SCREENINGS 201 - 300 HERE --- December 2, 2018 - CURRENT SCREENINGS 001 - 100 HERE --- August 17, 2015- February 21, 2017   SCREENINGS 101 - 200 Sunday, February 26, 2017 - November 27, 2018

#200 Tuesday, November 27, 2018 - 7:00 PM SHOOTING STARS by Anthony Asquith   Presented by Jean-Paul Ouellette A rediscovered gem of silent film, "Shooting Stars" is Anthony Asquith's debut directoral work. He would go on to be one of Britain's leading international directors, though later forgotten because of his habit of successfully adapting theater to the screen (Pygmalion, The Browning Version, The Importance of Being Ernest). But "Shooting Stars" reveals his cinematic genius, both in control of the visual storytelling and the complex and literate story. What starts as a comedy about making frivolous movies evolves into a tragedy of real people in a dire situation. Obviously this is the double entendre of "Shooting Stars." (1927) The husband and wife acting team of Mae Feather and Julian Gordon (a very young Brian Aherne) is torn apart when he discovers she is having an affair with the screen comedian Andy Wilks. Mae hatches a plot to kill her husband by putting a real bullet in the prop gun which will be fired at him during the making of their new film 'Prairie Love.' (Restored by BFI with a new score)

#199 Monday, November 19, 2018 - 7:00 PM OUT OF THE PAST by Jacques Tourneur   (1947) Jacques Tournier's "Out of the Past" is considered by many as one of the greatest film noirs ever made, due to its complicated, dark storyline, dark cinematography and classic femme fatale. A private eye (Robert Mitchum) escapes his past to run a gas station in a small town, but his past catches up with him. Now he must return to the big city world of danger, corruption, double crosses and duplicitous dames. With Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas. 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.

#198 Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - 7:00 PM THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE by Luis Bunuel   (1972) A surreal, virtually plotless series of dreams centered around six middle-class people and their consistently interrupted attempts to have a meal together.

#197 Tuesday, November 6, 2018 - 7:00 PM WAG THE DOG by Barry Levinson   Perfect to contrast the edge-of-your-seat terror of Election Night, we offer Barry Levinson's satiric political comedy. (1998) After being caught in a scandalous situation days before the election, the president does not seem to have much of a chance of being re-elected. One of his advisers contacts a top Hollywood producer in order to manufacture a war in Albania that the president can heroically end, all through mass media.

#196 Monday, October 29, 2018 - 7:00 PM CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE by Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise   This eerie, mostly unrelated sequel to Cat People (1942) is from that film's producer Val Lewton and writer DeWitt Bodeen. A perfect Halloween film. (1944) Amy, the imaginative young daughter of Oliver and Alice Reed, is unable to differentiate fantasy from reality. She has no friends her own age as a result. She makes an imaginary friend though, her father's dead first wife Irena. At about the same time, she befriends Julia Farren, an aging, reclusive actress who is alienated from her own daughter Barbara.

#195 Friday, October 19, 2018 - 7:30 PM THE SHOOTIST by Don Siegel   Presented by Becky and Marty Norman. Not the first choice for the role, John Wayne fought hard to play John Books, the last role of his long career (1926-1976). And he made sure his friends were cast around him including Lauren Bacall, James Stewart, John Carradine, Richard Boone, and Dollor the horse. Directed by Don Siegel (Dirty Harry and Invasion of the Body Snatchers and mentor to both Sam Peckinpah and Clint Eastwood). (1976) The West is dying and so is John Books (John Wayne), an aging gunfighter. He arrives in Carson City to see a doctor he knows for a second opinion on his cancer. The doctor confirms Books has a month maybe two left. Book takes a room in the boarding house and the landlady's son (Ron Howard) recognizes him and tells his mother (Lauren Bacall) who he is. She doesn't like his kind but she empathizes with his condition. Her son wants him to teach him how to use a gun. Books tries to tell him that killing is not something he wants to live with. Books, not wanting to go through the agony of dying from cancer and seeing that his reputation has old enemies and wanna-be gunfighters arriving in town, tries to find a quicker way to go.

#194 Friday, October 12, 2018 - 7:30 PM by Various Directors   A carefully selected program of the off-beat sometimes humorous and always original. "Bambi Meets Godzilla," need we say more. "Gas Huffin Bad Gals," film noir meets Russ Meyer in this parody of Faster Pussycat Kill Kill. "I Remember Barbra," a portrait of Barbra Steisand's Brooklyn neighborhood and the high school she attended. "De Düva: The Dove," a hilarious parody of Ingmar Bergman with Madeline Kahn. "Two Men and a Wardrobe," the existential allegory by Roman Polanski. "Dream of the Wild Horses," a surreal fantasy from the company that produced "The Red Balloon." - with special guest Loren Miller, editor of "I Remember Barbra" and the Oscar-winning "Karl Hess."

#193 Sunday, Oct 7, 2018 - 7:00 PM ANATOMY OF A MURDER by Otto Preminger   Much like later director Oliver Stone, Otto Preminger's films were designed to shock. Once established with classic films like "Laura" and "Fallen Angel," his later films pushed the boundaries of censorship by dealing honestly with topics which were then taboo in Hollywood, such as drug addiction (The Man with the Golden Arm, 1955), homosexuality (Advise & Consent, 1962), and here with rape (Anatomy of a Murder, 1959). (1959) Frederick Manion (Ben Gazzara), a lieutenant in the army, is arrested for the murder of a bartender, Barney Quill. He claims, in his defense, that the victim had raped and beaten up his wife Laura (Lee Remick). Although Laura supports her husband's story, the police surgeon can find no evidence that she has been raped. Manion is defended by Paul Biegler (James Stewart). During the course of interviews, Biegler discovers that Manion is violently possessive and jealous, and also that his wife has a reputation for flirting with other men. Biegler, who knows that his case is weak, tries to find evidence that will save Manion.

#192 Tuesday, October 2, 2018 - 7:00 PM MISSING by Costa-Gavras   (1982) In September1973, in Chile, the American journalist Charles Horman arrives in Valparaiso with his friend Terry Simon to meet his wife Beth and bring her back to New York with him. However, they are surprised by the military coup d'état sponsored by the US Government to replace President Salvador Allende and Charles is arrested by the military force. His father Ed Horman, a conservative businessman from New York, arrives in Chile to seek out his missing son with Beth. He goes to the American Consulate to meet the Consul that promises the best efforts to find Charles while the skeptical Beth does not trust on the word of the American authorities. The nationalism and confidence of Ed in his government changes when he finds the truth about what happened with his beloved son.

#191 Tuesday, September 25, 2018 - 7:00 PM THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE by Victor Erice   (1973) In Castilla around 1940, just after the Spanish Civil War,, a traveling movie theatre brings James Whale's black and white film classic "Frankenstein" (1931) to a small village. Two young girls, Isabel and Ana, are subsequently determined to find the monster themselves. The film has been called a "bewitching portrait of a child’s haunted inner life" and many regard it as one of the greatest Spanish films ever made. The film is rife with symbolism and the disintegration of the family's emotional life can be seen as symbolic of the emotional disintegration of the Spanish nation during the civil war. Critic Tony Rayns described The Spirit of the Beehive as "a haunting mood piece that dispenses with plot and works its spells through intricate patterns of sound and image"

#190 Wednesday, September 19, 2018 - 7:30 PM BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS by Russ Meyer   (1970) This film is a sequel, in name only, to Valley of the Dolls (1967). How could anyone out "kitch" Jacqueline Susann's kitch? Well, Russ Meyer, the King of Camp can "out camp" any "kitch." So 20th Century Fox hired him (with screenwriter/film critic Roger Ebert on the typewriter) to do just that. An all-girl rock band goes to Hollywood to make it big. There they find success, but luckily for us, they sink into a cesspool of decadence. This film has a sleeping woman performing on a gun which is in her mouth. It has women posing as men. It has lesbian sex scenes. It is also written by Roger Ebert, who had become friends with Russ Meyer after writing favorable reviews of several of his films.

#189 Wednesday, September 12, 2018 - 7:30 PM MY WINNIPEG by Guy Maddin   (2007) Fact, fantasy and memory are woven seamlessly together in this portrait of film-maker Guy Maddin's home town of Winnipeg, Manitoba. This “docu-fastasia” is indeed part documentary, part fantasy, and part autobiography.  My Winnipeg is both mesmerizing and strangely moving.

#188 Friday, Sept 7, 2018 - 7:30 PM BLACK ORPHEUS by Marcel Camus   (1959) Winner of both the Academy Award for best foreign-language film and the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus (Orfeu negro) brings the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to the twentieth-century madness of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. With its eye-popping photography and ravishing, epochal soundtrack, Black Orpheus was an international cultural event, and it kicked off the bossa nova craze that set hi-fis across America spinning. In the heady atmosphere of Rio's carnival, two people meet and fall in love. Eurydice, a country girl, has run away from home to avoid a man who arrived at her home looking for her. She is convinced that he was going to kill her. She arrives in Rio to stay with her cousin Serafina. Orfeo works as a tram conductor and is engaged to Mira - as far as Mira is concerned anyways. As Eurydice and Orfeo get to know one another they fall deeply in love. Mira is mad with jealousy and when Eurydice disappears, Orfeo sets out to find her.

#187 Monday, August 27, 2018 - 7:00 PM TOUCH OF EVIL by Orson Welles   (1958) By 1949 Welles seemed to have burned most of his studio bridges and turned to Europe, television, and Shakespeare-on-film. But, in 1957, "B" movie producer Albert Zugsmith (The Female Animal, Captive Women, High School Confidential) was willing to take a chance on the "difficult" Welles when he hired him to star in a film with Charlton Heston. Heston misunderstood that Welles was not to direct and forced the issue. And Welles pulled it off with a Touch of Evil. Mexican Narcotics officer Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas (Charlton Heston) has to interrupt his honeymoon on the Mexican-US border when an American building contractor is killed his car explodes with a bomb that had been placed there across the border in Mexico. As a result, Vargas delays his return to Mexico City where he has been mounting a case against the Grandi family crime and narcotics syndicate. Police Captain Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles) is in charge on the US side and he soon has a suspect, a Mexican named Manolo Sanchez. Vargas is soon onto Quinlan and his Sergeant, Pete Menzies, when he catches them planting evidence to convict Sanchez. With his new American wife, Susie (Janet Leigh), safely tucked away in a hotel on the US side of the border - or so he thinks - he starts to review Quinlan's earlier cases. While concentrating on the corrupt policeman however, the Grandis have their own plans for Vargas and they start with his wife Susie.

