SCREENINGS 101 - 200 HERE --- February 26, 2017 - November 2, 2018 SCREENINGS 001 - 100 HERE --- August 17, 2015- February 21, 2017   SCREENINGS 201 - Current Tuesday, March 18, 2021 - Current
	#293 Sunday, August 29, 2021 - 6:30 PM TRANSIT by Christian Petzold   (2018, 101 min, Drama) Transit is a 2018 German drama film written and directed by Christian Petzold. It is based on Anna Seghers's 1944 novel of the same name and adapted to be set in the present. The film follows a refugee (Franz Rogowski) who impersonates a dead writer in an attempt to flee a fascist state to Marseille in the nick of time. . In his luggage, he carries the documents of an author, Weidel, who has taken his own life in fear of his persecutors. Those documents include a manuscript, letters and visa assurance from the Mexican embassy. Everything changes when Georg falls in love with the mysterious Marie. The film was a critical success and was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus reads "Transit lives up to its title with a challenging drama that captures characters - and puts the audience - in a state of flux and exerts an unsettling pull." HOW TO VIEW: The film is available free from Kanopy (HERE), Hoopla, and MUBI.
	#292 Sunday, August 29, 2021 - 6:30 PM ALL OF ME by Carl Reiner   Sadly The Elephant Man suddenly left Kanopy. Eric and I remember this modern screwball comedy with fondness. It is often considered one of the forgotten classics of modern comedy. We often forget how good Carl Reiner has been as a comedian and filmmaker. (1984 - 92 min - Comedy) A dying millionaire (Lily Tomlin) has her soul transferred into a younger, willing woman (Victoria Tennant). However, something goes wrong, and she finds herself in her lawyer's body - together with the lawyer (Steve Martin). HOW TO VIEW: The film is available free from Kanopy (HERE), Hoopla, IMDB Tv, and Tubi (w/ads).
	#291 Sunday, August 29, 2021 - 6:30 PM SWEPT AWAY... by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August by Lina Wertmüller   (1974 - 116 min - Adventure Comedy Drama) Written and directed by Lina Wertmüller, Travolti da un destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto (Swept Away… by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August) is the story of a wealthy woman who vacations on a yacht with friends where she finds herself stranded on an island with one of the boat’s crew members. The film is a study of two people from different ideas and environment who are stranded on a deserted island where they both are forced to deal with each other. Starring Mariangela Melato, Giancarlo Giannini, Riccardo Salvino, Isa Danieli, and Aldo Puglisi. Travolti da un destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto is a ravishing yet provocative film from Lina Wertmüller.
	#290 Wednesday, August 18, 2021 - 7:00 PM ALL ABOUT EVE by Joseph L. Mankiewicz   Praised by critics at the time of its release, All About Eve received a record 14 Academy Award nominations and won six, including Best Picture. All About Eve is the only film in Oscar history to receive four female acting nominations (Davis and Baxter as Best Actress, Holm and Ritter as Best Supporting Actress). Widely considered to be one of the greatest films of all time, All About Eve was one of the first 50 films selected for preservation in the United States Library of Congress' National Film Registry, deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". All About Eve was ranked sixteenth on AFI's 1998 list of the 100 best American films. (1950 - 139 min - Drama) Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) is waiting backstage to meet her idol, talented but aging Broadway star Margo Channing (Bette Davis). It seems innocent enough as Eve explains that she has seen Margo in EVERY performance of her current play. Margo and her friends take Eve under their wing but only theatre critic Addison DeWitt (George Sanders) sees through Eve's evil plan. HOW TO VIEW: While the film is not available on the free streaming serices, it is available at almost every library. The film is also available for $3.99 from streaming sites such as AppleTV, Amazon, Google Play, VUDU, Microsoft Store ... Check HERE for info and links. Or go to Eric's...
	#289 Sunday, Aug 8, 2021 - 6:30 PM LEAVE NO TRACE Directed by Debra Granik   Presented by Eric Van (2016 - 109 min - Drama) Will (Ben Foster) and his teenage daughter, Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie), have lived off the grid for years in the forests of Portland, Oregon. When their idyllic life is shattered, both are put into social services. After clashing with their new surroundings, Will and Tom set off on a harrowing journey back to their wild homeland. Nominated for Best Feature, Best Supporting Female, and Best Director at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival. Eric says: Granik’s reaction to the contemporary political climate was to make a film with nothing resembling a villain … and yet the story is gripping. As with her earlier feature Winter’s Bone, it features a remarkable performance by an unknown young female actor (Jennifer Lawrence then, Thomasin McKenzie here) and a supporting cast peppered with non-actors adroitly playing versions of themselves.
	#288 Wednesday, July 28, 2021 - 7:30 PM FORCE MAJEURE by Ruben Östlund   Presented by Kaj Wilson (2014 - 120 min - Comedy | Drama) Force Majeure (Swedish title: Turist, "tourist") is a 2014 internationally co-produced comedy-drama film written and directed by Ruben Östlund. It follows the marital tension resulting from an apparent avalanche in the French Alps, during which the husband prioritizes his own escape over the safety of his wife and two children. The title used for the film in some English-speaking countries comes from force majeure, a contractual clause freeing both parties from liability in the event of unexpected disasters. Force Majeure was acclaimed upon release, with critics praising its script and cinematography. It won the Best Film award at the 50th Guldbagge Awards (and 5 other categories), the Jury Award at Cannes, and was named one of the best films of 2014 by various publications. (PS: GoT fans will recognize Kristofer Hivju who played Tormund Giantsbane.)
	#287 Sunday, July 18, 2021 - 7:30 PM ALMOST FAMOUS (director's cut) by Cameron Crowe   Presented by Eric Van (2000 - 162 min (director's cut) - Adventure | Comedy | Drama | Music) The early 1970s. William Miller is 15-years old and an aspiring rock journalist. He gets a job writing for Rolling Stone magazine. His first assignment: tour with the band Stillwater and write about the experience. Miller will get to see what goes on behind the scenes in a famous band, including the moments when things fall apart. Moreover, for him, it will be a period of new experiences and finding himself.
	#286 Wednesday, July 7, 2021 - 7:30 PM DANCE, GIRL, DANCE by Dorothy Arzner   Presented by Kaj Wilson (1940 - 90 min - Comedy | Drama | Music) When a troupe of danseuses becomes unemployed, one of them takes up burlesque dancing while another dreams of performing ballet. Starring Maureen O'Hara, Louis Hayward, Lucille Ball and directed by Dorothy Arzner, the only US woman to survive into the sound era. Suggested important women directors for the future we haven't screened: Agnès Varda, Lina Wertmüller, Kinuyo Tanaka, Ann Hui, Jacqueline Audry, Chantal Akerman, Clara Law, Donna Deitch, Mira Nair, Karyn Kusama, Allison Anders, Shirley Clarke, Diane Kurys, Catherine Breillat.
	#285 Wednesday, June 23, 2021 - 7:30 PM RASHOMON by Akira Kurosawa   Presented by Jean-Paul Ouellette The film that opened up the West to Japanese films! Rashomon was the first Japanese film to receive a significant international reception; it won several awards, including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1951, and an Academy Honorary Award at the 24th Academy Awards in 1952, and is considered one of the greatest films ever made. The Rashomon effect is named after the film. (1950 - 88 min - Crime | Drama | Mystery) The rape of a bride and the murder of her samurai husband are recalled from the four different perspectives: a bandit, the bride, the samurai's ghost and a woodcutter. The film is based on an early modernist story from 1922 by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. He is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story", and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him. SPECIAL NOTE: For those of us who enjoyed Rashomon and the discussion afterward, David Kaiser wrote a blog about the film and the discussion at his historyunfolding.com HERE
	#285B Wednesday, June 20, 2021 - 7:30 PM SPECIAL EVENT by Kaj Wilson     Film Get-Together at Hamilton's in Coolidge Corner We haven't really seen each other in far too long. The Coolidge Corner Theater is open again and showing a fun film called In The Heights. Maiyam Barron and Ron Weiss have been pushing to have something Coolidge related in memory of David. So, Kaj Wilson came up with an event. On Sunday evening we will meet at Hamiltons Restaurant and Bar for dinner and discussion. Hamilton's is reserving space for us either on the patio (above right) on inside depending on the weather. So... See "In the Heights" anytime this week before Sunday night and come join the discussion over dinner and drinks at Hamilton's at 7:00 PM Sunday, June 20! Hamilton's is directly behind the theater across Centre Street. The street entrance is at 1366 Beacon St, Brookline, MA 02446. Check out their menu on-line...
	#284 Sunday, June 13, 2021 - 7:00 PM -&- DOUBLE BILL !! THE KID _&_ SHERLOCK JR by Charles Chaplin & Buster Keaton   Two great films in one night by two of America's finest silent comedy talents. In both cases the performers directed themselves. Both films are considered among the finest of their work. (1921 - 68 min - Comedy | Drama) The Tramp cares for an abandoned child, but events put that relationship in jeopardy. (1924 - 45 min - Action | Comedy | Romance) A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocketwatch.
	#283 Wednesday, June 6, 2021 - 7:30 PM Night Moves by Arthur Penn   Presented by Andy Moore (1975 - 1h 40min - Crime | Mystery | Thriller) Los Angeles private investigator Harry Moseby is hired by a client to find her runaway teenage daughter. Moseby tracks the daughter down, only to stumble upon something much more intriguing and sinister.
	#282 Sunday, May 23, 2021 - 6:30 PM BPM (BEATS PER MINUTE) by Robin Campillo   (2017 - 2h 23min - Drama) 120 battements par minute (original title) Early 1990s. With AIDS having already claimed countless lives for nearly ten years, Act up-Paris activists multiply actions to fight general indifference. Nathan, a newcomer to the group, has his world shaken up by Sean, a radical militant, who throws his last bits of strength into the struggle. BPM won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes and was then nominated for 13 Caesar Awards, winning 6, including Best Film and Original Screenplay. It was named the year’s Best Foreign Film by Film Critics Circles in NY, SF, Atlanta, Washington DC, Florida, and Columbus, and by national and L.A. Online critics, and it  topped the IndieWire critics poll. It was also the best / favorite narrative foreign film of both Nat Green and Eric Van (trailing Faces Places). Among non-fantastic films, it ranked 5th and 3rd overall, respectively
	#281 Wednesday, May 12, 2021 - 7:30 PM PRIVATE PROPERTY by Leslie Stevens   (1960 79 min) Duke and Boots, two young thugs, hold up a California gas-station owner. Duke, viral and savage, taunts the slower and psychologically-confused Boots because he has never made a sexual conquest. Duke offers to seduce a woman for Boots and the pair force a passing motorist to pursue a sports car driven by Ann Carlyle, the lustful wife of a insurance-company executive who has some desires of her own not being met by her husband.
	#280 Sunday, May 2, 2021 - 6:30 PM THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD by Andrew Dominik   (2007 - 160 minutes - Biography | Crime | Drama | History | Western) An American epic revisionist Western film written and directed by Andrew Dominik. Adapted from Ron Hansen's 1983 novel of the same title, the film dramatizes the relationship between Jesse James (Brad Pitt) and Robert Ford (Casey Affleck), focusing on the events that lead up to the titular killing. Taking place in Missouri in the early 1880s, the film dramatizes the last seven months in the life of famed outlaw Jesse James, beginning with the Blue Cut train robbery of 1881 and culminating in his assassination at the hands of Robert Ford the following April. In the time between these two fateful events, the young and jealous Ford befriends the increasingly mistrustful outlaw, even as he plots his demise. Starring Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepard, Sam Rockwell, and Mary-Louise Parker. Nominated for best cinematography and supporting actor.
	#279 Sunday, April 25, 2021 - 7:00 PM THE OSCARS by MPAA   Sunday, April 25, Oscars party interactive simulcast, live at Eric’s and with J.P. on Zoom
	#278 Sunday, May 8, 2021 - 7:30 PM PRE-OSCAR VIEWING by Eric Van   Oscar Best Picture Nominee Viewing Gatherings at Eric’s! Details below. As of today, Minari (Lee Isaac Chung), Judas and the Black Messiah (Shaka King), and The Father (Florian Zeller) are all $20 rentals. All three films also have a Screenplay, lead Actor, and Supporting actor nom. Minari also has Director and Score, Judas has Cinematography and Song, and The Father has Editing and Production Design. Eric would like to watch these over two or three get-togethers between Monday the 19th and Saturday the 24th, splitting the cost with others who are COVID-safe via vaccine, or who are willing to wear a mask the whole time. We’ll poll everyone for their preferences and days and times of availability during the Zoom on the 18th.If you expect to miss the meeting but are interested, e-mail Eric at emvan@post.harvard.edu with that information (including your COVID safety method).
