Rejoice, oh ye lovers of sadness! Austin is finally part of Bleak Week, the annual celebration of existential angst at the movies, courtesy of the Paramount Theatre and Hyperreal Film Club.
Split between the Paramount’s big screen and Hyperreal’s more intimate location, the series will run June 3-9. The programming spreads from classics of the void like Eraserhead, philosophical masterworks such as Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, a contemporary work of despair in Aftersun, psycho-terrors Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and even something for the more thoughtful young viewer in Where the Wild Things Are.
Bleak Week began in 2022 as a weeklong festival run by the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles. Subtitled the Cinema of Despair, the bookers curated dozens of films from around the world that take an unflinching look at the melancholic sides of life: despair, cruelty, inhumanity, selfishness, yearning, loneliness. You know, the good stuff.
For years, film fans outside of L.A. have been booking their own home festivals to be part of the misery party, and American Cinematheque responded to that need by unleashing Bleak Week globally. After partnering with seven cinemas outside of L.A. last year, the festival has expanded to 73 cities in eight countries, and Austin has made the list with not one but two cinemas coming together for a week of films from the darker side.
June 3: The Master at the Paramount
June 4: Aftersun at Hyperreal Film Club
June 5: Perfect Blue at Hyperreal Film Club
June 7: Where the Wild Things Are in 35mm, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), and Eraserhead at the Paramount
June 8: The Virgin Suicides in 35mm at the Paramount
June 9: Taste of Cherry at Hyperreal Film Club
Tickets for the entire series are available now at austintheatre.org.
