Anthology Film Archives

Film Screenings / Programs / Retrospectives

AMALRIC <–> ZORN

November 13 – November 25

November 13-25, 2026

This series focuses on the collaboration between two figures who are vitally important within their respective art forms, and close to our hearts here at Anthology: filmmaker and actor Mathieu Amalric and composer, conductor, and musician John Zorn.

For those who have been engaged with cinema and music over the past fifty years, neither of these artists require an introduction. Amalric has graced the screen since the mid-1980s, in films by everyone from Otar Iosseliani, Arnaud Desplechin, Raúl Ruiz, Alain Resnais, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa, to Julian Schnabel, David Cronenberg, and Guy Maddin; while the quietly astonishing films he has directed himself – including THE BLUE ROOM, BARBARA, and his recent masterpiece, HOLD ME TIGHT – have proven him to be not only a collaborator of these artists but their peer. John Zorn, for his part, has had a truly immeasurable impact on NYC culture, thanks above all to his surpassingly dynamic, genre-defying music, but also to his extraordinary visual art (underappreciated until a revelatory 2025 exhibition at the Drawing Center) and his transformative work as a producer, organizer, and creative catalyst.

As acclaimed as Amalric and Zorn’s work has been, their ongoing collaboration hasn’t been properly celebrated in the U.S. Upon meeting in 2008, the two formed an immediate and sustained bond, which has (so far) resulted in three separate documentaries. These films, directed by Amalric between 2010-22, are at once fond and in-depth portraits of a particular artist; utterly transfixing investigations into the process of composing, conducting, and performing; and rapturous meditations on the nature of music and collaboration (between Zorn and his various creative partners, especially – in ZORN III – the singer and conductor Barbara Hannigan).

Anthology has long been devoted to the work of both Amalric (who we hosted for a retrospective in 2015) and Zorn (who has been dedicated to Anthology throughout its existence, and who we’re proud to count as our Composer-in-Residence) – so it’s high time we organized screenings of the films they’ve made together. Alongside this enthralling and invaluable trilogy, we’ll be screening a selection of Amalric’s other music- or performance-themed films, including his experimental biopic BARBARA (2017), three additional films made with Barbara Hannigan, and MAÎTRES ANCIENS – COMÉDIE (2022), his filmic document of a theater piece adapted from a novel by the great Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard.

Mathieu Amalric and John Zorn will be here in person for selected screenings!

This series is presented with the generous support of Villa Albertine and Unifrance & LaScam.

Immediately following the first part of the series, John Zorn and the New Masada Quartet (Julian Lage, Jorge Roeder, and Kenny Wolleson) will be performing at the Village Vanguard, from November 17-22. For more info visit: https://villagevanguard.com/ 

Special thanks to Mathieu Amalric; John Zorn; Charlotte Deflassieux, Sandrine Neveux, and Nathalie Charles (Villa Albertine); Anne Takahashi & Philippe Vacquié (Unifrance); William Jehannin (Les films de l’Atalante); Gildas Leroux (La Compagnie des Indes); George Schmalz (Kino Lorber); and Ariane Toscan du Plantier & Louise Paraut (Gaumont).

             

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