	#277 Sunday, April 18, 2021 - 7:30 PM HOLY MOTORS by Leos Carax   "One of the darlings of the 2012 festival circuit, Leos Carax's Holy Motors delivers a pure cinematic experience designed to confront and challenge our understanding of the art form at every level. At the risk of over-simplifying, Holy Motors is a film about the cinema as it stands today, and the deft ways in which Carax explores various aspects of his subject, whether addressing film-makers themselves, we the audience, or even the debate over physical versus digital media, are so rich and dense that it is almost impossible to absorb it all after a single viewing." (2012 - 115 min - comedy, drama, fantasy ) From dawn to dusk, a few hours in the shadowy life of a mystic man named Monsieur Oscar, a man who appears to have a job as an actor, who inhabits several different roles a day, but there are no cameras filming the man's performances or audiences watching. Driven around Paris by a loyal driver (Édith Scob), the mysterious man (Denis Lavant) dresses up in costumes and plays a number of strange, semiscripted roles. Starring Denis Lavant [Carax regular], Édith Scob [Eyes Without a Face], Eva Mendes [Once Upon a Time in Mexico], Kylie Minogue [Moulin Rouge], and Michel Piccoli [Belle de Jour]
	#276 Wednesday, April 7, 2021 - 7:30 PM TO CATCH A THIEF by Alfred Hitchcock   Hitch turns from suspense to charming romantic caper film. While the critics were uncertain, it was still a gigantic hit for Paramount, with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly as the romantic leads. It is the only film they did not sell back to Hitchcock. It is said Hitchcock made it because he needed a vacation. Prince Rainier of Monaco was certainly happy he did. (1955 - 106 min) American expatriate John Robie, living in high style on the Riviera, is a retired cat burglar. He must find out who a copycat is to keep a new wave of jewel thefts from being pinned on him. High on the list of prime victims is Jessie Stevens, in Europe to help daughter Frances find a suitable husband.
	#275 Sunday, March 28, 2021 - 7:30 PM THE CONFORMIST by Bernardo Bertolucci   Adapted from the novel by Italy's great author Alberto Moravia, Bernardo Bertolucci's breath-taking, much awarded film details the life and desire for normality of a government official during Italy's fascist period. (1970 114 min) This story opens in 1938 in Rome, where weak-willed Marcello (Jean-Louis Trintignant) has just taken a job working for Mussollini and is courting a beautiful young woman who will make him even more of a conformist. Marcello is going to Paris on his honeymoon and his bosses have an assignment for him there. Look up his old professor who fled Italy when the fascists came into power. At the border of Italy and France, where Marcello and his bride (Stefania Sandrelli) have to change trains, his bosses give him a gun with a silencer. In a flashback to 1917, we learn why sex and violence are linked in Marcello's mind. Also starring Dominique Sanda and Gastone Moschin. Bernardo Bertolucci's masterpiece boasts an authentic Art Deco look created by production designer Ferdinando Scarfiotti, a score by the great Georges Delerue (Contempt, Jules and Jim, and That Man From Rio) and breathtaking color cinematography by Vittorio Storaro. HOW TO VIEW: The film is available for free on Kanopy HERE , Criterion Channel, and MUBI.
	#274 Wednesday, March 17, 2021 - 7:30 PM DAVE MADE A MAZE by Bill Watterson   (2017 - 80 min - Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy) Dave, an artist who has yet to complete anything significant in his career, creates a space which is dramatically larger on the inside than the out—and gets trapped within it. He calls some friends, including a documentary filmmaker (James Urbaniak, the only familiar face). Within the space, the ostensibly horrific is transformed into a unique and indescribable quasi-opposite. Eric Van says: A completely brilliant stone-cold cult classic in the making. The characters are (at least at the beginning) intentionally thin, mere "types," but the situation they are in is a metaphor. Everything that happens works on two levels: the obvious comic one comes easily, and periodically you get a flickering jolt of awareness of much deeper meaning underlying the zaniness. The film actually ends up with as much depth as a conventionally told story--and maybe more. I thought this was one of the 20 best films of the strongest film year in my memory, and it got better on my rewatch.
	#273 Sunday, March 7, 2021 - 7:30 PM VIVRE SA VIE by Jean-Luc Godard   (1962 - 85 min) My Life to Live (French: Vivre sa vie : film en douze tableaux; To Live Her Life: A Film in Twelve Scenes) is a 1962 French New Wave drama film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. In the United Kingdom, the film was released under the title It's My Life. Nana (Anna Karina), a beautiful Parisian in her early twenties, leaves her husband and infant son hoping to become an actress. Without money, beyond what she earns as a shopgirl, and unable to enter acting, she elects to earn better money as a prostitute. Soon she has a pimp, Raoul, who after an unspecified period agrees to sell Nana to another pimp. During the exchange, the pimps argue and Nana is killed in a gun battle. Nana's short life on film is told in 12 brief episodes, each preceded by a written intertitle. Author and cultural critic Susan Sontag described it as "a perfect film" and "one of the most extraordinary, beautiful, and original works of art that I know of." According to critic Roger Ebert in his essay on the film in the book The Great Movies, "The effect of the film is astonishing. It is clear, astringent, unsentimental, abrupt."
	#272 Wednesday, February 24, 2021 - 7:30 PM ZODIAC by David Fincher   (2007 - 157 min) Zodiac is a 2007 American mystery thriller film directed by David Fincher from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt based on the 1986 non-fiction book of the same title by Robert Graysmith. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr. and Anthony Edwards, with Brian Cox, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, John Carroll Lynch, Chloë Sevigny, Philip Baker Hall and Dermot Mulroney in supporting roles. The film tells the story of the manhunt for the Zodiac Killer, a serial murderer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s and early 1970s, taunting police with letters, bloodstained clothing, and ciphers mailed to newspapers. The case remains one of the United States' most infamous unsolved crimes.
	#271 Sunday, Febuary 14, 2021 - 7:30 PM BEAUTY AND THE BEAST by by Jean Cocteau, René Clément (uncredited)   Last minute change since The Young Girls of Rochefort has suddenly disappeared from Kanopy. But... This will be a winner for the salon! (1946 - 93 minutes) A French romantic fantasy film directed by French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. Starring Josette Day as Belle and Jean Marais as the Beast, it is an adaptation of the 1757 story Beauty and the Beast, written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont and published as part of a fairy tale anthology. The plot of Cocteau's film revolves around Belle's father who is sentenced to death for picking a rose from Beast's garden. Belle offers to go back to the Beast in her father's place. Beast falls in love with her and proposes marriage on a nightly basis which she refuses. Belle eventually becomes more drawn to Beast, who tests her by letting her return home to her family and telling her that if she doesn't return to him within a week, he will die of grief. Beauty and the Beast is now recognized as a classic of French cinema. It has received accolades around the world, even causing Walt Disney to set aside his own version since he felt even animation could not compete with Cocteau's fantasy. HOW TO VIEW: The film is available for free on Kanopy HERE , Criterion Channel, HBO Max, and Watch TCM.
	#270   Wedneday, February 3, 2021 - 7:30 PM THE LITTLE FOXES by William Wyler   The Little Foxes is a 1941 American drama film directed by William Wyler. The screenplay by Lillian Hellman is based on her 1939 play The Little Foxes. The ruthless, moneyed Hubbard clan lives in, and poisons, their part of the deep South at the turn of the twentieth century. Starring Bette David, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Dan Duryea, and Patricia Collinge. The New York Times, Bosley Crowther observed, "Lillian Hellman's grim and malignant melodrama... has now been translated to the screen with all its original viciousness intact ... Mr. Wyler, with the aid of Gregg Toland, has used the camera to sweep in the myriad small details of a mauve decadent household and the more indicative facets of the many characters... The Little Foxes will not increase your admiration for mankind. It is cold and cynical. But it is a very exciting picture to watch in a comfortably objective way, especially if you enjoy expert stabbing-in-the-back." The film received 9 Academy Award nominations but no wins.
	#269   Sunday, January 24, 2021 - 7:30 PM M by Fritz Lang   M (German: M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder, lit. M – A City Searches for a Murderer) is a 1931 German thriller film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Peter Lorre in his breakthrough role as Hans Beckert, a serial killer of children. An early example of a procedural drama, the film centers on the manhunt for Lorre’s character, conducted by both the police and the criminal underworld. The film’s screenplay was written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou and was the director's first sound film. It features many cinematic innovations, including the use of long, fluid tracking shots, and a musical leitmotif in the form of "In the Hall of the Mountain King"; whistled by Lorre's character. Now considered a timeless classic, the film was deemed by Lang to be his magnum opus. It is widely considered one of the greatest films of all time, and an indispensable influence on modern crime and thriller fiction.
	#268 Wednesday, January 13, 2021 - 7:30 PM YEELEN by Souleymane Cissé   Yeelen (Bambara for "brightness"/"light") is a 1987 Malian film directed by Souleymane Cissé. It is filmed in the Bambara and Fula languages, and is based on a legend told by the Bambara people. Though the era is undefined, it is presumably set in the 13th century in the Mali Empire and is a heroic quest narrative featuring magic and precognition. It stars Issiaka Kane as Nianankoro, a young African man with magical powers,who journeys to his uncle to request help in fighting his sorcerer father. Niamanto Sanogo plays Niankoro's father, who is tracking his son through the Bambara, Fulani and Dogon lands of West Africa using a magical wooden post to guide him. Yeelen was met with wide critical success, and was awarded the Jury Prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. It was also nominated for the Golden Palm award for the same year. HOW TO VIEW: The film is available for free on Kanopy HERE and Criterion. Mubi has it as 3.99 rental.
	#268 Sunday, January 6, 2021 - 7:30 PM THE FLORIDA PROJECT by Sean Baker   The Florida Project is a 2017 American slice-of-life drama film directed by Sean Baker and written by Baker and Chris Bergoch. It stars Willem Dafoe, Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Valeria Cotto, Christopher Rivera, and Caleb Landry Jones. It was the first film appearance for many of the cast. The plot follows a six-year-old girl living with her delinquent single mother in a motel in Kissimmee, Florida, as they try to stay out of trouble and make ends meet, so they may keep ahead of impending homelessness. The misery and squalor of their life in Kissimmee is contrasted with nearby Walt Disney World. The Florida Project refers to the original name of the theme park. The Florida Project received critical acclaim upon release, with most of the praise going to the direction and the performances of Prince and Dafoe. Besides nominations and awards, it was chosen by both the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute as one of the top 10 films of the year. Rotten Tomatoes consensus reads, "The Florida Project offers a colorfully empathetic look at an underrepresented part of the population that proves absorbing even as it raises sobering questions about modern America."
	#267 Wednesday, December 23, 2020 - 7:30 PM JOURNEY TO ITALY by Roberto Rossellini   Journey to Italy, also known as Voyage to Italy, is a 1954 drama film directed by Roberto Rossellini. Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders play Katherine and Alex Joyce, an English married couple whose trip to Italy unexpectedly undermines their marriage. The film was written by Rossellini and Vitaliano Brancati, but is loosely based on the 1934 novel Duo by Colette. Although the film was an Italian production, its dialogue is in English. The first theatrical release was in Italy under the title Viaggio in Italia; the dialogue had been dubbed into Italian. Journey to Italy is considered by many to be Rossellini's masterpiece, as well as a seminal work of modernist cinema due to its loose storytelling. In 2012, it was listed by Sight & Sound magazine as one of the fifty greatest films ever made. HOW TO VIEW: The film is available for free on Kanopy HERE HBO Max and The Criterion Collection. It can be rented from Apple TV and Amazon.
