Metzger’s update of Alexandre Dumas’ frequently adapted La Dame aux Camélias makes great use of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg’s Castelnuevo and an exquisite score by Piero Piccioni in telling the melodramatic tale of romance turned to tragedy among Italy’s drug-fueled, jet-set elite. American director Metzger, who died earlier this year, married explicit sexual encounters with lavish production values and literary source material throughout his long career, and Camille remains a shining example of his oeuvre. “Camille 2000 is a veritable orgy of suggestive architecture, stylistic art direction and directorial flourishes” (Eric Henderson, Slant). (BR)

The Four Marx Bros - Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo - hail the motherland of Freedonia in their best movie, a zany satire of nationalism, war and dictatorships. Groucho plays Rufus T. Firefly, who believes that “any country who’d have him as leader deserves him as leader” (Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic). A new 4K restoration has Duck Soup looking better than it has in decades and the feature will be preceded by the 1933 short Betty Boop’s Big Boss (7 min.)

Collaborators on neorealist classics like Umberto D and Bicycle Thieves, De Sica and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini joined forces again for this jet-black satire of Italy’s post-war economic “boom.” The great comic actor Sordi stars as a seriously in-debt schlub who contemplates an offer from a wealthy matron (Nicolai) that will make him wealthy in exchange for...shall we say, something very precious to him. Shown only a handful of times in the U.S., this beautiful new restoration provides a chance to see one of De Sica’s best movies from his commedia all’Italiana period.

Alternating between pre-revolution documentary footage and newly filmed color material, Klimov delivers a hypnotic, one-of-a-kind portrait of Grigori Rasputin (Petrenko), that pulls no punches when depicting the legendary mad monk’s penchant for deviancy, depravity and destruction. Often shown in heavily edited forms, this is the uncut version that fully restores Klimov’s original vision. Presented with the support of the UW Madison’s Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia (CREECA).