The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston has uniformly excellent film programming, so it’s difficult for a screening to stand above the rest, but this weekend’s Tribute to Marco Bellocchio does so quite easily. The films cover more than 30 years of Bellocchio’s career. Friday’s schedule includes Bellocchio’s first film, the 1965 I pugni in tasca (Fists in the Pocket). The story of an extremely angry young man, I pugni in tasca was heralded as the most important debut of the decade. On Saturday it’s the 1967 satire La Cina e vicina (China Is Near), with the 1990 La condanna (The Conviction), an examination of power and pleasure, following on Sunday. The film chronicles the night a professor and a female student spend accidentally locked in a museum. When the student finds out that the professor had the keys the entire time, she accuses him of rape. That’s followed by the 1999 La balia (The Nanny), a look at the changing dynamics and loyalties in a young family when a nanny comes into the home. Screening times vary. 1001 Bissonnet. For information, call 713-639-7515 or visit www.mfah.org/films. $6 to $7.
Fridays-Sundays. Starts: Oct. 8. Continues through Oct. 10, 2010
This article appears in Oct 7-13, 2010.