#186 Thursday, August 21, 2018 -7:00 PM MEDIUM COOL by Haskell Wexler   (1969) Coming out the same year as Z and being shown in connection with the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention protests, Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool is almost a docu-drama since it was shot amidst the historical context it means to explore. It's fitting as Wexler may be best known for his work as a cinematographer (In the Heat of the Night, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and as a political documentarian (Brazil: A Report on Torture and Underground). John Cassellis (Robert Forster) is the toughest TV-news reporter around. His area of interest is reporting about violence in the ghetto and racial tensions. But he discovers that his network helps the FBI by letting it look at his tapes to find suspects. When he protests, he is fired and takes his camera to the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.

#185 Thursday, August 16, 2018 -7:30 PM MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW by Leo McCarey   (1937) Criterion calls Make Way For Tomorrow "one of the great unsung Hollywood masterpieces, an enormously moving Depression-era depiction of the frustrations of family, aging, and the generation gap... Make Way for Tomorrow is among American cinema’s purest tearjerkers, all the way to its unflinching ending, which McCarey refused to change despite studio pressure." John Ford, Frank Capra and Jean Renoir were big admirers of the film. Orson Welles was quoted as saying that the film "would make a stone cry." This film was the inspiration behind Yasujirô Ozu's most celebrated film, Tokyo Story (1953). At a family reunion, the Cooper clan find that their parents' home is being foreclosed. "Temporarily," Ma moves in with son George's family, Pa with daughter Cora. But the parents are like sand in the gears of their middle-aged children's well regulated households. Can the old folks take matters into their own hands?

#184 Tuesday, August 7, 2018 - 7:00 PM Z by Costa-Gavras   (1969) In a mid-sized metropolis (population 500,000) in a right-wing military led country, a pacifist organization, which supports the opposition party in the government, is planning on holding an anti-military, nuclear disarmament rally. The organization's charismatic leader - the deputy - is scheduled to arrive in the town from the capital the day of the rally. Beyond the problems arranging the rally due to the probable incitement of violence at such a rally, the organization learns of an unconfirmed report that there will be an attempt on the deputy's life. The rally does happen, after which a three-wheeled kamikaze runs over the deputy, who eventually passes away from his injuries. The official report is that the incident was a drunken accident. In reality, the deputy's death was murder orchestrated by the secret police, the general for who likens the pacifist organization to mildew killing off agricultural crops. A magistrate is assigned to the case. Although he does have political ...

#183 Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - 7:30 PM SHORT TERM 12 by Destin Daniel Cretton   (2013) At a foster-care facility for at-risk teenagers, Grace is a young counselor trying to do her best for kids who often have been pulled from the worst kinds of home situations. Even then, life is not easy as Grace and her colleagues care for kids who are too often profoundly scarred, even as they try to have lives of their own. Now, things are coming to a head as Grace readies for marriage even as some her charges are coming to major turning points in their lives. To cope, Grace will have to make difficult perceptions and decisions that could put her career, and more importantly her charges, at dire risk. Eric Van, in a hugely popular answer (210,000 views, 951 upvotes) at Quora, nominated Short Term 12 as the single most overlooked feature film of 2013 – 2016. “It’s rare that a movie gets great reviews and great audience response but bombs at the box office. That can happen, though, to an indie film with unusually wide appeal—if it’s hard to market because of its very excellence and uniqueness. Short Term 12 has a titanic 8.4 Average Rating at Rotten Tomatoes (157 Fresh, 2 Rotten for 99%) and an 8.0 at IMDB from 68,000+ viewers, but ranked just 214th at the annual box office. It stars Brie Larson in a performance so great that it got her cast in Room, for which she earned an Oscar.”

#182 Wednesday, July 18, 2018 - 7:30 PM THE TRUMAN SHOW by Peter Weir   (1998) Peter Weir (Last Wave, Witness) presents a science fiction prediction of the future of mass media and reality entertainment. Truman (Jim Carrey) is a man whose life is a fake one... The place he lives is in fact a big studio with hidden cameras everywhere, and all his friends and people around him, are actors who play their roles in the most popular TV-series in the world: The Truman Show. Truman thinks that he is an ordinary man with an ordinary life and has no idea about how he is exploited. Until one day... he finds out everything. Will he react?

#181 Friday, July 13, 2018 - 7:30 PM PERSONA by Ingmar Bargman   With elements of psychological horror, Ingmar Bergman's Persona has been the subject of considerable analysis, interpretation and debate. The film, with its themes of duality, insanity and personal identity, has been interpreted as depicting the Jungian theory of persona and explores cinema, vampire mythology, lesbianism, motherhood, abortion and other subjects. This enigmatic film has been called the Mount Everest of cinematic analysis; according to film historian Peter Cowie, "Everything one says about Persona may be contradicted; the opposite will also be true." (1966) A young nurse, Alma, (Bibi Andersson) is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler (Liv Ullman): an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. As they spend time together, Alma speaks to Elisabeth constantly, never receiving any answer. Alma eventually confesses her secrets to a seemingly sympathetic Elisabeth and finds that her own personality is being submerged into Elisabeth's persona.

#180 Monday, July 9, 2018 - 7:00 PM ROSEMARY'S BABY by Roman Polanski   (1968) Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American psychological horror film with supernatural horror elements written and directed by Roman Polanski (his first US production), based on the bestselling 1967 novel of the same name by Ira Levin. The cast features Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Angela Dorian, Clay Tanner, Elisha Cook Jr., and, in his feature film debut, Charles Grodin. The film chronicles the story of a pregnant woman who suspects that an evil cult wants to take her baby for use in their rituals; but little does she know that it is not the cult she needs to worry about, but her baby. Rosemary's Baby earned almost universal acclaim from film critics and won numerous nominations and awards. This film preceded The Exorcist in bringing the genre of horror into the mainstream of film acceptance.

#179 Friday, July 6, 2018 - 7:30 PM FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! by Russ Meyer   (1965) After conquering the cutie nudie world and changing the face of world acceptance of the nude form, Russ Meyer entered the more accepted exploitation world of fast teens with his speed-sex-violence Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!. Three go-go dancers holding a young girl hostage come across a crippled old man living with his two sons in the desert. After learning he's hiding a sum of cash around, the women start scheming to cheat him. The film, atypically, was not a box office hit like his previous films, but has gone on to be a cult film which influenced filmmakers Quentin Tarentino, John Waters and others as well as countless musical bands since.

#178 Wednesday, June 27, 2018 - 7:30 PM MAUDIE by Aisling Walsh   (2016) MAUDIE, based on a true story, is an unlikely romance in which the reclusive Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke) hires a fragile yet determined woman named Maudie (Sally Hawkins) to be his housekeeper. Maudie, bright-eyed but hunched with crippled hands, yearns to be independent, to live away from her protective family and she also yearns, passionately, to create art. Unexpectedly, Everett finds himself falling in love. MAUDIE charts Everett's efforts to protect himself from being hurt against Maudie's deep and abiding love for this difficult man and her surprising rise to fame as a folk painter.

#177 Sunday, June 24, 2018 - 6:00 PM LA DOLCE VITA by Federico Fellini   (1960) Man-about-town Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) is a journalist writing for frivolous gossip magazines. Over seven days and nights he journeys through the "sweet life" of Rome in a fruitless search to find his place in the world. He is torn between the allure of Rome's elite social scene and the stifling domesticity offered by his girlfriend (Yvonne Furneaux), all the while searching for a way to become a serious writer. With Anita Ekberg & Anouk Aimée. La Dolce Vita won the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and the Oscar for Best Costumes. The film was a massive box office hit in Europe with 13,617,148 admissions in Italy and 2,956,094 admissions in France.

#176 Monday, June 18, 2018 - 7:00 PM BIG FISH by Tim Burton   For the day after father's day comes this drama with fantasy and comic elements about a father/son relationship that is both inciteful and moving. From Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood and the upcoming live-action version of Dumbo) (2003) UPI journalist Will Bloom (Billy Crudup) and his French freelance photojournalist wife Josephine Bloom (Marion Cotillard), who is pregnant with their first child, leave their Paris base to return to Will's hometown of Ashton, Alabama on the news that his father, Edward Bloom (Albert Finney & Ewan McGregor as his younger self), stricken with cancer, will soon die. Will has been estranged from his father for the three years since his wedding. Will's issue with his father is the fanciful tales Edward has told of his life all his life, not only to Will but the whole world. As a child when Edward was largely absent as a traveling salesman, Will believed those stories, but now realizes that he does not know his father, unless Edward comes clean with the truth before he dies. The question is whether Will will be able to reconcile Edward's stories against his real life, and thus allow Will to come to a new understanding of himself and his life, past, present and future. 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.

#175 Tuesday, June 12, 2018 - 7:30 PM THE PALM BEACH STORY by Preston Sturges   (1942) Gerry and Tom Jeffers are finding married life hard. Tom is an inventor/ architect and there is little money for them to live on. They are about to be thrown out of their apartment when Gerry meets rich businessman being shown around as a prospective tenant. He gives Gerry $700 to start life afresh but Tom refuses to believe her story and they quarrel. Gerry decides the marriage is over and heads to Palm Beach for a quick divorce but Tom has plans to stop her.

#174 Monday, June 4, 2018 - 7:00 PM THE VANISHING by George Sluizer   (1988) Rex (Gene Bervoets) and Saskia (Johanna Ter Steege) are on holiday, a young couple in love. They stop at a busy service station and Saskia disappears. Rex dedicates the next three years trying to find her. Then he receives some postcards from her abductor, who promises to reveal what has happened to Saskia. The abductor, Raymond Lemorne (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu), is a chilling character to whom Rex is drawn by his intense desire to learn the truth behind his lovers disappearance. The truth is more sinister than he dared imagine. Based on the psychological thriller novella written by Dutch author Tim Krabbé and directed by George Sluizer, who also directed the American adaptation.

#173 Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - 7:00 PM NIGHT OF THE HUNTER by Charles Laughton   (1955) It's the Great Depression. In the process of robbing a bank of $10,000, Ben Harper kills two people. Before he is captured, he is able to convince his adolescent son John and his daughter Pearl not to tell anyone, including their mother Willa, where he hid the money, namely in Pearl's favorite toy, a doll that she carries everywhere with her. Ben, who is captured, tried and convicted, is sentenced to death. But before he is executed, Ben is in the state penitentiary with a cell mate, a man by the name of Harry Powell, a self-professed man of the cloth, who is really a con man and murderer, swindling lonely women, primarily rich widows, of their money before he kills them. Harry does whatever he can, unsuccessfully, to find out the location of the $10,000 from Ben. After Ben's execution, Harry decides that Willa will be his next mark, figuring that someone in the family knows where the money is hidden.