	#266 Sunday, December 13, 2020 - 7:30 PM VIDEODROME by David Cronenberg   Starring James Woods and Deborah Harry in one of her first film roles, VIDEODROME is one of writer/director David Cronenberg's most original and provocative works, fusing social commentary with shocking elements of sex and violence. With groundbreaking special effects makeup by Academy Award-winner Rick Baker, VIDEODROME has come to be regarded as one of the most influential and mind-bending science fiction films of the 1980s. (1983) When Max Renn goes looking for edgy new shows for his sleazy cable TV station, he stumbles across the pirate broadcast of a hyperviolent torture show called VIDEODROME. As he unearths the origins of the program, he embarks on a hallucinatory journey into a shadow world of right-wing conspiracies, sadomasochistic sex games, and bodily transformation. Renn's ordinary life dissolves around him, and he finds himself at the center of a conflict between opposing factions in the struggle to control the truth behind the radical human future of "the New Flesh."
	#265 Wednesday, December 2, 2020 - 7:30 PM THE GENERAL by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman   Now considered one of the greatest American films, it was Buster Keaton's favorite. Coming at the end of the Silent Era and made for realism (based on a true event) as much as comedy, it did not perform well with critics and audiences. It was the end of Keaton's independence as a filmmaker, since it was hugely expensive and didn't pay back the studio as it should have. But time has changed everyone's view of this terrific film. It was one of the first 10 films inducted into the National Registry along with Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz, etc.. (1926) Johnnie loves his train ("The General") and Annabelle Lee. When the Civil War begins he is turned down for service because he's more valuable as an engineer. Annabelle thinks it's because he's a coward. Union spies capture The General with Annabelle on board. Johnnie must rescue both his loves.
	#264 Sunday, Movember 1, 2020 - 7:30 PM Mother by Bong Joon-Ho   From the director of Academy Award Best Picture "Parasite" comes his 2009 noir thriller, "Mother." It stars Kim Hye-ja (The Light in Your Eyes (2019)) and Won Bin (tv star and Korean UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador). (2009) A mother (Kim) lives quietly with her twenty-eight-year-old son, Do-joon (Won), providing herbs and acupuncture to neighbors. One day, a girl is brutally murdered, and Do-joon is charged with the killing. Now, it's his mother's call whether to prove him innocent or to leave him imprisoned. HOW TO VIEW: The film is available for free on Kanopy.com HERE , Tubi via TV or online, and The Criterion Channel.
	#263 Sunday, Movember 1, 2020 - 7:30 PM KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS by Robert Hamer   Kind Hearts and Coronets is a 1949 British black comedy film. It features Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood, Valerie Hobson and Alec Guinness; Guinness plays nine characters. The plot is loosely based on the novel Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal (1907) by Roy Horniman. It concerns Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini, the son of a woman disowned by her aristocratic family for marrying out of her social class. After her death, Louis decides to take revenge on the family, and to take the dukedom by murdering the eight people ahead of him in succession to the title. Michael Balcon, the head of Ealing Studios and the producer of Kind Hearts and Coronets, appointed Robert Hamer as director. Hamer was interested in the film, and thought it an interesting project with possibilities of using the English language in a unique way in the film. Kind Hearts and Coronets was released on 13 June 1949 in the United Kingdom, and was well received by the critics. It has continued to receive favourable reviews over the years, and in 1999 it was number six in the British Film Institute's rating of the Top 100 British films. In 2005 it was included in Time's list of the top 100 films since 1923. Alec Guinness was originally offered only four D'Ascoyne parts, recollecting "I read [the screenplay] on a beach in France, collapsed with laughter on the first page, and didn't even bother to get to the end of the script. I went straight back to the hotel and sent a telegram saying, 'Why four parts? Why not eight!?'"; he eventually played nine.
	#262 Sunday, October 31, 2020 - 7:30 PM TITICUT FOLLIES by Frederick Wiseman   (1967) First-time documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institution Bridgewater where people stay trapped in their madness. The title of the film is taken from that of a talent show put on by the hospital staff. Titicut is the Wampanoag name for the nearby Taunton River. Wiseman went on to become one of America's premier observational documentarians of American institutions. Boston-born lawyer/law professor Frederick Wiseman became involved in film in 1963 by produced documentary filmmaker Shirley Clarke's second dramatc feature film "Cool World." After taking his law students from Boston University to the Bridgewater State Prison for educational purposes, he suddenly "wanted to do a film there." The result was a harrowing look into an institution which seemed to be a throwback to almost medieval times in its mistreatment of those persons entrusted to its care. The frank, harrowing film so disturbed state authorities that they had it banned from the general public for 24 years. This will be our second 'banned in America' film after the screening of "Salt of the Earth."
	#261 Wednesday, October 21, 2019 - 7:30 PM LE SAMOURAÏ by Jean-Pierre Melville   (1967) Hitman Jef Costello is a perfectionist who always carefully plans his murders and who never gets caught. One night however, after killing a night-club owner, he's seen by witnesses. His efforts to provide himself with an alibi fail and more and more he gets driven into a corner. French independent filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville was also a perfectionist. While with the French Resistance during World War II, he adopted the pseudonym Melville as a tribute to his favorite American author Herman Melville. When he returned from the war, he applied for a license to become an assistant director but was refused. Without this support, he decided to direct his films by his own means, and continued to use Melville as his stage name. He became an independent film-maker and owned his own studio, rue Jenner, in Paris 13ème. Melville's independence and "reporting" style of film-making (he was one of the first French directors to use real locations regularly) were a major influence on the French New Wave film movement. Jean-Luc Godard used him as a minor character in his seminal New Wave film Breathless. When Godard was having difficulty editing the film, Melville suggested that he just cut directly to the best parts of a shot. Godard was inspired and the film's innovative use of jump cuts have become part of its fame. Spiritual father of the French New Wave, he has influenced new generations of filmmakers in Asia (John Woo, Ringo Lam, Johnnie To, Takeshi Kitano), in Europe (Aki Kaurismäki, Rainer Werner Fassbinder), and in America (Michael Mann, Walter Hill, Quentin Tarantino, William Friedkin, Jim Jarmusch).
	#260 Sunday, October 11, 2019 - 7:30 PM NOTORIOUS by Alfred Hitchcock   A hard-to-find film until last year's Criterion edition, Notorious is one of Hitchcock's best "suspense" films, almost a lecture on the art of making the audience hold their breath on the edge of their chair. Notorious is a 1946 American spy film noir directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains as three people whose lives become intimately entangled during an espionage operation. Notorious is considered by critics and scholars to mark a watershed for Hitchcock artistically, and to represent a heightened thematic maturity. His biographer, Donald Spoto, writes that "Notorious is in fact Alfred Hitchcock's first attempt—at the age of forty-six—to bring his talents to the creation of a serious love story, and its story of two men in love with Ingrid Bergman could only have been made at this stage of his life."
	#259 Wednesday, September 30, 2019 - 7:30 PM THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO by Joe Talbot   Sorry about the last minute switch but we decided The Souvenir might not be the right film for the moment. So we're going with a 2019 film from A24 which did not get the attention it deserves. I think this is a timely and important film from a filmmaker who should continue to make great films. The film is the feature debut of director and producer Joe Talbot. Talbot wrote the screenplay with Rob Richert and the story with Jimmie Fails, on whose life the film is partly based. The movie stars Fails, Jonathan Majors, Tichina Arnold, Rob Morgan, Mike Epps, Finn Wittrock, Danny Glover, and Thora Birch. Its plot centers on the efforts of a young black man to reclaim his childhood home, a now-expensive Victorian house in a gentrified neighborhood of San Francisco. While it seemed to not get the attention is deserved, it did have success at Sundance and get consistent awards for being Talbot's first film (a sign it should have gotten more). It did get into the National Board of Review's top ten film and critics hailed it: The LA Times called the film "a gorgeous, moving ode to a city in flux." The Hollywood Reporter: "by far the best narrative film I saw [at Sundance]... Every scene is fresh and unpredictable, visual poetry and realism are exquisitely woven together." Rolling Stone: "the best movie of the year" as of June 2019, Deadline Hollywood "the one movie I have seen that should have Oscar written all over it." And Barack Obama rated it as one of the best films of 2019.
	#258 Sunday, September 20, 2019 - 7:30 PM FLOATING WEEDS by Yasujirō Ozu   Floating Weeds (浮草, Ukikusa) is a 1959 Japanese drama film directed by Yasujirō Ozu, starring Ganjirō Nakamura and Machiko Kyō. It is a remake of Ozu's own black-and-white silent film A Story of Floating Weeds (1934). This, one of Ozu's last films, has all the elements of a Shakespearean tragedy played out among people living simple, workaday lives: deceit, jealousy, betrayal, vengeance, love, hope. It's all there. A troupe of travelling players arrive at a small seaport in the south of Japan. Komajuro Arashi, the aging master of the troupe, goes to visit his old flame Oyoshi and their son Kiyoshi, even though Kiyoshi believes Komajuro is his uncle. The leading actress Sumiko is jealous and so, in order to humiliate the master, persuades the younger actress Kayo to seduce Kiyoshi. In 2002, American film director James Mangold said, "Ozu is the world's greatest director film geeks have never heard of. A poet, humanitarian, stylist, innovator - and a brilliant actors' director. I would recommend the film to anyone with a heart who knows direction is about more than camera moves."
	#257 Wednesday, September 9, 2019 - 7:30 PM UGETSU by Kenji Mizoguchi   Ugetsu (1953) is a Japanese romantic fantasy drama film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi and based on stories in Ueda Akinari's 1776 book of the same name. It is a ghost story and an example of the jidaigeki (period drama) genre, starring Masayuki Mori and Machiko Kyō. Drawing its plot particularly from Ueda's tales "The House in the Thicket" and "The Lust of the White Serpent", the film is set in Azuchi–Momoyama period Japan (c. 1573–1600). It is about a peasant farmer and potter who leaves his wife and young son during civil war, and is seduced by a spirit that threatens his life. A subplot involves his friend, who dreams of becoming a great samurai and chases this goal at the unintended expense of his wife. Major themes include the ethics of war, forbidden relationships with the spirit world, and neglect of family duty. The film won the Silver Lion Award at the 1953 Venice Film Festival (no gold was awarded that year), nominated for Best Foreign Film, and other honours. Ugetsu is one of Mizoguchi's most celebrated films, regarded by critics as a masterpiece of Japanese cinema. It is credited with simultaneously helping to popularise Japanese cinema in the West and influencing later Japanese film.
	#256 Wedneday, August 30, 2019 - 7:30 PM THE CONVERSATION by Francis Ford Coppola   (1974) A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered. Starring Gene Hackman with John Cazale; Allen Garfield; Frederic Forrest; Cindy Williams; Teri Garr; Harrison Ford
	#255 Wednesday, August 18, 2020 - 7:30 PM Screen separately and Meeting on Zoom THE TURIN HORSE by Bela Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky (2011) In 1889, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche witnessed the whipping of a horse while traveling in Turin, Italy. He tossed his arms around the horse's neck to protect it then collapsed to the ground. In less than one month, Nietzsche would be diagnosed with a serious mental illness that would make him bed-ridden and speechless for the next eleven years until his death. But whatever did happen to the horse? This film, which is Tarr's last, follows up this question in a fictionalized story of what occurred. The man who whipped the horse is a rural farmer who makes his living taking on carting jobs into the city with his horse-drawn cart. The horse is old and in very poor health, but does its best to obey its master's commands. The farmer and his daughter must come to the understanding that it will be unable to go on sustaining their livelihoods. The dying of the horse is the foundation of this tragic tale.
	#254 Sunday, August 9, 2020 - 7:30 PM on Zoom Meeting (basic) THE SQUID AND THE WHALE by Noah Baumbach (2005) As the reputation and artistry of Noah Baumbach [Marriage Story, Frances Ha] grows, it's a good idea to catch up with the foundations of his craft, and his piercing look at relationships. Time critic Richard Corliss wrote, "The Squid and the Whale is domestic tragedy recollected as comedy: a film whose catalog of deceits and embarrassments, and of love pratfalling over itself, makes it as (excruciatingly) painful as it is (exhilaratingly) funny." In 1986, In Brooklyn, New York, the dysfunctional family of pseudo intellectuals composed by the university professor Bernard and the prominent writer Joan split. Their sons, the teenager Walt and the boy Frank, feel the separation and take sides: Walt stays with Bernard, and Frank with Joan, and both are affected with abnormal behaviors. HOW TO VIEW: The film is available on Kanopy.com HERE. THE WEDNESDAY MEETING: We'll send you an email with the location link and time of the meeting and you click on the link at the right time. If you don't have the software haven't used Zoom before this, Zoom will walk you through the process and you're in. Each meeting is usually limited to 40 minutes. Should we be cut off, use the same code link again and the session will continue.
