ZYZZYVA Movie Matinee with Ingrid Rojas Contreras: The Earrings of Madame de … (35mm)

Doors open at noon with a book signing. Movie introduction starts promptly at 12:30 p.m., followed by a conversation at the end of the screening.

Books! Banter! Cinema!

Welcome to the year’s first ZYZZYVA Movie Matinee with Ingrid Rojas Contreras! A film series made for San Francisco, held at the beloved Roxie Theatre in the Mission District and co-hosted by ZYZZYVA Editor Oscar Villalon, every ZYZZYVA Movie Night (or Matinee) features an acclaimed writer sharing with you one of their favorite films—along with a reading list that speaks to their selected title. ZYZZYVA Movie Matinee is co-presented with Litquake, San Francisco’s literary festival (October 9-25, 2025)


Our 2025 series continues on Saturday, September 6, with Alexander Chee and the sumptuous, all-time classic The Earrings of Madame de … (1953) French master Max Ophuls’ perhaps most celebrated film, adapted from Louise de Vilmorin’s novel, is described by The Criterion Collection as “a profoundly emotional, cinematographically adventurous tale of deceptive opulence and tragic romance.” The late, great film critic Roger Ebert wrote of Earrings: “It glitters and dazzles, and beneath the artifice it creates a heart, and breaks it.”

Introducing the film will be best-selling author Alexander Chee, whose own novel
The Queen of the Night is full of ball gowns, glittering prose, and glamour. Following the movie,
there will be a short conversation between Chee and Ingrid Rojas Contreras about The Earrings
of Madame de…

We’ll have everything you’ll need for a grand literary night at the movies: books for sale, author
signing, one-of-a-kind goodies, a recommended-reading list from Chee, and a concession stand
with all the drinks and eats your heart could desire.

Seating is limited. Order your ticket today!

Alexander Chee is the bestselling author of the novels Edinburgh and The Queen of the Night,
and the essay collection How to Write An Autobiographical Novel, all from Mariner Books. A
contributing editor at The New Republic and an editor at large at VQR, his essays and stories
have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, T Magazine, The Sewanee Review, and Best
American Essays.

Ingrid Rojas Contreras is the author of the memoir, The Man Who Could Move Clouds, which
was a 2023 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her debut novel, Fruit of the Drunken Tree, was the
Silver Medal winner in First Fiction from the California Book Awards. Her essays and short
stories have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Believer, and ZYZZYVA, among
others. She lives in California.