All post-1947 Ua Films in this series (with the exception of A Hard Day’s Night) are distributed by Mgm.
Fairbanks, Griffith and Keaton films courtesy The Rohauer Collection. Pickford films courtesy Milestone.
Chaplin Films courtesy Kino International. A Hard Day’s Night courtesy Miramax.

SELECT FILMS RETURNING BY POPULAR DEMAND!

Read Dave Kehr's feature on the UA 90th festival in The New York Times

See Kehr's picks for the festival

"The best shows in town are still the United Artists gems unfolding into May at the Film Forum!"
– Andrew Sarris, The New York Observer

"Some of the most varied and high-quality mainstream picture making in the history of American movies."
– Bruce Bennett, The New York Sun. Click here to read feature

"You should just plan on living [at Film Forum] for the next month!"
– Time Out New York

"Opens with two of the company’s most celebrated and ubiquitous releases…
Woody Allen’s 1979 Manhattan and Martin Scorsese’s 1980 Raging Bull."
– Dave Kehr, The New York Times

MARCH 28/29 FRI/SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

RAGING BULL

(1980, Martin Scorsese) Robert De Niro’s Jake La Motta never hits the canvas, but his out-of–the-ring battles with wife Cathy Moriarty and brother Joe Pesci are a war of attrition with no winners. Scorsese’s profanity-packed blowtorch boxing biopic of the middleweight legend has consistently topped critics’ Best of the Decade lists, while nabbing a Best Actor Oscar for De Niro’s powerhouse performance (Thelma Schoonmaker also won for editing). Michael Chapman’s shimmering b&w spotlights Scorsese’s seemingly effortless evocation of place and time. Approx. 128 min.
1:00, 5:10, 9:20

"Underrated in 1980, it's become the most highly regarded Hollywood movie of the past two decades. Every aspect of Martin Scorsese's formidable talent is working overtime—including Robert De Niro."
– J. Hoberman

"Is it the best film of the '80s? It's certainly a strong contender, and there's little doubt that Roert De Niro's performance is one of the all-time greats--not just for the remarkable physical transformation, but for his embodiment of male sexual jealousy presenting itself as rage."
– Time Out New York

“About a man with paralyzing jealousy and sexual insecurity. . .
the most painful and heartrending portrait of jealousy in the cinema.”
– Roger Ebert

Click here to read more on Raging Bull

MANHATTAN

(1979, Woody Allen) “I think people should mate for life, like pigeons or Catholics.” Dumped by wife Meryl Streep for another woman, Woody Allen now dates high-schooler Mariel Hemingway—but pal Michael Murphy’s mistress Diane Keaton sure looks good. Super-complicated relationships backed by Gershwin and shot in ravishing b&w Scope by the legendary Gordon Willis. Approx. 96 min.
3:20, 7:30

Click here to read more about Manhattan

"Maybe the only one of his films that's essential to experience on the big screen… With Gershwin tracks like 'S'Wonderful' and 'Someone To Watch Over Me' in the background, everything seems touched with magic."
– Andy Battaglia, The Onion

“Stunningly beautiful. Woody’s supreme masterpiece.” – Time Out New York

“The only truly great American movie of the 1970s.
A masterpiece that has become a film for the ages by not seeking to be a film of the moment.”
– Andrew Sarris

“An edgy social comedy framed as a loving tribute to neurotic New York,
overlaid with an evocative Gershwin score, it's funny and sad in exactly the right proportions.”
– Tom Milne, TimeOut (London)

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MARCH 30/31 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

PATHS OF GLORY

(1957, Stanley Kubrick) WWI colonel Kirk Douglas gets the order to take the “The Anthill,” as icily smiling chateau-bound generals Adolphe Menjou and George Macready play the General Staff office politics two-step. But, after the ensuing bloodbath, it’s time for heads to roll. Shot in Belgium after French authorities nixed it, this is one of the most ruthlessly anti-war films ever, with Kubrick’s telephoto-lensed, side-tracking shooting of the assault perhaps the screen’s most authentic treatment of trench warfare. Approx. 86 min.
SUN 1:00, 4:20, 7:40
MON 1:00, 4:20

"Blunt and scornfully brilliant." – David Denby, The New Yorker

"Kubrick's first full-fledged masterpiece (made when the Bronx-born filmmaker was only 28) is a peerless insanity-of-war picture, with trenchbound tracking shots that have influenced everybody from Gilliam to Spielberg. Kirk Douglas as never been better; God bless you Timothy Carey."
– Time Out New York

“One of the most powerful movies ever made… Could not be more timely.”
 — A.O. Scott, New York Times

“Kubrick’s Paths of Glory shows how much—and how little—war has changed in a century….”
– Ken Tucker, New York magazine

Click here to read more on Paths of Glory

THE KILLING

(1956, Stanley Kubrick) Ex-con Sterling Hayden puts together the usual suspects—including sniveling Elisha Cook, Jr., a chess-playing wrestler and trigger-happy Timothy Carey—to pull off a racetrack heist. En route, the 27-year old Kubrick zigzags through a dizzying series of time shifts, as the inevitable ironic twist awaits. A key “inspiration” for Reservoir Dogs. Approx. 83 min.
SUN 2:40, 6:00, 9:20
MON 2:40, 6:00, 10:30*
*NOTE: 10:30 SHOW ON MONDAY IS A SINGLE FEATURE ONLY

"It certainly didn't take Kubrick long to hit his stride, did it? His third feature is a bona fide masterpiece, still one of the best heist-gone-wrong flicks ever made, with a towering performance by Sterling Hayden and a great, bleak finale."
– Time Out New York

“The camera watches the whole shoddy show with the keen eye of a terrier stalking a pack of rats.”
– Time magazine

“Bravura filmmaking. It's not just the formal brilliance that makes the film so distinctive, but the affection and wry humor with which Kubrick portrays his low-life protagonists."
- Geoffrey Macnab, Sight and Sound

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MARCH 31 MON (SEPARATE ADMISSION)

THE THIEF OF BAGDAD

(1924, Raoul Walsh) A magic carpet, a flying horse, the Caverns of Fire, the Valleys of Monsters, the Flight of a Thousand Stairs: a festival of wonders, as Douglas Fairbanks’ “what I want, I take” thief must save the princess while thwarting a Mongol prince’s power grab. Spectacular to this day, the incredible sets (designed by Gone With the Wind’s William Cameron Menzies) seem to shimmer in the air, in “the farthest and most sudden advance the movies have made” (Robert Sherwood). Approx. 150 min.
7:45*
*LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT BY STEVE STERNER