	#253 Wednesday, July 29, 2020 - 7:30 PM on Zoom Meeting (basic) LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD by Alain Resnais (1961) L'Année dernière à Marienbad (released in the US as Last Year at Marienbad and in the UK as Last Year in Marienbad) is a 1961 French-Italian Left Bank film directed by Alain Resnais from a screenplay by Alain Robbe-Grillet.[a] Set in a palace in a park that has been converted into a luxury hotel, it stars Delphine Seyrig and Giorgio Albertazzi as a woman and a man who may have met the year before and may have contemplated or started an affair, with Sacha Pitoëff as a second man who may be the woman's husband. The characters are unnamed. The film is famous for its enigmatic narrative structure, in which time and space are fluid, with no certainty over what is happening to the characters, what they are remembering, and what they are imagining. Its dreamlike nature has both fascinated and baffled viewers; many have hailed the work as a masterpiece, although others have found it incomprehensible. Note the Hitchcock-like figure in the still above and the Kubrickesque framing. HOW TO VIEW: The film is available on Kanopy.com HERE. THE WEDNESDAY MEETING: We'll send you an email with the location link and time of the meeting and you click on the link at the right time. If you don't have the software haven't used Zoom before this, Zoom will walk you through the process and you're in. Each meeting is usually limited to 40 minutes. Should we be cut off, use the same code link again and the session will continue.
	#252 Sunday, July 19, 2020 - 7:30 PM on Zoom Meeting (basic) THE NIGHT MY NUMBER CAME UP by Leslie Norman Sadly, Diabolique is no longer available online. So we're turning to another on the long list of not yet seen salon choices. While Ealing Studios best known for their enduring comedies, they also produced many other fine films. This supernatural thriller is based on a real incident in the life of British Air Marshal Sir Victor Goddard; his journal was published in The Saturday Evening Post of 26 May 1951. Directed by Leslie Norman (Dunkirk, The Avengers (tv)), screenplay by R. C. Sherriff (The Invisible Man, Goodbye, Mr. Chips), and starring Michael Redgrave (The Lady Vanishes), Sheila Sim (A Canterbury Tale), Denholm Elliott (Raiders of the Lost Ark) (1955) At a fashionable dinner party in Hong Kong, a Naval officer is coaxed into revealing details of a dream in which eight people take off from Bangkok, Thailand in a Dakota bound for Tokyo, Japan and crash in the Japanese mountains. Amongst those listening is Air Marshal Hardie (Sir Michael Redgrave), who is due to fly to Tokyo the next day. Hardie initially dismisses the dream because he is scheduled to fly out in a Liberator, but as Hardie arrives at the airport, he discovers that the Liberator has developed mechanical problems and has been replaced by a Dakota. When, just before the flight is due to depart, two soldiers board the plane making a complement of eight, Hardie fears that the dream may be coming true, and he is destined to die. HOW TO VIEW: The film is available on Kanopy.com HERE. THE WEDNESDAY MEETING: We'll send you an email with the location link and time of the meeting and you click on the link at the right time. If you don't have the software haven't used Zoom before this, Zoom will walk you through the process and you're in. Each meeting is usually limited to 40 minutes. Should we be cut off, use the same code link again and the session will continue.
	#252 Wednesday, July 7, 2020 - 7:30 PM on Zoom Meeting (basic) DA 5 BLOODS by Spike Lee (2020) Four African American vets battle the forces of man and nature when they return to Vietnam seeking the remains of their fallen squad leader and the gold fortune he helped them hide. From Academy Award® Winner Spike Lee comes a new joint: the story of four African American Vets - Paul (Delroy Lindo), Otis (Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis), and Melvin (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.) - who return to Vietnam. Searching for the remains of their fallen Squad Leader (Chadwick Boseman) and the promise of buried treasure, our heroes, joined by Paul's concerned son (Jonathan Majors), battle forces of Man and Nature - while confronted by the lasting ravages of The Immorality of The Vietnam War. HOW TO VIEW: The film is available Netflix, who financed the film. THE WEDNESDAY MEETING: We'll send you an email with the location link and time of the meeting and you click on the link at the right time. If you don't have the software haven't used Zoom before this, Zoom will walk you through the process and you're in. Each meeting is usually limited to 40 minutes. Should we be cut off, use the same code link again and the session will continue.
	#251 Sunday, June 2819, 2020 - 7:30 PM on Zoom Meeting (basic) SALT OF THE EARTH by Henry J. Biberman (1954) The drama film is one of the first pictures to advance the feminist social and political point of view. Its plot centers on a long and difficult strike, based on the 1951 strike against the Empire Zinc Company in Grant County, New Mexico. The film shows how the miners, the company, and the police react during the strike. In neorealist style, the producers and director used actual miners and their families as actors in the film. The professional actors include Rosaura Revueltas as Esperanza, Will Geer as the Sheriff, and David Bauer as Barton. Written by Michael Wilson (AA for "Bridge on the River Kwai"), directed by Herbert J. Biberman, and produced by Paul Jarrico. All had been blacklisted by the Hollywood establishment due to the HUAC hearings. Despite the uproar about the blacklisted filmmakers which caused the film to be panned in the US by Congress, the Hollywood establishment, and many critics, Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times, reviewed the picture favorably, both for its screenplay and direction, writing: "In the light of this agitated history, it is somewhat surprising to find that Salt of the Earth is, in substance, simply a strong pro-labor film with a particularly sympathetic interest in the Mexican-Americans with whom it deals.... But the real dramatic crux of the picture is the stern and bitter conflict within the membership of the union. It is the issue of whether the women shall have equality of expression and of strike participation with the men. And it is along this line of contention that Michael Wilson's tautly muscled script develops considerable personal drama, raw emotion and power." HOW TO VIEW: The film is available through Kanopy.com, Amazon Prime, and Archive.org (best version is HERE). THE SUNDAY MEETING: We'll send you an email with the location link and time of the meeting and you click on the link at the right time. If you don't have the software haven't used Zoom before this, Zoom will walk you through the process and you're in. Each meeting is usually limited to 40 minutes, though last time Zoom sent a message allowing us to go on indefintely (we ran almost two hours). Should we be cut off, go back and use the same code again and it should continue.
	#250 Wednesday, June 19, 2020 - 7:30 PM on Zoom Meeting (basic) HAPPY AS LAZARRO by Alice Rohrwacher Lazzaro is a young peasant so good that he is often mistaken for simple-minded who meets Tancredi, a young nobleman cursed by his imagination. Life in their isolated pastoral village Inviolata is dominated by the terrible Marchesa Alfonsina de Luna, the queen of cigarettes. A loyal bond is sealed when Tancredi asks Lazzaro to help him orchestrate his own kidnapping. This strange and improbable alliance is a revelation for Lazzaro. A friendship so precious that it will travel in time and transport Lazzaro in search of Tancredi. His first time in the big city, Lazzaro is like a fragment of the past lost in the modern world. Been a while since we've had a female director. Alice Rohrwacher is also known for Corpo Celeste, The Wonders, and My Brilliant Friend episodes. The film won best screenplay at Cannes and a Palm d'Or nom. Eric adds: It has high ratings across the board: Rotten Tomatos 7.9 and an aggregate ranking of 40th best in the world for 1918 as well as an IMDB of 7.6 HOW TO VIEW: Unfortunately, this is only available through Netflix. THE WEDNESDAY MEETING: We'll send you an email with the location link and time of the meeting and you click on the link at the right time. If you don't have the software haven't used Zoom before this, Zoom will walk you through the process and you're in. Each meeting is usually limited to 40 minutes, though last time Zoom sent a message allowing us to go on indefintely (we ran almost two hours). Should we be cut off, go back and use the same code again and it should continue.
	#249 Sunday, June 7, 2020 - 7:30 PM on Zoom Meeting (basic) if.... by Lindsay Anderson "if...." won the Palme d'Or at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival. In 1999, the British Film Institute named it the 12th greatest British film of the 20th century. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus, "Incendiary, subversive, and darkly humorous, 'If....' is a landmark of British countercultural cinema." (1968) In an indictment of the British public school system, we follow Mick and his mostly younger friends through a series of indignities and occasionally abuse as any fond feelings toward these schools are destroyed. When Mick and his friends rebel, violently, the catch phrase, "which side would you be on" becomes quite stark. The film stars Malcolm McDowell in his first screen role and his first appearance as Anderson's "everyman" character Mick Travis. Richard Warwick, Christine Noonan, David Wood, Mona Washbourne, and Robert Swann also star. "If...." has references visually and structurally taken from Jean Vigo's 1933 classic featurette "Zero for Conduct," which also influenced Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows." Anderson had his screenwriters and crew watch the film before shooting. There is a good copy on archive.org HERE. The online version is very good and the MPEG2 version is 2 gb and can be downloaded. Eric adds: The title ends with four periods, something that Lindsay Anderson insisted on … seemingly, an ellipsis plus its opposite, a full stop. The alteration between color and black and white was not, as has been widely reported, because they ran out of money while shooting. They needed to shoot natural-light scenes in the chapel in B&W, and Anderson liked the look and decided to use it elsewhere. We fully intend to screen its 1974 companion film, O Lucky Man!, some Sunday after life returns to normal.   HOW TO VIEW: "if...." is available on both Netflix and Kanopy. THE SUNDAY MEETING: We'll send you an email with the location link and time of the meeting and you click on the link at the right time. If you don't have the software haven't used Zoom before this, Zoom will walk you through the process and you're in. Each meeting is usually limited to 40 minutes, though last time Zoom sent a message allowing us to go on indefintely (we ran almost two hours). Should we be cut off, go back and use the same code again and it should continue. RECOMMENDED If you like comedy, our member Kaj Wilson leads this virtual seminar on Albert Brooks' comedy "Mother," starring Debbie Reynolds and, of course, Albert Brooks, through the Coolidge Corner Theatre. Simple sign up for the seminar Register Here, watch the pre-viewing lecture (available a week before the discussion), watch the film, and join in the discussion, which will take place on Thursday, June 18 at 8pm EST over Zoom. Before the discussion, you can submit questions for the instructor here . You'll also have the opportunity to submit questions during the discussion! While the Coolidge can't provide theb film itself, you can find out where you can stream, rent. or buy the films HERE. FOR MORE INFO GO TO THE CCT page HERE
	#248 Sunday, May 17, 2020 - 7:30 PM on Zoom Meeting (basic) LOCKE by Steven Knight Locke may be best known as the film whose trailer played for weeks at the Coolidge in 2014 but never played there. It was one of the early critical hits from distributor A24 (released three weeks after Under the Skin, in fact.) It earned a terrific 7.7 Average Rating at Rotten Tomatoes (91% Fresh) but only ranked 32nd for end-of-year top-10 mentions, so it got a quick start in the race for the decade’s most overlooked film. It’s an exercise in cinematic minimalism, and a riveting character study featuring an acting tour de force from Tom Hardy. It’s the second film directed by writer Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things, Eastern Promises), who subsequently created the hugely buzzed U.K. crime drama Peaky Blinders. (2013) Ivan Locke, a dedicated family man and successful construction manager, receives a phone call on the eve of the biggest challenge of his career that sets in motion a series of events that threaten his carefully cultivated existence. Starring Tom Hardy, Olivia Coleman, and Ruth Wilson. HOW TO VIEW: Available on both Netflix and Kanopy. THE WEDNESDAY MEETING: We'll send you an email with the location link and time of the meeting and you click on the link at the right time. If you don't have the software haven't used Zoom before this, Zoom will walk you through the process and you're in. Each meeting is usually limited to 40 minutes, though last time Zoom sent a message allowing us to go on indefintely (we ran almost two hours). Should we be cut off, go back and use the same code again and it should continue.
