Moving Image is observing Mother’s Day this year with screenings of two great films that present dark views of motherhood: a rare theatrical screening of Todd Haynes’s Mildred Pierce, the five-hour HBO miniseries, starring Kate Winslet and based on James M. Cain’s novel, and Chantal Akerman’s meticulous and mesmerizing study of domesticity in Jeanne Dielman: 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles which Haynes described as “a feminist masterwork of minimalist constraint; a cinematic powerhouse of narrative innuendo: Chantal Akerman’s pièce de résistance.”

The HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce is an exquisitely detailed adaptation of Cain’s Depression-era tale of a devoted mother and housewife who joins the workforce to maintain her family’s social position. This singular cinematic event coincides with HBO’s recent donation of two costumes from the film designed by Academy Award-winning costume designer Ann Roth, now on view with related materials in the Museum’s core exhibition Behind the Screen.