Inner Voyages
Programmed by: Olivia Lai
A voyage is more than a trip or a journey — it’s a transformative event, changing the course of lives as characters traverse distances. More than any other medium, film has the ability to transport. It can take us to places we’ve never been with startling fidelity and immersion. From the dry Texas desert to the deepest reaches of space, from the tempestuous edge of the known world to a quaint island off the coast of New England, these films bring us to new worlds. They are expansive with grand ambitions, seeking to understand nothing less than the spirit of America, the significance of faith in medieval Russia, or the purpose of life on the precipice of a black hole. Spanning six decades, dozens of countries, and a variety of genres, these films are unified by their interest in how travel changes a person. Some are driven mad by their distance from home, while others are liberated by it. These are stories of those who have decided to take action and set out to change their own lives, finding peace, success, revenge, or solace in new lands.
Paris, Texas (1984)
Wim Wenders · 145m · DCP
In this transcendent neo-Western road movie, Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) reappears in the West Texas desert, and sets out to reunite with his estranged son and find his missing wife (Nastassja Kinski). As he road trips across the sun-drenched and desolate landscape, Travis confronts his own fractured identity, loneliness, and guilt. This Palme d’Or winner is a profound meditation on redemption, fatherhood, and the need for human connection.
Friday, January 10 7:00 PM · Saturday, January 11 3:00 PM
The Assassin (2015)
Hou Hsiao-hsien · 105m · DCP
In his final film, Hou Hsiao-hsien transforms the Wuxia genre into a lush, contemplative meditation. Nie Yinniang (Shu Qi), is a skilled assassin in the Tang dynasty tasked with killing her cousin, the military governor Tian Ji’an (Chang Chen). Torn between duty and personal conscience, Yinniang journeys through gossamer-layered palaces and sun-dappled forests, rendered with a quiet beauty by cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-bing.
Friday, January 17 7:00 PM
Andrei Rublev (1966)
Andrei Tarkovsky · 183m · 35mm
In this biographical historical epic, Andrei Rublev (Anatoly Solonitsyn), an icon painter, journeys through medieval Russia’s upheavals and spiritual shadows, grappling with faith, violence, and the weight of artistic responsibility to forge meaning from chaos and despair. Through mud, fire, and silence, his brush becomes a fragile conduit of faith. Censored under the Soviet Union’s state atheism, the film is now considered a landmark of Russian cinema.
Friday, January 24 7:00 PM · Sunday, January 26 3:00 PM
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
George Miller · 121m · DCP
From the opening, Furiosa (Charlize Theron) and Max (Tom Hardy) are relentlessly chased in their sprint for freedom. This minimal-dialogue film owes more to silent cinema than its blockbuster forerunners, but make no mistake: this film isn’t silent — it roars with beast-like vehicles and a battering, abrasive soundtrack. Tackling themes of loss, trauma, and sisterhood, Miller makes one thing clear: action filmmaking is alive and well in the 21st century.
Friday, January 31st 7:00 PM · Saturday, February 1st 4:00 PM
The Fall (2006)
Tarsem Singh · 119m · DCP
As an injured stuntman (Lee Pace) lies in bed, he tells a little girl (Catinca Untaru) an epic fairytale in the hopes she will help him. Self-funded with Tarsem’s winnings as one of the world’s top commercial directors, the film’s production was itself a journey, spanning 28 countries and several world heritage sites. The extravagant result is one of the greatest visual spectacles ever put to film. To quote Roger Ebert, “There will never be another like it.”
Friday, February 7th 7:00 PM · Saturday, February 8th 9:30 PM
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
Wes Anderson · 94m · 35mm
Sam and pen-pal Suzy have resolved to abscond from their stiflingly indifferent circumstances and find paradise across their small New England island. As they flee their caretakers, the police, and a vengeful squad of Khaki Scouts, their story is at once unique and universal, culminating in a show-stopping, biblical finale. Set to a jukebox rendition of Benjamin Britten, the film understands childhood as a time of heartache and whimsy, fear and love.
Friday, February 14th 7:00 PM · Saturday, February 15th 9:30 PM
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
David Lean · 228m · DCP
T.E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) traverses a harsh desert, forging fragile alliances with Prince Faisal (Alec Guinness), Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif), and Auda Abu Tayi (Anthony Quinn) in a bid to unite scattered tribes. The arid deserts feel infinite under Freddie Young’s Panavision 70 lens, complemented by Maurice Jarre’s shimmering score. As the men navigate the changing sands beneath their feet, the film sets the standard for generations of historical epics to come.
Friday, February 21st 7:00 PM
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Peter Weir · 138m · 35mm
“Oceans are now battlefields.” Aboard a British man-o’-war during the Napoleonic Wars, Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) and the ship’s surgeon (and naturalist) Dr. Maturin (Paul Bettany) must fight a cat-and-mouse game off the coast of South America against a French frigate of a new class. Told with outstanding realism and scale — and filmed on the open sea — their maritime voyage carries the crew to their limits, and the world’s.
35mm print from the Chicago Film Society.
Friday, February 28th 7:00 PM
High Life (2018)
Claire Denis · 113m · DCP
Best known for her meditations on colonialism, Claire Denis turns her unflinching eye to the stars. Questions of power, humanity, and vulnerability are taken to the extreme, as a group of convicts (including Robert Pattinson and Mia Goth) are flung millions of miles into space, never to return. Left to the whims of a manipulative doctor (Juliette Binoche), this contemplative space chamber drama asks who we are when pushed to the brink.
