12 September - 5 October 2025
Long Takes
'All of my films are based on the thought that the better part of life is inscrutable'
– Angela Schanelec
Enigmatic and endlessly intriguing, the cinema of German filmmaker Angela Schanelec defies easy classification. An actress by formation, having trained with the Hochschule für Darstellende Kunst and spent nearly a decade subsequent in theatre, Schanelec’s turn to cinema began upon a chance encounter with Robert Bresson's L'argent, an experience that proved to be a key turning point in her life. Finding her interest in theatre waning, Schanelec began to turn more and more towards cinema, where she found in her words 'something she was looking for'. She would eventually go on to study film in Berlin at the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB) between 1990 and 1995, under the tutelage of Hartmut Bitomsky and Peter Nestler among others, wherein she would make several shorts and her thesis film I Stayed in Berlin All Summer.
In the thirty years since she has crafted a truly singular body of work that is elliptical, philosophical, and endlessly arresting, both emotionally and intellectually. From her commitment to the inordinate possibilities of the straight cut to her penchant for ellipses that elide both the passage of time and major life events, Schanelec's cinema is one of startling precision. However, this precision and control over both narrative and form is never exercised as a display of technical or intellectual prowess, but rather as the means by which the emotional reality of her characters, their lives, and the spaces in which they exist can be instantiated in the very material and form of her films, and thus within us as well.
While much has been made of the braiding of these two art forms, cinema and theatre in her biography, fundamentally, what we find in her cinema is a deepened perception of moment and presence, one that draws and departs from classical dramaturgy in almost equal measure, a cinema of being and becoming and a profound exploration of the very act of existing.
The ICA is delighted to present this comprehensive retrospective of the work of one of contemporary cinemas preeminent artists. Beginning in September the retrospective will include guest introductions, screenings on 35mm and a special in conversation event with Angela Schanelec.
Long Takes
'All of my films are based on the thought that the better part of life is inscrutable'
– Angela Schanelec
Enigmatic and endlessly intriguing, the cinema of German filmmaker Angela Schanelec defies easy classification. An actress by formation, having trained with the Hochschule für Darstellende Kunst and spent nearly a decade subsequent in theatre, Schanelec’s turn to cinema began upon a chance encounter with Robert Bresson's L'argent, an experience that proved to be a key turning point in her life. Finding her interest in theatre waning, Schanelec began to turn more and more towards cinema, where she found in her words 'something she was looking for'. She would eventually go on to study film in Berlin at the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB) between 1990 and 1995, under the tutelage of Hartmut Bitomsky and Peter Nestler among others, wherein she would make several shorts and her thesis film I Stayed in Berlin All Summer.
In the thirty years since she has crafted a truly singular body of work that is elliptical, philosophical, and endlessly arresting, both emotionally and intellectually. From her commitment to the inordinate possibilities of the straight cut to her penchant for ellipses that elide both the passage of time and major life events, Schanelec's cinema is one of startling precision. However, this precision and control over both narrative and form is never exercised as a display of technical or intellectual prowess, but rather as the means by which the emotional reality of her characters, their lives, and the spaces in which they exist can be instantiated in the very material and form of her films, and thus within us as well.
While much has been made of the braiding of these two art forms, cinema and theatre in her biography, fundamentally, what we find in her cinema is a deepened perception of moment and presence, one that draws and departs from classical dramaturgy in almost equal measure, a cinema of being and becoming and a profound exploration of the very act of existing.
The ICA is delighted to present this comprehensive retrospective of the work of one of contemporary cinemas preeminent artists. Beginning in September the retrospective will include guest introductions, screenings on 35mm and a special in conversation event with Angela Schanelec.
Become an ICA Member to access priority booking.
Become a Member
Programme
Friday 12 September, 6.30pm
Opening Night
I Stayed in Berlin All Summer + Shorts
The city and the self, music and the human voice, being and time. This collection of early works by Angela Schanelec illuminate an artist who, from the very beginning, was already shaping the cinematographic form in her own image and voice.