"One of the most rousing adventures of the silent era… the sheer joy of seeing Fairbanks swashbuckle through William Cameron Menzies's mind blowingly baroque sets cannot be underestimated."
– Time Out New York

“Here is magic. Here is beauty. Here is the answer to cynics who give the motion picture no place in the family of the arts… a work of rare genius.”
– James Quirk, Photoplay

“An entrancing picture, wholesome and compelling, deliberate and beautiful, a feat of motion picture art which has never been equaled.”
– The New York Times

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APRIL 1 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THE PARTY

(1968, Blake Edwards) Brought from Delhi to Hollywood to play the title role in Son of Gunga Din, Sellers’ klutzy Hrundi V. Bakshi is fired when he accidentally blows up the set, but is inadvertently invited to a lavish studio bash. The resulting Tatiesque free-for-all includes a shoe in the hors d’oeuvres, a psychedelic elephant in the pool, and a house full of soapsuds. Rumored to be a personal favorite of Elvis Presley. Approx. 99 min.
1:30, 5:20, 9:10

"This overextended farce is an ingratiating tribute to silent slapstick comedy."
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

"There's enough choice physical comedy on display to crack folks up, and it did introduce birdy num-nums into the vernacular."
– Time Out New York

“Blake Edwards effortlessly expands the style and format of a silent two-reel comedy into a feature-length celebration of the sight gag.”
– Dave Kehr

Click here to hear sound bites from The Party

A SHOT IN THE DARK

(1964, Blake Edwards) "Give me twelve men like Clouseau and I could destroy the world." Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau, convinced sexy suspect Elke Sommer is innocent (despite leaving in-his-face murders in her wake), trails her through Paris and to an even-more-picturesque nudist colony, donning a strategically-placed guitar en route. Approx. 101 min.
3:25, 7:15

"A masterpiece of witty plotting, elegant technique, and hilarious physical shtick!"
– Andy Battaglia, The Onion

"The best of the Inspector Clouseau films! Every scene provokes at least one belly laugh; the scene at the nudist colony may trigger an aneurysm."
– Time Out New York

“The funniest of all the free-form Pink Panther movies and the high point of Edwards' deadpan, stutter-step style. The punning verbal crackle of Sellers' mongrel Anglo-Gallicisms are reinforced by the cold, heartless, inhuman slapstick style, and the insane irrelevance of it all is redeemed by a feeling of utter unrealness. Probably no other American director could have gotten big laughs out of 14 corpses."
– Andrew Sarris & Tom Allen, Village Voice

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APRIL 2 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

STAGECOACH

(1939, John Ford) A coach full of ill-assorted passengers—including Claire Trevor, John Carradine, and Thomas Mitchell’s Oscar-winning drunken sawbones—treks to Lordsburg despite Geronimo’s warriors and surprise guest The Ringo Kid. John Wayne’s star-making role after a decade of B westerns. Ford’s first sound Western, his first iconic use of Monument Valley and an affirmation of the genre. Orson Welles claimed to have screened it forty times in preparation for Citizen Kane. Print courtesy of UCLA Film Archive & The Caidin Trust. Approx. 96 min.
3:25, 7:45

"Remains the freshest of official film classics. Ford gives us the greatest epic of the frontier..
.It defined the archetypes of the Western and established John Wayne as a major star."
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice

"What can we add to the praise that's already been heaped upon this, the Rosetta stone of oaters? It made John Wayne a star; it reinvented the Western for the sound era; it won Thomas Mitchell a well-deserved Oscar; it remains one of the best loved films of the '30s. See it."
– Time Out New York

“The basic western, a template for everything that followed.” – John Baxter

“The ideal example [of the Western]…The ideal balance between social myth, historical reconstruction, psychological truth, and the traditional theme of the Western mise-en-scène.”
– André Bazin

“A motion picture that sings a song of the camera.” – The New York Times

RED RIVER

(1948, Howard Hawks) Mutiny on the Bounty out West: tyrannical trail boss John Wayne battles adopted son Montgomery Clift as they lead the first big cattle drive over the Chisholm Trail. Hawks' mammoth production used 9,000 head of cattle - the stampede alone took ten days to film - and centered around Elgin, Arizona, population 7. First of Wayne's more complex roles of the 40s and 50s, culminating in The Searchers. Approx. 133 min.
1:00, 5:15, 9:35

"One of the best durn Westerns ever filmed; this is the movie those baby-boomer nerds attempt to emulate in City Slickers."
– Time Out New York

"One of the few epic westerns in which the human element takes its rightful precedence over spectacle."
– Dave Kehr

"By the climax we are no longer sure of our feelings, wondering whose side to take and whether we should be amused or afraid, sets our every nerve quivering with panic and gives us a dizzy giddy feeling like that of a tightrope walker whose foot falters without quite slipping, a feeling as unbearable as the ending of a nightmare."
– Jacques Rivette, Cahiers du Cinema

"Red River is one of Howard Hawks' greatest works, perhaps his most profound exploration of the deeper meaning of companionship."
– Pacific Film Archive

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APRIL 3 THU

THE MISFITS

(1961, John Huston) “You're a real beautiful woman. It's almost kind of an honor sittin' next to ya'.” Recent Reno divorcee Marilyn Monroe is befriended by Thelma Ritter and taken in by last of the cowboys Clark Gable and ex-flyboy Eli Wallach, as punchy rodeo rider Montgomery Clift comes along for the ride; but then a hunt for wild horses looms. Arthur Miller’s first film script was tailored for wife Marilyn, in what turned out to be her (as well as Gable’s) final movie. Approx. 124 min.
2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30

"A fascinating bit of movie history." – J. Hoberman, Village Voice

“Continuously absorbing…the casting is near impeccable.” – The New Yorker

“A superbly shot anti-Western.” – Tom Milne, Time Out (London)

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APRIL 4 FRI (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

(1963, Terence Young) “Make his death a particularly unpleasant one.” “He seems fit,” allows Brecht/Weill legend Lotte Lenya after buffed-up hit man Robert Shaw (Jaws, Taking of Pelham 123) shrugs off her brass-knuckled punch to his gut; then he proves it in a compartment-wrecking battle on a moving train with Connery’s Bond — himself on the trail of a Russian decoding device. Or is it a SPECTRE trap to pay Bond off for that Dr. No business? With Desmond Llewelyn’s first appearance as “Q” and Mexican legend Pedro Armendariz, in his final role, as 007’s Turkish ally. Approx. 118 min.
1:00, 5:10, 9:20

“Lotte Lenya’s turn as a homicidal spy is the highlight of the second Bond picture—one of a handful of sequels that have lived up to their predecessors.”
– Time Out New York