	#247 Sunday, May 17, 2020 - 7:30 PM on Zoom Meeting (basic) MR. HULOT'S HOLIDAY by Jacques Tati It's hard to believe that this French filmmaker understood the meaning of silent movie storytelling better than anyone else in the world during his career in the middle of the 20th Century, while everyone else was using dialogue to propel their filmic story. But Tati is a genius of visual storytelling. Mr. Hulot's Holiday is the delightful grandchild of Chaplin, Keaton, Linder, and Lloyd. (1953) Monsieur Hulot goes on a holiday to a seaside resort but accidents and misunderstandings follow him wherever he goes. The hotel guests' peace and quiet doesn't last with Hulot around, because although his intentions are good, they always turn catastrophic. This is Tati's second feature, following Jour de Fête (a rural postman tries to modernize) and followed by Mon Oncle (Academy Award winner following Mr. Hulot's chaotic visit to his sister's home) and Playtime (Mr. Hulot's visit to Paris while it's being renovated - a masterpiece completely without dialogue). ----- HOW TO VIEW: Kanopy has the restored Criterion Collection version. THE SUNDAY MEETING: We'll send you an email with the location link and time of the meeting and you click on the link at the right time. If you don't have the software haven't used Zoom before this, Zoom will walk you through the process and you're in. Each meeting is usually limited to 40 minutes, though last time Zoom sent a message allowing us to go on indefintely (we ran almost two hours). Should we be cut off, we will immediately set up a second session for 30 minutes after the first.
	#246 Wedneday, May 6, 2020 - 7:30 PM on Zoom Meeting (basic) BURNING by Chang-dong Lee Presented by Eric Van From Chang-dong Lee, the director who gave us the amazing "Poetry," our most attended salon, "Burning" has an amazing record for awards world-wide. This psychological mystery is based on the short story "Barn Burning" by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, through the filmmaker also suggests allusions to William Faulkner's story of the same name, as well as other Faulkner elements. (2018) Jong-su bumps into a girl who used to live in the same neighborhood, who asks him to look after her cat while she's on a trip to Africa. When back, she introduces Ben, a mysterious guy she met there, who confesses his secret hobby. ----- HOW TO VIEW: At the moment, this is only available on Netflix! I also suggest you watch "Poetry" which is currently free on Canopy. THE WEDNESDAY MEETING: We'll send you an email with the location link and time of the meeting and you click on the link at the right time. If you don't have the software haven't used Zoom before this, Zoom will walk you through the process and you're in. Each meeting is usually limited to 40 minutes, though last time Zoom sent a message allowing us to go on indefintely (we ran almost two hours). Should we be cut off, we will immediately set up a second session for 30 minutes after the first.
	#245 Sunday, April 26, 2020 - 7:30 PM on Zoom Meeting (basic) CARNIVAL OF SOULS by Herk Harvey One of the great American cult films by a one time feature filmmaker. Actually Herk Harvey was a highly awarded and sucessful industrial filmmaker. Having driven past the Salt Lake, Utah resort Saltair, he decided to make a feature film. The result was "Carnival of Souls," which had trouble finding an audience. While Herk returned to his industrial film career, the film slowly gained a surprising cult status right up to annual screenings around Halloween and a Criterion Collection release. (1962) Mary Henry is enjoying the day by riding around in a car with two friends. When challenged to a drag, the women accept, but are forced off of a bridge. It appears that all are drowned, until Mary, quite some time later, amazingly emerges from the river. After recovering, Mary accepts a job in a new town as a church organist, only to be dogged by a mysterious phantom figure that seems to reside in an old run-down pavilion. It is here that Mary must confront the personal demons of her spiritual insouciance. [P.S.: it's not a gory horror film so don't fear watching, and, since it's online, you can always pause to catch your breath.] EXTRAS (NEW): RE: Carnival of Souls... 1. Two of the inspirations were Ambrose Bierce's short story "The Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge" and the 1960 Twilight Zone episode "The Hitch-Hiker" starring Inger Stevens (who the lead actress looks a lot like). 2. Eric Van added another idea for the film... For those who are unschooled in the taxonomy of the paranormal, Mary is a revenant—a corporeal ghost capable of interacting fully with humanity. The traditional revenant is someone you just buried and who then shows up the next day for dinner, oblivious to the fact that they’re dead. The supposed Yiddish folk tale that opens A Serious Man is about a revenant. It’s easy to guess that Mary is dead but doesn’t know it when she first re-appears, three hours after the car crash. But we are used to seeing posthumous fantasies, which are tales set in the afterlife posing as the real world, and are always strictly from the POV of the deceased. This one is set in the real world, and everyone, not just Mary, is mistaken about her metaphysical status. The film plays off the two possible readings beautifully by being largely from Mary’s POV and gradually including scenes that are not. HOW TO VIEW: 3 ways! The film is available on Amazon Prime free to subscribers. It is in public domain so free, no subscriber viewers can see it for free on Archive.org (an open website which soared with the inclusion of the Prelinger film library and tons of public domain additions) Archive Dot Org. There are two good versions. The first is great for streaming on your computer. The second is a large version which can be downloaded and viewed either on your computer or by USB thumbdrive through your DVD/Bluray player or directly on a smart tv (that can read a thumbdrive video). Online Viewing - MPEG4 - 642.4 Megabytes https://archive.org/details/CarnivalOfSoulsVideoQualityUpgrade Download Viewing - Windows Media - 1.3 Gigabytes https://archive.org/details/CarnivalOfSoulsUpgrade?webamp=default THE SUNDAY MEETING: The last online Salon was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to be able to get involved. As for the Zoom thing, you don't have to learn anything. We'll send you an email with the location link and time of the meeting and you click on the link at the right time. If you don't have the software, Zoom will walk you through the process and you're in. Each meeting can last 40 minutes. We might try to have different administrators/moderators to have a few sessions in one evening.
	#244 Wednesday, April 15, 2020 - 7:00 PM on Zoom Meeting (basic) MY SASSY GIRL by Kwak Jae-yong (2001) The film is based on a true story told in a series of blog posts written by Kim Ho-sik, who later adapted them into a fictional novel. The film's success across Asia drew comparisons to "Titanic." My Sassy Girl sparked an international breakthrough for Korean cinema, and it played a key role in the spread of the Korean Wave. The film has spawned an international media franchise, consisting of film remakes and television adaptations in different countries as well as a sequel. It also turned female lead Jun Ji-hyun into an international star [Il Mare (2000), Windstruck (2004), The Thieves (2012), The Berlin File (2013) and Assassination (2015)]. The story? A young man (Kyun-woo) sees a drunk, cute unnamed girl standing too close to the tracks at a metro station in Seoul and pulls her back. Kyun-woo is shamed into assisting the girl because the other passengers mistakenly think she is his girlfriend. Once he helps her, Kyun-woo develops a deep sense of responsibility for her which enables him to tolerate (somehow) the girl's abuses. She ends up getting him into trouble repeatedly after that. A NOTE ABOUT THE DATE: We decided on April 15th for a reason. It is the date of David Kleiler's passing. Hopefully we can all raise a glass and toast him during out Zoom online meeting. HOW TO VIEW: 3 ways! It is available on Netflix, free on Amazon Prime, and free on Kanopy. The idea is to watch it before 7 PM Wednesday. If you have any problems using or signing up for any of these online movie sites, please let me know. I may be able to help, especially with Kanopy which is a free service attached to library systems (and, as Andy said in the last flyer: you don't need a library card at the moment.) Depending on how you feel, you can make notes about your reaction to the film, its history, the cinematography, story, characters, direction and acting, use of color, sets, etc. I can post these before the online meeting and we can all use this as touchstones to quide an entertaining and informative discussion of this fun film. THE WED. MEETING: We're still working on this. Kaj, Eric, and I are all learing Zoom as administrators. You don't seem to have to learn anything but download the free software, wait for us to send you an invite and link in that way. It should be easy, We'll be sending you more info on this. The site is https://zoom.us/. Suggest you download the software directly from there instead of all the other sites which aren's Zoom offering the app. Each meeting can last 40 minutes. We might try to have different administrators/moderators to have a few sessions in one evening.
	#243 Tuesday, March 10, 2020 - 7:00 PM At Eric Van's OUR LITTLE SISTER by Hirokazu Koreeda Perhaps one of the most delightful films of recent years according to everyone who has had the chance to see it. Based on a manga by Akimi Yoshida, it is a story that revolves around three sisters who live in their grandmother's home and the arrival of their thirteen-year-old half sister. It won top honors from Japan's film academy. If you've seen Koreeda's "Shoplifters" you must see this film. It is not available on disk in this country so we will be streaming it. Please remember to RSVP to Eric (his email is on this email) so we know the head count.
	#242 Monday, March 2, 2020 - 7:00 PM LONELY ARE THE BRAVE by David Miller   David Kaiser presents this essential Western classic starring Kirk Douglas (in his honor RIP), directed by David Miller written by Dalton Trumbo from a book by Edward Abbey, and co-starring Walter Matthau, Gena Rowlands, and George Kennedy. (1962) “Have you ever noticed how many fences they’re getting to be?  And the signs they got on them: no hunting, no hiking, no admission, no trespassing, private property, closed area, start moving, go away, get lost, drop dead!  Do you know what I mean?”     This was the favorite film role of its star, Kirk Douglas; a perceptive, poignant, haunting little drama taken from Edward Abbey’s novel, “The Brave Cowboy”. * SPECIAL NOTE: Since we're screening on a Monday, the posse is planning to meet at Matt Murphy's at 5:00 PM for drinks and FREE OYSTERS. It's a short walk from the screening: at 14 Harvard St in Brookline Village. They serve free oysters from 5-7 PM on Mondays. Try to get there before 6 PM when it starts filling up for dinner (or RSVP to J-P and we'll hold a seat for you). A great little bar, well worth the trip.
	#241 Sunday, February 16, 2020 - 7:00 PM LET THE RIGHT ONE IN by Tomas Alfredson   The internationally award-winning Swedish Låt den rätte komma (2008) is that rare beast: a vampire film which crosses over to art film and satisfied both audience. Oskar, a bullied 12-year old, dreams of revenge. He falls in love with Eli, a peculiar girl. She can't stand the sun or food and to come into a room she needs to be invited. Eli gives Oskar the strength to hit back but when he realizes that Eli needs to drink other people's blood to live he's faced with a choice. How much can love forgive? Set in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg in 1982. From Eric: Let the Right One In was the 6th best-reviewed film of 2008—at the time, the best performance by a horror film since at least 1980 (as far back as our data goes) and still second only to Get Out. It’s the highest rated horror film at IMDB since 1982. It’s the highest rated horror film at TheyShootPitctures.com since 1988. Eric saw it twice at the Kendall, ranks it as his favorite horror film of all time, and has been dying to watch his Blu-Ray copy. What else do you need to know?
	#240 Friday, February 21, 2019 - 6:30 PM SUNSET BOULEVARD by Billy Wilder   How did we not show this before??? On par with Citizen Kane, this film noir from Billy Wilder is truly a classic of the screen, as are the performances!
	#239 Sunday, February 16, 2019 - 6:00 PM NASHVILLE by Robert Altman   Robert Altman, perhaps the most undervalued modern film auteur, blew the roof off politics and western music with this sweeping masterpiece. A boxoffice, critical, and award-winning success, Nashville (considered Altman's "magnum opus") showed the power of the ensemble cast and Altman's ability to weave amazing storytelling in the process. Ebert wrote "after I saw it I felt more alive, I felt I understood more about people, I felt somehow wiser. It's that good a movie." (1975) Five days in the Nashville country and gospel music scene, filled with stars, wannabe stars, and other hangers-on - individual stories of this small group intertwined - provides a commentary on American society. Since it runs 160 minutes, we are showing this on a Sunday with a 6 PM gathering for eats, drink and conversation, expecting a 7 PM screening start, with a short intermission. It's truly a film worth the watch and the conversation should be lively.
	#238 Wednesday, February 12, 2019 - 7:00 PM RIDE THE WILD COUNTRY by Sam Peckinpah
	#237 Sunday, February 9, 2020 - 6:00 PM THE ACADEMY AWARDS PARTY with J-P Ouellette, Eric Van, et al   (2020) Once again we are looking at an exciting Oscar event worth getting together and sharing our experiences with the films. And guessing on what the Academy members will choose. There will be ballots sent out ahead of time.
