Carriage Trade by Warren Sonbert at Mills Folly Microcinema, Wed Mar 25, 7:00pm
Sonbert's silent experimental films explored the possibilities of visual rhythm and "polyvalent montage."
Scroll down for Now Showing in Madison, March 23–30, 2026
Monday posts will now feature some short notes on various cinematic topics, followed by the Now Showing in Madison guide to commercial theaters and alternative venues.
Warren Sonbert (1947-1995) was an important artist in both the New York City and San Francisco experimental filmmaking communities. Sonbert considered his experimental travelogue, Carriage Trade (final version released 1973) to be his “magnum opus,” and we will screen this important capstone to his 1960s films at Mills Folly Microcinema this week, Wednesday, March 25, 7:00pm at Arts + Literature Laboratory, 111 S. Livingston Street, Suite 100.
In their retrospective of Sonbert’s films, the Harvard Film Archive described Carriage Trade as:
[A] visual journey encapsulating his travels over four continents in six years… [the film] weaves that footage together with shots [he] removed from a number of his earlier films, offering the viewer multi-faceted readings of the connections between shots, including the ‘changing relations of the movement of objects, the gestures of figures, familiar worldwide icons, rituals and reactions, rhythm, spacing and density of images’
A concise introduction to Sonbert’s work can be found in filmmaker and Light Industry founder Thomas Beard’s overview of Sonbert’s career at 4Columns on the occasion of a Sonbert retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in 2023. Beard notes that despite the fact that the images in Carriage Trade are taken from around the world, “Save for a handful of moments, as when we clock the Taj Mahal or Venetian gondoliers, it’s difficult to locate where, exactly, we are passing through as the movie’s currents carry us along, but no matter. What we’re watching is not a travelogue so much as a complex, nonlinear image network.”
Beard associates Sonbert’s mature style, exemplified by Carriage Trade, with what film theorist Noël Carroll called “polyvalent montage” in which each shot, in Carroll’s words, “can be combined with surrounding shots along potentially many dimensions.” Beard explains how this editing strategy works in Carriage Trade:
[A} shot might be bracketed by other, “neutral” shots, typically absent a human figure, allowing it a bit of breathing room, while serving variously, and sometimes simultaneously, as a complement or point of contrast to those further up and down the reel, both on the level of their content as well as their design. An elaborate web of correspondences thus emerges between different shot lengths, between different film stocks, between the movement of the camera and the movement within the frame, between the action in the foreground / middle ground / background, between shifting color schemes.
I was first introduced to Sonbert’s films when I had an opportunity to visit the Flaherty Film Seminar in the late 1990s. Sonbert’s films were presented along with some films by Armenian filmmaker Arthur Peleshian (Artavazd Peleshayan) who was associated with the concept of “distance montage,” in which the way images resonate with each other across the duration of the film is equally important as the way images collide with each other when they are edited together. Experiencing both filmmaker’s work in such proximity opened up my eyes to many new possibilities for how to assemble and engage with images and sounds.
Or lack of sounds. Carriage Trade is a 61-minute silent film. Beard observes that when Sonbert transitioned to silence in his films, “they became more musical still, only now their rhythms were purely visual, progressing inside shots as well as across them.”
So, needless to say, watching Warren Sonbert films are not exactly passive entertainment. But actively engaging with them can be an extremely rewarding viewing experience. I hope to see some of you on Wednesday!
Now Playing In Madison: March 23-30, 2026
Please confirm showtimes with the venues (follow venue links where provided). The commercial theaters update their weekend listings on Wednesdays. Another Now Playing source that posts on Wednesdays is The Horizon Line Madison.
Comments here are not reviews of the films, they are usually a response to the trailer, a summary of the buzz I have heard, or just snark. They are not always particularly accurate, according to reader feedback. I add trailers to new films of interest that you might not know about (American indies, international features, etc.).
Mills Folly Microcinema, Arts + Literature Laboratory
CARRIAGE TRADE, Wednesday, March 25, 7:00pm. Free admission, $5 donation encouraged. Warren Sonbert (1947–1995) was an experimental filmmaker whose work of nearly three decades began in New York in the mid-1960s, and continued in San Francisco throughout the second half of his life. Sonbert considered Carriage Trade (1973) his “magnum opus.” In this film, Sonbert interweaves footage taken from his journeys throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, and the United States, together with shots he removed from the camera originals of a number of his earlier films. See additional notes above.
UW Cinematheque
THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN, 4070 Vilas Hall, Friday, March 27, 7 p.m.