#171 Wednesday, May 23, 2018 - 7:00 PM THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE by Guillermo del Toro   Presented by Becky and Marty Norman who will show pictures they took of del Toro's notebook sketches at the Telluride Film Festival premier of the film. (2001) Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water)'s second film, it was independently produced by Pedro Almodóvar as an international co-production between Spain and Mexico, and was filmed in Madrid and set in 1939, during the final year of the Spanish Civil War. Casares (Federico Luppi) and Carmen (Marisa Paredes) operate a small home for orphans in a remote part of Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Helping the couple mind the orphanage are Jacinto (Eduardo Noriega), the groundskeeper, and Conchita (Irene Visedo), a teacher who is also involved with Jacinto. Casares and Carmen are aligned with the Republican loyalists, and are hiding a large cache of gold that is used to back the Republican treasury; perhaps not coincidentally, the orphanage has also been subject to attacks from Francisco Franco's troops, and a defused bomb sits in the home's courtyard. One day, a boy named Carlos (Fernando Tielve) arrives at the home, because his father died fighting the fascists. The boy soon strikes up an unlikely friendship with Jaime (Íñigo Garcés), a boy with a reputation for tormenting other kids. But Carlos soon begins having visions of a mysterious apparition he can't identify, and hears strange stories about a child named Santi who went missing the day the bomb appeared near the orphanage.

#170 Tuesday, May 15, 2018 - 7:00 PM WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF by Mike Nichols   Mike Nicols first screen directing job came from an adaptation of Edward Albee's play by Ernest Lehman, the screenwriting wizard behind Sabrina, The King and I, Sweet Smell of Success, North by Northwest, West Side Story, and The Sound of Music. Pour in the magic of the oft-remarried couple of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and sparks fly; taking the stage to screen with enough verbal and emotional action to feel you're watching a sweeping epic spectacle. (1966) George and Martha are a middle aged married couple, whose charged relationship is defined by alcohol fueled vitriolic verbal battles, which underlies what seems like an emotional dependence upon each other. George being an associate History professor in a New Carthage university where Martha's father is the President adds an extra dimension to their relationship. Late one Saturday evening after a faculty mixer, Martha invites Nick and Honey, an ambitious young Biology professor new to the university and his mousy wife, over for a nightcap. As the evening progresses, Nick and Honey, plied with more alcohol, get caught up in George and Martha's games of needing to hurt each other and everyone around them. The ultimate abuse comes in the form of talk of George and Martha's unseen sixteen year old son, whose birthday is the following day.

#169 Wednesday, May 9, 2018 - 7:00 PM DONNIE DARKO by Richard Kelly   Presented by Eric Van Writer / director Richard Kelly has aptly described Donnie Darko as “The Catcher in the Rye as told by Philip K. Dick.” It is one of the best troubled-teen drama / comedies of all time, featuring a terrific cast supporting a 19-year-old Jake Gyllenhaal. And it’s one of the two or three best science fiction puzzle films ever, one whose solution reveals a profound meditation on human and philosophical themes. It is the presenter’s favorite film of ordinary length. (2001) Donnie Darko doesn't get along too well with his family, his teachers and his classmates; but he does manage to find a sympathetic friend in Gretchen, who agrees to date him. He has a compassionate psychiatrist, who discovers hypnosis is the means to unlock hidden secrets. His other companion may not be a true ally. Donnie has a friend named Frank - a large bunny which only Donnie can see. When an engine falls off a plane and destroys his bedroom, Donnie is not there. Both the event, and Donnie's escape, seem to have been caused by supernatural events. Donnie's mental illness, if such it is, may never allow him to find out for sure.

#168 Friday, May 4, 2018 - 7:30 PM YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND TOMORROW by Vittorio De Sica   (1963) The art of the portmanteau film is out of vogue. But once the Italians used it as a way of telling contrasting stories in a meaningful way. Vittorio De Sica's comic Ieri, oggi, domani consists of three short stories of social mores about couples in different parts of Italy at various levels of society. Of course the three women protagonists are played by Sophia Loren, at the height of her talent and beauty. Three different stories of Italian social mores are presented. In "Adelina", unemployed Carmine Sbaratti and his wife Adelina Sbaratti survive through Adelina selling black market cigarettes on the street. They are unable to pay for the furniture they bought (which is under Adelina's name), but are able to avoid the bailiff when he comes for the money or to repossess. They come up with a longer term solution to avoid Adelina being prosecuted for non-payment, but that solution has a profound effect on the family, especially Carmine. In "Anna", Anna Molteni, the spoiled wife of a successful businessman, and an artist named Renzo are on the cusp of an affair. Anna is feeling neglected in the marriage, as her husband seems more concerned about success and money than her. But a car accident shows both Anna and Renzo if an affair with each other is really what they want. In "Mara", Mara is a prostitute who works out of her apartment. She befriends Umberto, a young man visiting his aunt. And what a final act! The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 37th Academy Awards.

#167 Sunday, April 29, 2018 - 6:30 PM THE BIG LEBOWSKI by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (uncredited)   (1998) The film is loosely inspired by the work of Raymond Chandler. Joel Coen stated: "We wanted to do a Chandler kind of story – how it moves episodically, and deals with the characters trying to unravel a mystery, as well as having a hopelessly complex plot that's ultimately unimportant." When "The Dude" Lebowski is mistaken for a millionaire Lebowski, two thugs urinate on his rug to coerce him into paying a debt he knows nothing about. While attempting to gain recompense for the ruined rug from his wealthy counterpart, he accepts a one-time job with high pay-off. He enlists the help of his bowling buddy, Walter, a gun-toting Jewish-convert with anger issues. Deception leads to more trouble, and it soon seems that everyone from porn empire tycoons to nihilists want something from The Dude.

#166 Monday, April 23, 2018 - 7:00 PM MODERN TIMES by Charles Chaplin   (1936) Charlie Chaplin returns in his iconic Little Tramp character who struggles to survive in the modern, industrialized world. The film is a comment on the desperate employment and financial conditions many people faced during the Great Depression, conditions created, in Chaplin's view, by the efficiencies of modern industrialization. Sound familiar to life today? Chaplin's last 'silent' film, filled with sound effects, was made when everyone else was making talkies. Charlie turns against modern society, the machine age, (The use of sound in films ?) and progress. Firstly we see him frantically trying to keep up with a production line, tightening bolts. He is selected for an experiment with an automatic feeding machine, but various mishaps leads his boss to believe he has gone mad, and Charlie is sent to a mental hospital - When he gets out, he is mistaken for a communist while waving a red flag, sent to jail, foils a jailbreak, and is let out again. Can the Little Tramp survive in a technological world? 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.

#165 Sunday, April 15, 2018 - 6:00 PM THE SEARCHERS by John Ford   Perhaps America's greatest director with a body of work matching David Lean, Jean Renoir, and Yasujirō Ozu in observing the ethos of his country. The Searchers if often held out of Ford's most significant work, both here and internationally. David Lean himself watched it repeatedly before filming Lawrence of Arabia. It is both an entertaining Western and a hard look at a difficult period of our history. (1956) Ethan Edwards (John Wayne), returns from the Civil War to the Texas ranch of his brother, hoping to find a home with his family and to be near the woman he obviously but secretly loves. But a Comanche raid destroys these plans, and Ethan sets out, along with his 1/8 Indian nephew Martin, on a years-long journey to find the niece kidnapped by the Indians under Chief Scar. But as the quest goes on, Martin begins to realize that his uncle's hatred for the Indians is beginning to spill over onto his now-assimilated niece. Martin becomes uncertain whether Ethan plans to rescue Debbie... or kill her.

#164 Tuesday, April 10, 2018 - 7:30 PM PONETTE by Jacques Doillon   (1996) An extremely captivating movie on how a little girl copes with her mother's death. She withdraws from all the people around her, waiting for her mother to come back. She tries waiting, and when her mother still doesn't appear, tries magic chants, praying to God, and then becoming a child of God, to have some power over Him. All to no avail. But then, when she is in despair, her mother does come back ...

#163 Tuesday, April 3, 2018 - 6:45 PM 8 1/2 by Federico Fellini   In a sudden change, thanks to Ellen Gittelman, the "Maudie" screening was turned into a Special Screening at the Coolidge Corner Theater. Instead of David's threatened mock wake, he was given a screening of the film of his life, Fellini's 8 1/2. Maudie will be shown in a few weeks, since it is another favorite. But this was an occasion to celebrate David. The Coolidge was nice enough to give us the 47 seat screening room gratis. Oddly, only a few days before a young doc filmmaker had interviewed David about his role in the saving of the Coolidge.

#162 Monday, March 26, 2018 - 7:00 PM STAGE FRIGHT by Alfred Hitchcock   (1950) After a decade in the US, Hitchcock returns to England to make Stage Fright. A struggling actress tries to help a friend prove his innocence when he's accused of murdering the husband of a high society entertainer. Stage Fright toys with our notions of the dividing line between reality and artifice by being set in the London theatre world. On the lam from the police, Richard Todd takes refuge in the home of his former girlfriend, RADA student Jane Wyman. Todd has been spotted fleeing the scene of a murder, but he insists that he's innocent. Wyman believes his story, but knows that the police won't, so she decides to play detective herself. She also plays several other roles in a variety of disguises so as to escape the notice of genuine detective Michael Wilding. Top-billed Marlene Dietrich plays a Dietrich-like chanteuse whom Wyman pigeonholes as the real murderer.

#161 Monday, March 19, 2018 - 7:00 PM RIFIFI by Jules Dassin   Rififi (French: Du rififi chez les hommesa) is a 1955 French crime film adaptation of Auguste Le Breton's novel of the same name and directed by American blacklisted filmmaker Jules Dassin. Well received in France, the US and UK, the film earned Dassin Best Director at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. Rififi was nominated by the National Board of Review for Best Foreign Film. Rififi is still highly acclaimed as one of the greatest works in French film noir. (1955) Four men plan a technically perfect crime, but the human element intervenes... After five years in prison, Tony le Stéphanois meets his dearest friends Jo and the Italian Mario Ferrati and they invite Tony to steal a couple of jewels from the show-window of the famous jewelry Mappin & Webb Ltd, but he declines. Tony finds his former girlfriend Mado, who became the lover of the gangster owner of the night-club L' Âge d' Or Louis Grutter, and he humiliates her, beating on her back for being unfaithful. Then he calls Jo and Mario and proposes a burglary of the safe of the jewelry. They invite the Italian specialist in safes and elegant wolf Cesar to join their team and they plot a perfect heist. They are successful in their plan, but the Don Juan Cesar makes things go wrong when he gives a valuable ring to his mistress. 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.