“Memorable for the brilliant pre-credits stalk, Lenya’s lesbo sadist, Shaw’s psycho assassin, the cat-and-mouse game on the Orient Express, and the enchanting, vividly alive Daniela Bianchi.”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)

“Exciting, handsomely staged, and campy.” – Pauline Kael

ONE, TWO, THREE

(1961, Billy Wilder) When Berlin Coca-Cola rep James Cagney learns the boss’s daughter, airheaded Pamela Tiffin, wants to elope with fanatical Commie Oscar Piffl (Horst Buchholz), it’s time to go into overdrive. Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond’s throwback to 30s pacing, played molto furioso and escalating into Cagney’s machine-gun-fast consumerist aria. Approx. 108 min.
3:10, 7:20

"Reasons to see this film: (1) Wilder is a certified genius; (2) the plot involves an American Coca-Cola exec who's in a pickle because his boss's daughter married a Communist; 3) James Cagney expends so much manic energy that it's no wonder he retired immediately afterward."
– Time Out New York

“Begins at Mach One and gets somewhere near the speed of light by the time it finishes.”
– The Movie Guide

"A fast-paced, high-pitched, hard-hitting, lighthearted farce crammed with topical gags and spiced with satirical overtones."
– Variety

"Where most of Wilder's comedies were elegantly sculpted and edited to allow room for laughter, this film is a steamroller. The jokes come fast and furiously, one on top of another.... There are no lower gears to [Cagney's] performance; it's full-blast from the top. [Way] Ahead of its time…”
– Cameron Crowe, Conversations with Wilder

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APRIL 5 SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

GOLDFINGER

(1964, Guy Hamilton) “Do you expect me to talk, Goldfinger?” “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!” Bobbing up from under a stuffed seagull, a frogman strips to reveal an impeccably white dinner jacket — Sean Connery as James Bond, of course. Here, after Shirley Bassey belts the chart-busting title tune, 007 squares off against Gert Frobe’s eponymous master criminal; and his fiendish plot to corner the world’s gold reserves, with Fort Knox (Kentucky) the prize; while dodging torture by laser and that steel-belted hat from Japanese sidekick “Oddjob” — and not dodging Honor Blackman’s Pussy Galore or the tragically golden-hued Shirley Eaton. Approx. 111 min.
1:00, 5:15, 9:30
GOLDFINGER SING-ALONG AT ALL SHOWS!

"Arguably the best Bond ever, the third entry in the franchise has it all: not one but two memorable villains, numerous gadgets, a provocatively named femme fatale, incredible set pieces and a laser aimed at somebody's crotch. What's not to love?"
– Time Out New York

“THE BEST BOND MOVIE... The Aston Martin blowing its top. The gold-plated girl. The golf caddy with the lethal bowler. You don’t get much cooler than that in the entire 007 oeuvre. It’s only the third film, but its packed with some of the most iconic moments and quotable lines in the whole franchise...as priceless as ever.”
– Joshua Rich, Entertainment Weekly

DR. NO

(1962, Terence Young) “Vodka martini, very dry, shaken not stirred.” When a British agent disappears in Jamaica, Sean Connery’s 007 is sent in to investigate, with Hawaii Five-O’’s Jack Lord as his American sidekick - why does nobody come back alive from Crab Key? First big screen Bond adventure is perhaps closest to the books, and sans the later gadgetry and pyrotechnics, but who cares when Ursula Andress’s Honey Chile rises bikini-clad from the surf? With first appearances of “M” (Bernard Lee) & Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell), and blacklisted actor Joseph Wiseman (Brando’s Judas in Viva Zapata!) in the missile-redirecting title role. Approx. 111 min.
3:10, 7:25

“A gleeful blend of sex, violence and wit, as memorable as anything in the series.”
– Time Out (London)

"Two classic moments stand out: Bond gunning down a traitor in cold blood and Ursula Andress's puberty-inducing entrance from the sea. Yowza."
– Time Out New York

“The stripped-down look sure works for Ursula Andress. And Monty Norman’s zippy theme music is awesome in almost every scene.”
– Joshua Rich, Entertainment Weekly

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APRIL 6/7 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THE APARTMENT

(1960, Billy Wilder) “If you laid the population of New York City end to end, they would reach from Times Square to the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan. I know facts like this because I work for an insurance company.” Low, low, low-level exec Bud Baxter (Jack Lemmon) trades the key to his Upper West Side pad for the key to the executive washroom—then finds users have been boss Fred MacMurray and his own beloved elevator operator Shirley MacLaine. Wilder won an unprecedented three Oscars: for writing (with I.A.L. Diamond), directing, and producing the year’s Best Picture. Approx. 125 min.
SUN 3:15, 7:20
MON 3:15

"This is Hollywood filmmaking at its absolute finest." – Time Out New York

"Wilder's vision was never more jaundiced than in this acerbic view of the corporate hive. Its full of sly bits...
The sets by the great Alexander Trauner are first-rate."
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice

“A dirty fairy tale.” – Saturday Review

“Diamond-sharp satire…Lemmon and MacLaine commute between comedy and pathos with delicate skill.”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)

NEVER ON SUNDAY

(1960, Jules Dassin) In the Athens seaport of Piraeus, an uptight American writer (played by director Dassin)—fired up by a little ouzo—gets divested of that darn idealism and Puritanism by Melina Mercouri’s fun-loving prostitute (Cannes Best Actress award and Oscar nomination), to the tune of bouzouki-playing Manos Hadjidakis’ Oscar-winning theme song. Approx. 91 min.
SUN 1:30, 5:35, 9:40
MON 1:30, 5:35

JULES DASSIN - December 18, 1911-March 31, 2008

"Charming, it makes great use both of its spectacular location and of Mercouri's irrepressible persona." – Time Out New York

"Dassin's romp was a huge success and made his wife Mercouri an international star. Its jangling musical score is a big asset."
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice

“One of the great liberating films.” – David Shipman

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APRIL 7 MON (SEPARATE ADMISSION)

ORPHANS OF THE STORM

(1922, D.W. Griffith) Amid lavish sets of revolutionary Paris that covered thirteen acres, orphan sisters Lillian and Dorothy Gish are separated (memorably when blind Dorothy hears a captive Lillian) and reunited while menaced by decadent aristocrat Joseph Schildkraut; with a memorable last reel race to the guillotine. Approx. 124 min.
8:10*
*LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT BY STEVE STERNER

"Griffith's last great silent... no director, not even Steven Spielberg, was greater at turning history into human interest."
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice

"Lillian Gish gives a performance of startling immediacy." – Time Out New York

“There is scarcely a scene or an effect in the entire production that is not beautiful to look upon,
and there is scarcely a moment that is not charged with intense dramatic power.”
– Robert E. Sherwood.

