Summer Series 2025

WEDS., 6/25, 7 p.m.
THE ELEPHANT MAN
USA | 1980 | DCP | 125 min.
Director: David Lynch
Cast: John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins, Anne Bancroft

Producer Mel Brooks provided Lynch with the opportunity to make the director’s first studio feature, a bigger budget follow-up to Eraserhead that also earned Lynch his first two Oscar nominations. The Elephant Man details the final months in the life of the deformed Londoner John Merrick (played by an unrecognizable Hurt with prosthetics created by Christopher Tucker), whose career as a sideshow freak ends when he meets the compassionate Dr. Frederick Treves (Hopkins). Lynch’s dreamlike imagery is aided immeasurably by the gorgeous black and white widescreen cinematography of Freddie Francis.

THURS., 6/26, 7 p.m.
A MAN AND A WOMAN
France | 1966 | DCP | 103 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: Claude Lelouch
Cast: Anouk Aimée, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Pierre Barouh

In Deauville, a widowed racecar driver (Trintignant) and a grieving script supervisor (Aimée) meet while visiting their children at boarding school and gradually form a romantic bond during a shared trip back to Paris. As love begins to blossom, past traumas resurface, culminating in a poignant and memorable conclusion. Winner of Oscars for Best Screenplay and Best Foreign Film, Lelouch’s stylish direction and Francis Lai’s eminently hummable score make A Man and a Woman “probably the most efficacious make-out movie of the swinging 60s!” (Pauline Kael, The New Yorker). A recently restored DCP will be screened.

FRI., 6/27, 7 p.m.
THE CAT
West Germany | 1988 | DCP | 118 min. |German with English subtitles
Director: Dominik Graff
Cast: Götz George, Gudrun Landgrebe, Joachim Kemmer

Two robbers hold up a Düsseldorf bank, demanding millions of marks in exchange for their hostages. What the police don’t know is these crooks have an accomplice on the outside: a criminal mastermind perched in a nearby high rise, orchestrating the action through his rifle scope and walkie-talkie. But what the bank robbers don’t know is their boss has an accomplice of his own. Undersung auteur Domink Graf’s gripping heist movie keeps you guessing with an intricate web of twists and double-crosses. “Nail-biting genre cinema at its most taut and muscular… the combination of reckless energy and narrative cunning elevates the pulse and exercises the mind” (Mubi). (MK)

WEDS., 7/2, 7 p.m.
FRENCH CONNECTION II
USA | 1975 | DCP | 119 min.
Director: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Bernard Fresson

Trading gritty Manhattan for the grimy port city of Marseilles, detective Popeye Doyle (Hackman) journeys to France in pursuit of the elusive drug-dealer Alain Charnier (Rey). This time, though, Doyle is the fish-out-of-water and the hunter becomes the hunted. Revisiting his Oscar-winning portrayal from The French Connection, Hackman is electrifying, and as the stakes mount, director Frankenheimer expertly tightens the screws, leading to one of the great final shots in the history of the movies. (BR)

THURS., 7/3, 7 p.m.
CAT AND MOUSE + RENDEZVOUS
France | 1975 | DCP | 103 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: Claude Lelouch
Cast: Michèle Morgan, Serge Reggiani, Philippe Léotard

Detective Lechat (Serge Reggiani) attempts to solve the murder — or is it a suicide? — of Madame Richard’s (Michèle Morgan) philandering husband, while facing a tidal wave of red herrings. One of Cat and Mouse’s highlights is a thrilling chase through the streets and waterways of Paris, and the feature will be preceded by Lelouch’s celebrated short film Rendezvous (1976, 8 min.), another high-speed run through the city from the Avenue de Champs-Élysées to the Sacré-Coeur.

FRI., 7/4, 7 p.m.
RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD
USA | 1985 | DCP | 90 min.
Director: Dan O’Bannon
Cast: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa

A bunch of young punks just looking for a place to party and workers at a medical supply warehouse clash with flesh eating zombies in this cult classic horror comedy, the directorial debut of Alien co-creator O’Bannon. Riffing off the common 1980s concern about acid rain, toxic chemicals are accidentally released into the air to create a legion of hungry re-animated corpses moaning for brains. To honor the 40th anniversary of Return of the Living Dead, a restored 4K DCP will be screened.