#160 Tuesday, March 13, 2018 - 7:30 PM MODERN TIMES Cancelled and rescheduled to (#166) Monday, April 23, 2018 - 7:00 PM by Charles Chaplin

#159 Wednesday, March 7, 2018 - 7:00 PM THE VANISHING Cancelled and rescheduled to (#170) Tuesday, May 15, 2018 - 7:00 PM   by George Sluizer

#158 Sunday, March 4, 2018 - 7:00 PM THE OSCARS by the AMPAS and Ouellette/Kleiler   (2018) (2018) Once again we are going to watch the MPAA awards presentation (Oscars) on Sunday evening. It's a party, of course. So drop on in for conversation, a bit of betting and controversy, and food and drink. Haven't had time to do the ballot sheets but will have them shortly and at the party. PS: the last screening was not an in-house emergency (if you read on in the flyer) and David and I are both fine.

#157 SCREENING CANCELLED due to Family Emergency Wednesday, February 28, 2018 - 7:00 PM   DONNIE DARKO by Richard Kelly   Presented by Eric Van Writer / director Richard Kelly has aptly described Donnie Darko as “The Catcher in the Rye as told by Philip K. Dick.” It is one of the best troubled-teen drama / comedies of all time, featuring a terrific cast supporting a 19-year-old Jake Gyllenhaal. And it’s one of the two or three best science fiction puzzle films ever, one whose solution reveals a profound meditation on human and philosophical themes. It is the presenter’s favorite film of ordinary length. (2001) Donnie Darko doesn't get along too well with his family, his teachers and his classmates; but he does manage to find a sympathetic friend in Gretchen, who agrees to date him. He has a compassionate psychiatrist, who discovers hypnosis is the means to unlock hidden secrets. His other companion may not be a true ally. Donnie has a friend named Frank - a large bunny which only Donnie can see. When an engine falls off a plane and destroys his bedroom, Donnie is not there. Both the event, and Donnie's escape, seem to have been caused by supernatural events. Donnie's mental illness, if such it is, may never allow him to find out for sure.

#156 Monday, February 19, 2018 - 7:00 PM THE BIG HEAT by Fritz Lang   Presented by David Kleiler (1953) A film noir dramatic crime classic from Fritz Lang (Fury, M, Metropolis). Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is an upright cop on the trail of a vicious gang he suspects holds power over the police force. Bannion is tipped off after a colleague's suicide and his fellow officers' suspicious silence lead him to believe that they are on the gangsters' payroll. When a bomb meant for him kills his wife instead, Bannion becomes a furious force of vengeance and justice, aided along the way by the gangster's (Lee Marvin) spurned girlfriend Debbie (Gloria Grahame). As Bannion and Debbie fall further and further into the Gangland's insidious and brutal trap, they must use any means necessary (including murder) to get to the truth.

#155 Monday, February 12, 2018 - 7:00 PM CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS by Woody Allen   (1989) Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau) is an ophthalmologist and a pillar of the community who has a big problem: his mistress Dolores Paley (Anjelica Huston) has told him that he is to leave his wife and marry her - as he had promised to do - or she will tell everyone of their affair. When he intercepts a letter Dolores has written to his wife Miriam (Claire Bloom), he is frantic. He confesses all to his shady brother Jack (Jerry Orbach) who assures him that he has friends who can take care of her. Meanwhile, filmmaker Cliff Stern (Woody Allen) is having his own problems. He's been working on a documentary film for some time but has yet to complete it. He and his wife Wendy (Joanna Gleason) have long ago stopped loving one another and are clearly on their way to divorce. He falls in love with Halley Reed (Mia Farrow) who works with a producer, Lester (Alan Alda). Cliff soon finds himself making a documentary about Lester and hates every minute of it.

#154 Tuesday, February 5, 2018 - 7:00 PM FOOTNOTE by Joseph Cedar   Presented by Kaj Wilson (2011) Nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Film this is the story of a great rivalry between a father and son, both eccentric professors in the Talmud department of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The son has an addictive dependency on the embrace and accolades that the establishment provides, while his father is a stubborn purist with a fear and profound revulsion for what the establishment stands for, yet beneath his contempt lies a desperate thirst for some kind of recognition. The Israel Prize, Israel's most prestigious national award, is the jewel that brings these two to a final, bitter confrontation. This film also swept the Israeli Academy Awards and won best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival.

#153 Wednesday, January 31, 2018 - 7:00 PM THE MISFITS by John Huston   Presented by Jean-Paul Ouellette (1961) The last of a breed, the wild Mustang would soon become extinct, replaced by a Ford concept car in 1962. And American culture itself would be re-invented as the Beatles and a new youth culture invaded in 1962. So in 1961, director John Huston and playwright Arthur Miller captured the end of the old 20th Century in perhaps one of the most "American" films ever made. The Misfits, with its background of the demise of the wild Mustang and the old West, brought together the final star turns of two immense talents: matinee idol Clark Gable and intelligent but tragic sex-symbol Marilyn Monroe in the superb final performances of their careers. Roslyn Taber, the type of woman who turns heads easily, recently came to Reno to get a quickie divorce, she having no idea what to do with her life after that. She cannot tolerate seeing animal suffering, let alone human suffering. Coinciding with getting the divorce, Roslyn meets friends Gay Langland and Guido, a divorced aging grizzled cowboy and a widowed mechanic respectively. Although Guido makes no bones about wanting to get to know Roslyn in the biblical sense and although he "saw her first", Roslyn begins a relationship with Gay, despite Roslyn's friend Izzy Steers, who originally came to Reno years ago to get her own divorce and never left, warning her about cowboys as being unreliable, and despite Roslyn initially not being interested in Gay "in that way". Gay has grown children who he rarely sees and wishes he was there for more than was the case. Gay and Roslyn move into the under construction farmhouse owned by Guido, which he was building for his wife before she died. ...

#152 Tuesday, January 23, 2018 - 7:30 PM THE GREAT MCGINTY by Preston Sturges   (1940) Ah, politics! Preston Sturges (Sullivan's Travels, The Lady Eve, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek) was a well known screenwriter but with this, his first film as director, set the stage for the independent gwriter/director in Hollywood. In a dive south of the border, bartender Dan McGinty stops a young man from committing suicide after a moment of dishonesty, and relates how a moment of honesty brought him down in a flashback. As a young man, McGinty joins a crooked political boss and rises from extortionist to alderman. Urged by the boss to marry his secretary to give respectability to his run for mayor, McGinty agrees -- only to fall in love with his wife and decide to do an honest thing for once in his life. ** Preston Sturges' own life is as unlikely as some of the plots of his best work. He was born into a wealthy family. As a boy he helped out on stage productions for his mother's friend, Isadora Duncan (the scarf that strangled her was made by his mother's company, Maison Desti). He served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during WWI. Upon his return to Maison Desti, he invented a kissproof lipstick, Red-Red Rouge, in 1920. He began writing stories and, while recovering from an appendectomy in 1929, wrote his first play, "The Guinea Pig". In financial trouble over producing his plays, he moved to Hollywood in 1932 to make money.

#151 Tuesday, January 16, 2018 - 7:00 PM CRIES AND WHISPERS by Ingmar Bergman   (1972) In turn-of-the-century Sweden, cancer-stricken, dying Agnes is visited in her isolated rural mansion by her sisters Karin and Maria. As Agnes' condition deteriorates and pain management becomes increasingly more difficult, fear and revulsion grip the sisters, who seem incapable of empathy, and Agnes' only comfort and solace comes from her maid Anna. As the end draws closer, long repressed feelings of grudging resentment and mistrust cause jealousy, selfishness, and bitterness between the siblings to surface.

#150 Sunday, January 7, 2018 - 5:30 PM HAPPY-GO-LUCKY by Mike Leigh   (2008) A look at a few chapters in the life of Poppy Cross (Sally Hawkins) who is certainly happy-go-lucky. At 30, she lives in Camden: cheeky, playful, frank while funny, and talkative to strangers. She's a conscientious and exuberant primary-school teacher, flatmates with Zoe, her long-time friend (Alexis Zegerman); she's close to one sister, and not so close to another. In this slice of life story, we watch her take driving lessons from Scott, a dour and tightly-wound instructor (Eddie Marsan), take classes in flamenco dance from a fiery Spaniard, encounter a tramp in the night, and sort out a student's aggressive behavior with a social worker's help. Along the way, we wonder if her open attitude puts her at risk of misunderstanding or worse. What is the root of happiness?   The Golden Globes will begin around 8 PM. Sally Hawkins, who won a comedy actress Golden Globes for Happy-Go_Lucky, is up for the best actress for Del Toro's The Shape of Water. Let's see if she repeats. We'll be sitting around watching, commenting, and conversing on movies.

#149 Friday, December 29, 2017 - 7:30 PM THE LADY VANISHES by Alfred Hitchcock   (1938) The Lady Vanishes is a British mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave. Written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder based on the 1936 novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White, the film is about a beautiful English tourist travelling by train in continental Europe who discovers that her elderly travelling companion seems to have disappeared from the train. After her fellow passengers deny ever having seen the elderly lady, the young woman is helped by a young musicologist, the two proceeding to search the train for clues to the old lady's disappearance. It was Hitchcock's last British film until the 1970s; he relocated to Hollywood soon after its release. Although the director's three previous efforts had done poorly at the box office, The Lady Vanishes was widely successful, and confirmed American producer David O. Selznick's belief that Hitchcock indeed had a future in Hollywood cinema. The Lady Vanishes was named Best Picture of 1938 by The New York Times. In 1939, Hitchcock received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director, the only time Hitchcock received an award for his directing.