Mike Nichols, USA, 1973, 104 min.
CONVERSATION PIECE (English language version), 4070 Vilas Hall, Saturday, March 28, 4 p.m.
Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1974, 121 min.
CONVERSATION PIECE (Italian language version), 4070 Vilas Hall, Saturday, March 28, 7 p.m.
Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1974, 121 min.
Wisconsin Union Directorate Film
Spring Break. Programming resumes Tuesday, April 7.
Commercial Theaters:
AMC Theatres
Flix Brewhouse
Marcus Theatres (Palace and Point)
AI DOC: OR HOW I BECAME AN APOCALOPTIMIST, THE at AMC, Point.
New documentary feature from Daniel Roher, who won the Best Documentary Feature Oscar for Navalny in 2022, and Charlie Tyrell. This was picked up for distribution by Focus Features after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
ALPHA at AMC, Point.
Latest feature from French director Julia Ducournau, whose Titane won the Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021. A teen girl with a new tattoo is suspected of contracting a lethal disease.
AMC SCREAM UNSEEN: MARCH 23 at AMC.
AMC SCREAM UNSEEN: MARCH 30 at AMC.
AMERICAN UNDERDOG at AMC.
Re-release of 2021 sports drama with an inspirational emphasis about the career of NFL quarterback Kurt Warner.
BEN-HUR at AMC, Point, Flix.
If I were to go to any Easter-themed programming this week, I think this would be it. Would be good to see it big and hear it loud.
BERSHAMA at AMC.
Egyptian comedy about the hijinks that follow the death of a high school exam proctor, when the students attempt to hide that fact so that they can cheat.
BIG LEBOWSKI, THE at Flix.
BRIDE!, THE at AMC, Flix.
Christian Bale as Frankenstein and Jesse Buckley in a very different role than in Hamnet, as The Bride. Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Generally getting negative reviews, with some being particularly blunt.
BRING ME THE HORIZON - L.I.V.E. IN SÃO PAULO (LIVE IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL EXPERIMENT) at Point.
Concert film featuring British rock band Bring Me the Horizon.
DAVID at AMC.
Faith-based animated feature about the young shepherd who eventually becomes the King of Israel.
DHURANDHAR: THE REVENGE at AMC.
Indian Hindi-language crime action drama, and a sequel to the top grossing Indian feature film of 2025. I saw the first film in January, and I liked its scope and ambition, despite occasionally wallowing in some brutal violence. I had a chance to see this sequel this past weekend, and I could not see it Friday evening or Saturday morning due to sold-out (or nearly so) screenings. The sequel is again very ambitious genre filmmaking, and at times it soars. And by the time you’re finished watching this second film, you feel like you have seen something epic, if only because of the time commitment. There was some cheering in the audience at certain points during the climax, which reminded me that I should probably take some time to examine the role of nationalist ideology in this series.Very loosely based on a crackdown against organized crime in Karachi, Pakistan.
EPIC: ELVIS PRESLEY IN CONCERT at AMC.
FIRST HYMN, THE at Point.
Faith-based documentary feature about the rediscovery of the earliest known Christian hymn.
FORBIDDEN FRUITS at AMC.
Horror-comedy directed by Meredith Alloway and released by Shudder and Independent Film Company.
GOAT at AMC, Point, Flix.
HOPPERS at AMC, Point, Flix.
I LIVE HERE NOW at AMC.
Horror drama directed by Julie Pacino (Al’s daughter) about a woman who is trapped in a remote hotel. This seems to be getting decent reviews, and it screened at Locarno and Edinburgh film festivals.
JESUS REVOLUTION at AMC.
Re-release of 2023 faith-based drama a pastor at a small Southern Califonia church attempts to connect with wayward youth in 1968.
KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE 4K at AMC, Point.
KING OF KINGS, THE at AMC.
Re-release of 2025 animated feature about the life of Jesus Christ, presumably in theaters for the Easter season.
MAGIC MIKE XXL at Flix.
MAGNIFICENT LIFE, A at AMC.
The latest animated feature film from Sylvain Chomet (Triplets of Belleville; The Illusionist) looks at the life and career Marcel Pagnol, playwright, novelist (Manon of the Spring) and filmmaker (Marius).
MARCUS MYSTERY MOVIE at Point.
MUMMY RETURNS 25TH ANNIVERSARY, THE at Point, Flix.
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER at AMC, Point.
I just bought the 4K disc, but this might be worth seeing one more time on the big screen.
PEAKY BLINDERS: THE IMMORTAL MAN at Flix.