Saturday 13 September, 4.15pm
Repeat screening on 16 Sep
My Sister's Good Fortune
Ariane and Isabel are two half-sisters who love the same man, Christian, who wants to leave one to live with the other. Schanelec’s debut feature, an unsentimental rendition of the love triangle, wrestles with the uncertainties of desire and legibility.
Sunday 14 September, 1.45pm
Hail Mary
Condemned before it was seen, Jean-Luc Godard's contemporary retelling of the Annunciation and Nativity stories is a rhapsodic attempt to reconcile spirit and flesh, science and nature.
Sunday 14 September, 4pm
Repeat screening on 17 Sep
Places in Cities
Mimmi, a reticent teenager from Berlin, becomes pregnant on a school trip to Paris. Tracing the uneasy path to adulthood in her drift between the two cities, she remains inscrutable.
Thursday 18 September, 8.30pm
Repeat screening on 20 Sep
Passing Summer
Valerie decides to stay in the city for summer, rhythmically and directionlessly making contact with friends, lovers and family, with both affection and unease.
Saturday 20 September, 4.30pm
We Won't Grow Old Together
From explosive quarrels to tentative reunions, Maurice Pialat's elliptical examination of the end of an affair between a married filmmaker and his younger, working-class lover is a magnetic and unflinching work of autobiography.
Sunday 21 September, 4.45pm
Repeat screening on 23 Sep
Marseille on 35mm
Sophie, a photographer, comes to Marseille from Berlin by simple and spontaneous coincidence in an apartment swap with a French student. What could premise the beginning of a single coherent story ripples instead in the swirl of overlapping narratives.
Thursday 25 September, 6.30pm
Repeat screening on 26 Sep
Afternoon on 35mm
A family of artists holiday together in a house by the lake. Their estrangements and shifting perceptions unfurl lucently in Schanelec’s variation on domestic drama, loosely adapted from Chekov’s play The Seagull.
Saturday 27 September, 4pm
Repeat screening on 30 Sep
Orly
A scattered ensemble of four sets of strangers connect glancingly amid the arbitrariness and alienation of Paris Orly Airport, in Schanelec’s first film set fully outside of Berlin.
Sunday 28 September, 4.45pm
L'Argent
An unforgiving vision of contemporary existence and the increasing materialism of society, Bresson's final film is perhaps his most brutal and despairing, as a forged bank note brings chaos and corruption to the lives of everyone it touches,
Tuesday 30 September, 6.30pm
The Dreamed Path
The lives of two couples, marked by ache and ambiguity, interlace across leaps in time and dreams in Schanelec's enigmatic yet carefully constructed film about transition and unknowing.
Friday 3 October, 6.30pm
Angela Schanelec In Conversation
As a part of our major retrospective of her work, we are delighted to welcome filmmaker Angela Schanelec to the ICA for an in-depth conversation about her background in theatre, her relationship to cinema, and her endlessly intriguing body of work.
Saturday 4 October, 2pm
By the Bluest of Seas on 35mm + Intro
One of the great works by the often overlooked Soviet filmmaker Boris Barnet, By the Bluest of Seas is a euphoric tale of love and friendship filled with lyrical imagery and bursting forth with desire, laughter and music. The screening will be introduced by Angela Schanelec.
Saturday 4 October, 4pm
I Was at Home, But
Astrid’s thirteen-year-old son Philip returns after an unexplained absence of a week. Schanelec’s fourth consecutive collaboration with actress Maren Eggert, which earned her the 2018 Berlinale’s Best Director award, is a quietly precise study into a fracturing domestic life.
Sunday 5 October, 4pm
Closing
Music
In her most recent film to date, Angela Schanelec traces fate, loss and hope across continents and generations, in a transcendent reimagining of the Oedipus myth.