#148 Monday, December 18, 2017 - 7:00 PM THE TALL BLOND MAN WITH ONE BLACK SHOE by Yves Robert   (1972) Wow, two laugh-out-loud comedies in a row! A French farce! Three of France's comic geniuses have collaborated in varied combinations. But here they all worked together to make what is one of France's greatest comic exports. Director/writer/actor Yves Robert (The War of the Buttons, Pardon My Affair), writer/director Francis Veber (La Cage aux Folles, Le dîner de cons), and actor/writer/director Pierre Richard (The Toy, The ComDads). And, yes, all of the mentioned films have Hollywood remakes (but see the originals). A hapless orchestra player Francois Perrin (Pierre Richard) becomes the hapless pawn of rival factions within the French Secret Service after he is randomly chosen as a decoy by being identified as a super secret agent. Soon, agents are all over the place, and one of them, Christine, is sent to seduce Francois. Meanwhile, Francois has his own problems, tangled up in an affair with his best friend's wife. With Bernard Blier, Jean Rochefort, and Mireille Darc. (Darc's black dress, deigned by Guy Laroche, is now housed at the Louvre Museum.) WITH Jody Kramer's short animation "Don't Tell Santa You're Jewish." 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.

#147 Tuesday, December 12, 2017 - 7:00 PM THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH by Billy Wilder   (1955) The ideal fantasy of the 1950s middle-class man. With his family away for their annual summer holiday, New Yorker Richard Sherman decides he has the opportunity to live a bachelor's life - to eat and drink what he wants and basically to enjoy life without wife and son. The beautiful but ditsy blond from the apartment above his catches his eye and they soon start spending time together. It's all innocent though there is little doubt that Sherman is attracted to her. Any lust he may be feeling is played out in his own imagination however. It's easy to forget just how laugh out loud this film is!

#146 Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - 7:30 PM DRIFTING CLOUDS by Aki Kaurismäki   Special guest curator and Kaurismäki expert, Ambrose Roach from Toronto and Worcester. (1996) The great minimalist director's portrayal of a couple's struggle to survive in Helsinki. With humor and irony, it shows people who learn to live with life's inequities.

#145 Sunday, December 3, 2017 - 6:30 PM GLOOMY SUNDAY by Rolf Schübel   Presented by Bob Tremblay, Business Editor and Film Critic of The MetroWest Daily News (1999) "Gloomy Sunday," the 1999 German-Hungarian melodrama set in a Budapest restaurant during World War II, played for 70-consecutive weeks at the West Newton Cinema, a run so impressive that one of the film's stars attended a screening. After seeing the movie you might understand its popularity even though it features Nazis and untimely deaths. The acting is top-drawer and the lead actress is stunningly beautiful. You do have to have a weakness for melodrama, though, or you'll likely be gloomy, too. Budapest in the thirties. The restaurant owner Laszlo hires the pianist András to play in his restaurant. Both men fall in love with the beautiful waitress Ilona who inspires András to his only composition. His song of Gloomy Sunday is, at first, loved and then feared, for its melancholic melody triggers off a chain of suicides. The fragile balance of the erotic ménage à trois is sent off kilter when the German Hans goes and falls in love with Ilona as well. PS: The 1933 song "Gloomy Sunday," composed by Hungarian pianist and composer Rezső Seress, is called the Hungarian Suicide Song. It was recorded in the US by Hal Kemp (1936) and Paul Robeson (1936) and, perhaps best known, by Billie Holiday in 1941. There is a recurring "urban legend" which claims that many people have committed suicide while listening to this song. Press reports in the 1930s associated at least nineteen suicides, both in Hungary and the United States, with "Gloomy Sunday," but most of the deaths supposedly linked to it are difficult to verify. The urban legend appears to be, for the most part, simply an embellishment of the high number of Hungarian suicides that occurred in the decade when the song was composed due to other factors such as famine and poverty, as well as the rise of Nazi Germany's influence in Europe. No studies have drawn a clear link between the song and suicide. In January 1968, some thirty-five years after writing the song, its composer did commit suicide.

#144 Tuesday, November 28, 2017 - 7:00 PM SUNDAYS AND CYBELE by Serge Bourguignon   (1962) Winner of the Best Foreign Film Oscar and noms for Maurice Jarre's (Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago) score and the screenplay based on a novel by Bernard Eschasseriaux, who collaborated on the screenplay. After killing a child when his plane crashes in a Vietnamese village during the French Indochina War (later our Vietnam War), Pierre (Hardy Krüger) suffers from delayed stress and partial amnesia. Returning to France, he lives like a vegetable until he meets a young girl who has been dumped by her father at a boarding school. Posing as her father, Pierre contrives to meet the girl every Sunday, to play with her and perhaps recover his memory. The innocent friendship is misread by nearly everyone, even people who know Pierre well. A touching and profoundly moving classic of French art films by a filmmaker mostly known for his documentaries and shorts. In the year that Cannes Film Festival handed out awards to La Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini, L'avventura by Michelangelo Antonioni, and Kagi by Kon Ichikawa -- Serge Bourguignon's short 'Le Sourire' won the 1960 Palm d'Or for Best Short Film.

#143 Friday, November 17, 2017 - 7:30 PM THE THIRD MAN by Carol Reed   (1949) English director Carol Reed brings Graham Greene's mystery/thriller to life in one of the greatest B&W films to play with light and dark. To create this international hit he brought in the talents of American Orson Welles and his oft co-star Joseph Cotton and mixed in the enigmatic Italian actress Alida Valli and staid English actor Trevor Howard. An out-of-work pulp fiction novelist, Holly Martins, arrives in a post war Vienna divided into sectors by the victorious allies, and where a shortage of supplies has led to a flourishing black market. He arrives at the invitation of an ex-school friend, Harry Lime, who has offered him a job, only to discover that Lime has recently died in a peculiar traffic accident. From talking to Lime's friends and associates Martins soon notices that some of the stories are inconsistent, and determines to discover what really happened to Harry Lime.

#142 Monday, November 13, 2017 - 7:00 PM BLUE COLLAR by Paul Schrader   Presented by entertainment attorney Joel Shames (1978) From Paul Schrader comes his directoral debut. Already known for his successful screenplays for Pollack (The Yakuza), Scorcese (Taxi Driver), De Palma (Obsession) and John Flynn (Rolling Thunder), Schrader was ready to direct in his own disturbing vision of America in the Seventies. Three workers, Zeke (Richard Pryor), Jerry (Harvey Keitel) and Smokey (Yaphet Kotto), are working at a car plant and drinking their beers together. One night when they steal away from their wives to have some fun they get the idea to rob the local union's bureau safe. First they think it is a flop, because they get only 600 dollars out of it, but then Zeke realizes that they also have gotten some 'hot' material. They decide to blackmail their union. The best reason for that is the union itself. All three are provoked by the fact that the union claims to have lost 10,000 dollars by their robbery. 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: Matt Murphy's is 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.

#141 Tuesday, November 7, 2017 - 7 PM PERSONAL SHOPPER by Olivier Asssayas   (2016) From the director of Clouds of Sils Maria and Irma Vep comes this challenging mind-twisting ghost story. A personal shopper in Paris refuses to leave the city until she makes contact with her twin brother who previously died there. Her life becomes more complicated when a mysterious person contacts her via text message. And then the film changes and becomes more mysterious. It promises to be a lively discussion. With American actress Kristen Stewart.

#140 Wednesday, November 7, 2017 - 7:00 PM BLOWOUT by Brian De Palma   Presented by Alan Spatrick (1981) A multi-layered neo-noir masterpiece, or a tawdry exploitative exercise in mimicry? Or both?  This stylish Brian De Palma thriller plays off the theme of the unsuspecting witness who discovers a crime and is thereby put in grave danger, but with a novel twist. Jack Terry (John Travolta) is a master sound recordist who works on grade-B horror movies. Late one evening, he is recording sounds for use in his movies when he hears something unexpected through his sound equipment and records it. Curiosity gets the better of him when the media become involved, and he begins to unravel the pieces of a nefarious conspiracy. As he struggles to survive against his shadowy enemies and expose the truth, he does not know whom he can trust. With Nancy Allen and John Lithgow. This film, a showcase for DePalma's many cinematic influences, forms a triumvirate of mystery/thrillers with Antonioni's Blow Up and Coppola's The Conversation.

#139 Friday, October 25, 2017 - 7:30 PM THE WITCH by Robert Eggers   (2015) A family in 1630s New England is torn apart by the forces of witchcraft, black magic and possession. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 91% based on 274 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "As thought-provoking as it is visually compelling, The Witch delivers a deeply unsettling exercise in slow-building horror that suggests great things for debuting writer-director Robert Eggers." Metacritic reports a score of 83 out of 100, based on 46 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

#138 Wednesday, October 18, 2017 - 7:30 PM Umberto D. by Vittorio De Sica   (1952) Umberto Ferrari, aged government-pensioner, attends a street demonstration held by his fellow pensioners. The police dispense the crowd and Umberto returns to his cheap furnished room which he shares with his dog Flick. Umberto's lone friend is Maria, servant of the boarding house. She is a simple girl who is pregnant by one of two soldiers and neither will admit to being the father. When Umberto's landlady Antonia demands the rent owed her and threatens eviction if she is not paid, Umberto tries desperately to raise the money by selling his books and watch. He is too proud to beg in the streets and can not get a loan from any of his acquaintances. He contracts a sore throat, is admitted to a hospital and this puts a delay on his financial difficulty. Discharged, he finds that his dog is gone and, following a frantic search, locates him in the city dog pound. His room has been taken over by the landlady and the now-homeless Unberto determines to find a place for his beloved dog, and ...

#137 Tuesday, October 10, 2017 - 7:30 PM YOU CAN COUNT ON ME by Kenneth Lonergran   (2000) Adult siblings Sammy Prescott and Terry Prescott have had a special bond with each other since they were kids when their parents were tragically killed in a car accident. That bond is why single mom Sammy, who still lives in the family home in Scottsville, upstate New gYork with her eight year old son Rudy, is excited to hear that Terry, who she has not seen or heard from in a while, is coming home for a visit. That excitement is dampened slightly upon Terry's arrival, when she learns that he, broke, is only there to borrow money. As adults, Sammy, who works as a lending officer in the local bank, is seen as the responsible sibling, while unfocused Terry is seen as the irresponsible drifter. Regardless, Sammy welcomes what ends up being Terry's longer than planned visit if only so that he can help take care of Rudy, who has no adult male figure in his life. Rudy has never known his deadbeat biological father, with whom Sammy wants nothing to do. As Terry - acting as the supposed adult ...

#136 Wednesday, October 4, 2017 - 7:00 PM REBECCA by Alfred Hitchcock   (1940) For his first American film, Hitchcock was hired by flamboyant producer David O. Selznick to adapt Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. It would be Hitch's only film to win an Oscar for Best Picture. A shy ladies' companion (Joan Fontaine), staying in Monte Carlo with her stuffy employer, meets the wealthy Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier). She and Max fall in love, marry and return to Manderley, his large country estate in Cornwall. Max is still troubled by the death of his first wife, Rebecca, in a boating accident the year before. The second Mrs. de Winter clashes with the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), and discovers that Rebecca still has a strange hold on everyone at Manderley.

