Monday, August 25 at 7pm
Man with the Movie Camera
Directed by Dziga Vertov (USSR 1929) 67 min. DCP.
The masterpiece of Soviet director Dziga Vertov’s influential and pioneering cinema, Man with the Movie Camera is radical in both its aesthetics and politics. Thrillingly demonstrating Vertov’s conception of Kino Eye (“the machine that reveals the world to you as only the machine can see it”), the film swoops and dives through real life, careening across the Soviet Union in a supremely cinematic temporal and geographic unification of the many peoples inhabiting the country. An apex landmark of cinema, Man with a Movie Camera is “a valuable record of Soviet city life at the end of the 1920s… [exploding with] visual ideas. Vertov and his collaborators tried out stop-motion animation, double exposures, split-screens, irises, and a pace that can only be described as ‘breakneck’” (The Dissolve). Named the best documentary film of all time by Sight and Sound, Man with the Movie Camera is presented here in a restoration sourced from the only known complete version of the film.
Monday, September 1 at 7pm
Sunset Boulevard
Directed by Billy Wilder (U.S. 1950) 110 min. 35MM. With Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim.
One of Billy Wilder’s most enduring masterpieces is a glittering poison-pen letter to all things Hollywood, told in flashback by a screenwriter whose final job is playing paid companion to aging silent-film goddess Norma Desmond (Swanson).
Monday, September 8 at 7pm
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Directed by Wes Anderson (U.S. 2014) 100 min. DCP. With Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, Saoirse Ronan, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Jude Law, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Adrian Brody, Tom Wilkinson, Jason Schwartzman, Jeff Goldblum.
Admired for his meticulously designed cinematic confections, Wes Anderson is among a small handful of contemporary American Hollywood directors whose name is known and esteemed by the 18-49 demographic. This creation, for which he assembled an all-star cast, depicts the adventures of a legendary concierge working at a famous European hotel between the wars, and the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend.
Monday, September 15 at 7pm
Do the Right Thing
Directed by Spike Lee (U.S. 1989) 120 min. DCP. With John Turturro, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Rosie Perez, Bill Nunn.
On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone’s hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence. Centered around the daily travails of pizza delivery boy Mookie (Lee himself), the scope of the story widens to document tension building up within his neighborhood. As raw today as it was when it was first released, Do The Right Thing boasts an ensemble cast of characters played by any number of actors who are now highly recognizable. (Adapted from The Frida Cinema’s notes)
Monday, September 22 at 7pm
The Lady Eve
Directed by Preston Sturges (U.S. 1941) 94 min. 35MM. With Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn.
Preston Sturges, the sophisticated auteur of fast-paced, witty, wry and ultimately tender hearted movies, effortlessly mixes slapstick and sexy in The Lady Eve, one of his most clever and beloved romantic comedies. This screwball confection is sweetened with Henry Fonda’s clueless bewilderment and spiced with Barbara Stanwyck’s seductress wiles. He’s a virgin ophiologist, she a beautiful grifter; upon their meeting at a cruise ship card table, Fonda innocently (lustfully?) says, “You’re a funny girl for anybody to meet who’s just been up the Amazon for a year.”
Monday, September 29 at 7pm
A Quiet Place
Directed by John Krasinski (U.S. 2018) 90 min. 35MM. With John Krasinski, Emily Blunt.
This horror thriller, from the actor/director most identifiable as The Office‘s friendly Jim Halpert, is described by Krasinski as a metaphor “about parenthood and the promise that you make to your kids that I’ll keep you safe no matter what — that’s, that’s inevitably a false promise.” This is the beginning of what became a media franchise. Its “breathless opening reveals Krasinski’s sophisticated filmmaking approach, setting up the premise and showcasing the meticulous attention to detail that will turn his lean story into a masterclass of tension.” Mostly devoid of dialogue, rich in subtle textural detail – A Quiet Place is an “apocalyptic tale told entirely through the prism of a single family, one struggling to cope not only with actual monsters, but also with insidious personal demons of grief, blame and guilt” (Sight & Sound).
Monday, October 6 at 7pm
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian (U.S. 1931) 98 min. 35MM. With Frederic March, Miriam Hopkins.