Friday 12 September, 6.30pm
Opening Night
I Stayed in Berlin All Summer + Shorts
The city and the self, music and the human voice, being and time. This collection of early works by Angela Schanelec illuminate an artist who, from the very beginning, was already shaping the cinematographic form in her own image and voice.
Saturday 13 September, 4.15pm
Repeat screening on 16 Sep
My Sister's Good Fortune
Ariane and Isabel are two half-sisters who love the same man, Christian, who wants to leave one to live with the other. Schanelec’s debut feature, an unsentimental rendition of the love triangle, wrestles with the uncertainties of desire and legibility.
Sunday 14 September, 1.45pm
Hail Mary
Condemned before it was seen, Jean-Luc Godard's contemporary retelling of the Annunciation and Nativity stories is a rhapsodic attempt to reconcile spirit and flesh, science and nature.
Sunday 14 September, 4pm
Repeat screening on 17 Sep
Places in Cities
Mimmi, a reticent teenager from Berlin, becomes pregnant on a school trip to Paris. Tracing the uneasy path to adulthood in her drift between the two cities, she remains inscrutable.
Thursday 18 September, 8.30pm
Repeat screening on 20 Sep
Passing Summer
Valerie decides to stay in the city for summer, rhythmically and directionlessly making contact with friends, lovers and family, with both affection and unease.
Saturday 20 September, 4.30pm
We Won't Grow Old Together
From explosive quarrels to tentative reunions, Maurice Pialat's elliptical examination of the end of an affair between a married filmmaker and his younger, working-class lover is a magnetic and unflinching work of autobiography.
Sunday 21 September, 4.45pm
Repeat screening on 23 Sep
Marseille on 35mm
Sophie, a photographer, comes to Marseille from Berlin by simple and spontaneous coincidence in an apartment swap with a French student. What could premise the beginning of a single coherent story ripples instead in the swirl of overlapping narratives.
Thursday 25 September, 6.30pm
Repeat screening on 26 Sep
Afternoon on 35mm
A family of artists holiday together in a house by the lake. Their estrangements and shifting perceptions unfurl lucently in Schanelec’s variation on domestic drama, loosely adapted from Chekov’s play The Seagull.
Saturday 27 September, 4pm
Repeat screening on 30 Sep
Orly
A scattered ensemble of four sets of strangers connect glancingly amid the arbitrariness and alienation of Paris Orly Airport, in Schanelec’s first film set fully outside of Berlin.
Sunday 28 September, 4.45pm
L'Argent
An unforgiving vision of contemporary existence and the increasing materialism of society, Bresson's final film is perhaps his most brutal and despairing, as a forged bank note brings chaos and corruption to the lives of everyone it touches,
Tuesday 30 September, 6.30pm
The Dreamed Path
The lives of two couples, marked by ache and ambiguity, interlace across leaps in time and dreams in Schanelec's enigmatic yet carefully constructed film about transition and unknowing.
Friday 3 October, 6.30pm
Angela Schanelec In Conversation
As a part of our major retrospective of her work, we are delighted to welcome filmmaker Angela Schanelec to the ICA for an in-depth conversation about her background in theatre, her relationship to cinema, and her endlessly intriguing body of work.
Saturday 4 October, 2pm
By the Bluest of Seas on 35mm + Intro
One of the great works by the often overlooked Soviet filmmaker Boris Barnet, By the Bluest of Seas is a euphoric tale of love and friendship filled with lyrical imagery and bursting forth with desire, laughter and music. The screening will be introduced by Angela Schanelec.
Saturday 4 October, 4pm
I Was at Home, But
Astrid’s thirteen-year-old son Philip returns after an unexplained absence of a week. Schanelec’s fourth consecutive collaboration with actress Maren Eggert, which earned her the 2018 Berlinale’s Best Director award, is a quietly precise study into a fracturing domestic life.
Sunday 5 October, 4pm
Closing
Music
In her most recent film to date, Angela Schanelec traces fate, loss and hope across continents and generations, in a transcendent reimagining of the Oedipus myth.
no. 236848.