	#236 Wednesday, February 5 , 2020 - 7:00 PM PREDESTINATION by The Spierig Brothers   Predestination is a word-of-mouth phenomenon, ranking 412th at the domestic box office for 2015, but 22nd in user ratings at IMDB (sporting an excellent 7.5). An Australian science fiction thriller film written and directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, the film stars Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook, and Noah Taylor, and is based on the short story "—All You Zombies—" by Robert A. Heinlein. But it's not a zombie movie! Variety magazine called it an "entrancingly strange time-travel saga" that "succeeds in teasing the brain and touching the heart even when its twists and turns keep multiplying..." (2014) For his final assignment, a top temporal agent must pursue the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time. The chase turns into a unique, surprising and mind-bending exploration of love, fate, identity and time travel taboos. And it’s the film that was discussed when David Kleiler, Eric Van, and Sally Barkan ran into Ethan Hawke in front of Zaftig’s!
	#235 Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 7:00 PM at Eric Van's THE GREAT BEAUTY by Paolo Sorrentino   (2013) Journalist Jep Gambardella has charmed and seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades. Since the legendary success of his one and only novel, he has been a permanent fixture in the city's literary and social circles, but when his sixty-fifth birthday coincides with a shock from the past, Jep finds himself unexpectedly taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the extravagant nightclubs, parties, and cafés to find Rome in all its glory: a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.
	#234 Monday, January 20, 2020 - 7:00 PM ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT by Lewis Milestone   With the release of "1917," thought it would be fun to screen what many feel is the greatest anti-war film ever based on German writer Erick Maria Remarque's brilliant novel. The film was banned in many countries before and during WW2. It won the best picture Academy Award and was directed by Lewis Milestone, scripted by Maxwell Anderson (Key Largo, The Bad Seed), and photographed by the great Arthur Edeson (Casablanca, Maltese Falcon, Frankenstein, The Thief of Bagdad). (1930) This is an English language film (made in America) adapted from a novel by German author Erich Maria Remarque. The film follows a group of German schoolboys, talked into enlisting at the beginning of World War 1 by their jingoistic teacher. The story is told entirely through the experiences of the young German recruits and highlights the tragedy of war through the eyes of individuals. As the boys witness death and mutilation all around them, any preconceptions about "the enemy" and the "rights and wrongs" of the conflict disappear, leaving them angry and bewildered. This is highlighted in the scene where Paul mortally wounds a French soldier and then weeps bitterly as he fights to save his life while trapped in a shell crater with the body. The film is not about heroism but about drudgery and futility and the gulf between the concept of war and the actuality. * SPECIAL NOTE: Since we're screening on a Monday, the posse is planning to meet at Matt Murphy's at 5:00 PM for drinks and FREE OYSTERS. It's a short walk from the screening: at 14 Harvard St in Brookline Village. They serve free oysters from 5-7 PM on Mondays. Try to get there before 6 PM when it starts filling up for dinner (or RSVP to J-P and we'll hold a seat for you). A great little bar, well worth the trip.
#233 Wednesday, January 15, 2020 - 7:00 PM NETWORK by Sidney Lumet   (1976) A television anchor becomes angered and disturbed by the decaying state of network news. Of course, the network give him his own show to vent his ravings. The first Salon/Saloon of the election year would have to be relevant, right? (Show of hands: how many of you know that Ronald Reagan, in his celebrated “there you go again” debate moment, was either lying through his teeth or delusional in his subsequent rebuttal of Carter’s accusation; that the Carter campaign held a press conference to point this out; and that the fact was deemed newsworthy by a single newspaper?) Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky spotted a disturbing new trend, ripe for vicious satire: the profit motive had begun to distort network news. He won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and it’s tempting to identify him as the film’s auteur, precisely as the opening credits do. On the other hand, it was director Lumet who got five Oscar-nominated performances from the cast, including three winners—a feat unmatched in Oscar History. Peter Finch won the first posthumous Oscar for Best Actor, beating William Holden; Faye Dunaway won Best Actress, and Beatrice Straight won Best Supporting Actress with the briefest winning role in Oscar History; Ned Beatty was nominated for Best Supporting Actor on the basis of one scene (essentially for one monologue). The film also was nominated for Best Picture (losing to Rocky), Cinematography, and Editing. It’s ranked the #200 film of all time by IMDB voters. Critics and film scholars have it as #407, which EV thinks is way too low.
#232 Sunday, December 22, 2019 - 6:30 PM THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES by DIRECTOR   (1946) One of David Kleiler's favorite films, one he always wanted to present but could only work as a Friday or Sunday film. We had planned to do this pre-Thanksgiving but as a Christmas family film, it's still meaningful as a drama of a family reuniting. Whether you lived through WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam War, or the Iraqi War, this tale of veterans returning home to small-town America to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed, is essential Americana.
#231 Wednesday, December 18, 2019 - 7:00 PM at Eric Van's CLOSE UP by Abbas Kiarostami   Presented by Eric Van (1990 Iran, 1999 U.S.) In this largely true story, a young Iranian cinephile impulsively claims to be prominent director Mohsen Mahkbalef, and bamboozles a middle-class family into preparing for roles in “his” next film. Needless to say, he doesn’t get away with it. Perhaps no film in history has more blurred the lines between drama and documentary, or more provocatively examined the relationship of life to cinematic art. The circumstances surrounding the production are unique, and Eric thinks it might be better to approach the film without knowing them! If you’d rather know, scroll down to the very end for the FILM SPOILER. Close-Up is currently ranked as the #86 film of all time according to the consensus of film critics, scholars, and directors as compiled at TheyShootPictures.com. Eric’s adjustment for the film’s release date puts it at #54, just behind Modern Times and ahead of Dr. Strangelove. It is the unseen contemporary film masterpiece. ** We’ll have family-style Chinese take-out from Home Taste starting at 6:45 or so. Eric says the dumplings and noodle dishes are the best he’s ever had. Excluding beverages, the meal runs about $11. Seriously!
#230 Tuesday, December 10, 2019 - 7:00 PM PANDORA'S BOX by Georg Wilhelm Pabst   Forget pre-Code! Besides the cast, amazing cinematography, expressionistic sets, luxurious costumes, and powerful direction, there is Louise Brooks. "The thematic sexual content is handled with reverence rather than raunchiness and it is [Louise Brooks'] glorious, giddy, and sincere playful naive nature that is compelling. She not only, just by proximity, seduces any man in close contact, as well as the audience with a childish charm of calming cuteness but unleashes primal desire as well as a protective desire manifested by her magnetism." (1929) Die Büchse der Pandora. The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.
#229 Wednesday, December 4, 2019 - 7:00 PM MONKEY BUSINESS by Norman Z. McLeod   Presented by Eric Van Okay, it's just a comedy... or... Well, for 1931, it's a darned great sound film. This pre-Code comedy is the third of the Marx Brothers' released movies, and the first with an original screenplay rather than an adaptation of one of their Broadway shows. The film also features Thelma Todd, Harry Woods and Ruth Hall. It is directed by Norman McLeod with screenplay by S. J. Perelman and Will B. Johnstone. (1931) While stowing away on a ship to America, the boys get involuntarily pressed into service as toughs for a pair of feuding gangsters while trying desparately to evade the ship's crew. After arriving stateside, one of the gangsters kidnaps the other's daughter - and it's up to our unlikely heroes to save the day.
#228 Tuesday, October 19, 2019 - 7:00 PM THE LONG GOODBYE by Robert Altman   Presented by Jean-Paul Ouellette Raymond Chandler wrote this story at the end of the noir period (1953) and Robert Altman, appropriately, twenty years later in 1973, gave it the modern neo-noir treatment, actually starting the neo-noir film genre. This was a film both David and I love. And it's the prelude to the many neo-noir films which would follow it. (1973) In the middle of the night, private eye Philip Marloe drives his friend Terry Lennox to the Mexican border. When Marlowe returns home police are waiting for him and learns that Terry's wife Sylvia has been killed. He's arrested as an accessory but released after a few days and is told the case is closed since Terry Lennox has seemingly committed suicide in Mexico. Marlowe is visited by mobster Marty Augustine who wants to know what happened to the $350,000 Lennox was supposed to deliver for him. Meanwhile, Marlowe is hired by Eileen Wade to find her husband Roger who has a habit of disappearing when he wants to dry out but she can't find him in any any of his usual haunts. He finds him at Dr. Veringer's clinic and brings him. It soon becomes obvious to Marlowe that Terry's death, the Wades and Augustine are all somehow interconnected. Figuring out just what those connections are however will be anything but easy.
#227 Tuesday, October 12, 2019 - 7:00 PM LOCAL HERO by Bill Forsyth   Presented by Kaj Wilson A trip to Scotland for the delightful comedy from director Bill Forsyth (Gregory's Girl, Comfort and Joy, Housekeeping). In his Chicago Sun-Times review, Roger Ebert gave the film his highest four stars, calling it "a small film to treasure. ... Some of the payoffs in this film are sly and subtle, and others generate big laughs. Forsyth's big scenes are his little ones, including a heartfelt, whisky-soaked talk between the American and the innkeeper, and a scene where the visitors walk on the beach and talk about the meaning of life." (1983) An American oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up an entire village where they want to build a refinery. But things don't go as expected. With Peter Riegert (Animal House), Burt Lancaster (Elmer Gantry, Atlantic City), Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who), Denis Lawson (Star Wars), and Jenny Seagrove (The Guardian, A Woman of Substance). Music by Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits).
#226 Monday, October 28, 2019 - 7:00 PM at Eric Van's The Fall by Tarsem Singh   Presented by Eric Van “How is it that I was unaware of this film?”—David Kleiler, smitten and a bit stunned (2006) In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured silent movie stuntman (Lee Pace) begins to tell a fellow patient, a 7-year old Romanian girl with a broken arm (Catinca Untaru), a fantastic story of five mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality blurs as the tale advances. Everyone agrees that The Fall is one of the most visually stunning movies of all time; Singh shot it over four years in 28 exotic locations around the world, all scouted during his work directing TV commercials. Half the critics who saw it thought that it was trying to be The Princess Bride and failing, and it was declared Rotten at Rotten Tomatoes. It tanked at the box office, ranking just 196th on the year with $2.7M (adjusted for inflation). But audiences understood that the story was about the storyteller, his audience, their relationship, and the nature of storytelling and its power to change lives. They gave it a sky-high User Rating at IMDB. Sony Pictures picked up the disc rights. The Fall now has over 100,000 votes at IMDB, and its 7.9 rating puts it 14th all-time (minimum 60K votes) among non-animated fantasy films, just behind Groundhog Day and The Wizard of Oz. Critics have begun to regard it as a classic. (Those who have seen the film should check out https://www.tor.com/2018/06/01/ten-years-later-theres-still-nothing-like-tarsem-singhs-the-fall/, and those who do see it should come back to this e-mail and read it!) Eric’s living room is smaller than J.P.’s. If you are planning to attend, please e-mail him at emvan@post.harvard.edu to save your seat!
#22X CANCELLATION Wednesday, October 28, 2019 - 7:00 PM cancelled due to illness and the World's Series the film LOCAL HERO will be shown in two weeks
#225 Wednesday, October 23, 2019 - 7:00 PM at J-Ps Washington Street venue [Eric Van's screening has been delay until early November due to tech problems.] NINOTCHKA by Ernst Lubitsch   Presented by Jean-Paul Ouellette I've been itching to open my bluray of this Lubitsch classic. Garbo laughs! We've seen many great actresses finding their comedic sides: Barbara Stanwyck in "Ball of Fire," Irene Dunne in "Theodora Goes Wild." and Katherine Hepburn in "Bringing Up Baby." But glowering drama queen Greta Garbo? Only Ernst Lubitsch with a script by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, and Walter Reisch could bring out Garbo's hidden charm. (1939) Only the royal suite at the grandest hotel in Paris has a safe large enough for the jewels of the Grand Duchess Swana. So the three Russians who have come to sell the jewels settle into the suite until a higher ranking official is dispatched to find out what is delaying the sale. She is Ninotchka, a no nonsense woman who fascinates Count Leon who had been the faithful retainer (gigolo) of the Grand Duchess. The Grand Duchess will give up all claim to the jewels if Ninotchka will fly away from the count. But can one count on a count?