One of many adaptations of the the popular Robert Louis Stevenson novella, Mamoulian’s version is considered by many to be the best, and is notable for unsettling images of horror and sexual hunger one does not expect from films of the period. Showcasing a “suspenseful point-of-view tour-de-force tracking shot” and reality-bending long dissolves (one infamous for its transformative power), “Mamoulian derives much of the film’s terror from [a] focus on the mutability of self and draws the more fantastic elements down to earth by linking class difference with sexual freedom and repressed drives with psychotic action” (Harvard Film Archive notes).
Monday, October 20 at 7pm
From Hilde, With Love
Directed by Andreas Dresen (Germany 2025) 125 min. DCP. With Liv Lisa Fries, Johannes Hegemann, Lisa Wagner. German with English Subtitles.
Berlin, 1942: 22-year-old physician’s assistant Hilde (Fries) is madly in love with Hans (Hegemann) and joyfully pregnant. But amid their passion, there is grave danger – the couple belongs to the “Red Orchestra,” a group of anti-fascists aiding the Soviet Union against the Nazis. When the group is arrested by the Gestapo, Hilde is sent to prison to await trial, where a guilty verdict means certain death. Giving birth to her son while in custody, Hilde reflects on her life and finds a new, quiet, inspirational strength as she faces the ultimate test of love and courage. Laila Stieler draws from historical accounts to craft a compelling screenplay that sheds light on the life of the real Hilde and Hans Coppi. Acclaimed auteur Andreas Dresen masterfully directs Fries’ powerful award-winning portrayal of Coppi to create a portrait of a woman driven by love, resistance, and resilience. Introduced by German Studies Professor and Affiliate Film/Media Studies faculty Bastian Heinsohn.
Monday, November 3 at 7pm
Decision to Leave
Directed by Park Chan-wook (South Korea 2022) 139 min. DCP. With Tang Wei, Park Hae-il. Korean and Chinese with English Subtitles.
In this seductively twisted, modern romantic thriller, obsession is taken to wondrous and vertiginous extremes. Without a doubt one of the most electrifying minds working in cinema today, Park Chan-wook won the Best Director award at Cannes for his sumptuous, Hitchcockian masterwork. Introduced by Professor of Comparative & Digital Humanities and Film/Media Studies Affiliate John Hunter.
Monday, November 10 at 7pm
The Librarians
Directed by Kim A. Snyder (U.S. 2025) 92 min. DCP.
Book banning is as old as public libraries, but the battlegrounds are freshly polarized and the stakes as high as ever, as witnessed by Oscar®-nominated Kim A. Snyder in her paean to librarians, and the parents and students who flank them, on the frontlines (Film Forum). In Texas, the Krause List targets 850 books focused on race and LGBTQia+ stories – triggering sweeping book bans across the U.S. at an unprecedented rate. As tensions escalate, librarians connect the dots from heated school and library board meetings nationwide to lay bare the underpinnings of extremism fueling the censorship efforts. Despite facing harassment, threats, and laws aimed at criminalizing their work – the librarians’ rallying cry for freedom to read is a chilling cautionary tale. Presented in collaboration with Bucknell’s Education and English faculty. Introduced by Literary Studies Professor Elena Machado Sáez, in connection with her course Banned Books and US Latinx Literature.
Monday, November 17 at 7pm
Holy Cow
Directed by Louise Courvoisier (France 2024) 91 min. DCP. With Clément Faveau, Luna Garret, Maiwene Barthelemy, Dimitry Baudry, Mathis Bernard. French with English Subtitles.
Following the sudden death of his farmer father, hard-partying 18-year-old Totone (Faveau) is abruptly obliged to step into the role of man of the house in Louise Courvoisier’s directorial debut, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. Taking a job at a nearby dairy farm, where he quickly falls for the farmer’s daughter, Totone makes up his mind to jump-start his family’s future via an unorthodox shortcut: winning a 30,000 Euro prize for producing the best Comté in the region. In this warm, lived-in coming-of-age fable—a treat for cheese-loving cinephiles in particular—Courvoisier brings together a cast of non-professional actors from the Jura region where she herself grew up, creating a rich depiction of rural agricultural life that’s also a crowd-pleasing story about the unlikely detours that shape the utterly unpredictable process of growing up (NYFF notes). Introduced by Professor of French and Francophone Studies John Westbrook.