Fall is the time when the big Hollywood studios trot out their Oscar-bait movies, which means many good films are on the way to the multiplexes. But the bounty of good entertainment doesn’t end there.
Small venues throughout the state are planning fun, eclectic lineups of foreign, classic and independent films. Also, there are plenty of film festivals coming this way for all kinds of tastes: Spanish-language films, Irish films, LGBT-themed films, short films. And don’t forget the super-popular Met Live in HD opera series.
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art‘s autumn film program includes a “Making Black Lives Matter” series, including “Chi-Raq” on Oct. 20 and “Straight Outta Compton” on Nov. 3; a dinner-and-film on Oct. 22 featuring the romantic comic drama “Sideways”; a “Great Beyond” air-and-space series, including “Dr. Strangelove” on Nov. 6, “The Man Who Fell to Earth” on Nov. 13 and “The Day the Earth Stood Still” on Nov. 20; and a series of “Photographers in Film,” including “Closer” on Nov. 10, “Rear Window” on Nov. 12 and Ingmar Bergman’s “Dreams” and Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blow-Up” on Nov. 19. thewadsworth.org.
Cinestudio at Trinity College in Hartford will show the British documentary “Dark Horse” Sept. 25 to 27; the art documentary “Don’t Blink: Robert Frank” Oct. 9 to 12; “Upstairs Inferno,” a documentary about a mass murder of gay men in 1973, on Oct. 13; and a 4K restoration of Akira Kurosawa’s 1985 “King Lear” adaptation “Ran” Oct. 23 to 25. cinestudio.org.
Real Art Ways in Hartford plans an eclectic slate of films this fall, with dates to be determined. The lineup includes environmental doc “Landfill Harmonic”; the animal-rescue story “Harry and Snowman”; needlework doc “Yarn”; poetry doc “The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger”; music docs “We Are X” and “Gimme Danger”; the John Turturro drama “Mia Madre”; the Japanese animated bio-doc “Miss Hokusai”; “Christine,” the story of TV reporter Christine Chubbuck, starring Rebecca Hall; the Korean-Japanese con-artist drama “The Handmaiden”; the Ally Sheedy comedy “Little Sister,” about a nun who goes home; and the Gael Garcia Bernal biopic “Neruda.” realartways.org.
Met Live in HD, the live and filmed performances from Metropolitan Opera in New York, begins Oct. 8 with Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde.” Other shows are Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” Oct. 22, Saariaho’s “L”Amour de Loin” Dec. 10, Verdi’s “Nabucco” Jan. 7, Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” Jan. 21, Dvorák’s “Rusalka” Feb. 25, Verdi’s “La Traviata” March 11, Mozart’s “Indomeneo” March 25, Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” April 22 and Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier” May 13. metopera.org.
Film Festivals
The Manhattan Short Film Festival will be in New London, New Milford, Hartford and Fairfield from Sept. 25 to Oct. 2. manhattanshort.com.
The Irish American Home Society in Glastonbury will host an Irish Film Festival Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. irishamericanhome.com/Film-Festival.
The Middletown International Film Festival will be weekly from Oct. 6 to Nov. 10. arts2go.org.
The New England Underground Film Festival will be Oct. 8 at Best Video in Hamden. newenglanduff.webs.com.
The EROS LGBT film festival will be at Cinestudio in Hartford Nov. 9 to 12. outfilmct.org.
The Latino and Iberian Film Festival at Yale will be Nov. 9 to 13 at Whitney Humanities Center in New Haven. facebook.com/liffyyale.
