Board Picks
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Frank Darabont · 142m · 35mm
When banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is sentenced to serve two consecutive life sentences, his odds of surviving Shawshank State Prison are slim. But within prison walls he meets "Red" (Morgan Freeman), whom he forges a profound bond and friendship with over two decades. While an initial box office dissapointment, The Shawshank Redemption has since remained a significant American classic and a heartrending masterpiece.
Saturday, March 29 9:30pm
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Mel Brooks · 93m · 35mm
Mel Brooks’s wild romp Blazing Saddles is the perfect vulgar, satirical take on the Western. Corrupt politician Hedy Lamarr (it’s Hedley!) seeks to build a railroad through tranquil Rock Ridge, and sends hordes of ruffians to sack the town. When the residents demand a new sheriff, Lamarr convinces the Governor to appoint Bart –– the first Black sheriff in the West. Packed with fourth-wall-breaking anachronisms, this outrageous comedy is not to be missed!
Friday, April 4 9:30pm
Margaret (2011)
Kenneth Lonergan · 150m · DCP
Is guilt discovered or created? Upper West Side high schooler Lisa (Anna Paquin) sportively attracts the attention of a public bus driver (Mark Ruffalo), causing him to hit a pedestrian (Allison Janney) who bleeds to death minutes later in Lisa’s arms, surrounded by onlookers. Margaret is a grueling elegy that follows Lisa’s subsequent obsession with the accident as she struggles to fit her operatic ideas of morality with her urban ’00s teenagehood.
Friday, April 11 9:40pm · Saturday, April 12 8:30pm
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1997)
Fruit Chan · 120m · DCP
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters uses several fragmented, parallel narratives of Mishima’s last day, his childhood, and his work to paint a complicated portrait of a man who, on the day of his death, attempted to violently align his life with his art. Featuring one of the best soundtracks put to film by Philip Glass, what might have intially seemed an unconventional choice for Schrader ended up a culmination of much of his work to that date.
Friday, April 18 9:30pm
Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
Louis Malle · 91m · DCP
Lovers Florence and Julien plan to kill Florence’s husband and run off together. Julien, trapped in an elevator after the murder, doesn’t show up to their rendezvous. Heartbroken, Florence wanders around Paris, accompanied by a woeful Miles Davis melody, while a young couple steals Julien’s car and implicates him in more murders. Elevator to the Gallows is a consolation for anyone who’s been stood up before — maybe they were just trapped in an elevator!
Sunday, April 27 4pm
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1958)
Pier Paolo Pasolini · 137m · 35mm
It might be hard to believe that this is the same director who would go on to make Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, but situated within Pier Paulo Pasolini’s wider filmography, The Gospel According To St. Matthew fits right in. Using amateur actors found while traveling the beautiful Italian countryside, Pasolini’s adaptation of the biblical text is as faithful as it is radical, depicting Jesus Christ as the revolutionary figure his teachings conveyed.
Saturday, April 26 9pm
Under the Skin (2013)
Jonathan Glazer · 108m · DCP
A woman — or something resembling a woman — prowls the streets of Glasgow at night, picking up men in her van and seemingly destroying them, yet it’s unclear what her motives are — she too seems to doubt herself. Scarlett Johansson is surreal as the woman, but most figures in the film are not actors at all; it was largely shot in public with hidden cameras, and the subjects were asked only afterwards for permission to use the footage.
Friday, May 2 9:30pm
Le Pont du Nord (1981)
Jacques Rivette · 129m · 35mm
Mother and daughter actresses Bulle and Pascale Ogier are strangers in this film, respectively playing Marie, a woman just released from prison, and Baptise, a girl whose paranoiac behavior charms the former. They become involved in a potentially nefarious game started by Marie’s former lover, turning Paris into a winding game board. The tenets of the postrevolutionary 80s loom large over the city, as does post-’68 malaise, in perhaps Rivette’s most political work.
Saturday, May 10 3pm · Sunday, May 11 4pm
Memories of Murder (2003)
Bong Joon Ho · 132m · DCP
Inspired by South Korea’s first confirmed serial murders, Memories of Murder follows the tense hunt for a rapist and killer who terrorizes a rural community. Local officer Park (Song Kang-Ho) and a Seoul detective clash over their methods as they search for clues, only to find dead ends. With his typical black comedy, Bong Joon Ho explores the complexities of justice, morality, and the nature of murder in this cat-and-mouse thriller.
Friday, May 16 9:00pm
Short Cuts (1993)
Robert Altman · 189m · 35mm
Altman adapts nine of Raymond Carver’s short stories and poems in this anthology film about people trying, and sometimes failing, to find meaning and connection in Los Angeles. Featuring a star-studded cast — including Julianne Moore, Tom Waits, Frances McDormand, and Robert Downey Jr., to name only a few — their stories are at times funny, at times somber, and yet always told with Altman’s distinctive style.