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APRIL 8 TUE

THE GREAT ESCAPE

(1963, John Sturges) Steve McQueen rides that cycle, James Garner scrounges, Richard Attenborough provides forceful leadership, Charles Bronson—perhaps remembering his beginnings as Charles Buchinsky in Pennsylvania's coal country—gets tunnel claustrophobia, and James Coburn is "the lifeguard," in  Sturges' rip-roaring recreation of the greatest prisoner of war mass escape of WWII, based on the book by participant Paul Brickhill. Approx. 168 min.
1:00, 4:10, 7:20

Click here to read Anthony Lane's piece in the New Yorker

"Steve McQueen bikes, Charles Bronson digs and everyone leaves the theater whistling. Seriously. We defy you not to."
– Time Out New York

“The finest, all-out entertaining movie from that pot of World War Two ensemble films.”
– Total Film

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BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND THROUGH TUESDAY, APRIL 29

MIDNIGHT COWBOY

(1969, John Schlesinger) “Everybody’s talkin’” at cowboy-geared, straight-from-the-sticks stud wannabe Jon Voight — who immediately becomes the hustler hustled — while seedy tenement squatter Dustin Hoffman is “walkin’ here” as he storms at a pushy cabdriver; but they form their own alliance within the grubby underside of Times Square. Oscars for Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay (Waldo Salt), among 7 Oscar nominations. Approx. 113 min.
1:00, 3:15, 5:30, 7:50, 10:00

"If you think this film is no longer in the cultural vernacular, don't forget Borat's homage."
– Time Out New York

“What knocked people out 25 years ago—the parallel performances of Voight and Hoffman—still have power today…”
– Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

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APRIL 10/11 THU/FRI (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

ANNIE HALL

RETURNING BY POPULAR DEMAND AS A SINGLE FEATURE!
WEDNESDAY, MAY 21 THROUGH TUESDAY, MAY 27

(1977, Woody Allen) “If life were only like this.” Abie’s Irish Rose for the 70s, as Woody Allen’s Alvy Singer loves and loses Diane Keaton over the years between screenings of The Sorrow and the Pity, with a meet-cute helpfully subtitled with real meanings and media visionary Marshall McLuhan popping up to silence an arthouse pontificator. Oscars for Picture, Actress, Director, and Screenplay (by Allen & Marshall Brickman). Approx. 94 min.
1:15, 3:15, 6:00, 8:00, 10:00

"Recommended! Remains Allen's clearest, cleanest intersection of whimsy, riotousness, and angst. It's a film that lovers an would-be lovers bond over—a jumbled sketch of a romance from start to finish, with well-observed moments of what love is really like."
– The Onion

“An aggressively experimental fantasia in which he unleashed all the kung fu in his cinematic arsenal, Annie Hall leaves any other romantic comedy made since choking on its dust.”
– Grady Hendrix, The New York Sun

“A seminal ’70s movie, and it holds up beautifully.”–Time Out New York

“The one-liners are razor-sharp, the observations of Manhattanite manners as keen as mustard,
and some of the romantic stuff quite touching.”
– Nigel Floyd, TimeOut (London)

WHERE’S POPPA?

(1970, Carl Reiner) “Is that a tush!” Exasperated son George Segal can’t stop insane Jewish mother Ruth Gordon from kissing his behind, while gorilla-suited brother Ron Liebman finds his true love in Central Park, in the blackest of all black comedies. Approx. 82 min.
2:50, 6:15, 9:40

"The sight of Ruth Gordon biting a grown man in the ass never goes out of style."
– Time Out New York

“Works from the firm conviction that everyone in New York City is insane.”
– Variety

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APRIL 12 SAT

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

(1966, Sergio Leone) “If you’re gonna shoot, shoot! Don’t talk.” Lee Van Cleef’s icy bounty hunter (“The Bad”), Eli Wallach’s Mexican bandito (“The Ugly”) and Clint Eastwood’s con man (“The Good”) contend with each other and with battling Civil War armies in their relentless search for buried gold. Leone’s epic Western (accompanied by — Hwah, WAH, Wah — perhaps Ennio Morricone’s greatest score) conjures up opera, horse opera, the bullfight arena, and the blackest of black humor. Screenplay by Sergio Leone, Luciano Vincenzoni and the team of Age and Scarpelli (Divorce Italian Style, Mafioso). Restored 180 min. version. Approx. 180 min.
1:00, 8:30

"The finest example of the spaghetti Western genre." – Time Out New York

"Leone's masterpiece and the greatest of all Spaghetti Westerns." – J. Hoberman

"The ogre king of spaghetti westerns and an absurdly hyperbolic vision of American greed (however curiously Italian) at play in the carrion-strewn fields of the Civil War, Leone's epic solidified Clint Eastwood's international box office lock and set a new ceiling for mock iconicity and Morricone soundtrack hysteria."
– Michael Atkinson, Village Voice

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APRIL 12 SAT (SEPARATE ADMISSION)

WEST SIDE STORY

(1961, Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins) “A boy like that killed your brother!” Ten Oscars for the dazzling screen adaptation of the Bernstein/Sondheim musical stage smash, including Best Picture, Director(s), Supporting Actor (George Chakiris) and Actress (Rita Moreno – she won a Tony and Grammy the same year!); as the Nativist Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks square off in the slums of Manhattan – shot on location in the condemned neighborhood of the now-Lincoln Center - but Tony (Richard Beymer) and Maria (Natalie Wood, with singing voice of Marni Nixon) find love anyway. Approx. 151 min.
4:30 ONLY

"A classic reminder that the best rumbles tend to be highly choreographed, and if you want to join a gang, you'd better learn to snap."
– Time Out New York

“A beautifully-mounted, impressive, emotion-ridden and violent musical.”
– Variety

“One terrific, exciting movie version of perhaps the best of all American musical plays.
It's a marvel that the films still works so well.”
– Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

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APRIL 13/14 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

NIGHT OF THE HUNTER

(1955, CHARLES LAUGHTON) “Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms” sing both shotgun-toting child protector Lillian Gish and lurking psycho preacher Robert Mitchum. Fairy tale and nightmare combine in Laughton’s sole directorial effort, written by legendary critic James Agee. Approx. 93 min.
SUN 1:30, 5:10, 8:50
MON 1:30, 5:10, 9:30*
*NOTE: 9:30 SHOW ON MONDAY IS A SINGLE FEATURE

