Wednesday, January 17 at 7pm
Vertigo
Alfred Hitchcock (1958, U.S.) 128 min. 35MM. With James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes.
In 2018, Hitchcock’s hallucinatory nightmare of loss, obsession and desire rose to the top of the list – that is the respected annual greatest films of all time list, a poll published by the British Film Institute; that year, Vertigo took the number one title from Citizen Kane for the first time in fifty years. Last December, Hitchcock’s undisputed masterpiece was unseated, sliding down to number two, to make way for Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. It’s been turbulent at the top, but whether Vertigo is the best or among the very, very best is really neither here nor there–it’s magnificent, and here is your chance to see for yourself, on 35MM! As the film critic B. Kite wrote, you haven’t really seen Vertigo until you’ve seen it again.
Wednesday, January 24 at 7pm
Playtime
Jacques Tati (France 1967) 116 min. DCP. With Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek, Rita Maiden. French and German with English subtitles.
Tati’s gloriously choreographed, nearly wordless comedies about confusion in an age of high technology reached their apotheosis with Playtime. For this monumental achievement, a nearly three-year-long, bank-breaking production, Tati again thrust the lovably old-fashioned Monsieur Hulot, along with a host of other lost souls, into a baffling modern world, this time Paris. With every inch of its super-wide frame crammed with hilarity and inventiveness, Playtime is a lasting record of a modern era tiptoeing on the edge of oblivion.
Wednesday, January 31 at 7pm
* DOUBLE BILL *
The Limey
Steven Soderbergh (U.S. 1999) 89 min. 35MM. With Terence Stamp, Luis Guzman, Lesley Ann Warren.
Soderbergh’s complex crime thriller cuts back and forth between the present day and a backstory constructed with footage from Ken Loach’s Poor Cow, a 1967 film starring Terence Stamp as a thief named Wilson who goes to jail and has a daughter. In The Limey, an older Stamp, playing an ex-con named Wilson, travels to Los Angeles to investigate the death of his estranged daughter. The trail leads to the girl’s former boyfriend (Peter Fonda), a record producer/drug dealer who responds by sending a hit man after his pursuer.
FOLLOWED BY:
Attack the Block
Joe Cornish (UK 2011) 88 min. 35MM. With John Boyega, Jodie Whittaker, Alex Esmail.
Probably the best received of the modern wave of Black-led horror, this cult classic launched the career of John Boyega as the leader of a group of mostly Black London teenz ‘n the hood defending their turf against an alien invasion. In this expertly paced genre debut by Joe Cornish, a gang of resourceful South London teens experience some “28 Days Later shit” and defend their council estate after ape-like aliens descend on Guy Fawkes day. Using motor bikes, samurai swords, fireworks, and a whole lot of gumption, they bravely fight the unknowable horror with the help of an NHS nurse (future Doctor Who Jody Whittaker). Attack the Block has heart and humor, dives into the politics of policing, and amplifies the meaning of finishing what you start. It also gives horror films the Black heroes it needed (American Cinematheque notes).
Wednesday, February 7 at 7pm
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari – Restoration!
Directed by Robert Wiene (Germany 1919) 75 min. DCP. With Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Lil Dagover
One of the greatest horror movies of the silent era, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari also probably remains the ultimate expression of narrative through set design: the film’s angled shadows and interiors reflect a chilling tale of mind control and somnambulistic murder. Playing with Un chien andalou (Lluis Buñuel, 1929, 16 min.) and The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra (Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapic, 1928, 14 min.).
Wednesday, February 21 at 7pm
Baby Face – Restoration Print!
Directed by Alfred E. Green (U.S. 1933) 76 min. 35MM. With Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Donald Cook, Alphonse Ethier.
Perhaps the most notorious pre-Code Hollywood film, Baby Face features Barbara Stanwyck as Lily Powers, a working-class woman who uses men and sex in exchange for material gain during the height of the Depression. Conceived as a feminine equivalent to Warner Bros.’ male gangster, Lily refused to be a victim of her fate and instead fights for her economic survival. Stanwyck’s Warners contract gave her story approval, and she and then-Vice President of Production at Warner Bros., Darryl Zanuck, developed the sex-for-power scenario together in a story conference. Suppressed by the Production Code Administration after 1933, Baby Face was largely unseen until 2004, when the Library of Congress discovered an uncensored print (UCLA notes). 35mm print courtesy Library of Congress.
Wednesday, March 6 at 7pm
The Tingler
Directed by William Castle (U.S. 1959) 82 min. DCP. With Vincent Price, Judith Evelyn, Darryl Hickman.
American director and producer William Castle charmed Hollywood horror audiences throughout the ’50s and ’60s with fun, kitschy delights. The Tingler, his best known film, returned to cinemas in recent years, after the celebration of its 60th anniversary. Castle showed true ’50s showmanship, with purpose-built gimmicks that turned every trip to the cinema into an interactive experience, from dangling skeletons and ghost-viewing glasses to actors planted among audiences, ready to cause a stir…
Wednesday, March 27 at 7pm
CLÉO FROM 5 TO 7
Agnès Varda (France 1961) 89 min. DCP. With Corinne Marchand, Michel Legrand. French with English subtitles.
Agnès Varda, the sole woman director of the French New Wave era, eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.