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  "path": "/movies-and-tv/2026/03/05/48361669/second-run-portland-films-for-literary-types",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-06T00:30:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.portlandmercury.com",
  "tags": [
    "Movies & TV",
    "Second Run Portland",
    "until her last moment",
    "wandering road",
    "_more info_",
    "God and Sex",
    "_The Mastermind_",
    "_film adaptation_",
    "visit to the Criterion closet"
  ],
  "textContent": "This month, a bevy of options beyond _Wuthering Heights_.\n\nby Lindsay Costello\n\nFilm adaptations of novels tend to get a bad rap, and with Emerald Fennell’s  _Wuthering Heights_ landing last month, suddenly everyone holds a strong stance for or against them. Take a breath, dear reader. Perhaps within the tranquil confines of your local cinema…? Because this month, indie screens zero in on film-literature crossovers that hit, actually. On the docket are Karel Zeman’s inventive Jules Verne-inspired animation, _La Llorona_ ’s folkloric roots, and Agnès Varda’s approach to cinécriture. (More on that below.)\n\n_The Gleaners and I_\n\n_For fans of W.G. Sebald’s_ The Rings of Saturn, _estate sales._\n\nAgnès Varda's sprightly late-career documentary _The Gleaners and I_ (2000) is more complex than it first appears. The film follows foragers of all forms, from dumpster diggers to oyster scavengers, while drifting into meditations on waste and art. Varda becomes a gleaner in her own right, gathering images and ideas that most wouldn't give a second glance. For her, it’s instinctual; the pathfinder of the French New Wave modeled a life of restless curiosity until her last moment. Her later works express this philosophy most clearly.\n\nEver the flneuse (a meandering observer, often on foot), Varda pioneered a new form of documentary in _The Gleaners and I._ She called it a “wandering road documentary,” emphasizing small notes of beauty amid subtle social commentary and accentuating the camera’s presence. (Working with a handheld Sony camera, Varda sometimes turns the lens onto her own aging hand.) Make no mistake, though: _The Gleaners and I_ didn’t develop by chance. Varda described her directorial method as cinécriture, roughly translating to “cinema-writing\" and emphasizing the writerly intentionality embedded in every stage of filmmaking. Fans of W.G. Sebald and Rachel Cusk’s observational genre-bending will get it. _(Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy, Thurs March 12, 7:30 pm, $10-$12,__more info_ _, not rated)_\n\n**__**\n\n_Invention for Destruction_\n\n_For fans of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Georges Méliès._\n\nLoosely inspired by Jules Verne’s exploratory vision, Karel Zeman’s _Invention for Destruction_(1958)__ provides a kind of __ steampunk blueprint. The film looks like a Victorian illustration in motion, all flying gizmos and petticoats and questionable facial hair. Zeman—the great master of woozy, consciousness-shifting Czech animation—blended live actors into hand-drawn imagery, placing them into meticulously crafted frames resembling etchings from an old adventure book. The result strikes an irreplicable tone, both antiquated and totally original.\n\nThe story is less important than Zeman’s aesthetic vision, but for your information, _Invention for Destruction_ follows a band of pirates determined to steal an inventor’s powerful weapon. A mad dash across land and sea in increasingly strange contraptions ensues. The Museum of Stop Motion Animation (MOSMA) co-presents this screening, aiming to help the organization inch toward its mission to establish a stop-motion museum in Portland. _(Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy, Mon March 16, 7:30 pm, $10-$12,__more info_ _, not rated)\n_\n\n**Also worth it:**\n\n**Seven Films by Kelly Reichardt**\n\n_For fans of Jon Raymond’s_God and Sex _(2025), Pacific Northwest history, hiking in the rain.\n_\n\nClinton Street's month-long series centers the Pacific Northwest’s director supreme, screening _almost_ her entire filmography and opening with _Old Joy_ on March 5. Reichardt’s artistic collaborator, screenwriter and novelist Jon Raymond, will attend three showings (_Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff, Showing Up_) and offer post-film Q&As. If you missed Reichardt’s _The Mastermind_ (2025), you'll have another shot on March 22. _(Clinton Street Theater, various dates and times through March 22,__more info_ _)_\n\n**_An Angel at My Table_**\n\n_For fans of Lidia Yuknavitch’s_ The Chronology of Water,_or Kristen Stewart’s_ _film adaptation_ _._\n\nAgnès Varda picked up Jane Campion’s _An Angel at My Table_(1990) during her visit to the Criterion closet—”So sensible, so intelligent,” she said. The film lends dreamy visuals to novelist Janet Frame’s New Zealand upbringing, which was defined by misdiagnosis, institutionalization, and occasional beauty. _(5th Avenue Cinema, March 6-8,__more info_ _)_\n\n**_Born in Flames_**\n\n_For fans of Octavia Butler’s_ Parable _series, Ursula K. Le Guin’s_ The Dispossessed.\n\nLizzie Borden’s dystopian docufiction _Born in Flames_(1983) imagines the fractured aftermath of a revolution that didn’t keep its promises. The director’s guerrilla approach blends real news footage with direct-action feminism; don’t blink and you’ll catch Kathryn Bigelow in a small role. _(5th Avenue Cinema, March 13-15,__more info_ _)_\n\n**_La Llorona_**\n\n_For fans of ghost stories, Latin American folklore, Juan Rulfo’s_ Pedro Páramo.\n\nFew films manage to fuse folkloric terror with social ethics—in fact, though it’s billed as horror, Jayro Bustamante’s _La Llorona_(2019) might be in a category all its own. A retired Guatemalan general implicated in the genocide of native Maya communities cowers like a baby in his mansion as protests rattle the walls. But don’t worry: A supernatural force—the vengeful kind—penetrates his barricade. Note: _La Llorona_ is _not_ the schlocky _The Curse of La Llorona_ , also released in 2019. Bustamante’s film is an atmospheric and far superior demand for justice. _(Hollywood Theatre, Wed March 18,__more info_ _)_",
  "title": "Second Run Portland: Films for Literary Types"
}