"A masterpiece: a disturbing and unforgettable Southern-gothic horror film. One of the major tragedies of film history is that Laughton directed only one picture."
– Time Out New York

"A sublime, heartfelt homage to Griffith." – Dave Kehr, The New York Times

“Haunting and highly personal...clearly the work of a master.” – New York Times

“One of the greatest of all American films. An expressionistic oddity… what a compelling, frightening and beautiful film it is.”
– Roger Ebert

BROKEN BLOSSOMS

(1919, D.W. Griffith) In London’s foggy Limehouse district, brutal prizefighter Donald Crisp takes time out between bouts to pummel waifish daughter Lillian Gish, even as Chinese outsider Richard Barthelmess tries to befriend her. Wedged among the epics, perhaps Griffith’s most delicate and tender chamber piece; shot (amazingly) in 18 days.
SUN 3:20*, 7:00* - Approx. 90 min.
MON 3:20‡ - Approx. 67 min.
*LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT BY STEVE STERNER AT 3:20 AND 7:00 ON SUNDAY
‡MUSICAL SOUNDTRACK AT 3:20 SHOW ON MONDAY

"There's much to admire in this very sensitive melodrama, starring the incomparable Lillian Gish." – Time Out New York

"D.W. Griffith's stylized lyric tragedy - a small-scale film that is one of his most poetic, and one of his finest."
– Pauline Kael

“I know of no other picture in which so much screen beauty is obtained.” – James Agee

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APRIL 14 MON (SEPARATE ADMISSION)

ROBIN HOOD

(1922, Allan Dwan) Doug Fairbanks’ Earl of Huntingdon returns in disgrace from the Crusades to find his Maid Marian seemingly dead and nasty Prince John running the show—obviously it’s time for Robin! Monstrously epic evocation of the legend, its gargantuan castle set the largest since Intolerance—but of course, when Robin raids the baddies’ lair, it’s just a huge playpen for Doug. With Wallace Beery as King Richard the Lionhearted. Approx. 127 min.
7:00*
*LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT BY STEVE STERNER

"A vehicle for the dashing Fairbanks, notable for its enormous sets and hordes of costumed extras, it remains a great eye-popping show. It comes to vivid life once Doug begins performing his marvelous stunts like a bird in flight."
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

“Unsurpassed and unsurpassable, as legendary as the story which inspired it.”
- Kevin Brownlow

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APRIL 15 TUE

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE

(1962, John Frankenheimer) A Commie brain-washer orders Laurence Harvey to go jump in a lake—the Central Park Reservoir—then to stalk a politico at a Madison Square Garden convention, but fellow ex-vet Frank Sinatra reshuffles those cards. With Angela Lansbury (only three years older) as Harvey’s Mother from Hell. Approx. 126 min.
2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30

"Far funnier than the recent remake, this darkest and most paranoid of early 60s thrillers, is the pure essence of Camelot."
- J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

“May be the most sophisticated political satire ever to come out of Hollywood.” – Pauline Kael

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APRIL 16 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

"Two of the toughest and most monstrous movies of the supposedly placid Eisenhower 50s."
– Andrew Sarris, The New York Observer

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

(1957, Alexander Mackendrick) “I’d hate to take a bite out of you, Sidney. You’re a cookie full of arsenic.” “Match me, Sidney,” barks sanctimonious, Winchellesque gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker (a bespectacled Burt Lancaster) to sycophantic publicist Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis), in the quintessential portrait of the rancid underside of The Great White Way, with midtown of the late 50s captured brilliantly by James Wong Howe’s b&w camera. Screenplay by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman. Approx. 96 min.
1:20, 5:15, 9:10

"A charcoal nugget of a noir. A peerless classic." – Time Out New York

“Extraordinary for its depiction of a now-vanished New York, for the spiraling viciousness of Lancaster and Curtis, and for the plot, which hinges on a smear campaign.”
– Stuart Klawans, The New York Times

"Mackendrick's first American movie, a pungent exploration of ambition and evil in the New York newspaper world, is his masterpiece. A chilling and powerful picture."
– Elliot Stein, Village Voice

“Captures the smarmy texture of the world of Broadway.” – Neil Gabler

“Paints New York as a jungle of glitz and devouring egos.” – Godfrey Cheshire

THE BIG KNIFE

(1955, Robert Aldrich) So is anguished superstar Jack Palance going to sell out and sign that seven-year contract renewal with slimeball producer Rod Steiger? (admittedly for 5Gs a week!) Or is he going to patch things up with estranged wife Ida Lupino and maybe go back to Broadway? Adapted from Clifford Odets’ play, with Steiger’s crying jags and rages an amalgam of moguls Louis B. Mayer and Harry Cohn. Approx. 111 min.
3:10, 7:05

"Here's what you do: Get Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Shelley Winters and Rod Steiger together. Then you hire Clifford Odets to write a poison pen letter to Tinseltown, and bring in he-man Robert Aldrich to direct it. Chill to sub-zero temperatures. Voila! You've got the most cynical movie ever made about moviemaking."
– Time Out New York

“Rendered with an emotional resonance inconceivable on the stage." – Andrew Sarris.

"Aldrich reminds me of Jean Cocteau and Orson Welles with his lyricism, his modernity, his contempt for the slightest vulgarity, and his desire to universalize and stylize the subjects he treats.... The action is moved forward not by the interplay of emotions and actions, but only—and this is both rarer and more beautiful—through exploration of the moral construction of the characters."
– François Truffaut

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APRIL 17 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR

(1968, Norman Jewison) Amid vintage 60s split-screen effects, it’s a chess game as rich businessman Steve McQueen indulges in his bank robbery sideline, as insurance investigator Faye Dunaway gets on his tail, both professional and personal; but when they actually pull out those pieces, it’s the screen’s sexiest board game ever. Approx. 102 min.
1:00, 5:10, 9:20

"A stylish caper adventure. Jewison made brilliant use of Steve McQueen's flinty, less-is-more acting style. The movie has a lighter tone than the McQueen films to come, but the actor was already trying on his existential loner clothes and establishing a viable screen persona that would pass down to pretty boys like Robert Redford."
– The Onion

TOPKAPI

(1964, Jules Dassin) Melina Mercouri and lover Maximillian Schell, backed by a hand-picked team, find their carefully laid plans to heist emeralds from the Topkapi museum in Istanbul laid low by the bumblings of hanger-on Peter Ustinov—in an Oscar-winning performance (Supporting Actor)—then decide to go ahead anyway. Pioneer of the heist genre Dassin (Rififi) keeps his tongue firmly in cheek, but the suspense taut in adaptation from intrigue titan Eric Ambler. The high-tech heist has been appropriated by everything from Mission: Impossible to Wallace & Gromit! Approx. 120 min.
2:55, 7:05

