Bengal Cinematheque was a quarterly series of private film screenings, presented by Bengal Foundation – a trust for the arts in Bangladesh. Bengal Cinematheque aimed to present the films and ideas of cinema’s greatest auteurs, at the highest quality, to build a community of emerging film-makers, writers and programmers in Bangladesh. Arranged in quarterly cycles, each set of screenings presented selected works by two rare and unusual film makers. The first cycle of the series featured Terrence Malick (USA) and Michelangelo Antonioni (Italy).

Our inaugural cycle of films asked where is the spirit now? Did it die with God? Or is it still in the trees, in the rivers, in the sky? Antonioni and Malick propose two different worlds: one in which the spirit is futile, absent, hollowed out; and another where it is pervasive, bounteous, and fertile.

L’Avventura (Antonioni) 

4 April 2015, 6:30 PM, Saturday

(1960, 143 mins, black and white)

A party of the Italian upperclass sails to desolate volcanic islands. A woman mysteriously disappears. The friends search for a while, but grow tired. The woman’s boyfriend and her best friend continue the search, which becomes a pretext for a mournful relationship. The woman is forgotten, but traces of her haunt us.

The Tree of Life (Malick)

5 April 2015, 6:30 PM, Sunday

(2011, 139 mins, colour)

The death of his brother makes a man reminisce about his mid-western American childhood: the tensions and magic of family and discipline, the contradictory rhetoric of adults, the exploration and disappointments of youth. Life is contextualised in eternity and memory is reified on a beach. All is always forgiven.

The event was free and open to all.