#224 Monday, October 14, 2019 - 7:00 PM after oysters and drinks at Matt Murphy's I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE by Jacques Tourneur   Presented by Martin and Becki Norman Yay! Val Lewton, Zombies (pre-George Romero), and a trip to the Caribbean! Bone up on your zombie and Voodoo trivia! (1943) I Walked with a Zombie is producer Val Lewton's second horror film for RKO Pictures. Directed by Jacques Tourneur, and starring Tom Conway (The Falcon, George Sander's brother), James Ellison, and Frances Dee. It follows a nurse who travels to care for the ailing wife of a sugar plantation owner in the Caribbean, where she encounters supernatural phenomena such as voodoo and the walking dead. The screenplay is based on an article of the same name by Inez Wallace, and also partly reinterprets the narrative of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. * SPECIAL NOTE: Since we're screening on a Monday, the posse is planning to meet at Matt Murphy's at 5:00 PM for drinks and FREE OYSTERS. It's a short walk from the screening: at 14 Harvard St in Brookline Village. They serve free oysters from 5-7 PM on Mondays. Try to get there before 6 PM when it starts filling up for dinner (or RSVP to J-P and we'll hold a seat for you). A great little bar, well worth the trip.
#223 Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - 7:00 PM PRIVILEGE by Peter Watkins   The 50-year-old British film with a chilling warning for today: Peter Watkins’ Privilege. Pop, power, populism and propaganda… Ahead of its time, Peter Watkins’ futuristic satire Privilege predicted a time when mass media and pop culture would be subverted to the needs of those in power. Already famous for his terrifying docudramas "Culloden" and "The War Game" (which oddly won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature, though it wasn't), Watkins took on the Sixties with is own subversive touch. (1967) Steven Shorter is the ultimate British music star. His music is listened to by everyone from pre-teens to grandparents. He has no trace of public bad habits or drug involvement. Everyone in Britain loves him. His handlers begin to use his popularity for projects like increasing the consumption of apples after a bumper crop as an aid to farmers. The handlers decide that Steven should support God and Country next. This leads to... Well, come and find out. The film stars Paul Jones (lead singer of Manfred Mann) and the original supermodel Jean Shrimpton. NOTE: For those who like to do a bit of discovery ahead of time, I recommend watching Watkin's first two films: Culloden (1964, 69 minutes, YouTube) and The War Game (1966, 48 minutes, BFI Excerpt), both financed by the BBC and both controversial. The War Game never aired, banned for 20 years from BBC. I also recommend the short film that Peter Watkins watched over and over in prep for making "Privilege," the short documentary about Paul Anka called "Lonely Boy (1963, 25 min)," which is available on YouTube HERE. Oh, and a bit of Watkins/Beatles trivia; Citing their 1969 Bed-in efforts and Peace Concert, an interviewer asked John Lennon and Yoko Ono, "Is there any one particular incident that got you started in this peace campaign?" John answered, "...the thing that really struck it off was a letter we got from a guy called Peter Watkins who made a film called The War Game. It was a very long letter stating just what's happening – how the media is really controlled, how it's all run, and everything else that people really know deep down. He said 'People in your position have a responsibility to use the media for world peace.' And we sat on the letter for about three weeks thinking 'Well, we're doing our best. All you need is love, man.' That letter just sort of sparked it all off. It was like getting your induction papers for peace!"
#222 Wednesday, September 25, 2019 - 7:30 PM at Eric Van's HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR by Alain Resnais   Wow, we haven't done an Alair Resnais film yet! Renais' 1959 French Left Bank romantic drama film, with a screenplay by Marguerite Duras, is the documentation of an intensely personal conversation between a French-Japanese couple about memory and forgetfulness. It was a major catalyst for the Left Bank Cinema, making use of miniature flashbacks to create a nonlinear storyline. This, his first feature, won him international acclaim, the Fipresci International Critics' Prize at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, and an Academy Award nomination for Duras's screenplay. (1959) A French actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect as they share their differing perspectives on war. Starring Emmanuelle Riva (Amour, Three Colors: Blue) and Eiji Okada (Woman in the Dunes, The Ugly American) Hiroshima mon amour has been described as "The Birth of a Nation of the French New Wave" by American critic Leonard Maltin. New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard described the film's inventiveness as "Faulkner plus Stravinsky" and celebrated its originality, calling it "the first film without any cinematic references". Filmmaker Eric Rohmer said, "I think that in a few years, in ten, twenty, or thirty years, we will know whether Hiroshima mon amour was the most important film since the war, the first modern film of sound cinema".
#221 SPECIAL EVENT, Wednesday, September 18 David Kleiler & The Coolidge Corner Theater Tribute At the Coolidge Corner Theater, Coolidge Corner, Brookline, MA Memorial Service for David Kleiler: 5 PM and Saving of the Coolidge: 30th Anniversary Celebration, and looking forward: 7 PM
SPECIAL EVENT, Saturday, September 14 A Salon/Saloon Documentary WIP screening THE SALON/SALOON DOCUMENTARY - David Kleiler, Jr. will present a work-in-progress showing of a portion of his documentary on his father at the Newburyport Screening Room on Saturday, September 14 (3:30-5 PM)
#220 Tuesday, September 10, 2019 - 7:30 PM at Eric Van's THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE by Krzysztof Kieslowski   (1991) The Double Life of Véronique is a French-Polish-Norwegian drama directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski (Dekalog, The Three Colors Trilogy) and starring Irène Jacob. The film explores the themes of identity, love, and human intuition through the characters of Weronika, a Polish choir soprano, and her double, Véronique, a French music teacher. The two women do not know each other, and yet they share a mysterious and emotional bond that transcends language and geography. The Double Life of Véronique is notable for Sławomir Idziak's innovative cinematography and Zbigniew Preisner's operatic score. It won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, and the Best Actress Award for Irène Jacob.
#219 Monday, August 26, 2019 - 7:00 PM with Oysters at Matt Murphy's* from 5-7 PM ISHTAR by Elaine May   Presented by Alan Spatrick Many films, which audiences would enjoy, have been poisoned by malicious Hollywood gossip and bad PR. This was the case for Elaine May's "Ishtar." So without any expectations or rumor, let's enjoy a comedy from a very funny woman writer/director. Remember, the cast, crew, and preview audience believed in this film. (1987) Two terrible lounge singers get booked to play a gig in a Moroccan hotel but somehow become pawns in an international power play between the CIA, the Emir of Ishtar, and the rebels trying to overthrow his regime. * SPECIAL NOTE: Since we're screening on a Monday, the posse is planning to meet at Matt Murphy's at 5:00 PM for drinks and FREE OYSTERS. It's a short walk from the screening: at 14 Harvard St in Brookline Village. They serve free oysters from 5-7 PM on Mondays. Try to get there before 6 PM when it starts filling up for dinner (or RSVP to J-P and we'll hold a seat for you). A great little bar, well worth the trip.
#218 Tuesday, August 20, 2019 - 7:00 PM Late Autumn by Yasujirô Ozu   Yasujirô Ozu is one of Japan's mose prized filmmakers. Tokyo Story, Early Spring, and Early Summer are three of his most famous films which have a strong sense of family life. The fourth in that list is Late Autumn. While the first two have been seen extensively and concern Japan's emergence from WWII, 1960's Late Autumn is about a family facing the modernism that Japan itself was adapting after the US occupation ended. It is a modern film about modern concerns, yet still is entrenched in traditional values and ideas. I chose this one over Late Spring (which everyone should see - and we've already screened Tokyo Story) because it is more relevant to international culture than the earlier films. Sadly Ozu would pass away at age 60 soon afterwards. Many have called Late Autumn a reworking of Late Spring, despite that they are each based on a different novelist's work. But they do both star Setsuko Hara and Chishû Ryû from Late Spring. Expect an interesting conversation... (1960) A widow tries to marry off her daughter with the help of her late husband's three friends. JPO: I highly recommend you watch this video on the way Ozu uses the camera to help tell his stories. Yasujirō Ozu - The Depth of Simplicity | CRISWELL | Cinema Cartography. You will notice how often they refer to Late Autumn as cinematic style. Also, watching the film, notice the strength of the Yuriko character played by the great Mariko Okada. Here some refered to her as the "Bridget Bardot of Japan" though she is also one of the most prestigious actress in Japanese film history. But here she represents everything which is untraditionally Japanese and modern. She breaks every stereotype of her gender and class. Her character and the addition of a gentle comic strain to temper the tragedy of the story are unique and make us all wish Ozu has lived to produce films beyond the formative 1960's.
#217 Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - 7:00 PM at Eric Van's (info below) Hard Boiled by John Woo   (1992) Hard Boiled is John Woo's last Hong Kong film before his transition to Hollywood. After making films that glamorized gangsters such as A Better Tomorrow and The Killer (and receiving criticism for doing so), Woo wanted to make a Dirty Harry styled film to glamorize the police. Reception from western critics was much more positive than those in Hong Kong; many critics and film scholars have come to proclaim its action scenes as among the best ever filmed. It stars Chow Yun-fat as Inspector "Tequila" Yuen, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as Alan an undercover cop, and Anthony Wong as Johnny Wong, a leader of the criminal triads. Mobsters are smuggling guns into Hong Kong. The police orchestrate a raid at a teahouse where ace detective Tequila Yuen loses his partner. Meanwhile, the two main gun smugglers are having a war over territory, and a young new gun is enlisted to wipe out informants and overcome barriers to growth. The detective, acting from inside sources, gets closer to the ring leaders and eventually must work with the inside man directly. Notes: Fascinating discussion of the difference between men and women when viewing an action movie. The stress being on body count versus hero's journey,
#216 Tuesday, August 6, 2019 - 7:00 PM FIVE EASY PIECES by Bob Rafelson   (1970) Once a promising young musician from an affluent family, a middle-aged man’s life has sunk into obscurity – spending his days as a blue-collar oil rig worker and nights in between sleazy bars and cheap motel rooms. Well received upon release and with a deserved cult status ever since. Slowly-building drama that ultimately poses many questions about modern-day existence, the role of the artist and the dynamics of family. Great significance is also given to a classical piano soundtrack – of five easy pieces by Chopin, Bach and Mozart. The smooth direction is overshadowed only by the outstanding performance of Jack Nicholson. With Karen Black, Lois Smith, Susan Anspach, and Ralph Waite. Bob Rafelson is regarded as one of the founders of the New Hollywood movement in the 1970s. Best-known for The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), and co-creating The Monkees (1966-1968). He was also an uncredited producer on Easy Rider (1969) and The Last Picture Show (1971). NOTES: Wow, the B. Traven existential thing came up. And the link between Five Easy Pieces and Antonioni's The Passenger... Think about it: In Five Easy Pieces, the main character ends the story by giving up his wallet, with every piece of identification he owns and leaves his signature jacket (he's worn throughout the film) in the gas station bathroom after studying who he is or isn't in the mirror. He walks out without any identification or identity and takes a ride off to parts unknown. Five years later, Antonioni would hire Nicholson to continue that journey of identity-less man in The Passenger.
#215 Tuesday, July 30, 2019 - 7:00 PM at the Eric Van venue UNDER THE SKIN by Jonathan Glazer   (2013) An alien entity inhabits the earthly form of a young woman who combs the roads and streets of Scotland in search of the human prey she came to plunder. She seduces her isolated and forsaken male victims into an otherworldly dimension where they are stripped and consumed. However, existence in all its complexity begin to change the alien visitor. She begins to discover herself as human with tragic and terrifying consequences. With Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay.
#214 Tuesday, July 23, 2019 - 7:00 PM The Man from Laramie by Anthony Mann   Presented by Kaj Wilson. In Hollywood from 1939, Anthony Mann began as an assistant director at Paramount. Promoted to director, he began by turning out low-budget thrillers and films noir for studios like Republic, Eagle-Lion (formerly PRC) and RKO (1945-46). He was at MGM from 1949-51, but eventually made his breakthrough at Universal with a series of uncompromisingly tough, psychological Westerns starring James Stewart. These films featured a recurrent theme of revenge, obsession and rage. And, thus, here is one of his best. Mysterious Will Lockhart delivers supplies to storekeeper Barbara Waggoman at Coronado, an isolated town in Apache country. Before long, he's tangled with Dave Waggoman, vicious son of autocratic rancher Alec and cousin of sweet Barbara. But he sticks around town, his presence a catalyst for changes in people's lives, searching for someone he doesn't know... who's been selling rifles to the Apaches. Starring James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, and Donald Crisp .
