Godzilla
Directed by Ishiro Honda (Japan 1956) 96 min. With Akira Takarada, Momoko Kochi, Akihito Hirata
The roaring granddaddy of all monster movies, Godzilla is also a humane and melancholy drama, made in Japan at a time when the country was reeling from nuclear attack. Godzilla’s rampaging radioactive beast, the poignant embodiment of a population’s fears, spawned almost thirty sequels and continues to be a cult phenomenon. In Japanese with English subtitles.
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November 4 at 7pm
Vertigo
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (U.S. 1958) 128 min. 35 MM. With James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes
Hitchcock’s hallucinatory nightmare of loss, obsession and desire was recently named the greatest film of all time in the British Film Institute’s respected poll, taking the title from Citizen Kane for the first time in fifty years. As the film critic B. Kite wrote, you haven’t really seen Vertigo until you’ve seen it again.
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November 5 at 1:30pm
The Celebration
Directed by Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark 1998) 105 min. With Ulrich Thomsen, Henning Moritzen, Thomas Bo Larsen
The first film to abide by the strict rules of the Danish filmmakers’ collective known as Dogma 95 used a Handycam Mini-DV video camera to depict an elaborate birthday celebration shattered by shocking accusations leveled at the family patriarch. In Danish with English subtitles.
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November 8 at 2pm
The Host
Directed by Joon-Ho Bong (South Korea 2006) 119 min. 35 MM. With Kang-Ho Song, Hie-Bong Byeon, Hae-Il Park
A monster movie equal parts Hollywood pyrotechnic flair and familial drama. The arrival of a mutant creature on Seoul’s Han River, and its attack on the Park clan’s youngest child, activates a family tragedy turned rescue mission and adventure. In Korean with English subtitles.
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November 11 at 7pm
Code Unknown
Directed by Michael Haneke (France 2000) 118 min. 35 MM. With Juliette Binoche, Theirry Neuvic, Josef Bierbichler
Casual cruelty leads to racial confrontation on the streets of Paris when the lives of a struggling film actress, a Kosovo War photographer, his wayward brother, a Romanian beggar, and an African émigré come crashing together. Haneke’s ingeniously structured, volatile film confounds expectations and offers a scathing critique of contemporary Europe’s response to immigration. In multiple languages with English subtitles.
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November 12 at 1:30pm
Caché
Directed by Michael Haneke (France 2005) 117 min. 35 MM. With Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Maurice Bénichou
Winner of the Best Director prize at Cannes, Haneke’s thriller unearths France’s colonialist guilt and present-day racism via its depiction of an affluent couple tormented by anonymous calls, disturbing drawings and surveillance tapes, each clue pointing to an ugly secret and leading to the film’s famously enigmatic final shot. In French with English subtitles.
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November 15 at 2pm
District 9
Directed by Niell Blomkamp (U.S. 2009) 112 min. 35 MM. With Sharlto Copley, David James, Jason Cope
Aliens have landed, only to be exiled to a Johannesburg slum in this grittily realistic science fiction thriller implicitly engaged with social issues and histories of bigotry and injustice. Produced by Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy).
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November 18 at 7pm
Breathless
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard (U.S. 1960) 90 min. 35 MM. With Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger
Godard burst onto the film scene with this jazzy, free-form and sexy homage to the American film genres that inspired him. With its lack of polish, surplus of attitude, anything-goes crime narrative and effervescent young stars, Breathless helped launch the French New Wave and ensured cinema would never be the same. In French with English subtitles.
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November 19 at 1:30pm
The Battle of Algiers
Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo (U.S. 1966) 121 min. 35 MM. With Brahim Hadjadj, Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi
A grippingly realistic political thriller, Pontecorvo’s sympathetic re-enactment of the Algerian National Liberation Front’s decision to declare urban warfare on French troops still feels like it was ripped from today’s headlines; indeed, it was screened at the Pentagon in 2003 to wise up Bagdad occupiers. In Arabic and French with English subtitles.
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November 25 at 7pm
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Directed by Banksy (UK 2010) 87 min. 35 MM. With Banksy, Space Invader, Mr. Brainwash
The first film by the legendary Banksy is as irreverent as the incognito artist’s guerrilla graffiti pieces. Stunning footage of stealth artists in action (including Shepard Fairey and Neckface, as well as Banksy’s notorious Disneyland tag) is ingeniously folded into a slippery satire of the unholy relationship between art and celebrity.
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November 26 at 1:30pm
Requiem For A Dream
Directed by Darren Aronofsky (U.S. 2000) 102 min. 35 MM. With Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly
Aronofsky’s take on addiction – to drugs, chocolate, television, masturbation, coffee, cigarettes and all means of instant gratification – garnered a cult following for its hyper-stylized, surrealistic visual language mimicking the hypnotic effects of intoxication.
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November 29 at 2pm
Un Chien Andalou
Directed by Luis Buñuel (France 1929) 16 min. With Pierre Batcheff, Simone Mareuil, Luis Buñuel
From its famous opening salvo–the cut from a cloud passing in front of the moon to a razor blade cutting open a young woman’s eye, Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel’s oft-quoted cinematic landmark is, in the words of Buñuel, “basically a desperate, passionate call to murder.”
The Skin I Live In
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar (Spain 2011) 120 min. 35 MM. With Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Jan Cornet
Almodóvar fuses his love for American horror and science fiction films and his continuing interest in identity in this tale of a world famous plastic surgeon secretly subjecting an imprisoned young woman to an increasingly bizarre regime of treatments. In Spanish with English subtitles.
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December 2 at 7pm
Grizzly Man
Directed by Werner Herzog (Portugal 2005) 103 min. 35 MM. With Timothy Treadwell, Arnie Huguenard, Werner Herzog
Herzog’s unforgettable portrait of grizzly bear activist Timothy Treadwell, who was killed while living amongst the animals, weaves interviews with surviving friends and family with footage Treadwell shot over his last five summers in Alaska.
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December 3 at 1:30pm
Toy Story 3
Directed by Lee Unkrich (U.S. 2010) 103 min. 35 MM. With Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack
The third in Walt Disney’s hit Pixar franchise, Toy Story 3 finds the toys mistakenly delivered to a day-care center right before their now-grown owner leaves for college.