MARCH 21–26
The Big Sleep
Despite its notoriously convoluted plot, Howard Hawks's noir, adapted from Raymond Chandler's novel by William Faulkner and others, remains incurably entertaining, and features stellar performance from Bogie and Bacall.
Central Cinema
MARCH 21–27
The Great Flood
Filmmaker Bill Morrison and composer/guitarist Bill Frisell create an audiovisual portrait of the Mississippi River flood of 1927—the most destructive river flood in American history—through a collection of silent images set to Frisell's original soundtrack.
Grand Illusion
MARCH 24–30
National Theatre Live: War Horse
London's National Theatre performance of the drama about a patriotic horse that went to war alongside her majesty's royal forces in WWI, rebroadcast live on screen. Contains astounding equine puppetry.
SIFF Cinema Uptown
MARCH 27–MAY 29
As You Like It: Three Decades of Classic British Films
Seven weeks of beloved British films, including The Mouse That Roared (March 27), Our Man in Havana (April 10), Billy Liar (May 15), Georgy Girl (May 22), and more.
Seattle Art Museum
MARCH 27–APRIL 3
Journey to the West
A goofy, comic fantasy about a Buddhist monk on a pilgrimage to India, from Stephen Chow, the director of Kung Fu Hustle.
Grand Illusion
MARCH 28
Cesar Chavez
A drama about Cesar Chavez's efforts to organize farm workers, starring Michael Peña in the title role, alongside Rosario Dawson and John Malkovich.
Wide release
The Lunchbox
In Mumbai, there's a service that delivers lunch boxes from housewives to their husbands at work and then a couple hours later delivers the empty box back home. This phenomenon provides a perfect plot device for a feel-good romantic drama.
Harvard Exit
Noah
Darren Aronofsky plays God, warning humanity about rising sea levels with this new biblical adaptation. Starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, and a large boat.
Wide release
MARCH 28–30
Human Rights Watch Film Festival
The opening film this year, Camp 14 - Total Control Zone, is a documentary about the life of the only man known to have survived a North Korean "total-control zone" grade internment camp.
SIFF Film Center
MARCH 28–APRIL 3
The Face of Love
Annette Bening's husband dies and she's grief-stricken, but then, oh wow, she meets someone who looks exactly like him. How will she cope with this confusing Vertigo-like maze of emotions?
Sundance Cinemas
Je t'aime, je t'aime
A new 35 mm print of Alain Resnais's 1968 film about a man forced to relive moments from his memory at the insistence of his malfunctioning time machine.
Northwest Film Forum
MARCH 31
Science on Screen: Earthquake
An actual seismologist (earthquake doctor) will explain why this 1974 Charlton Heston disastravanga isn't real, and won't get you, and you can go back to sleep now.
SIFF Cinema Uptown
APRIL 4
Finding Vivian Maier
A new documentary about the life and works of Vivian Maier, who lived somewhat reclusively as a nanny but was discovered as a prolific and talented photographer after her death.
Seven Gables
The Missing Picture
Director Rithy Panh, failing to find a missing photograph that he believes will serve as evidence to the genocide of Khmer Rouge, begins a process of reconstructing the scene using clay figures, drawing from history and personal memories of the time.
SIFF Film Center
APRIL 4–5
The Raspberry Reich
The newest from indie auteur Bruce LaBruce satirizes the phenomenon of "radical chic," wherein radical political positions are fetishized and eroticized by the cult of celebrity.
Northwest Film Forum
APRIL 10–14
Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons
Presenting 35 mm screenings of two from Orson Welles. The first, usually ranked among the greatest films, needs no introduction. The second was famously butchered by the studio but remains an impressive and entertaining achievement.
Grand Illusion
APRIL 11
Ilo Ilo
The first Singaporean feature film to win an award at Cannes Film Festival, Ilo Ilo chronicles the the relationship between a family of three and their newly arrived Filipino maid during the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Varsity
Jodorowsky's Dune
Though many argue David Lynch's version was a train wreck in its own right, the reins for Dune were originally held by Chilean surrealist Alejandro Jodorowsky, who planned a 10-hour feature, in collaboration with Salvador Dalí, Orson Welles, and Mick Jagger. This new documentary looks at that whole boondoggle.
TBA
Under the Skin
This Scottish science-fiction thriller stars Scarlett Johansson as an alien sent to Earth to prey on hitchhikers.
TBA
APRIL 11–13
Following the Ninth
A documentary examining the creation and legacy of Beethoven's final symphony.
SIFF Film Center
APRIL 14
Science on Screen: Young Frankenstein
Mel Brooks's classic monster comedy of 1974, introduced by UW professor Thomas Daniel, a biologist who specializes in neurobiology, behavior, and biomechanics.
SIFF Cinema Uptown
APRIL 24–27
NFFTY: National Film Festival for Talented Youth
The National Film Festival for Talented Youth—the largest youth film festival in the world—returns with its 2014 showcase.
SIFF Cinema Uptown
APRIL 25
Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq
A documentary about Tanaquil Le Clercq, the wife and muse of the legendary choreographer George Balanchine, who, at the height of her fame, was struck down by polio.
TBA
APRIL 25–26
Indigenous Showcase: Navajo Weekend
Northwest Film Forum and Longhouse Media's great ongoing series, showcasing emerging talents in indigenous communities.
Northwest Film Forum
MAY 2
Only Lovers Left Alive
The latest from Jim Jarmusch follows the century-spanning love story of two vampires, starring Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton.
TBA
MAY 2–8
Othello
Orson Welles's unorthodox and inventive take on Shakespeare's jealousy-and-murder-ridden classic.
Northwest Film Forum
MAY 9
Teenage
Based on Jon Savage's 2007 book, this documentary tracks "the 'prehistory' of the teenager as a separate western cultural life form in the first half of the 20th century."
Varsity
MAY 15–JUNE 8
Seattle International Film Festival
The humongo-fest returns, with dozens of films you'll happily be willing to stand in line to see, along with dozens of others that will show up on Netflix streaming 10 seconds after the fest is over.
Various locations
MAY 29–31
Live at the Film Forum: The Pirate Cinema
Created by video artist Nicolas Maigret, The Pirate Cinema reveals the hidden activity and geography of peer-to-peer file sharing through a would-be "monitoring room" capturing coded peer-to-peer transfers happening in real time.
Northwest Film Forum
JUNE 9
Trader Joe's Silent Movie Mondays
The great civic tradition continues with Feel My Pulse, a comedy about a hypochondriac who inherits a sanatorium, and the very first film ever shown at the Paramount (on March 1, 1928!). Also features an opening short (Disney's Steamboat Willie!) and live accompaniment by Jim Riggs on the Mighty Wurlitzer.
Paramount Theatre 
