Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Secret Agent Network
January 7 - 13
A rare opportunity to see one of the great works of American science fiction presented in its newly restored, Spielberg-approved version on 70mm.
One of the great works of American science fiction, Steven Spielberg’s visionary fourth feature contemplates the possibility of life beyond Earth with a singular blend of awe, fear, and post-Watergate skepticism. Shot by Vilmos Zsigmond in Panavision anamorphic, the early passages unfold with a lived-in realism that makes the film’s escalating wonders feel entirely believable. When UFOs appear in Muncie, Indiana, electrician Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) becomes seized by visions he can’t explain, while a multinational team led by Claude Lacombe (François Truffaut) works to decipher what the visitors may be saying, and what the government may be concealing. In classic Spielberg fashion, this blend of domestic drama and operatic spectacle—vast light formations, eerie silences, and John Williams’s now-iconic five-note motif—recasts paranoia as a pathway to revelation rather than a closed loop. Presented here in its newly restored, director-approved version on 70mm.
“Close Encounters of the Third Kind opened in Brazil early in ’78, and that’s when I saw it—when I was 9 years old. Looking at it now, 50 years later, I really love the way it was shot—Panavision photography. The most amazing thing about Close Encounters is that it feels very naturalistic and very realistic. You get to know this working-class family, you look at their house, you see their living room and their car and the children. But then it’s also a science-fiction fantasy about aliens coming to Earth. That mix is really something special. It’s almost like you can establish realism, and then you can build whatever you want as a filmmaker on top of that realism."
—Kleber Mendonça Filho
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