#213 Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - 7:30 PM Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans by F.W. Murnau   Often considered one the finest films ever made, Sunrise: A Son of Two Humans is an allegorical tale about a man fighting the good and evil within him. Both sides are made flesh - one a sophisticated woman he is attracted to and the other his wife. German Expressionist director F.W. Murnau came to the United States to Fox Film Corporation on the fame of Nosferatu and Faust. He brought with him is screenwriter Carl Mayer and German short story "An Excursion to Tilsit" by Hermann Sudermann. "Sunrise" was the first Fox Movietone sound-on-film picture, putting the musical track of the film directly on the film for theatrical presentation. It won the the Academy Award for Unique and Artistic Picture at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929, essentially tying with "Wings," which took Outstanding Picture, as well as winning best actress and best cinematography. Sadly, Murnau would only make three more pictures before dying in a car accident at age 42 in 1931.
#212 Tuesday, June 25, 2019 - 7:30 PM Laura by Otto Preminger   Due both to a couple of people who couldn't make it Tuesday and the difficulty in procuring a good copy of Sunrise, we are switching the films. So Tuesday is Laura. Ah, film noir. Laura is "a psychologically complex portrait of obsession, Laura is also a deliciously well-crafted murder mystery." (1944) Detective Mark McPherson investigates the killing of Laura, found dead on her apartment floor before the movie starts. McPherson builds a mental picture of the dead girl from the suspects whom he interviews. He is helped by the striking painting of the late lamented Laura hanging on her apartment wall. But who would have wanted to kill a girl with whom every man she met seemed to fall in love? To make matters worse, McPherson finds himself falling under her spell too. Then one night, halfway through his investigations, something seriously bizarre happens to make him re-think the whole case.
#211 Tuesday, June 11, 2019 - 7:00 PM The Lady Eve by Preston Sturges   A fitting choice by popular vote that we return with a light comedy. Happily, it is by the same filmmaker who we originally began with: the great Preston Sturges, considered by many the first Hollywood indpendent hyphenate filmmaker. And starring one of the greats actresses of the days of the silver screen: Barbara Stanwyck. (1941) Returning from a year up the Amazon studying snakes, the rich but unsophisticated Charles Pike (Henry Fonda) meets con-artist Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck) on a ship. They fall in love, but a misunderstanding causes them to split on bad terms. To get back at him, Jean disguises herself as an English lady, and comes back to tease and torment him. I look foward to gathering together again, have a lively discussion, plan future screenings. Based on people preferences, I foresee showing "Sunrise" by F.W. Murnau on June 25 and "Laura" by Otto Preminger on July 9. Eric Van will present ideas for his smaller screenings in alternate weeks. See you Tuesday.
It is with great regret that I have to tell you that David Allen Kleiler, our friend, has passed away. DAVID ALLEN KLEILER     Sadly, early Monday morning, April 15, 2019, David passed away peacefully after a short battle with numerous adverse reactions to his cancer therapy. Throughout, he was convinced he would be back and he would prevail. We will miss him immensely for his kindness, friendship, and dedication to his life-long love of sharing the wonders of cinema with everyone he ever came in contact with: from the cabdriver to the cineaste. Today, Tuesday, the marquee of the Coolidge Corner Theater will be changed in tribute to him at 6 P.M., if you wish to attend. There will a wake on Tuesday, April 23 from 6-9 P.M. at the Bell-O'dea Funeral Home at 376 Washington St, Brookline, MA. The funeral mass will be held Wednesday, April 24, at 11 A.M. at at St. Cecelia's Church at 18 Belvidere St, Boston, MA 02115. Another memorial event is also being planned for the near future. WBUR Obituary: HERE ArtsFuse Obituary: HERE
#210 Wednesday, March 27 2019 - 7:30 PM THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT by Alexander Mackendrick   (1951) One of the most popular films of its year and considered one the best British science fiction films of all time, The Man in the White Suit was also nominated for a screenplay Academy Award (the first ever sci-fi film nominated). Of course, it stars Alec Guiness and plummy-voiced Joan Greenwood (meow). A fitting tale of how technology can ruin the lives of both the common man and the greed of big business--an always timely conversation... Sidney Stratton, a humble inventor, develops a fabric which never gets dirty or wears out. This would seem to be a boon for mankind, but the established garment manufacturers don't see it that way; they try to suppress it. This is a black humor film at its best, which should spark lively conversation both about the filmmaking and the intellectual concepts the screenplay touches upon. And the film soundtrack & score are unique in all of filmmaking.
#209 Monday, March 3, 2019 - 7:00 PM LOS OLVIDADOS by Luis Buñuel   Presented by Joel Shames and David Shames.   Los Olvidados (pronounced [los olbiˈðaðos], Spanish for "The Forgotten Ones"), known in the U.S. as The Young and the Damned, is a 1950 Mexican film directed by Luis Buñuel. Óscar Dancigers, the producer, asked Buñuel to direct this film after the success of the 1949 film El Gran Calavera. Buñuel already had a script ready titled ¡Mi huerfanito jefe! about a boy who sells lottery tickets. However, Dancigers had in mind a more realistic and serious depiction of children in poverty in Mexico City. After conducting some research, Jesús Camacho and Buñuel came up with a script that Dancigers was pleased with. The film can be seen in the tradition of social realism, although it also contains elements of surrealism present in much of Buñuel's work. Los Olvidados was widely criticized upon its initial release, but earned the Best Director award at the 1951 Cannes Film Festival. It is now considered a masterpiece of Latin American cinema. SPECIAL NOTE: Since we're screening on a Monday, the posse is planning to meet at Matt Murphy's at 5:00 PM for drinks and FREE OYSTERS. It's a short walk from the screening: at 14 Harvard St in Brookline Village. They serve free oysters from 5-7 PM on Mondays. Try to get there before 6 PM when it starts filling up for dinner (or RSVP to David and we'll hold a seat for you). A great little bar and well worth the trip.
#208 Wednesday, February 27, 2019 - 7:30 PM MATINEE by Joe Dante   Steven Head wants to screen Dante's comic cult masterpieve about a William Castle-type independent filmmaker, with the home front in the Cuban Missile Crisis as a backdrop. The film stars John Goodman, Cathy Moriarty, Simon Fenton, Omri Katz, Lisa Jakub, Robert Picardo, and Kellie Martin. #207 Sunday, Febuary 24, 2019 - 7:00 PM OSCAR'S NIGHT by the A.M.P.A.S.   The awards ceremony is set to start at 8:30 PM EST. Obviously there is a lot of red carpet and punditry in the hours before. We're planning for 7 PM as officially opening the liiving room to anyone interested in joining us for the festivities, balloting, and gossiping.
#206 Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - 7:30 PM BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD by Benh Zeitlin   (2012) Faced with both her hot-tempered father's fading health and melting ice-caps that flood her ramshackle bayou community and unleash ancient aurochs, six-year-old Hushpuppy must learn the ways of courage and love.
#205 Wednesday, January 9, 2019 - 7:00 PM GOSFORD PARK by Robert Altman   Who would have thought that it was American director Robert Altman who spawned the idea for Downton Abbey. "Gosford Park" is a sample of Altman's continuing creative genius, here at age 75, weaving an amazing ensemble cast into a fascinating mystery tale of scandal, romance, and murder. (2001) Set in the 1930s, the story takes place in an old-fashioned English country house where a weekend shooting party is underway. The story centers on the McCordle family, particularly the man of the house, William McCordle. Getting on in years, William has become benefactor to many of his relatives and friends. As the weekend goes on, secrets are revealed, and it seems everyone, above stairs and below, wants a piece of William and his money, but how far will they go to get it? The cast includes Helen Mirren, Clive Owen, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, Emily Watson, Michael Gambon, Alan Bates, Charles Dance, Stephen Fry, and Kelly Macdonald. Nine years later, first-time screenwriter Julian Fellowes (who won the screenwriting Oscar for this) would go on to rework Altman's concept into his own "Downton Abbey."
#204 Monday, December 31, 2018 - 7:30 PM FUN FOR NEW YEARS EVE !!! DAZED AND CONFUSED by Richard Linklater   Presented by Alan Spatrick & Kaj Wilson (1993) Richard Linklater‘s third feature film gazes at endings and beginnings and so much more. It’s the last day of school and the first night of summer for a wild mix of 1970s high school characters. Linklater, who also wrote the film, created a host of memorable characters who connect and disconnect over a rambling 24 hours. This wonderful ensemble piece helped launch the acting careers of Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey, Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, and Milla Jovovich.  One of the greatest, if not the greatest, American high school films, it also boasts a killer soundtrack. Linklater's film speaks to his generation, as Nicholas Ray, John Hughes, Francis Ford Coppola and others had spoken to theirs.
#203 Sunday, December 16, 2018 - 6:30 PM AMÉLIE by Jean-Pierre Jeunet   (2001) Amélie is a story about a girl named Amélie whose childhood was suppressed by her Father's mistaken concerns of a heart defect. With these concerns Amélie gets hardly any real life contact with other people. This leads Amélie to resort to her own fantastical world and dreams of love and beauty. She later on becomes a young woman and moves to the central part of Paris as a waitress. After finding a lost treasure belonging to the former occupant of her apartment, she decides to return it to him. After seeing his reaction and his new found perspective - she decides to devote her life to the people around her. Such as, her father who is obsessed with his garden-gnome, a failed writer, a hypochondriac, a man who stalks his ex girlfriends, the "ghost", a suppressed young soul, the love of her life and a man whose bones are as brittle as glass. But after consuming herself with these escapades - she finds out that she is disregarding her own life and damaging her quest for love. Amélie then ... 5 Academy Award (USA) nominations 14 Cesar Award (France) nominations - 4 wins including Best Film 9 BAFTA (UK) nominations - 2 wins
#202 Monday, December 10, 2018 - 7:00 PM THE HORSE'S MOUTH by Ronald Neame   (1958) In Ronald Neame's film of Joyce Cary's classic novel, Alec Guinness transforms himself into one of the cinema's most indelible comic figures: the lovably scruffy painter Gulley Jimson. As the ill-behaved Jimson searches for a perfect canvas, he determines to let nothing come between himself and the realization of his exalted vision. A preceptive examination of the struggle of artistic creation, The Horse's Mouth is also Neame's comic masterpiece.     SPECIAL NOTE: Since we're screening on a Monday, the posse is planning to meet at Matt Murphy's at 5:00 PM for drinks and FREE OYSTERS. It's a short walk from the screening: at 14 Harvard St in Brookline Village. They serve free oysters from 5-7 PM on Mondays. Try to get there before 6 PM when it starts filling up for dinner (or RSVP to David and we'll hold a seat for you). A great little bar and well worth the trip.
#201 Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - 7:00 PM THE VIRGIN SPRING by Ingmar Bergman   The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan) is Bergman's 1960 rape and revenge film set in medieval Sweden. The story is from a 13th-century Swedish ballad, "Töres döttrar i Wänge" ("Töre's daughters in Vänge"). Bergman was considering an opera before deciding on a film version. Given criticism of the historical accuracy of his 1957 film The Seventh Seal, he also invited novelist Ulla Isaksson to write the screenplay. Isaksson and Bergman explore a number of themes, questioning morals, vengeance, and religious beliefs. (1960) Set in beautiful 14th century Sweden, it is the sombre, powerful fable of wealthy land-owning parents whose virginal daughter is brutally raped and murdered by goat herders after her half sister has invoked a pagan curse. By a bizarre twist of fate, the murderers ask for food and shelter from the dead girl's parents, who, discovering the truth about their erstwhile lodgers, exact a chilling revenge.
SCREENINGS 201 - Current Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - Current   SCREENINGS 101 - 200 HERE --- February 26, 2017 - November 2, 2018 SCREENINGS 001 - 100 HERE --- August 17, 2015- February 21, 2017
The Screening Salon/Salon is a private, casual, and non-commercial screening group run from our homes. There is no monetary gain, nor required dues, fees, or collections of money of any sort. It's just for the fun of sharing and enjoying copies of films we own or borrow from local libraries. For more information call Local Sightings at