"As playful and lighthearted as Dassin's Rififi is stark and somber, Topkapi demonstrates that the director could make a heist picture in any manner he chose."
– Time Out New York

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APRIL 18/19 FRI/SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

A HARD DAY’S NIGHT

(1964, Richard Lester) “Q: Are you a mod or a rocker? Ringo: I’m a mocker.” Just another day in the life: fleeing from screaming fans at a train station, contending with a “very clean” grandfather, jamming in a baggage car, cavorting in a field, wandering by a river, weirding out knotted-browed reporters with absurdist comebacks, wowing crowds at an orgasmic final concert—the Beatles’ movie debut rocketed them to another level beyond the latest pop faves as even squarely middle-aged critics were disarmed with grudging hosannas. Approx. 85 min.
2:40, 6:00, 9:20

"Laden with cultural significance...Forty decades after its release, its never seemed more familiar, nor more remarkably prescient—MTV decades ahead of its time."
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice

"The world's biggest band are captured at the very precipice of their leap into history, with all the screaming fans and wry British humor of young mop tops."
– The Onion

“The Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals.” – Andrew Sarris

"One of the great landmarks of the movies!" – Roger Ebert

Click here to read more on A Hard Day’s Night

THE KNACK,
AND HOW TO GET IT

(1965, Richard Lester) Lester’s follow up to A Hard Day’s Night blends madcap surrealism with social satire, as just-off-the-bus Rita Tushingham mixes it up on her first day in London with blasé playboy Ray Brooks, repressed school teacher Michael Crawford, and anarchic painter Donal Donnelly. Grand Prize, Cannes Film Festival. Approx. 84 min.
1:00, 4:20, 7:40

"A whimsical and often demented story." – Elliott Stein, Village Voice

"A mods-and-sods look at swinging '60s London. A hilarious sex comedy."
– Time Out New York

“An anarchic series of visual gags, a kaleidoscope of swinging London in which anything goes.”
– Leslie Halliwell

“Lester gleefully smashes the film's lad's-world, Benny Hill–like plot into Godardian shards, replacing any semblance of ordered storytelling with a liberated chaos of sped-up motion, rewound scenes, narrative gimmicks, and frenetic hand-held camera work, all bursting with the energy of London's new generation.”
– Pacific Film Archive

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APRIL 20/21 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

SOME LIKE IT HOT

(1959, Billy Wilder) “You’re a guy. Why would a guy want to marry a guy?” “Security!” Chicago, 1929, and jazz musicians Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis get a rare look at history in the making: only trouble is, it’s the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, and with kingpin George Raft barking “Get those guys!” to his goon squad, it’s time to don high heels, girdles, and falsies to join an all-girl band. But how to keep that darned testosterone in check around sultry chantootsie Marilyn Monroe? Approx. 119 min.
SUN 1:30, 5:15, 9:00
MON 1:30

"Billy Wilder's greatest comedy. A corpse-littered farce riffing on homosexuality, transvestitism, impotence, and masochism."
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice

"One of the enduring treasures of the movies, a film of inspiration and meticulous craft, a movie that's about nothing but sex and yet pretends it's about crime and greed. It is underwired with Wilder's cheerful cynicism, so that no time is lost to soppiness and everyone behaves according to basic Darwinian drives. When sincere emotion strikes these characters, it blindsides them: Curtis thinks he wants only sex, Monroe thinks she wants only money, and they are as astonished as delighted to find they want only each other."
– Roger Ebert

THE GENERAL

(1927, Buster Keaton) Opening to a tepid response from audiences and critics (“by no means as good as his previous efforts” – NY Times), perhaps Keaton’s greatest work. His spectacular vision of the Civil War’s Great Locomotive Chase reveals his Griffith-level mastery of crowds and action (including the silent cinema’s most expensive single shot), along with perfectly-integrated comedy. Approx. 74 min.
SUN 3:45*, 7:30*
MON 3:45*
*LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT BY STEVE STERNER

"Watch this exquisite masterpiece... Buster Keaton's Civil War farce is the greatest silent comedy ever. Period."
– Time Out New York

"Actors like to boast about doing their own stunts, but Buster Keaton was something else altogether. The General finds him playing around with railroad ties, cattle-catchers, and boxcars with a sense of physicality that matches the character."
– The Onion

"Keaton's masterpiece, abounding in gags whose ease and symmetry belie the elaboration of their staging,
is the most perfectly proportioned and sustained of all silent comedies."
– David Robinson

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APRIL 21 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

WAY DOWN EAST

(1920, D.W. Griffith) Deceived by bounder Lowell Sherman, Lillian Gish finds haven with a puritanical Maine farm family and their son Richard Barthelmess; but when her secret comes out, it’s time for one of Griffith’s greatest sequences, the pre-special effects race across the floating ice floes. Griffith’s last great commercial success. 1930 reissue musical soundtrack. Approx. 103 min.
5:30, 9:00

"Griffith's resurrection of a shameless old Victorian melodrama... A combination of kitsch Americana and hypermodern editing."
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice

“Griffith turned a creaking, dated stage melodrama into a melodramatic epic.” – Pauline Kael

“Griffith’s final variation on the last-minute rescue…The tight cutting and powerful natural imagery of snow, wind, and ice create another of the most memorable sequences in the history of cinema.”
– Gerald Mast, World Film Directors

STEAMBOAT BILL, JR.

(1928, Charles Reisner) Buster Keaton is a ukulele-playing collegiate twit who’s a disappointment to gruff sea-faring father Ernest Torrence, until that spectacular cyclone finale — “surely one of the most fantastic dithyrambs of disaster ever committed to film” (Rudi Blesh) still a marvel of special effects and physical stamina. Approx. 70 min.
7:30*
*LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT BY STEVE STERNER

"Signficantly great!
It's the culmination of Keaton's art- the best of his two-reeler stunts packed into one amazingly funny stretch of film."
– The Onion

"Keaton was at his best when directing himself, and this adventure comedy proves it." – Time Out New York

"Keaton's most entertaining balance of the instinctual and the cerebral." - Andrew Sarris & Tom Allen, The Village Voice

"Ranks right at the top.” – Pauline Kael

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APRIL 22 TUE

COMING HOME

(1978, Hal Ashby) Square army wife Jane Fonda, volunteering at a local veterans’ hospital while hubby Bruce Dern goes on active duty, meeting bitter paraplegic Jon Voight—and her first orgasm (in the most talked about scene)—in one of Hollywood’s first treatments of returning Vietnam vets. Oscar-winner for Best Actor (Voight), Actress (Fonda) and Original Screenplay (Waldo Salt, Robert C. Jones, Nancy Dowd). Approx. 127 min.
2:00, 4:30, 7:00*, 9:30
*Listen to our podcast: Introduction by producer JEROME HELLMAN (Recorded April 22, 2008)