WEDS., 7/9, 7 p.m.
Mary Sweeney in Person!
Short Films by David Lynch
USA | DCP | 102 min.
Director: David Lynch

This program explores the remarkable, visionary short works of David Lynch, an artist who frequently explored beyond the form of the feature-length movie. The selections include digital restorations of six short films by Lynch: Six Men Getting Sick (1967), The Alphabet (1968), The Grandmother (1970), The Amputee, Version 1 and Version 2 (1974), and Premonitions Following an Evil Deed (1995). The program will conclude with “Lonely Souls,” episode 7 of season 2 of Twin Peaks (1990, 47 min.), followed by an in-person discussion with this episode’s editor, Mary Sweeney.

THURS., 7/10, 7 p.m.
AND NOW MY LOVE (TOUTE UNE VIE)
France | 1974 | DCP | 129 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: Claude Lelouch
Cast: Marthe Keller, André Dussollier, Charles Denner

And Now My Love is the first of several films by writer/director Lelouch that span decades, interweaving the personal lives of the protagonists with real historical events. Sarah (Keller), a wild ’60s teenager obsessed with singer Gilbert Bécaud (playing himself), comes from a fractured family line buffeted by war, violence, and the Holocaust. Simon (Dussolier) is a petty criminal turned filmmaker who also feels a close connection to Bécaud. Lelouch shuttles back and forth between Sarah and Simon, leading up to the moment where they close the loop on each other’s histories.

FRI., 7/11, 7 p.m.
IT’S A GIFT
USA | 1934 | DCP | 68 min.
Director: Norman Z. McLeod
Cast: W.C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, Baby LeRoy

In one of the funniest movies ever made, W.C. Fields stars as henpecked husband and forever put-upon “Everyman” Harold Bissonette (accent grave). Our hero battles clanking milk bottles, hard-of-hearing blind men, barren land plots, and Baby LeRoy all while attempting to make a better life for himself and his family. And no, he doesn’t know Karl LaFong! Preceded by W.C. Fields in The Fatal Glass of Beer (1933, 20 min.), a wonderfully bizarre little short about a night that’s not fit “for man nor beast!” (BR)

WEDS., 7/16, 7 p.m.
SCARECROW
USA | 1973 | DCP | 115 min.
Director: Jerry Schatzberg
Cast: Gene Hackman, Al Pacino, Richard Lynch

Winner of the Palme D’or at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, Scarecrow follows rifters Max (Hackman) and Lion (Pacino), as they form an unlikely friendship while hitchhiking across the country and dream of opening a carwash in Pittsburgh. As they journey through small towns and personal hardships, their bond is tested by Max’s temper, Lion’s fragile past, and a series of chaotic encounters. More than once, Hackman cited this as the favorite of his movies, adding ““It’s the only film I’ve ever made in absolute continuity…and that allowed me to take all kinds of chances and really build my character.”

THURS., 7/17, 7 p.m.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
France | 1973 | DCP | 110 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: Claude Lelouch
Cast: Lino Ventura, Françoise Fabian, Charles Gérard

Legendary tough guy Ventura stars as Simon, who, along with his sidekick Charlot (Gérard), uses surveillance and the art of disguise to rob a jewelry shop in Cannes. While planning the heist, Simon falls for Françoise (Françoise Fabian), the beautiful antique dealer next door. “As a triple-threat moviemaker – producer, director, and writer – Lelouch has provided a triple-leveled film that works as thriller, as romance, and as humanistic story, and emanates chic every step of the way” (New York Magazine).

FRI., 7/18, 7 p.m.
THE MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING
Hong Kong, Taiwan | 1979 | DCP | 90 min.
Director: Joseph Kuo
Cast: Shi-Chia Lung, Kuan-Wu Lung, Simon Lee

A vicious villain with an unstoppable five element technique, Ghostface Killer is bumping off all of his old rivals, verbally insulting his opponents as he annihilates them. Meanwhile, a young student tries to learn kung fu and is taken under the wing of an old chess master. The basics of chess prove to be the same as the basics of fighting, and eventually our hero must confront Ghostface! With the support of Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, a new DCP has been created from the only known 35mm print of The Mystery of Chess Boxing, one of the most cherished of all kung fu movies! The especially raucous English-dubbed version, a must to see with an audience, will be screened.