#135 Sunday, October 1, 2017 - 6:30 PM SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER... AND SPRING by Kim Ki-duk   (2003) From South Korea, an internationally awarded film from Kim Ki-duk, one of the most important contemporary Asian film directors. Known for his idiosyncratic art-house cinematic works (Birdcage Inn, Samaritan Girl, and Pieta) this film contempates life from a Buddhist perspective, full of symbolism and considered one of the top 100 films of the new millenium. Peter Rainer of New York:"Kim exalts nature--life’s passage--without stooping to sentimentality. He sees the tooth and claw, and he sees the transcendence. Whether this is a Buddhist attribute, I cannot say, but the impression this movie leaves is profound: Here is an artist who sees things whole." In the midst of the Korean wilderness, a Buddhist master patiently raises a young boy to grow up in wisdom and compassion, through experience and endless exercises. Once the pupil discovers his sexual lust, he seems lost to contemplative life and follows his first love, but soon fails to adapt to the modern world, gets in jail for a crime of passion and returns to the master in search of spiritual redemption and reconciliation with karma, at a high price of physical catharsis...

#134 Monday, September 25, 2017 - 7:00 PM Three Strangers by Jean Negulesco   Presented by Andrew Moore (1946) A woman (Geraldine Fitzgerald) enlists two men (Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet) to join her in a ritual in which three strangers make a common wish before an idol on the eve of the Chinese New Year. All are secretly in desperate straits.  One of the men has an Irish Sweepstakes ticket; the wish will be for it to win, with the winnings split between them.  The act seems harmless enough, but it changes their destinies in ways none of them could have foreseen.  This classically moody and tense film noir features a plot loaded with intrigue and innuendo; a complex, literate script by John Huston and Howard Koch; superbly atmospheric cinematography by the great Arthur Edeson; and outstanding performances by the entire cast.  It's probably the only movie in which Peter Lorre plays something like the romantic lead, and he does so with a poignancy and grace that was all his own.  P.S. from J-P: An important someone who has been forgotten in the annals of cinema is the Director of Photography Arthur Edeson who shot the film. He also directed the cinematography for Casablanca (1942), The Maltese Falcon (1941, Frankenstein (1931), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), The Thief of Baghdad (1924), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), and many more. Of the founding fathers of the American Society of Cinematographers, he is one of the few who moved from silent films to sound, working from 1914 to 1949. 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.

#133 Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - 7:30 PM SOMETHING WILD by Jonathan Demme   (1986) The uneventful life of the businessman Charles Driggs suddenly changes when he meets the wild and sexy Lulu. When he accepts her offer to drive him back to his office, she instead takes him out of town and on a trip, leaving behind his old life. Posing as a married couple, Charles and "Audrey" (which turns out to be Lulu's real name) visit her mother and her high school reunion. At this reunion they meet Audrey's violent ex-husband Ray, who has just released from prison. When Ray makes it clear that he wants Audrey back, that is when the real trouble begins.

#132 Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017 - 7:00 PM Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN by Alfonso Cuarón   (2001) The film tells a coming-of-age story about two teenage boys who take a road trip with a woman in her late twenties. It stars Mexican actors Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal and Spanish actress Maribel Verdú, in the leading roles. The film is part of the road movie genre, set in 1999 against the backdrop of the political and economic realities of present-day Mexico, specifically at the end of the uninterrupted 71-year line of Mexican presidents from the Institutional Revolutionary Party and the rise of the opposition led by Vicente Fox. The film is recognized for its explicit depiction of sex and drug use, which caused complications in the film's rating certificate in various countries. In Mexico, the film earned $2.2 million its first weekend in June 2001, making it the highest box office opening in Mexican cinema history. In 2003, the film was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards as well as Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globe Awards in 2002.

#131 Tuesday, Sept 5, 2017 - 7:00 PM FURY by Fritz Lang   (1936) Based on the story "Mob Rule" by Norman Krasna. Joe Wilson and Katherine Grant are in love, but he doesn't have enough money for them to get married. So Katherine moves across the country to make money. But things go disastrously wrong for Joe when he stops in a small town and is mistaken for a wanted murderer. Through the course of the movie, Fritz Lang shows us how a decent and once civilized man can become a ruthless and bitter man.

#130 Sunday, August 20, 2017 - 5:00 PM Margaret by Kenneth Lonnegran   Presented by Eric Van. (2011) From the director of "Manchester by the Sea" and "You Can Count On Me," Kenneth Lonnegran's "Margaret." was shot in 2005 and was contractually obliged to run 150 minutes but simply couldn’t. Martin Scorsese saw a 3-hour cut, declared it a masterpiece, and helped Lonnegran trim it to 165 minutes, but Fox Searchlight still balked. Lawsuits followed and were settled. Eventually a 150 minute cut was played in 14 theaters max (including the Brattle) in 2007, to mixed reviews—but the positive ones were ecstatic. Margaret centers on a 17-year-old New York City high-school student who feels certain that she inadvertently played a role in a traffic accident that has claimed a woman's life. In her attempts to set things right she meets with opposition at every step. Torn apart with frustration, she begins emotionally brutalizing her family, her friends, her teachers, and most of all, herself. She has been confronted quite unexpectedly with a basic truth: that her youthful ideals are on a collision course against the realities and compromises of the adult world. With Anna Paquin, Mark Ruffalo, Jean Reno, Allison Janney, Kieran Culkin, and Matt Damon. Because of the 186 minute running time we are starting early (5 PM) and having a dinner break half way (to celebrate the end of our second year of salons).

#129 Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - 7:00 PM CHUNKING EXPRESS by Wong Kar-Wai   (1994) (1994) Wong Kar-Wai's crowd pleaser from the director of In The Mood For Love, filmed in impressionistic splashes of motion and color. Two melancholy Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious female underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal server at a late-night restaurant he frequents.

#128 Monday, August 7, 2017 - 7:00 PM MAD LOVE by Karl Freund   (1935) In Paris, the great surgeon Dr. Gogol (Peter Lorre) falls madly in love with stage actress Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake), and his ardor disturbs her quite a bit when he discovers to his horror that she is married to concert pianist Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive). Shortly thereafter, Stephen's hands are badly crushed in a train accident- beyond the power of standard medicine. Knowing that his hands are his life, Yvonne overcomes her fear and goes to Dr. Gogol, to beg him to help. Gogol decides to surgically graft the hands of executed murderer Rollo onto Stephen Orlac, the surgery is successful but has terrible side-effects... PLUS: 10 PM screening of the original Planet of the Apes.

#127 Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - 7:00 PM THE SEVENTH SEAL by Ingmar Bergman   (1957) A Knight and his squire are home from the crusades. Black Death is sweeping their country. As they approach home, Death appears to the knight and tells him it is his time. The knight challenges Death to a chess game for his life. The Knight and Death play as the cultural turmoil envelopes the people around them as they try, in different ways, to deal with the upheaval the plague has caused.

#126 Tuesday, July 25, 2017 - 7:30 PM WHAT'S UP, DOC? by Peter Bogdanovich   (1972) Bogdanovich resurrrects the screwball comedy of Capra, Sturges, Wilder, and Hawks. Two musicologists arrive in San Francisco to compete for a research grant. One (Ryan O'Neal) seems a bit distracted. And THAT was before he meets HER (Barbara Streisand), a strange woman who seems to have devoted her life to confusing and embarassing him. At the same time another woman has her jewels stolen and a government whistle-blower arrives with his stolen top secret papers. Of course, everyone has arrived with identical overnight bags.

#125 Monday, July 17, 2017 - 7:00 PM BODY AND SOUL by Robert Rossen   (1947) Charley Davis (John Garfield), against the wishes of his mother (Anne Revere), becomes a boxer. As he becomes more successful, the fighter becomes surrounded by shady characters, including an unethical promoter named Roberts (Lloyd Gough), who tempts the man with a number of vices. Charley finds himself faced with increasingly difficult choices. With Lili Palmer and William Conrad. Often considered the greatest boxing movie every made, it's influence can be seen in every boxing film that followed, including such classics as Champion (1949) and Raging Bull (1980). Gritty realism, harsh lighting and a cynical view of the sport became the standard for fight films after it. Film critic Dennis Schwartz: "Robert Rossen's Body and Soul becomes more than a boxing and film noir tale, as screenwriter Abraham Polonsky makes this into a socialist morality drama where the pursuit of money becomes the focus that derails the common man in his quest for success." And, of course, the cinematography by James Wong Howe set a standard for the fight film. Not content to park his camera ringside, he got into the ring on roller skates, holding a 16mm camera while an assistant pushed him into the action. Said Howe, "I wanted an effect where the boxer is knocked out and he looks up into a dazzle of lights; with a heavy, fixed camera, you'd never get that." Note Wong in the fight photo. 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.

#124 Tuesday, July 11, 2017 - 7:30 PM THE FORGOTTEN KINGDOM by Andrew Mudge   Presented by director Andrew Mudge (2013) Atang leaves the slums of the big city to bury his estranged father in the remote, mountainous village where he was born. Befriended by an orphan herd-boy and stirred by memories of his youth, he falls in love with his childhood friend, Dineo, now a radiant young teacher. Through her, Atang is drawn to the mystical beauty and hardships of the people, and faces his own bittersweet reckoning. Filmmaker Andrew Mudge will be present for discussion. The Forgotten Kingdom is the first major feature film produced in Lesotho and in the Sesotho-language. After a nation-wide casting search in Lesotho, Lebohang Ntsane (Orphan Boy) was selected over seven-hundred boys. It was his first acting role and garnered an African Movies Academy Award (AMAA)® for his performance.

#123 Wednesday, July 5, 2017 - 7:00 PM CITIZEN KANE by Orson Welles   With a short video analysis by Donald Trump (1941) OMG, this is President Donald Trump's supposedly favorite film? Fitting, of course! William Randolph Hearst, the media mogul on whom the story was partially based, hated it! He could see how it made fun of the ambitious rich and need-to-be powerful and pierces into their warped, egotistical psyches. Trump just sees how cool and smart he is. Disaster! But it is a favorite of critics and film buffs. Oft considered one of the greatest films every produced in the US, Citizen Kane is, and will continue to be, the epitome of film art. Our screening is guaranteed to further illuminate the film and our nation leader.