"One of the most sensitive movies of the '70s." – Time Out New York

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APRIL 23 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

MARTY

(1955, Delbert Mann) “Wadda you wanna do, Marty?” Lonely Bronx butcher Ernest Borgnine gets stuck with a pal’s “dog” of a date, schoolteacher Betsy Blair (then Mrs. Gene Kelly) but “you know, us dogs aren't really so much of the dogs that we think we are.” Low-key adaptation of Paddy Chayefsky’s TV play became one of the 50s’ biggest sleepers, winning Oscars for Best Actor, Director, Screenplay, and Picture and the Palme d’or at Cannes. Approx. 91 min.
3:45, 7:45

“Something rare in the American cinema today: a subtle, ironic and compassionate study of ordinary human relationships.”
– Gavin Lambert

A THOUSAND CLOWNS

(1965, Fred Coe) Jason Robards’ Murray Burns quits the Chuckles the Chipmunk Show rat race to play his ukulele, exchange movie quotes with super-precocious nephew Barry Gordon, romance nervous social worker Barbara Harris, and to celebrate Irving F. Feldman’s birthday, while Oscar-winner Martin Balsam sticks around long enough to drop off the fruit. With revolutionary free-spirited tour-of-New-York interludes courtesy of playwright Herb Gardner and ace editor Ralph Rosenblum (The Pawnbroker, Annie Hall, etc.). Approx. 118 min.
1:30, 5:30, 9:30

"This paean to nonconformity is worth seeing for Robard's energetic performance, as well as fine supporting turns by Barbara Harris and Martin Balsam."
– Time Out New York

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APRIL 24 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

TOM JONES

(1963, Tony Richardson) Barry Lyndon with jokes, as Albert Finney’s eponymous Tom, Henry Fielding’s 18th century foundling, roisters his way to love and inheritance through a succession of beds, amid speeded-up chases, silent movie parodies and asides to the screen. Oscars for Picture, Director, Screenplay, and Score. Approx. 129 min.
1:00, 5:20, 9:40

“A fine cast headed by the young Albert Finney in a gutsy performance."
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

“A bawdy, romping film with great gusts of lascivious humor.” – George Perry

“The whole film resembles the dream of a rarebit fiend." – Andrew Sarris

THE MARK OF ZORRO

(1920, Fred Niblo) Sword-slashed Z’s keep popping up on the bad guys as the mysterious masked Zorro starts righting wrongs in Olde California. Based on a book read by Pickford on their Honeymoon, the first of Douglas Fairbanks Sr.’s legendary swashbucklers—and prototype for all the alter-egoed superheroes to come. Approx. 90 min.
3:25*, 7:45*
*LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT BY STEVE STERNER AT BOTH SHOWS

"Douglas Fairbanks was very likely the best Zorro of all time. Check out the goofy, almost postmodern grin he flashes beneath his mask during one of this silent film's many rousing action sequences."
– Time Out New York

"He is the very model of the black masked and caped avenger who was to be a central figure in the American pulp fiction and comic book tradition. His setpiece gymnastics reveal him to be a spirit not of the earth, but of the air, a free soul ranging through the ether, unshackled by physical laws"
– Jeffrey Richards, Swordsmen of the Screen

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LAST TANGO IN PARIS

(1973, Bernardo Bertolucci) Post-sexual revolution Brief Encounter à Paris, as tormented widower Marlon Brando makes immediate contact with funky Maria Schneider in an empty apartment.  Bernardo Bertolucci's succèss de scandale retains its impact today, keyed by Brando's powerful and most self-revelatory performance. With Jean-Pierre Léaud. Approx. 129 min.
2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30

"...a last glimpse of Brando before he walled himself up in a pyramid of flesh. The movie has the effect of a slow-developing photograph. The star ages before your eyes."
– J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

"Some films need to be seen afresh, at regular intervals...
one such is Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris."
– Anthony Lane, The New Yorker. Click here to read full article

"Bertolucci has carried film honesty to its ultimate.
It is a standard for looking at films of the past and judging films of the future."
– Robert Altman

"The movie breakthrough has finally come... This must be the most powerfully erotic movie ever made, and it may turn out to be the most liberating movie ever made... Bertolucci and Brando have altered the face of an art form."
– Pauline Kael

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APRIL 26 SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

KISS ME DEADLY

(1955, Robert Aldrich) Wearing a raincoat for a nightie and panting orgasmically, Cloris Leachman’s nighttime encounter with Ralph Meeker’s “bedroom dick” Mike Hammer leads him on a search for a mysterious box. Aldrich on his and scripter A.I. Bezzerides’ adaptation on the Mickey Spillane pulp: “We just took the title and threw the book away.” Approx. 105 min.
2:30, 6:00, 9:30

“Fast-paced and hard-hitting, Kiss Me Deadly marches from one brutal shakedown to the next, ending with a bleak climax that must been seen to be believed.”
– The Onion

“War paranoia doesn't get anymore gripping than in this hard-boiled noir masterpiece”
– Time Out New York

“Crazy clashing Expressionism! Tracks the sleaziest private investigator in American movies through a nocturnal labyrinth to a white-hot vision of cosmic annihilation.”
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice

“A swipe at consumer-era machismo. Brando stripped of poetry and sensitivity and glazed with playboy glamour—that’s what Meeker looks, sounds, and acts like as Hammer. He’s a clumsy, rabid spellbinder. So’s the movie.”
– Michael Sragow, The New Yorker

99 RIVER STREET

(1953, Phil Karlson) Can retired-after-one-beating-too-many prizefighter/now-cabdriver John Payne punch his way out after he agrees to help his friend actress Evelyn Keyes cover up a murder —or is it?— then finds himself wanted for killing his wife. Surprisingly complex, typically brutal Karlson thriller. Approx. 83 min.
1:00, 4:30, 8:00

"Seriously gritty pulp." – Time Out New York

"An example of the kind of humble brilliance that often emerged from the American genre cinema. Karlson's career-long fixation on revenge receives an unusually philosophical treatment. Though Karlson is among the most insistently physical of action directors, he also gives a sensitive treatment to the film's strikingly abstract subtheme of theater and performance."
– Dave Kehr

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APRIL 27/28 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

