Utamaro, the master of ukiyo-e (the Japanese art of woodcut printmaking), lived during the Edo period (1603-1868). An artist who symbolized rebellion against the feudal system, Utamaro was a non-traditionalist in whom director Mizoguchi found a kindred spirit. His film provides “an extraordinary feel for the rhythms of daily life in the marketplace, back alleys, and geisha parlors of imperial Tokyo. On one level, this is the story of Utamaro as a popular ‘democratic’ artist, a painter of ‘common women,’ and a rebel against the reactionary academic schools of printmaking. The film also tells the story of several of the women Utamaro painted, the courtesans and commoners who inspired his blasphemous masterworks.”—Pacific Film Archive (95 mins.)

Before or after the screening, visit the Portland Art Museum’s exhibition The Artist’s Touch, The Craftsman’s Hand: Three Centuries of Japanese Prints, on view through January 22.

Film admission is free with Museum admission or by regular film-only admission.

Winner of the Grand Prize at the Venice Film Festival, OHARU cemented Mizoguchi’s international reputation and was, in his opinion, his masterpiece. Adapted from a classic picaresque novel by Ihara Saikaku, the drama unfolds in a painstakingly recreated 17th century Kyoto with Mizoguchi regular Kinuyo Tanaka starring in the title role as a beautiful court lady gradually reduced by circumstances to prostitution and beggary. Hailed for its exquisite compositions and breathtakingly sequenced shots, most critics place OHARU at the pinnacle of Mizoguchi’s artistry. (135 mins.)

Before the screening, visit the Portland Art Museum’s exhibition The Artist’s Touch, The Craftsman’s Hand: Three Centuries of Japanese Prints, on view through January 22.

Film admission is free with Museum admission or by regular film-only admission.

In this poetic and atmospheric horror fable set in a village in war-torn medieval Japan, a malevolent spirit has been ripping out the throats of itinerant samurai. The governor sends a war hero to confront the spirit, but what the man finds are two beautiful women who look just like his lost mother and wife. Both a chilling ghost story and feminist-tinged meditation on the nature of war and social hypocrisy, Shindo’s spectacularly eerie twilight tale is evoked through ghostly special effects, an evocative score, exquisite cinematography, and the traditions of Japanese theater. “Surprising. ... Shindo employs a dizzying array of flamboyant techniques: moving sets, jump cuts, slo-mo trancelike dances and acrobatics, sharp chiaroscuro lighting, sheets of fog, theatrical spotlights. These flourishes may be influenced by Noh theater, but their execution is very much modern.”—Artforum (99 mins.)

New 35mm print

In the 1960s, women artists formed Women Artists in Revolution (WAR), a coalition to cope with exclusion from museum exhibitions, art journals, educational literature, and historical documentation. The cost of this exclusion is still felt today. In 2006, even after the successes of women artists such as Barbara Kreuger, Shirin Neshat, and Cindy Sherman, a poll of Whitney Museum patrons found that most of them could not name three women artists. Deftly combining reportage and personal memoir, !WOMEN ART REVOLUTION excavates the evolution of the feminist art movement in America through intimate interviews with many celebrated painters, performance artists, curators, and academics, filtered through Hershman-Leeson’s own interpretation as a front row observer for more than 40 years. The film also features an original score by Portland’s Carrie Brownstein, formerly of the band Sleater-Kinney and co-creator of “Portlandia.” (83 mins.)

SING YOUR SONG blazes through the life of American singer and icon Harry Belafonte. Tracking not simply the arc of his music career but also the impassioned political and social activism that is his true legacy, Rostock weaves a complex, sweeping tale of a man whose life has symbolized so much of America in the 20th century. From McCarthyism to the civil rights movement, from the flush of musical success to the failure of his marriages, this intimate, frank story of a remarkable life provides a stirring call to action for others to follow in its wake. “To call this an epic might seem overblown, but it isn’t just the story of a man, but the story of a country and a century.”—Variety (104 mins.)

THE LOVE WE MAKE follows Paul McCartney through the streets of New York City in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks as he organizes an all-star benefit concert: The Concert for New York City. On the morning of September 11, McCartney was in a plane on the tarmac about to leave NYC when the attacks occurred. Grounded, he returned to the city and witnessed firsthand the shock and devastation that overtook the city. Maysles and Kaplan capture McCartney rehearsing with his band for the concert, connecting with New Yorkers on the streets, and backstage with such luminaries as David Bowie, Steve Buscemi, Eric Clapton, former President Bill Clinton, Sheryl Crow, Leonardo DiCaprio, Harrison Ford, Mick Jagger, Jay-Z, Billy Joel, Elton John, Stella McCartney, Keith Richards, James Taylor, Pete Townshend—the list goes on. In addition to the memorable concert performances, THE LOVE WE MAKE provides “one of the most chipper responses to tragedy you are ever likely to experience ... alternately trite, touching, funny, and fascinating.”—New York Times (94 mins.)

A chronicle of family loyalty and disintegration, Visconti’s epic masterpiece is one of the most powerful and emotionally charged movies ever made. Rosaria Parondi and her five sons journey north to Milan to seek a better life, but the industrial north proves just as unforgiving as the desolation in Sicily. Simone (Renato Salvatori) becomes the first brother to find success—but his career as a boxer flounders when he meets Nadia (Annie Girardot), a beautiful prostitute. When Simone’s possessiveness drives Nadia away, she falls in love with his younger brother, Rocco (Alain Delon). The lovers set in motion a shattering chain of events for which the family’s traditional values leave them unprepared. The most dramatic and spectacular film of Visconti’s career, its sweeping operatic style, Nino Rota score, and striking Giuseppe Rotunno cinematography influenced the work of directors Martin Scorsese (MEAN STREETS), Francis Ford Coppola (THE GODFATHER), and a generation of other filmmakers. “Newly restored to its glory, [ROCCO] is a film of extraordinary range and ambition. ... The operatic magnitude of the emotions is dazzling.”—Chicago Tribune (180 mins.)

“As L’ECLISSE anticipates Godard’s ALPHAVILLE in its use of a ‘found’ Flash Gordon landscape, Antonioni’s first color film, RED DESERT, is almost pure science fiction. Nature has been supplanted and everything exudes a chemical glow (Antonioni painted the grass to make it even more voluptuously tainted). A factory worthy of METROPOLIS spews out toxic clouds of yellow vapor, driving the movie’s agitated heroine (Monica Vitti), who is married to its manager, well past distraction into lucid madness. She realizes, ‘There’s something terrible about reality, and I don’t know what.’ Positing a protagonist who is allergic to the world, this gorgeous movie is the prototype for Todd Haynes’ SAFE.”—Jacques Boyreau  (118 mins.)

New 35mm print