Continuation of the British television series Peaky Blinders (2013-2022). This feature film starring Cillian Murphy and directed by Tom Harper will have a limited theatrical release, followed by a debut on Netflix on March 20. Read Rob Thomas’s review.
POUT-POUT FISH, THE at AMC, Point.
I usually mark films like this as “this week’s sketchy mid-tier animated feature film for kids,” but this is based on a New York Times best-seller, and actually has a pretty interesting voice cast: Amy Sedaris, Nick Offerman, Miranda Otto.
PROJECT HAIL MARY at AMC, Point, Flix.
Finally, your chance to see a film very heavily promoted and advertised in the hopes of cashing in on the success of the previous Andy Weir novel adaptation, The Martian.
RAD 40TH ANNIVERSARY at AMC, Flix.
Join me in celebrating the 40th anniversary of skipping this film in 1986.
READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME at AMC, Point, Flix.
Remember the one (in 2019) about the bride who gets hunted down by her new inlaws? I guess she survived, and is up against some more distant relatives this time.
REMINDERS OF HIM at AMC, Point, Flix.
Adaptation of the book by Colleen Hoover. Somehow I have managed to see this trailer several times before films, which cumulatively add up to about 15 to 20 minutes more than I care to spend thinking about it. But you might like it?
RESERVOIR DOGS at Flix.
ROTTEN MOVIES, FRESH BEER: HOT ROD at Flix.
SCREAM 7 at AMC, Point.
If you loved 1 through 6 (or is this like the Star Trek films, only the odd numbered ones are good?).
SEND HELP at Point.
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS 35TH ANNIVERSARY, THE at AMC.
SINNERS at AMC.
SLANTED at AMC.
Sci-fi body-horror social satire directed by Amy Wang,about a Chinese-American teenage who feels insecure about her race. Of the self-aware horror films that are opening this week, this one at least has an intriguing and promising premise beyond shocks and gore. Read Rob Thomas’s review.
STAND BY ME 40TH ANNIVERSARY at AMC, Point.
STEEL MAGNOLIAS at AMC.
SUPERPOWER DOGS: AN IMAX 3D EXPERIENCE at AMC.
THEY WILL KILL YOU at AMC, Point, Flix.
This seems to be a variation on Ready or Not and Ready or Not 2 (see above) with a bride being hunted by her inlaws replaced by an ex-con housekeeper hunted down by Satan-worshiping residents at a NYC high-rise. But somehow this looks much, much more interesting than the Ready or Not films.
TOW at AMC.
Rose Byrne, fresh off of her Oscar nomination in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, now plays a woman who lives out of her car in Seattle. The title likely refers to a plot point.
UNDERTONE at AMC, Point, Flix.
Another horror film, this one set around a podcast that explores the supernatural and paranormal.
USTAAD BHAGAT SINGH at AMC.
Indian Telugu-language action comedy starring actor and real-life elected official (Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh) Pawan Kaylan.
WUTHERING HEIGHTS at AMC, Point.
This is not bad, in fact I liked it. But I have not read the book, so I’m not in a position of defending the book’s honor. I’m slowly working on a longer piece where I look at responses to the film across Substack, to get a sense of what film criticism looks like on this platform.
Have you used the Now Showing in Madison listings at least once to find something interesting to see? Have you discovered a film that you didn’t realize was playing in town? Please consider supporting these efforts directly by clicking the “Buy Me a Popcorn” button and making a modest donation on those occasions when you find this resource valuable to your moviegoing in Madison.
Looking Ahead:
Local filmmaker Michael Doyle Olson has started what he hopes to be a comprehensive, collaborative public calendar of alternative film screenings in Madison. It is still a work in progress, but check it out at www.mdo.me/film.
Side Room Cinematheque
Consult Instagram @sideroomcinematic for screening details, second Thursday of the month, and last Monday of the month.
Barrymore Theatre
ON CINEMA, Tuesday, April 7, 8:00pm
Okay, not a screening, or exclusively about cinema. But if you know, you know. And if you don’t, you should probably take a moment to investigate whether you would like to attend this visit from Gregg Turkington and Tim Heidecker.
Mills Folly Microcinema
VISITING FILMMAKER: SABINE GRUFFAT, Wednesday, April 8, 7:00pm.
PROJECT PROJECTION: LOCAL FILM AND VIDEO, Wednesday, April 29, 7:00pm
Cinesthesia at Madison Public Library Central Branch
KISS ME DEADLY (Robert Aldrich, 1955), Tuesday, April 21, 6:30pm.