WOMEN IN LOVE

(1969, Ken Russell) At the turn of the 20th century, mine owner Oliver Reed can handle business but not headstrong Glenda Jackson (Best Actress Oscar), while her gentler sister Jennie Linden finds love with Reed’s friend Alan Bates. Larry Kramer-scripted adaptation of D. H. Lawrence’s novel; with memorable Reed/Bates nude wrestling bout. Approx. 129 min.
SUN 3:05, 7:35
MON 3:05

“An immensely complex but perfectly controlled film. Russell finds the perfect visual translation for the passions of Lawrence’s characters… in vivid, fleshly encounters in forest undergrowth.”
– Alexander Walker

SUNDAY, BLOODY SUNDAY

(1971, John Schlesinger) “People can manage on very little.” On the same telephone answering service, Jewish doctor Peter Finch and divorced businesswoman Glenda Jackson are both in love—but not with each other; rather with young artist Murray Head. Schlesinger’s own favorite among his films; with tour de force highlight: Finch at the bar mitzvah. Approx. 110 min.
SUN 1:00, 5:30, 10:00
MON 1:00

"A masterpiece. The acting is flawless and just right for Gilliatt's screenplay and Schlesinger's direction. They are set down in a very real and sad London (seen mostly in cold twilights), and surrounded by supporting actors who resonate in a way that fills in all the dimensions of the characters."
– Roger Ebert

“A novel written on film—but truly written on film." – Pauline Kael

“Stylishly made character study with melodramatic leanings, scene by scene both adult and absorbing,
with an overpowering mass of sociological detail about the way we live.”
– Leslie Halliwell

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APRIL 28 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

SPARROWS

(1926, William Beaudine) Thrills over comedy, as Mary Pickford mothers maltreated orphans held captive in an alligator-infested Southern baby farm/child labor camp presided over by potato-farming commandant Gustav von Seyffertitz. The elaborate sets and cinematography served as inspiration for Charles Laughton’s Night of the Hunter (see April 13/14). Print courtesy Library of Congress. Approx. 90 min.
7:10*
*LIVE PIANO ACCOMPANIMENT BY STEVE STERNER

“As close to a horror film as Pickford ever came.” – William K. Everson

"The finest film of Pickford's entire career. A beautifully atmospheric horror melodrama." – Elliott Stein, Village Voice

MY BEST GIRL

(1927, Sam Taylor) America’s Sweetheart meets America’s Boyfriend: Five-and-Dime shopgirl Mary Pickford falls hard for cute co-worker Buddy Rogers—the feeling’s mutual; only trouble is... “A near-perfect romantic comedy (David Shipman), with classic “meet-cute” and one of the star’s longest-held kisses. No wonder: she and Buddy were married in real life—nine years later. Silent, with musical soundtrack. Approx. 78 min.
5:30, 9:00

"The movie glows... The kind of love affair that everyone, at least one time, has wanted to have." – Seattle Times

"As film, as comedy, as representation of one of the screen's greatest stars, My Best Girl is a winner." – Leonard Maltin

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APRIL 29 TUE

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

(1960, John Sturges) “We deal in lead, friend.” Bum, bump-a-bump…  Elmer Bernstein's iconic, Oscar-nominated theme underscores one of the screen's greatest Western adventures, as gunslingers Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, et al., team up to protect a Mexican village from Eli Wallach's bandit horde. Adapted from Kurosawa's masterpiece Seven Samurai, but a super-classic in its own right. Approx. 126 min.

2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30

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APRIL 30 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THE LONG GOODBYE

(1973, Robert Altman) Raymond Chandler Altman style, as Elliott Gould’s Philip Marlowe—in 70s L.A., but still driving a ’48 Lincoln—encounters Sterling Hayden’s boozy novelist, mysterious Nina Van Pallandt and director Mark Rydell’s Coke-bottle-wielding hood, while searching for pal (ex-Yankee pitching ace and Ball Four author) Jim Bouton. Approx. 112 min.
3:15, 8:00*
Listen to our podcast: Introduction by JIM BOUTON (Recorded April 30, 2008)

“You want to call this a masterpiece? Hey, it's okay by me.” – David Fear, Time Out New York

“A New Wave anti-noir! If Gould was the American Belmondo, The Long Goodbye is the closest Hollywood ever came to making its Breathless.”
– J. Hoberman

“Watching The Long Goodbye in 1973, you could feel Philip Marlowe dancing on his own grave. Watching it now, you can see Robert Altman dancing with him.”
- Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times

THIEVES LIKE US

(1974, Robert Altman) Escaped cons Bert Remsen, John Schuck, and protégé Keith Carradine hole up at a rural gas station before going the bank robbery route, but Carradine and station owner’s daughter Shelley Duvall find love. Second, more faithful adaptation of Edward Anderson’s novel (after Nick Ray’s They Live By Night), with the 30s effortlessly recreated on Mississippi locations. Approx. 123 min.
1:00, 5:55, 10:10 - NOTE LATER SHOWTIMES!

"Altman went back to a poetic example of ‘30s social realism for his underrated and seldom seen version of the Bonnie and Clyde myth—starring Duvall and Carradine as a charmingly sweet and rustic version of the doomed outlaw lovers."
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice

“The most quietly poetic of Altman’s films; it's sensuous right from the first pearly-green long shot, and it seems to achieve beauty without artifice. When Keechie and Bowie fall in love it's two-sided, equal, and perfect.”
– Pauline Kael

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MAY 1 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

"A pairing of Chaplin’s perfect blend of comedy and melodrama." – Dave Kehr, The New York Times

CITY LIGHTS

(1931, Charles Chaplin) Deftly juggling pathos and slapstick, Chaplin’s Little Tramp befriends a millionaire who recognizes him only when blotto; and finds employment as an elephant-trailing street cleaner and a frightfully mismatched boxer - all for the love of blind flower seller Virginia Cherrill. James Agee described its legendary final shot as "the highest moment in movies.” Approx. 87 min.
1:00, 4:40, 8:20

“Comes closest to representing all the different notes of Chaplin’s genius.”
– Roger Ebert

MODERN TIMES

(1936, Charles Chaplin) The Tramp gets trapped in the coils of automation, as he plays guinea pig for an efficiency-promoting feeding machine gone amok; helpfully waves a red flag dropped by a departing truck—just as a Communist demonstration marches up behind him; and gets thrown in the slammer, where he accidentally sniffs a fellow con’s “happy dust.” A corrosive satire on the dehumanizing effects of technology, but also one of his most lighthearted works, with the additional exuberance of Paulette Goddard as “the Gamin.” Approx. 89 min.
2:50, 6:30, 10:10

Click here to read more about Modern Times

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