WEDS., 7/23, 7 p.m.
Mary Sweeney in Person!
MULHOLLAND DR.
USA | 2001 | 35mm | 145 min.
Director: David Lynch
Cast: Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring, Justin Theroux

An amnesiac woman (Harring), with the help of a bright-eyed, newly arrived Hollywood hopeful (Watts), searches for her identity. With filmic quotes from Sunset Boulevard, Gilda, and Persona, Mulholland Dr. contemplates the corruption and empty promises behind Tinseltown with some of the most arresting images and sounds ever committed to celluloid. Lynch was awarded the best director prize at Cannes for what has proven to be one of his most enduring works, a project originally intended as a pilot for ABC that became one of the most acclaimed movies of the 21st century. This screening of a 35mm print will be followed by an in-person discussion with Mulholland Dr.’s producer and editor, Mary Sweeney.

THURS., 7/24, 7 p.m.
BOLERO (LES UNS ET LES AUTRES)
France | 1981 | DCP | 177 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: Claude Lelouch
Cast: James Caan, Geraldine Chaplin, Robert Hossein

An epic historical fresco tracing the lives of four families of musicians from the mid-1930’s to the present, Bolero spans two generations and four countries. As in And Now My Love and Les Miserables, Lelouch explores the interplay between personal stories and the broader sweep of history. These family sagas were drawn mainly from experiences recounted to Lelouch from people he knew. “It is a film about memory. About my memories, my parents’ memories. All the stories in the film are true, they all happened to real people. But memory is a very strange thing, sometimes precise, sometimes bizarre. It is another world; it has nothing to do with reality” (Claude Lelouch).

FRI., 7/25, 7 p.m.
RED ANGEL
Japan | 1966 | DCP | 95 min. | Japanese with English subtitles
Director: Yasuzo Masumura
Cast: Ayako Wakao, Shinsuke Ashida, Yusuke Kawazu

This potent and chilling anti-war love story is perhaps the greatest film from the brilliant and neglected filmmaker Masumura (Blind Beast, Hanzo the Razor). In 1939, a beautiful Japanese nurse copes with warfront duty in China by sleeping with an amputee patient and falling in love with a morphine-addicted doctor. The gorgeous black and white widescreen cinematography captures images both horrific and beautiful. A true masterpiece!

WEDS., 7/30, 7 p.m.
NARROW MARGIN
USA | 1990 | DCP | 97 min.
Director: Peter Hyams
Cast: Gene Hackman, Anne Archer, J.T. Walsh

Director, screenwriter, and cinematographer Hyams’ remake of the 1952 noir thriller is a gorgeous-looking, tightly plotted thrill ride that takes place almost entirely on a train barreling through the Canadian Rockies. A bespectacled Hackman stars as a deputy district attorney trying to hide and protect a star witness (Archer) in a high profile murder case. Narrow Margin plays like the Hitchcockian love-child of The Lady Vanishes and Silver Streak, highlighted by a truly spectacular climax atop the train which seems to have made surprisingly little use of stunt doubles. (BR)

THURS., 7/31, 7 p.m.
LES MISÉRABLES
France | 1995 | DCP | 167 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: Claude Lelouch
Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Marais, Micheline Presle

In the most innovative of all big-screen adaptations of Victor Hugo’s canonized novel, Lelouch resets the story in the early 20th century. International superstar Belmondo stars as the orphaned Henri Fortin, whose life of pre-WWII destitution takes a turn through the Occupation and Resistance while paralleling the narrative trajectory of Hugo’s hero, Jean Valjean. “Lelouch’s modern parable/adaptation emphasizes the impact that one good man can have on the lives of people around him; the result is absolutely riveting. Great, humanistic storytelling” (Leonard Maltin).

FRI., 8/1, 7 p.m.
THE BEACH OF THE WAR GODS
Hong Kong, Taiwan | 1973 | DCP | 101 min. | Mandarin with English subtitles
Director: (Jimmy) Wang Yu
Cast: (Jimmy) Wang Yu, Fei Lung, Tien Yeh

In the final days of the Ming dynasty, a lone swordsman (Wang Yu) rallies a group of elite fighters to defend a coastal town from Japanese marauders. As the villagers are trained for war, a brutal showdown unfolds on the title location. Director and star Wang Yu (One-Armed Swordsman, Master of the Flying Guillotine) blends his signature style of martial arts mayhem with a narrative that should be familiar to anyone who has seen Seven Samurai or The Magnificent Seven. The movie’s “magnificent climactic battle…, at night, lit by torchlight, takes up the whole second half of the picture. It’s the most cinematically impressive large-scale battle sequence in all of Hong Kong seventies martial arts cinema” (Quentin Tarantino).