We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the Country on which the Art Gallery of New South Wales stands.

Film series: States of mind 12 March – 4 June 2014

By Robert Herbert, curator, film (until June 2017)
A man with bleached spiky hair and a gaunt face holds up a polaroid photo to the camera.

Still from Memento, 2000

In conjunction with the 19th Biennale of Sydney

When a film narrative unfolds in an unconventional way, it echoes the confusion we often experience trying to comprehend the real world. Unreliable memories, vivid imaginations and subjective emotions demand we must piece together disparate fragments in order to understand even our own story.

In conjunction with the 19th Biennale of Sydney: You Imagine What You Desire, this series of films dramatises the vagaries of memory and time, and explores the dream-like worlds of fantasy and uncertainty that occur when a person gets trapped in their own mind.

States of mind screens from 12 March to 4 June 2014 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, using 35mm film prints borrowed from local and international archives.

Films

  • 12, 16 March – 8 ½ (director Federico Fellini, Italy, 1963, 35mm)

  • 19, 23 March – El aura (director Fabián Bielinsky, Argentina, 2005, 35mm)

  • 26, 30 March – Memento (director Christopher Nolan, US, 2000, 35mm)

  • 2, 6 April – Last year at Marienbad (director Alain Resnais, France, 1962, 35mm)

  • 9, 13 April – Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (director Michel Gondry, US, 2004, 35mm)

  • 16, 20 April – The trial (director Orson Welles, France, West Germany, Italy, 1962, 35mm)

  • 23, 27 April – 21 grams (director Alejandro González Iñárritu, US, 2003, 35mm)

  • 30 April – The thin blue line (director Errol Morris, US, 1988, 35mm)

  • 7, 11 May – Elephant (director Gus van Sant, US, 2003, 35mm)

  • 14, 18 May – Rashomon (director Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1950, 35mm)

  • 21, 25 May – The Manchurian candidate (director John Frankenheimer, US, 1962, 35mm)

  • 28 May, 1 June – Moon (director Duncan Jones, US, 2009, 35mm)

  • 4 June – Mulholland Dr. (director David Lynch, US, 2001, 35mm)

Two people smile and look into the camera. One wears a boater hat and the other wears a wide-brimmed, floppy hat.

Still from 8 ½, 1963

A person stands with a lowered gun in a forest of tall, straight trees.

Still from El aura, 2005

A man with bleached spiky hair and a gaunt face holds up a polaroid photo to the camera.

Still from Memento, 2000

A close-up of two people's faces. One looks dejected and the other person's face is in profile, looking straight ahead.

Still from Last year at Mariendbad, 1962

A woman with bright red hair and a red beanie lies on the shoulder of a man, who is lying on a frozen lake.

Still from Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, 2004

Three people with light skin, short hair and wearing suits peer into the camera.

Still from The trial, 1962

A man with light skin holds his hands to his temples. He has tears in his eyes and is looking up.

Still from 21 grams, 2003

A person with long brown hair kisses the side of the face of a person with pale blonde hair.

Still from Elephant, 2003

A person with long black hair looks up with a grimace. They are bound by ropes around the arms.

Still from Rashomon, 1950

A person cradles the face of another person in their hands.

Still from The Manchurian candidate, 1962

An astronaut walks ahead of a space rover.

Still from Moon, 2009