#122 Wednesday, June 28, 2017 - 7:30 PM Holiday by George Cukor   (1938) Adapted from Philip Barrie's play, Holiday was the perfect comedy for the masses during the Depression, skewering the elite 1% and havving a good time doing it. Free-thinking Johnny Case (Cary Grant) finds himself betrothed to a millionaire's daughter. When her family, with the exception of black-sheep Linda (Katherine Hepburn) and drunken Ned, want Johnny to settle down to big business, he rebels, wishing instead to spend the early years of his life on "holiday." With the help of his friends Nick and Susan Potter (Edward Everett Horton and Jean Dixon), he makes up his mind as to which is the better course, and the better mate.

#121 Friday, June 23, 2017 - 7:30 PM YOJIMBO by Akira Kurosawa   (1961) Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (用心棒? Yōjinbō) is a jidaigeki film which tells of a nameless ronin, or samurai with no master (Toshirô Mifune), who enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon (Kamatari Fujiwara) and sake merchant Tokuemon (Takashi Shimura) to hire him as a personal bodyguard (a "yojimbo"}, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men. Kurosawa's man-with-no-name character and Mifune's iconic portrayal of him have influence film, literature and culture world-wide. Kurosawa's interpretation of the American Western re-invented and deepend the appreciation for the genre (though Yojimbo was loosely adapted from a hard-nosed detective story by Dashiell Hammett). Most obvious of the influence is the Italian remake by Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood; A Fistful of Dollars and the Django series. fsfc

#120 Sunday, June 18 , 2017 - 6:30 PM THE LAST DETAIL by Hal Ashby   (1973) Two bawdy, tough looking Navy lifers - "Bad-Ass" Buddusky (Jack Nicholson), and "Mule" Mulhall (Otis Young) - are commissioned to escort a young pilferer named Meadows (Randy Quaid) to the brig in Portsmouth. Meadows is not much of a thief. Indeed, in his late teens, he is not much of a man at all. His great crime was to try to steal forty dollars from the admiral's wife's pet charity. For this, he's been sentenced to eight years behind bars. At first, Buddusky and Mulhall view the journey as a paid vacation, but their holiday spirits are quickly depressed by the prisoner, who looks prepared to break into tears at any moment. And he has the lowest self-image imaginable. Buddusky gets it into his head to give Meadows a good time and teach him a bit about getting on in the world. Lesson one: Don't take every card life deals you. Next, he teaches Meadows to drink, and, as a coup de grace, finds a nice young whore to instruct him in lovemaking. Mule, who worries aloud about his own position with military authority, seems pleased with Meadows's progress. However, when the trio reach Portsmouth, the game comes abruptly to an end as reality sets in. Nicholson, Quaid, and screenwriter Robert Towne all recceived Academy Award nomination.

#119 Wednesday, June 14, 2017 - 7:30 PM DEMOCRACY THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS by Kevin Bowe   A Work-In_Progress Documentary Screening (2017) A citizen embeds himself with the media covering the Presidential election. So begins the journey down the rabbit hole of our broken political information system: where shiny objects hypnotize, truthiness empowers and paranoia runs rampant. This 40,000 foot story is told from the trenches of press conferences, voter experiences and the campaign trail, with insights from veteran CBS journalist Bob Schieffer and many others. Ultimately, this is a story about the immense challenges our Democracy faces in the digital age and the role “we the people” must play in renewing long-held national values in turbulent times. Among the Boston academics (aside from Globe Editor Brian McGrory) in the film: Nicco Mele and Larry Lessig from Harvard; Carole Bell, Northeastern; Virginia Shapiro BU and Greg Payne of Emerson. About the film maker: Kevin Bowe of West Newbury is the Executive Producer of Story-Crafters, a video production company that specializes in examining broad social issues from the perspective of personal stories. Past projects have focused on readjustment issues impacting returning combat personnel and the the heroin epidemic that affects people throughout the United States. He has produced two short documentaries, "Bringing History Home" and "Honoring Ken" and produced a 50-part web series “Stories from the New Hampshire Primary.” Kevin released his first feature documentary, Democracy Through the Looking Glass: Media & Politics in the Post-truth Era in the Spring of 2017.

#118 Wednesday, June 7, 2017 - 8:15 PM IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE by Wong Kar-wai   Presented by David Kleiler, Jr. (2000) Two neighbors, a woman and a man, form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses. However, they agree to keep their bond platonic so as not to commit similar wrongs. In the Mood for Love (Chinese: 花樣年華) is a 2000 Hong Kong film directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung. The film's original Chinese title, meaning "the age of blossoms" or "the flowery years" – Chinese metaphor for the fleeting time of youth, beauty and love – derives from a song of the same name by Zhou Xuan from a 1946 film. The film premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or and Leung was awarded Best Actor. It is frequently listed as one of the greatest films of the 2000s.

#117 Wednesday, May 31, 2017 - 7:00 PM BLOWUP by Michelangelo Antonioni   Dueling presenters Jean-Paul Ouellette and David Kleiler cross swords. (1966) The quintessential sixties film, Blowup, or Blow-Up, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Swinging London is seen through the eyes of fashion photographer Thomas, played by David Hemmings, seeking to find a reality to ground himself in the unreal world of fashion and pop culture. He believes he has unwittingly captured a murder on film. It was Antonioni's first entirely English-language film. The film also stars Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle, Jane Birkin, Tsai Chin and Gillian Hills as well as sixties model Veruschka. The screenplay was by Antonioni and Tonino Guerra, with English dialogue by British playwright Edward Bond. The plot was inspired by Julio Cortázar's short story, "Las babas del diablo" or "The Devil's Drool" (1959), translated also as "Blow Up" in Blow-up and Other Stories, and by the life of Swinging London photographer David Bailey. The film was scored by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock. The music is diegetic, as Hancock noted: "It's only there when someone turns on the radio or puts on a record." Nominated for several awards at the Cannes Film Festival, Blowup won the Grand Prix. The American release of the counterculture-era film with its explicit sexual content (by contemporary standards) by a major Hollywood studio was in direct defiance of the Production Code. Its subsequent outstanding critical and box office success proved to be one of the final events that led to the final abandonment of the code in 1968 in favour of the MPAA film rating system. In 2012, Blowup was ranked No. 144 in the Sight & Sound critics' poll of the world's greatest films.

#116 Wednesday, May 24, 2017 - 7:30 PM AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD by Werner Herzog   (1972) Aguirre, Wrath of God, is a 1972 West German epic film written and directed by Werner Herzog. Klaus Kinski stars in the title role. The soundtrack was composed and performed by West German progressive/Krautrock band Popol Vuh. The story follows the travels of Spanish soldier Lope de Aguirre, who cares only about riches, leads a group of conquistadores down the Orinoco and Amazon River in South America in search of the legendary city of gold, El Dorado. But will his quest lead them to "the golden city", or to certain destruction? Using a minimalist story and dialogue, the film creates a vision of madness and folly, counterpointed by the lush but unforgiving Amazonian jungle. Although based loosely on what is known of the historical figure of Aguirre, the film's storyline is, as Herzog acknowledged years after the film's release, a work of imagination.

#115 Tuesday, May 16, 2017 - 7:30 PM SECONDS by John Frankenheimer   Presented by Bill Marx (1966) Seconds is an American sci-fi drama directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Rock Hudson (in what may be his finest performance). The screenplay by Lewis John Carlino is based on a novel by David Ely. The film was nominated for the Palm d'Or at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival and James Wong Howe's cinematography was nominated for an Academy Award. Seconds is a mystery dealing with the obsession with eternal youth and a mysterious organization which gives people a second chance in life. An unhappy middle-aged banker (John Randolph) agrees to a procedure that will fake his death and give him a completely new look and identity (Rock Hudson) - one that comes with its own price.

#114 Thursday, May 11, 2017 - 7:00 PM LEVIATHAN by Andrey Zvyagintsev   Presented by Eric Van. (2014) On the outskirts of a small coastal town in the Barents Sea, where whales sometimes come to its bay, lives an ordinary family: Kolya (Aleksey Serebryakov), his wife Lilya (Elena Lyadova) and their teenage son Romka. The family is haunted by a local corrupted mayor (Roman Madyanov), who is trying to take away the land, a house and a small auto repair shop from Kolya. To save their homes Kolya calls his old Army friend in Moscow (Vladimir Vdovichenkov), who has now become an authoritative attorney. Together they decide to fight back and collect dirt on the mayor.

#113 Sunday, May 6, 2017 - 6:30 PM THE LAST SEDUCTION by John Dahl   Presented by Bob Tremblay. (1994) Bridget Gregory has a lot going for her: she's beautiful, she's intelligent, she's married to a doctor. But all of this isn't enough, as her husband Clay finds out. After she persuaded him to sell medicinal cocaine to some drugdealers, she takes off with the money, almost a million dollars, and goes undercover in a mid-American smalltown. Because Clay has to pay off a loan shark who'll otherwise damage him severely, he keeps sending detectives after her, trying to retrieve the money. When Bridget meets Mike Swale, a naive local who is blinded by her beauty and directness, she devises an elaborate, almost diabolical scheme to get rid of Clay once and for all.

#112 Tuesday, May 2, 2017 - 7:30 PM WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE by Lasse Hallström   Presented by Denise Widman (1993) "What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a 1993 American drama directed by Lasse Hallström and starring Johnny Depp, Juliette Lewis, Darlene Cates and Leonardo DiCaprio; cinematography by Sven Nykist. The film follows 24-year-old Gilbert (Depp), a grocery store clerk caring for his morbidly obese mother and mentally impaired younger brother in a sleepy Midwestern town. Peter Hedges wrote the screenplay, adapted from his 1991 novel of the same name. The film was well-received; young DiCaprio received his first Academy Award nomination for his role. "Grape’s “gentle rueful style accommodates a vast amount of quirkiness in enchanting ways” (Janet Maslin).  The story is a character portrayal of a family stuck in what appears to be the banality of everyday life; yet, there are deep family complexities which are imbued with dedication and resolve. In addition, although filmed in the 1990s, perhaps there are comparisons to today’s political environment…" - D.W.

