AP BIO
AP BIO
at the Philadelphia Film Center
No late night study sessions or textbooks needed for these adventurous films that forego the standard, Oscar-baity practices synonymous with the cinematic biopic tradition for more imaginative, unique, and illuminating interpretations of life.
Tickets
$13 | $9 for PFS Members

FEDERICO FELLINI | ITALY, FRANCE | 1963 | 138 MIN
September 9 | 6:30 PM | Film Center
A famous Italian director’s writer’s block leads him to seek inspiration from the people of his past in Fellini’s timeless and dreamy rumination on the director’s life and creative process.

ANDREI TARKOVSKY | SOVIET UNION | 1975 | 107 MIN
September 10 | 6:00 PM | Film Center
Unraveling like a stream of consciousness, Andrei Tarkovsky’s most intimate and visually stunning work finds a dying poet reflecting upon different stages of his life in the Soviet Union.

TERRY GILLIAM | USA | 1998 | 118 MIN | R
September 10 | 9:00 PM | Film Center
Gonzo journalist, Hunter S. Thompson’s psychedelic odyssey into Sin City to rue the decimation of the American Dream is filled with bats, lizard people, and a trunk full of drugs.

ARTHUR PENN | USA | 1967 | 111 MIN | R
September 11 | 3:00 PM | Film Center
New Hollywood was ushered in with a bang, and some sex, when Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty took on the roles of the eponymous, free-wheeling bank robbers that would come to define an era.

SERGEI PARAJANOV | SOVIET UNION | 1969 | 79 MIN
September 11 | 6:00 PM | Film Center
Often cited as one of cinema’s greatest achievements, the life of Armenian poet Sayat-Nova is visually told through jaw-dropping and surreal tableaux from director Sergei Parajanov.

MARJANE SATRAPI, VINCENT PARONNOUD | FRANCE, USA | 2007 | 96 MIN | PG-13
September 16 | 7:00 PM | Film Center
With evocative animation, Marjane Satrapi adapts her own graphic novel about coming of age during the Iranian Revolution and her family’s strength and survival under a new regime.

DAVID CRONENBERG | CANADA, UK, JAPAN | 1991 | 115 MIN | R
September 16 | 9:30 PM | Film Center
Welcome to Interzone as David Cronenberg blends the life of the Beat Generation’s godfather, William S. Burroughs, with the junk-fuelled hallucinations of the author’s most famous work.

PAUL SCHRADER | USA, JAPAN | 1985 | 120 MIN | R
September 17 | 5:00 PM | Film Center
The life and work of conflicted Japanese writer Yukio Mishima is genuinely intertwined with Phillip Glass’ rousing score in Paul Schrader’s brilliant masterpiece about the sacrifice made for art.

TERRENCE MALICK | USA | 1973 | 94 MIN | PG
September 18 | 6:00 PM | Film Center
Inspired by true events, Terrence Malick’s revered 1973 debut captures the dissolution of innocence in America when a young girl involves herself in the midst of a killing spree with her hot-headed boyfriend.