#11x (Postponed for the Moment) Monday, April 24, 2017 - 7:00 PM THE LANDLORD by Hal Ashby   Due to ongoing building maintenance problems with an indefinte time for completion beyond our control, we are forced to postpone our screening of Hal Ashby's THE LANDLORD to a later date. Our next screening will be WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GILBERT GRAPE, presented by Denise Widman Tuesday, May 2. We apologize for any inconvience, and we will miss having our salon/saloon this week. See you next screening. J-P and DK

#111 Wednesday, April 19, 2017 - 7:00 PM HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO by Preston Sturges   Presented by Marty and Becky Norman. (1944) Having been discharged from the Marines for a hayfever condition before ever seeing action, Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith (Eddie Bracken) delays the return to his hometown, feeling that he is a failure. While in a moment of melancholy, he meets up with a group of Marines who befriend him and encourage him to return home to his mother by fabricating a story that he was wounded in battle with honorable discharge. They make him wear a uniform complete with medals and is pushed by his new friends into accepting a Hero's welcome when he gets home where he is to be immortalized by a statue that he doesn't want, has songs written about his heroic battle stories, and ends up unwillingly running for mayor. Despite his best efforts to explain the truth, no one will listen.

#110 Wednesday, April 12, 2017 - 7:30 PM VIRIDIANA by Luis Buñuel   Presented by David Kleiler. 'Tis the season to hear the Hallelujah Chorus and there's no more original way than the way it is used in Buñuel's masterpiece. Few film directors have worked with the sheer power and subversiveness that Spanish-born Luis Buñuel has. "Viridiana" is one of the best examples of the expatriated Spaniard's feelings towards religious faith and its virtues- or his strong denial of religion as a virtue. (1961) Viridiana, a young novice about to take her final vows as a nun, accedes to a request from her widowed uncle to visit him. Moved purely by a sense of obligation, she does so. Her uncle is moved by her resemblance to his late wife and attempts to seduce Viridiana, and tragedy ensues. In the aftermath, Viridiana tries to assuage her guilt by creating a haven for the destitute folk who live around her uncle's estate. But from these good intentions, too, comes little good.

#109 Wednesday, April 5, 2017 - 7:300 PM THE WAGES OF FEAR by Henri-Georges Clouzot   Prensented by Eric Van. (1953) Le salaire de la peur (original title). In a decrepit South American village, four men are hired to transport an urgent nitroglycerine shipment without the equipment that would make it safe. Clouzot rarely gets the attention he deserves. He made not one, but two of the greatest thrillers of all time, 'Les Diaboliques' and 'The Wages Of Fear', both perfect examples of how to make genuinely suspenseful movies that build up an amazing amount of tension. Most so-called thrillers made in Hollywood these days are thrillers in name only and could learn a lesson or two from these movie classics. 'The Wages Of Fear' could even be described as an action movie, but it is a CHARACTER DRIVEN action movie, and that's what makes it so special.

#108 Friday, March 31, 2017 - 7:30 PM BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN by James Whale   The huge success of the 1931 Frankenstein spurred Universal to a sequel. But it would take four years to complete a satisfatory script for the project. Finally, in January 1935, the sequel went before the cameras, bringing together most of the talent from the first. Bride of Frankenstein was released to critical and popular acclaim, although it encountered difficulties with some state and national censorship boards. Since its release the film's reputation has grown, and it has been hailed as Whale's masterpiece. (1935) Mary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Dr. Frankenstein wants to get out of the evil experiment business, but when a mad scientist, Dr. Pretorius, kidnaps his wife, Dr. Frankenstein agrees to help him create a new creature, a woman, to be the companion of the monster. We will be showing the Universal centennial version with the brilliant, restored soundtrack (Bride was nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound Recording). And, of course, there is Boris Karloff returning as the Monster and Colin Clive as Dr. Frankenstein. Elsa Lanchester provides the stunning Bride and portrays Mary Shelley as well.

#107 Sunday, March 26, 2017 - 6:30 PM THE LAST PICTURE SHOW by Peter Bogdanovich   Presented by Chris Boucher & David Hudacek (1971) In tiny Anarene, Texas, in the lull between World War Two and the Korean Conflict, Sonny and Duane are best friends. Enduring that awkward period of life between boyhood and manhood, the two pass their time the best way they know how -- with the movie house, football, and girls. Jacey is Duane's steady, wanted by every boy in school, and she knows it. Her daddy is rich and her mom is good looking and loose. It's the general consensus that whoever wins Jacey's heart will be set for life. But Anarene is dying a quiet death as folks head for the big cities to make their livings and raise their kids. The boys are torn between a future somewhere out there beyond the borders of town or making do with their inheritance of a run-down pool hall and a decrepit movie house -- the legacy of their friend and mentor, Sam the Lion. As high school graduation approaches, they learn some difficult lessons about love, loneliness, and jealousy. Then folks stop attending the second-run features at the ...

#106 Monday, March 20, 2017 - 7:00 PM ATLANTIC CITY by Louis Malle   Presented by Alan Spatrick (1980) Dreams. Becoming an Atlantic City croupier will help Sally (Susan Sarandon) realize her dream of going to Monte Carlo, a symbol of the glamorous life that has been evading her since escaping from Saskatchewan a decade ago. Lou (Burt Lancaster) dreams that he was a great mobster in the old days. Grace came to Atlantic City for a Betty Grable look-alike contest and stayed to become the wife of a mobster. A brief visit to Atlantic City by Sally's estranged husband will change the course of the lives of Sally and Lou.

#105 Wednesday, March 15, 2017 - 7:00 PM RED RIVER by Howard Hawks   In preparation for the screening of The Last Picture show on Monday, March 26th, we are showing this classic Western which is "the last picture show" of Bogdanovich's homage to film theaters. (1948) Texas rancher Dunson (John Wayne) leads a cattle drive, the culmination of over 14 years of work, a fictional account of the first cattle drive from Texas to Kansas along the Chisholm Trail. But his tyrannical behavior along the way causes a mutiny, led by his adopted adult son (Montgomery Clift). Red River was filmed in 1946, copyrighted in 1947, but not released until September 30, 1948. The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Film Editing (Christian Nyby) and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story (Borden Chase). John Ford—who worked with Wayne on many films (such as Stagecoach, The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance)—was so impressed with Wayne's performance that he is reported to have said, "I didn’t know the big son of a bitch could act!" The film's ending differed from that of the original story. In Chase's original Saturday Evening Post story, Valance shoots Dunson dead in Abilene and Matt takes his body back to Texas to be buried on the ranch. Second unit director Arthur Rosson was given credit in the opening title crawl as co-director. He shot parts of the cattle drive and some action sequences. Oddly, the pre-release version was 133 minutes and too long according to Hawks. The film was cut, with added narration by Brennan, and released at 127 minutes. This version was somehow lost. An attempt by the Criterion Collection to re-create the theatrical version is available.

#104 Friday, March 10, 2017 - 7:30 PM SEDUCED AND ABANDONED by Pietro Germi   (1964) "Sedotta e Abbandonata", a.k.a. "Seduced and Abandoned", is a tragi-comic tale of honor and family in Sicily. The story shows the hypocritical and retrograde society in the 60's, with gossipers and people interested in keep up appearances despite the feelings of the next of kin. Agnese, a 15-year-old Sicilian girl is seduced and impregnated by Peppino, her sister Matilde's fiancé. Soon Vincenzo, Agnese's father, discovers everything. He wants to force Peppino to marry the dishonored Agnese, but Peppino runs away and Vincenzo sends his son Antonio to kill him. At this point, Agnese goes to the police to try to stop events. They're all taken to court. But events can't be stopped, there's still time for a fake kidnapping. A happy end is still possible. JPO: Fun fact. Much like the American Westerns, this film has a title ballad which tells the laments of the Ascalone family of the story.

#103 Tuesday, March 7, 2017 - 7:00 PM TO SLEEP WITH ANGER by Charles Burnett   Presented by Kaj Wilson, film critic, programmer, and teacher. In this day of quality films about black life (Fences, Hidden Figures, and Moonlight) it's important to remember the great ones which preceded them. A quarter century ago, Charles Burnett, best known for Killer of Sheep, produced To Sleep with Anger. Danny Glover gives “a performance for the ages” says The New Yorker's Richard Brody. The New York Times calls director Charles Burnett, a member of fhe late '60s group of black UCLA filmmakers known as the L.A. Rebellion, "the nation's least-known great filmmaker." It is a film to be rediscovered, revalued, and cherished. (1990) Harry Mention (Danny Glover), an enigmatic drifter from the South, comes to visit an old acquaintance named Gideon, who now lives in South-Central Los Angeles. Harry's charming, down-home manner hides a malicious penchant for stirring up trouble, and he exerts a strange and powerful effect on the people around him. P.S.: Harry Mention - Old Harry - noun. 1. Older Use. the devil; Satan. Originating sometime between 1730-40. The Crossroads: In folk magic and mythology, crossroads may represent a location "between the worlds" and, as such, a site where supernatural spirits can be contacted and paranormal events can take place. Symbolically, it can mean a locality where two realms touch and therefore represents liminality, a place literally "neither here nor there", "betwixt and between". Some 20th-century blues songs, such as Sold It to the Devil by Black Spider Dumpling (John D. Twitty), may be about making a deal with the devil at the crossroads. Many modern listeners believe that the premier song about soul-selling at a crossroads is "Cross Road Blues" by Robert Johnson. However, the song's lyrics merely describe a man trying to hitchhike; the sense of foreboding has been interpreted as the singer's apprehension of finding himself, a young black man in the 1920s deep south, alone after dark and at the mercy of passing motorists. The idea of selling one's soul for instrumental skills predates the American South as several virtuoso classical musicians such as Paganini[citation needed] had stories told about selling their soul for music prowess (and that story may reference back to medieval troubadour doing something similar). The motif of selling one's soul for guitar power has become a staple of both rock and metal guitarists.

#102 Tuesday, Febuary 28, 2017 - 7:00 PM THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by Tay Garnett   (1946) James M. Cain's novel was successful and notorious upon publication in 1934. It is regarded as one of the more important crime novels of the 20th century. Fast-moving and brief, the mix of sexuality and violence was startling in its time and caused it to be banned in Boston. This 1946 film version was the third adaptation, but the first under the novel's original title and the first in English. Previously, the novel had been filmed as Le Dernier Tournant (The Last Turning) in France in 1939 and as Ossessione (Obsession) in Italy in 1943. The novel has been adapted to film seven times. The 1946 version is probably the best known and is regarded as an important film noir. A married woman (Lana Turner) and a drifter (John Garfield) fall in love, then plot to murder her husband. Once the deed is done, they must live with the consequences of their actions.

#101 Sunday, Febuary 26, 2017 - 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.

SCREENINGS 101 - 200 Sunday, February 26, 2017 - November 27, 2018   SCREENINGS 201 - 300 HERE --- December 2, 2018 - CURRENT 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